TSU Theatre

SPREAD THE WORD!

Pictures of a beautiful production of The Color Purple at Texas Southern University during Fine Arts Week 2024, honoring actor Edwin Lee Gibson.

Director - Delisa Chatman
Choreographer - Hindolo Bongay
Set Designer - Donyail Linsey
Costume Designer - Shakita Prejean
Lighting Designer - Brynn White
Vocal Coach - Cassandra Black
Photographer - Breunna West

Fine Arts Week is officially back! Thank you to our sponsors , , , .colabs, Dean .jason, , and Associate Vice President of Development, Charlie Coleman.

A very special thank you to our guests, .juan.spot, , , Avery Kenyatta, , Raman Jain, , , Virginia Gray.

Our deepest gratitude to actor , recipient of the Dianne Jemison Pollard Award for Distinguished Achievement in Acting, and to Council Member .esq.

Thank you faculty members Andrew Rosenborrough, Lovie Smith Wright, , .h.dickson, Cassandra Black, , , .rosarito, , Tanya Allen, for helping make this week a memorable one.

"The earth without art is just eh."
- Demetri Martin

A conversation with actor Edwin Lee Gibson
Today at 11 am
The Ensemble Theatre Houston
04.14.24

Golden Globe winning actor Edwin Lee Gibson will be at The Ensemble Theatre for a workshop next Sunday, April 14th at 11:00 A.M. Earlier this year, Gibson accepted the award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy for “The Bear” at the 81st Golden Globe Awards. His film credits include Marshall, Mom and Dad, Sweet Tooth, Blood First, and The Visitor starring David Oyelowo directed by Paul Hunter.

Gibson's additional TV appearances include UnPrisoned (FX) Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (HBO), Fargo (FX), Shameless (Showtime), Law and Order: SVU (NBC), Proven Innocent (Fox) and Chicago P.D. (NBC). Additionally, He holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen from Point Park University. Edwin Lee Gibson began his run of 103 professional theatre productions at age 16 and is an alumnus of Texas Southern University and The Ensemble Theatre. He's done numerous plays with the theatre, including Checkmate. Please join us in a stimulating conversation with this Ensemble Theatre legend!

Actor Edwin Lee Gibson will receive the Dianne Jemison Pollard Award for Distinguished Achievement in Acting tonight, Saturday, April 13, at 7pm, before the performance of The Color Purple. See you there!

Meet the cast of The Color Purple
April 12 - 14, 2024
Texas Southern University

Friday, April 12 - 10 am & 7 pm
Saturday, April 13 - 7 pm
Sunday, April 14 - 3 pm

Buy tickets here:
tsu.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/colabs/vpa/news

Take a look at today's Fine Arts Week 2024 events!
04.11.2024

Golden Globe winning actor Edwin Lee Gibson will be at The Ensemble Theatre for a workshop next Sunday, April 14th at 11:00 A.M. Earlier this year, Gibson accepted the award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy for “The Bear” at the 81st Golden Globe Awards. His film credits include Marshall, Mom and Dad, Sweet Tooth, Blood First, and The Visitor starring David Oyelowo directed by Paul Hunter.

Gibson's additional TV appearances include UnPrisoned (FX) Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (HBO), Fargo (FX), Shameless (Showtime), Law and Order: SVU (NBC), Proven Innocent (Fox) and Chicago P.D. (NBC). Additionally, He holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen from Point Park University. Edwin Lee Gibson began his run of 103 professional theatre productions at age 16 and is an alumnus of Texas Southern University and The Ensemble Theatre. He's done numerous plays with the theatre, including Checkmate. Please join us in a stimulating conversation with this Ensemble Theatre legend!

Thank you, Jessica Goldman and Houston Press for this beautiful article! Come celebrate Fine Arts Week with us!! April 8-14, 2024.

TSU Honors Edwin Gibson With Award for Distinguished Achievement in Acting Two Texas Southern University theater legends who exemplify excellence and commitment to their craft are being recognized on April 12 when the first annual Dianne Jemison Pollard Award for Distinguished Achievement in Acting is given to Edwin Lee Gibson. Best known for his work as Ebraheim, one of t...

Actor Edwin Lee Gibson will receive the Dianne Jemison Pollard Award for Distinguished Achievement in Acting from the hands of Dean Pollard's beloved son, Council Member Edward Pollard, on Saturday, April 13, at 6 pm. Access to the ceremony is included with the purchase of VIP tickets to The Color Purple on Saturday at 7 pm.

The Jazz Big Band rehearsal, led by Professor Dr. BRIAN PEREZ, will be open to the public on Tuesday, April 9, at 2:00 pm, during Fine Arts Week 2024. Join us! All Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Brian Perez is a saxophone and woodwind performer, educator, and composer. He is Director of Jazz Studies and woodwinds at Texas Southern University. His duties include directing the jazz ensembles, teaching jazz curriculum courses, teaching the woodwind studio and coordinating the annual Jazz Festival.

Perez holds D.M.A. in saxophone performance from the University of Maryland College Park in 2014. He graduated with honors with a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Miami, holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and has studied at the L’Aula Conservatori del Musica in Barcelona, Spain. Perez’s teaching career has includes 10 years as Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). Here he also established a program in Jazz and Popular Music and served for two years as Department Coordinator. Past positions include Salisbury University, Miami Dade Community College, and has served as guest clinician for Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Festival, Essentially Ellington, University of Miami Young Musician’s Camp, the Head of the Lakes Jazz Festival, as well as others.

