Description:

BRIAN QUIJADA is an actor, playwright, composer, and artistic director of The Wild Wind Performance Lab for New Play Development at Texas Tech University. Quijada has spent most of his career acting in Off-Broadway and regional theaters including The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwright’s Realm, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Victory Gardens, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. As a playwright/composer, Brian’s plays and musicals have been developed at Pittsburgh CLO’s Spark Festival, Victory Garden’s Ignition Festival, Ars Nova’s Ant Fest, New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Festival, The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage, and The O’Neill’s National Musical Theatre Conference. Commissioning institutions include Seattle Repertory Theater, A.R.T., 1st Stage, and The Kennedy Center. His play Kid Prince and Pablo recently received its world premiere at The Kennedy Center in fall of 2019. His critically acclaimed multi-Jeff Award-winning, multi-Drama Desk-nominated show Where Did We Sit in the Bus? has toured all over the country. As an educator, Quijada has taught solo performance, social justice, verse writing, digital music, and devised theatrical looping master classes at Carnegie Mellon University, Point Park University, University of New Mexico, Western Washington University, Hunter College, Carlow College, Slippery Rock University, Los Medanos College, and KCACTF Region 7 and Region 3. Brian is a proud member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre. www.brianquijada.com

The Kelsey Pharr, Jr. Speaker Series hosts artist-scholars who represent diversity and inclusion in the performing and media arts and is spearheaded by theatre faculty Masi Asare and Roger Ellis. The speaker series is named after Kelsey Pharr, Jr., who was among the first Black actors to grace a Northwestern stage. The son of a Miami civil rights leader, Pharr performed in The Waa-Mu Show in 1937 and 1939, was featured in four Broadway shows, and achieved great musical success with the group the Delta Rhythm Boys.