THEATRE & PERFORMANCE
BIO
Theatre director, dramaturg and teacher Roberta Levitow has worked in NYC, LA, nationally and internationally.
From 2004-2019, she was the Senior Program Associate/International with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, focused on creating exposure and exchange opportunities between theatre artists in East Africa, the Middle East North Africa and the US. In 2016 she helped to co-found and is currently the Consulting Producing Director for the Nairobi, Kenya-based NBO Musical Theatre Initiative, which works to support the creation of new musical theatre by Africans in Africa and beyond. She is a co-founder and the director of Theatre Without Borders, a grass-roots all-volunteer network of theatre artists around the world who are interested in artist-to-artist and person-to-person conversation through the arts. Theatre Without Borders is a co-initiator of The Acting Together Project with the Peacebuilding and the Arts Program at Brandeis University and a co-instigator of the Climate Change Theatre Action in collaboration with NoPassport and The Arctic Cycle.
Since 2017, she has actively collaborated around arts and the climate crisis through the “Theatre in the Age of Climate Change” initiative. Roberta is a Fulbright Ambassador Emerita with Fulbright grants at: Chinese University of Hong Kong; the National University of Theatre & Cinematography in Bucharest, Romania; Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.
She has taught on faculty at UCLA and Bennington College. She has written about the theatre for various publications including AMERICAN THEATRE Magazine. She served on the Executive Boards of Theatre Communications Group and the Stage Directors & Choreographers Union. She is a graduate of Stanford University. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women in New York City and she is part of the Think Tank for the Lab for Global Performance & Politics at Georgetown University.
A detailed theatrical resume in PDF is available here.
A detailed academic c.v. in PDF is available here..
THEATRE WITHOUT BORDERS (TWB) is an all-volunteer virtual network of individual theatre artists and organizations around the world who are interested in global exchange through the arts. Co-founded in 2003-4 by Roberta Levitow, Catherine Filloux, Erik Ehn and Deborah Brevoort - now managed by Director Roberta Levitow -TWB works primarily through its website www.theatrewithoutborders.com and serves as a free and accessible information portal, as well as through creating free small and large gatherings in partnership with host organizations for interested artists and members of the public to explore issues of broad concern. For example, over a 7-year period, TWB worked in partnership with the Peacebuilding and the Arts Program at Brandeis University to co-instigate the Acting Together on the World Stage project. TWB also continues deep engagement around Artists and Human Rights, Artists and Social Engagement, and Cultural Mobility.
THE CLIMATE CHANGE THEATRE ACTION (CCTA) is an initiative in partnership with The Arctic Cycle. CCTA was founded by Elaine Ávila, Chantal Bilodeau, Roberta Levitow, and Caridad Svich following a model pioneered by NoPassport Theatre Alliance. It has since evolved into a collaboration between The Arctic Cycle, the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, and Theatre Without Borders. A global participatory project, CCTA uses theatre to bring communities together and encourage them to take local and global action on climate. By providing tools (a series of plays) free of charge, some guidance on how to produce events, marketing support, and a model that encourages leadership and self-determination, we make it easy for everyone to engage with an art form they may not be familiar with, and we empower them to harness their creative potential and put it in service of the greater good.
THE NAIROBI NBO MUSICAL THEATRE INITIATIVE (NBOMTI) works to develop and produce new musical theatre written, composed and performed by African artists in Africa and world-wide. NBO MTI was founded by Kenyan musician, composer and performer Eric Wainaina and his wife Sheba Hirst in collaboration with Roberta Levitow. Through an initial PHASE ONE 5-year development process (2016-2021) and in collaboration with international mentors, the NBO MTI aims to: address the under-explored potential for African musical theatre; respond to the longing of local artists to gain necessary tools to create their own fusions that are expressive of unique and changing African identities; amplify untold stories that are inherently African.