Distinguished actor and Professor and Chair of Performance at USC School of Dramatic Arts, Michele Shay, joins the Resident Company this spring for an exploration on the artist’s role and responsibility for empathy building amid the current fractured global landscape.
Michele Shay—actress, director, educator, and noted interpreter of the works of playwright August Wilson—is perhaps best known for her Tony Award-nominated performance as Louise in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. She is a veteran actress who has graced stages on and off-Broadway, television and film, and regional theaters across the country. Michele has portrayed Aunt Ester in Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean in productions directed by Kenny Leon, Phylicia Rashad and Ruben Santiago-Hudson; and Mame Wilks in the world premiere of Wilson’s Radio Golf, directed by Timothy Douglas at Yale Rep.
Michele has directed seven plays in the Cycle including Fences, Gem of the Ocean, Seven Guitars, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and The Piano Lesson (with Tonya Pinkins, Montae Russell and Glynn Turman for CCAP at the Broad Theatre). Michele participated with a host of other longtime August Wilson collaborators in directing Two Trains and King Hedley II for the NY Public Radio recordings of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle at The Greene Space.
A Carnegie Mellon graduate, Michele is also a Fox Grant recipient researching the connection between the human energy system, healing and performance. She currently serves as an acting coach on the television series Swagger created by Reggie Bythewood for Apple TV+. She is Professor and Chair of Performance at USC School of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles.
