Justin Emeka will join Pittsburgh Public Theater as the organization’s first Resident Director. Malic Maat will serve as The Public's 2020-2021 Arts Leadership Fellow.
Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski and Managing Director Lou Castelli, along with Pittsburgh Public Theater's Board of Trustees, are committed to using the current pause in in-person programming in the wake of Covid-19 as an opportunity to imagine and secure a bright artistic future for the organization. As part of this commitment, The Public welcomes Justin Emeka and Malic Maat in two new collaborative roles.
Renowned theater artist Justin Emeka will join Pittsburgh Public Theater as the organization's first Resident Director. Formerly an Associate Artist with the company, this appointment acknowledges Mr. Emeka's ongoing collaborations and powerful contributions over the last several seasons, and expands the theater's artistic team to more fully pursue the organization's vision of serving as a true public theater for the region. In addition to directing regularly for the organization, Mr. Emeka will participate in season planning and new artistic and racial justice initiatives. He will lend his expertise as a director, playwright, and educator to expand and elevate The Public's mission to create exceptional theatrical works for Pittsburgh audiences, while working to advance the company's commitment to eradicate racism and to authentically build a more diverse community of staff, artists, and audiences. "In addition to being a remarkable director with a vivid theatrical imagination, Justin is a powerful thinker and leader," said Ms. Kaminski. "He has a great vision for the future of the American Theater and inspiring ideas for how Pittsburgh Public Theater can activate the dramatic canon in new and innovative ways to celebrate the experiences of communities of color and amplify the voices of young artists. As a guest director, Justin has already made a deep impact on our productions and conversations, and I look forward to the profound work we will be capable of as he makes Pittsburgh Public his artistic home."Justin Emeka is a director, writer, actor, and teacher who specializes in new approaches to "classic" texts, as well as imaginative stagings of contemporary playwrights. Off-Broadway credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Regional theater productions include: American Son and Sweat at Pittsburgh Public Theater; Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Sunset Baby at Dobama Theatre; Stick Fly at Intiman Theatre in Seattle; Paradise Blue, Detroit '67 and Julius X at Karamu House; A Raisin in the Sun at the Oberlin Summer Theatre Festival. At Juilliard, he directed A Doll's House, Part 2. At NYU, he adapted Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme into The Boougie Gentleman. At Oberlin College, he directed Death of a Salesman starring Avery Brooks; Dominique Morisseau's Follow Me To Nellie's; Lydia Diamond's The Bluest Eye; Shakespeare's Macbeth; and Alice Childress's Wedding Band. At the University of Washington's Ethnic Cultural Theatre he directed Amiri Baraka's Dutchman and Aishah Rahman's Unfinished Women Cry in No Man's Land While a Bird Dies in a Guilded Cage. At Yale Repertory Theater, he served as the movement coordinator and played the role of Edgar in an all-Black production of King Lear starring Avery Brooks. As a writer, he recently published an essay "Seeing Shakespeare through Brown Eyes" in the Amazon best-selling book Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches and "Playing with Race in the New Millennium" in the book Casting a Movement. Mr. Emeka received his MFA in directing from the University of Washington and is a Drama League Fellow. Currently, he is a tenured professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Oberlin College.
Malic Maat is a Pittsburgh based, multi-disciplinary artist. A native of Aliquippa, PA and graduate of Slippery Rock University's (SRU) theatre-acting program, Malic has worked with many theaters, institutions, and organizations in Western Pennsylvania. With Pittsburgh Public Theater, Malic appeared in last fall's production of A Few Good Men, has served as a Box-office Assistant, and was the Artistic and Community Dramaturg for the The Public's Summer PlayTime Series; and is currently serving alongside Lou, Marya, and other members of the Pittsburgh Public Theater staff and Board of Trustees on the newly inaugurated Racial Justice Task Force. Malic has also served as a Teaching Artist with City Theatre, a director and cultural-coordinator for SRU's Department of Theatre, and has several performance credits in the Pittsburgh area including two seasons of City Theatre's annual Young Playwrights Festival, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings with Prime Stage Theater, Dreamgirls with Pittsburgh Musical Theatre, Yankee Tavern and Cloud 9 with Throughline Theatre, as well as nominated performances at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the world premiere of Electra: An American Gothic performed internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. Malic is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association, is represented by Docherty Talent Agency, and currently serves as a Producer and casting-coordinator with Redwood Media Group, a black-owned, Pittsburgh based Media company set to release a very special film project next Fall. As an artist and activist, Malic values truth, humanitarianism, community collaboration, representation and inclusion in the arts. In this new role, Malic looks forward to co-constructing a Pittsburgh arts community that fosters social justice, engages systemic change, and that elevates and celebrates Black, Queer, and underrepresented voices.
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