As a performer he is equally at home with jazz, classical and popular styles. He has toured the nation as a woodwind performer for musical theater companies, performed with orchestras and wind ensembles, given solo concert recitals and has performed across the globe with his jazz quartet. The Brian Perez Quartet has performed nationally and internationally including Barcelona & Madrid Spain, Manizales Colombia & Caracas Venezuela.

The Jazz Big Band rehearsal, led by Professor Dr. BRIAN PEREZ, will be open to the public on Tuesday, April 9, at 2:00 pm, during Fine Arts Week 2024. Join us! All Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Brian Perez is a saxophone and woodwind performer, educator, and composer. He is Director of Jazz Studies and woodwinds at Texas Southern University. His duties include directing the jazz ensembles, teaching jazz curriculum courses, teaching the woodwind studio and coordinating the annual Jazz Festival.

Perez holds D.M.A. in saxophone performance from the University of Maryland College Park in 2014. He graduated with honors with a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Miami, holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and has studied at the L’Aula Conservatori del Musica in Barcelona, Spain. Perez’s teaching career has includes 10 years as Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). Here he also established a program in Jazz and Popular Music and served for two years as Department Coordinator. Past positions include Salisbury University, Miami Dade Community College, and has served as guest clinician for Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Festival, Essentially Ellington, University of Miami Young Musician’s Camp, the Head of the Lakes Jazz Festival, as well as others.

As a performer he is equally at home with jazz, classical and popular styles. He has toured the nation as a woodwind performer for musical theater companies, performed with orchestras and wind ensembles, given solo concert recitals and has performed across the globe with his jazz quartet. The Brian Perez Quartet has performed nationally and internationally including Barcelona & Madrid Spain, Manizales Colombia & Caracas Venezuela.

Perez’s performing and compositional style is fresh and diverse, rooted in tradition, but looking forward to new developments in music. Perez’s music moves toward a cross-pollination of styles and the deterioration of concrete definitions of genres and his compositional & performance style reflects these elements of his environment.

Singer and professor Dr. CASSANDRA BLACK will present Opera Workshop Scenes with TSU students on Thursday, April 11, at 11:30 am, during Fine Arts Week 2024. Join us! All Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Dr. Cassandra Black has performed in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, China, Thailand, and throughout the United States. The Houston Chronicle described her as “Moving, masterful, and marvelous,” and Culture Map, "Nothing short of thrilling." Dr. Black has portrayed more than twenty of opera’s leading ladies in both the contemporary and standard repertoire such as “Marie Antoinette” in The Ghosts of Versailles, “Floria Tosca,” “Leonore” in Fidelio, and “Donna Anna,” to name a few. Some of the houses she has enjoyed working for include Opera Siam, Opera Philadelphia, St. Petersburg Opera, and Skylight Music Theatre.

Cassandra's operatic highlights include portraying the extremely demanding role of The Dirty Duchess, Margaret of Argyll in Thomas Ades' Powder Her Face for which she received international critical acclaim, and traveling to Bangkok for the title role she created in Somtow Sutcharitkul's Snow Dragon at Opera Siam. Most recently Cassandra created the title character in Helena Citronova, also to international acclaim. In concert, Cassandra has sung over twenty oratorios with orchestras from coast to coast and beyond, her most recent being Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder with the Siam Sinfonietta, Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light and Schubert’s Mass in G in. She is thrilled to begin her TSU journey this year as the Voice Coordinator and Opera Workshop Director in the Music Department.

Actor and director RACHEL HEMPHILL DICKSON will lead an Acting Workshop on Wednesday, April 10, at 11 am, during Fine Arts Week 2024. Join us! All Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Rachel Hemphill Dickson is the current Director of Operations at the Ensemble Theatre. She has served the Houston community for 25 years as an actor, director, educator, producer and facilitator. She is grateful to be an adjunct instructor at TSU and to learn service by directing productions like The Wiz. You may have seen her work most recently in Beatbox: a Raparetta at The Ensemble Theatre and a Driven Theater Company produced production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Actor and Intimacy and Fight Director AVERY VONN KENYATTA will lead the Workshop: "Intro to Consent," on Wednesday, April 10, at 10 am, during Fine Arts Week 2024. Join us! All Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Avery Vonn Kenyatta is a Houston based actor, as well as Intimacy and Fight Director. He has a passion for actor advocacy and is extremely grateful to use his gift of storytelling in multiple ways. He has completed training with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and is a certified Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. Avery has choreographed such shows as Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Stages), Is God Is (Rec Room), and Clyde’s (The Ensemble Theatre). He holds a BFA from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of Houston's Professional Actor Training Program.

Composer Fredie Mendez will join the panel "Creating a Musical," on Monday, April 8, at 12 pm. He will accompany Prof. Rosarito Rodríguez-González on the piano for the performance of one of the original songs in the musical adaptation of the award-winning novel "Aniana del Mar Jumps In" by Jasminne Mendez. Join us! All Fine Arts Week 2024 Workshops and Panels are free and open to the public.

Fredie Mendez was born and reared in Mexico City. At the age of 8, he began his formal music studies of transverse flute and piano at the School of the National Institute of Fine Arts. At the age of 11, he entered the National Conservatory of Music where he studied piano for 4 years. He continued his formation as a pianist in the School of Music at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the most prestigious institution in the country. Mendez studied with prestigious musician Enrique Neri and has played with groups of international stature such as the Pérez Prado Orchestra, the Luis Alcaraz Orchestra, and El Mariachi Vargas. He has accompanied renowned singers Alejandra Ávalos, José José, Amanda Miguel, Carlos Cuevas, among others. He is the current Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, TX, and owns the production company Mendeliz Music.