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Christopher Burris
(Director)
Christopher is a stage director, actor, singer and writer. He has directed productions throughout the country, including: Love's Fire, Hilly Hicks Jr.'s The Home Life of Polar Bears, and George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum at the Old Playmakers Theater in North Carolina. New York credits include recently directing a reading of Derek McPhatter's Bring the Beat Back for Freedom Train Productions, as well as work with Phare Play and Unconscious Collective. He is currently a member of the directing company at NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, where he has worked with some of the most exciting new playwrights in the theater world including Jaye Austin Williams and Camille Darby, along with screenwriter Robin L. Williams. He holds a BA from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA from UC San Diego. www.christopherburris.com
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Deborah Asiimwe
(Playwright)
Currently working as Specialist-Sundance East Africa, Deborah Asiimwe is a theatre practitioner from Uganda. She writes for stage, sometimes for radio and in the recent past started writing for screen. Her recent plays include Forgotten World, Cooking Oil, Appointment with gOD (recently featured in the HotINK festival) and Untitled, which have all received productions in the United States of America. Lagoma is Searching, You are that Man, and My Secret all received productions at the Uganda National Cultural Centre/National Theatre. Asiimwe’s interest in storytelling and performance started in childhood, in South Western Uganda. She was raised in an oral literature and story telling culture. Over the years, Asiimwe has professionally fortified her skills through education and training.
Asiimwe is a 2006 recipient of a scholarship of merit in Writing For Performance from California Institute of the Arts, where she recently graduated with a Master in Fine Arts (MFA) degree. In 2006, she won the award for the overall best student at Makerere University in Uganda, where she pursued her Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama.
As an African woman, Asiimwe’s works explore socio-political issues that affect developing countries like her own in particular (Uganda), and the whole of the African continent in general. She describes herself as a social action writer, with the aim of utilizing the power of writing and performance to uplift, inspire, challenge and transform society. Using storytelling, song and dance, her writing is deeply rooted in lived experiences and shared realities of silenced cultures.
Asiimwe has participated in many artists’ gatherings and conferences, including, the annual Arts in the One World Conference (CalArts, Valencia, California), a project of The More Life: Cultural Studies and Genocide Initiative, a collaboration between CalArts and the Interdisciplinary Genocide Study Center in Kigali, Rwanda; the Women Playwrights International Conference (WPI) in the Philippines (2003); and is the 2003 Sundance Theatre Lab international observer, to mention but a few.
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Lee
(Performer)
Lee is originally from Greensboro, NC and is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA. She most recently co-starred in the TV pilot "The Tenderloins" which screened at the New York Television Festival. She co-wrote and performed in the stage play "Black Girl Ugly" at the Wow Cafe Theatre, and just completed a staged reading of "The Waiting Room" at the Kraine Theatre. Lee has also performed all over Los Angeles with productions at the Stella Adler Theatre, The Open Fist Theatre, and The Evidence Room.
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Michael Awusie
(Performer)
Michael trained at Harbor Conservatory during his formative years. It is here that he began to develop a taste and appreciation for theater that engages with its surrounding community. Some of his credits are: How to Lose Yourself, The Island, Pa's Hat: A Liberian Tale, Man Up and Away, and The Dutchman. Michael is a resident actor in NYU's Graduate Dramatic Writing Program. He is also a member of Pride Not Prejudice, a theater company that performs plays in New York City high schools that center around positive health choices, acceptance, and self-esteem. Michael is thrilled to be a part of “By the Banks of the Nile.”
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Reynaldo Piniella
(Performer)
Reynaldo is a New York native representing East New York, Brooklyn. He has performed recently with the Castillo Theatre, New Federal Theatre and Primary Stages. He has also appeared in film projects with the Discovery Channel, Pearson Education, New York Magazine and Chai Lifeline. Reynaldo is looking forward to his journey with The Drafts!
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