New Artistic Leadership To Helm Los Angeles' Celebration Theatre

Celebration Theatre, one of the nation's longest-running LGBTQIA+ arts organizations, has announced an innovative artistic team to guide its vision for future programming and audience development.

Theatre veteran Ann C. James (she/her) has been appointed to serve as Artistic Director. Longtime company member Brittney S. Wheeler (she/her), who was recently promoted to Associate Artistic Director, will complete the team. The appointments mark the first time in the institution's nearly 40-year history that the artistic team is led entirely by Black women. As a team, James and Wheeler will continue Celebration's reputation for artistic excellence as they endeavor to create new opportunities to tell stories past, present, and future from our entire community. James' initial appointment with Celebration Theatre is for a one-year term effective July 2021.

"Based on the communications I have already had, the theater community of Los Angeles is in search of healing," said James. "We have been pummeled with a pandemic and challenged to create more theatre that reflects the diversity, heart, and drive of this city. With this appointment at Celebration Theatre, one of my goals is to curate the productions we put forth in passionate pursuit of that healing. With attention to the past, the present, and the future, our responsibility to every letter of LGBTQQIA+ and a 40-year legacy, I am encouraged to give every collaborator on this quest the opportunity to see themselves reflected in our programming this year."

Ann C. James has an extensive career in international stage direction and theatre education spanning over three decades. James recently made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator of Broadway for Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over. James is an expert in the burgeoning industry of intimacy direction and institutional consent culture for national arts organizations. In addition to her Broadway credit, she served as Intimacy Director and Sensitivity Specialist for the provocative Off-Broadway productions of Moises Kaufman's Seven Deadly Sins by Tectonic Theatre Project and Seize the King produced by Classical Theatre of Harlem. On the West Coast, James provides consultation and intimacy coordination for the television and film industry most recently working with Apple TV+ on several new series. Her intimacy work has featured James as an expert voice for Theatre Communications Group, HowlRound, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and Lincoln Center's Directors Lab West. Her company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color, has partnerships with TimesUp, and A.R.T./New York. James is in the second year of her studies to earn America's first MFA in Performance Pedagogy with an emphasis in Afrocentric Intimacy Pedagogy at Loyola Marymount University.

Brittney S. Wheeler, an award-winning performer, classically-trained singer, and future college theatre educator born and bred in Los Angeles has been fortunate enough to perform all across Southern California. Previously serving as the theatre's Casting Associate for its resident Casting Director, Jami Rudofsky, Wheeler has considered Celebration Theatre to be a life-changing part of her artistic world since 2012, when she joined the cast of the hit production of The Color Purple, A New Musical. A proud member of Actors' Equity, Brittney S. Wheeler holds a BA, Theatre Arts from Concordia University Irvine, and will earn her MA in Theatre Arts from California State University, Northridge in 2022.

"We should be challenged and moved when we come to the theatre. We should walk away as better, more informed human beings but most of all, changed," shared Associate Artistic Director Brittney S. Wheeler. "I want nothing but to bring love, tolerance, and acceptance to those around me and that's exactly what Celebration Theatre stands for."

Celebration Theatre's mission is to entertain, inspire, and empower with innovative productions that celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community. "On behalf of our Board of Directors, Executive Director Christopher Maikish, and our volunteer Company, Celebration Theatre is truly grateful and excited to embrace the vision, energy, and values of our new artistic team as we collaborate in creating the most welcoming, supportive, and joyfully provocative LGBTQIA+ theatre community we can," said Board Chair Mark Giberson (he/him). "With the many challenges at play in bringing work thoughtfully and safely to our stages, Celebration Theatre's mission will be served well by these two formidable artistic leaders."