“I’m drawn to the grandiose and the grotesque, the transcendent and the trashy. My aesthetic often pays homage to drag, club-kid, Queer, Black, Filipinx, and pop culture. ”
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany and raised all over the world, Raymond O. Caldwell (he/him/his) is an award-winning director and producer who has been leading Washington, DC’s Theater Alliance as Producing Artistic Director since 2018. Regionally he has directed for Signature Theatre, Round House, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater, The Kennedy Center, National Players/OTC, Solas Nua, CulturalDC, African Continuum, and the Hegira. Prior to leading Theater Alliance, he was a faculty member and resident director in Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts for six years, and spent six seasons as the Community Engagement Partnership Manager at Arena Stage. He is committed to using theatre as a tool to transform communities, and has partnered and worked with artists, activists, non-profits and NGOs throughout the world. In October 2022—in partnership with the US Department of State and Contact Base (a cultural NGO based in West Bengal) — he developed a play (A GLOBAL I.D.E.A) with 23 artists and activists from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and the US that explored what Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility mean on the global stage. He has done similar work throughout the US, India, Ukraine, and Croatia. MFA, Acting/New Play Development: The Ohio State University; BFA, Acting: University of Florida.
A word….
The American theatre is at an exciting and crucial moment. Playwrights, designers, directors, universities, and regional theaters are working together to redefine the theatre for the age we live in. These collaborations are making theatre accessible to communities that long have been disenfranchised and are giving voice to stories that have long woven the American tapestry, but who have gone unheard.
But these positive developments are taking place at the same time American theatre risks becoming ever more insular and disconnected from the lived realities of many people who have come to believe theatre is for other people, rich people, white people – them, not us. At a time when so many other institutions of public life have failed us, there remains a deep, spiritual hunger for meaning and connection. The theatre – one of the last public squares in America; a universal temple to ideas and ideals – is one of the few places where the mysteries of our lives and human existence can still be unearthed and the truth laid bare.