ART-S
Ashley Renee Thaxton-Stevenson
(she/her/hers) is a theatre artist and educator, originally from Southern California, with Black, white, and Korean ancestors.
As a director and performer, Ashley specializes in new play development, ethnographic work, and theater for young audiences. As an educator and facilitator, she is focused on antiracist actor training, collaborative rehearsal practices, and contemporary applications of Shakespeare.
She holds an BA from NYU Gallatin's School of Individualized Study and an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College.
Ashley is currently the Senior Manager of Education Programs at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, an Adjunct Faculty Member with NYU’s Program in Educational Theatre (recipient of a Spring 2021 USG Departmental Award), Curriculum Advisor and Faculty Member of Fiasco Theater's 9 Week Conservatory program, and a Core Ensemble Member of the Verbatim Performance Lab.
Most importantly, she is a daughter, a sister, a spouse, a parent, and a pie baker.
Photo by Bridget Badore
Artistic ETHOS:
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So what does that mean?
Accessible:
We commit to remove barriers so that members of our community are allowed to show up as their full selves. We commit to making sure that the physical, emotional, spiritual, and material needs of our community are being met. We commit to actively antiracist and anti-oppressive practices.
Worshipful:
We commit to always being in service of a greater purpose by staying connected to our ancestors and our history, being inspired by the diversity, beauty, and complexity of all creation, and growing excited by that which mystifies us.
Multigenerational:
We commit to creating conditions where generations can be together, learn from one another, and help carry each others' burdens.
Ensemble:
We gather in purposefully non-hierarchical practice, where the contributions of all are needed and valued. The circle is always wiser.
Liberation:
Our aim is and always will be the freedom and dignity of all - both in what we create and how we create it.
Healing:
There is great power when we create together in this way - for the restoration of us as individuals and artists, for our audiences, and for our communities.
Joy:
While this work is not easy, and the learning is never done, we want to delight in one another and in that which we are creating! We are renewed, and we begin again.
This statement was created after participating in an Anti-Racist Theatre Workshop with Nicole Brewer.
DIRECTOR, Everything You Wanted, by Jess Honovich, NYU Educational Theater Mainstage Production, Fall 2023
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, Pericles, directed by Ben Steinfeld, Fiasco Theater Without a Net Production, 2022
DIRECTOR, Tokophobia by Jenny Gillett, The Center at West Park, 2022
CO-DIRECTOR, BAX YouthWorks Program, 2022
DIRECTOR, Gumiho by Nina Ki, Brave New World Repertory Theater, 2022
DRAMATURG, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Robert Thaxton-Stevenson, NYU Looking for Shakespeare 2021
DIRECTOR, Moon Bear, by Nina Ki, produced by Stay True Theatre, 2021
CO-DIRECTOR, BAX YouthWorkSTREAMS Program, 2021
DIRECTOR, A Demon Inside, by Nina Ki, produced by Fresh Fruit Festival, 2021
DIRECTOR Origen Story by Nina Ki, produced by Waterhouse Collective, 2020
DIRECTOR, Sea Longing; A Full Length Audiodrama by Nina Ki, produced by Actors' Theatre of Boston & The Parsnip Ship, 2020
DRAMATURG The Winter's Tale, directed by Amy Coreileone, NYU Looking for Shakespeare, 2020
DRAMATURG A More (Un)Perfect Union, directed by Steve Hart, Wombat Theatre Company, 2020
DIRECTOR Everything You Wanted, Developmental Reading, by Jess Honovich, 2019
DRAMATURG Comedy of Errors, directed by Amy Cordileone, NYU Looking for Shakespeare, 2019
DIRECTOR The Living History Project by Molly Powers Gallagher, at New Victory LabWorks, 2019
DRAMATURG The Two Noble Kinsmen, directed by Amy Cordileone, NYU Looking for Shakespeare, 2018
DRAMATURG The Tempest, directed by Nan Smithner, NYU Looking for Shakespeare, 2017
WRITER/PERFORMER Vaguely Black, directed by Tara Elliott, APAP, 2016
DRAMATURG Romeo & Juliet, directed by Nan Smithner, NYU Looking for Shakespeare, 2016
CO-CREATOR/PERFORMER Show Us Womanish, Lineage Performance Arts Center, 2015
WRITER/PERFORMER Between, directed by AC Dumlao, Gallatin Arts Festival, 2014
CO-CREATOR/PERFORMER Show Us Womanish, Gallatin Arts Festival, 2014