Daniel Banks, Ph.D. 

Daniel Banks, Ph.D., has worked extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having directed at such venues as the National Theatre of Uganda (Kampala), the Belarussian National Drama Theatre (Minsk), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), Playhouse Square (Cleveland), the Oval House and Teatro Technis (London), with the NYC and DC Hip Hop Theatre Festivals, and workshops of new projects with Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PlayMakers Repertory Company, and McCarter Theatre (Sallie B. Goodman Fellow). He served as choreographer/movement director for productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/ Shakespeare in the Park, Theatre for a New Audience, Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels), Landestheater (Saltzburg), Aaron Davis Hall (Harlem), and for Maurice Sendak/The Night Kitchen. Daniel was Associate Director for Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Jazz, at Baltimore Center Stage, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. He served on the dramaturgical team for Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ Black Girl: Linguistic Play and ink (touring); and directed DNAWORKS touring productions HaMapah/The Mapchoreographed and performed by DNAWORKS Co-Director Adam McKinney, Hollow Roots by Christina Anderson, and The Real James Bond…Was Dominican by and with Christopher Rivas.

 

Daniel has served on the faculties of the Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU; the MFA in Contemporary Performance, Naropa University; the M.A. in Applied Theatre, City University of NY; and as Chair of Performing Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM. He is founder and director of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative that engages Hip Hop Theatre to promote youth self-expression and leadership. HHTI has worked on campuses and in communities across the U.S. and in Azerbaijan, Ghana, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, and South Africa. He is on the Founding Board of the Hip Hop Education Center at NYU and is Associate Director of Theatre Without Borders. Daniel sits on the cabinet of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), a national, grassroots, advocacy and activism movement as well as on the Drama League’s Directors Council. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU and his writings on casting, Hip Hop Theatre, and Applied Theatre are featured in several books and such publications as Theatre Topics, Classical World, American Theatre, and Black Masks. He is editor of the first critical anthology of Hip Hop Theatre plays Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater and co-editor with Dr. Claire Syler of The Welcome Table: Casting a Movement. Daniel is the 2020 recipient of the Alan Schneider Director Award from Theatre Communications Group.