Nataki Garrett has been named the new Associate Artistic Director of the DCPA Theatre Company, it was announced this morning. 

Producing Artistic Director Kent Thompson called Garrett “an exceptional theatre artist with a proven dedication to fostering new and diverse voices in the American theatre.”

Garrett, who was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Oakland, Calif. is the Associate Artistic Director of CalArts Center for New Performance, as well as Associate Dean and Co-Head of Undergraduate Acting for CalArts School of Theater. She is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where she recently directed the critically acclaimed production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon.

“Nataki is undoubtedly a rising star, both as a director and industry leader,” Thompson said. She is brilliant, innovative and passionate and we are thrilled that she has chosen to make Denver her artistic home.”

Garrett was highlighted in the November issue of American Theatre’s “Role Call: People To Watch.” In that feature, she was quoted as saying she’s attracted to “plays that seem impossible to stage, and to those which impact us in tremendous ways, chasing us out of our comfort zones. My mandate in the theatre is to give voice to the voiceless, and I am inspired by stories that expose the dark and discarded in the corners of our existence.”

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

Garrett received a NAACP Theatre Award nomination in 2008 for Best Director for Black Women State of the Union: An Evening of Plays by Black Women. She serves as co-Artistic Director of Blank-the-Dog Productions, a Los Angeles and New York-based ensemble theater company that is dedicated to developing and fostering new work by emerging, adventurous and experimental artists.

Garrett will begin in her new role at the DCPA in January 2017.

(Photo above right: Kent Thompson announces hiring of Nataki Garrett as Associate Artistic Director to DCPA staff.)