Vera J. Katz

VERA J . KATZ (DIRECTOR) -has taught both acting and directing for 32 years at Howard University in the Department of Theatre Arts where she is a full-time, tenured Professor. She has directed more than 60 productions, originally working under the famed playwright-director-author, Moss Hart. She holds a BFA, in Theatre Arts from Brooklyn College, a WA in Directing and Acting from Boston University, and has studied Film at both the University of Southern California and the University of California/Extension. She won an award for directing the Best Production in Dundalk, Ireland's International Festival. She has taught such notables as Debbie Allen, Charles Brown, Phylicia Rashad, Clinton Turner Davis and Lynn Whitfield. She has taught acting workshops for such groups as Actor's Center, Everyday Theatre, Serenity Players, Playwright's Forum, Howard University Student Film Association, African Continuum Theatre Coalition, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre. She is an associate member of NCBI, a prejudice reduction organization, which produces leaders in cultural diversity, and she is a member of Operation Understanding: DC; which is dedicated to enlightening Black and Jewish youths about each other's culture. Professor Katz has been profiled in The Washington Post, The Village Voice, U.S. News & World Report, Baltimore Jewish Times, The Washington Jewish Week and Sister to Sister. She has been interviewed for a number of radio programs including National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. Professor Katz has written numerous articles on Black Theatre for Black Masks for which she is a contributing editor. Her articles have been published in the Black American Literature Forum, Howard University's New Directions, Studies in American Drama (Ohio State Press), Washington Review and the American Medical Journal of Education. She is responsible for the establishment and the administration of the Dr. Andrew A. Allen Creative Arts Scholarship, funded by Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad for the Department of Theatre Arts. She appreciatively thanks Tom (her husband). Anita and Larrv (her children), Howard and Joy (their spouses), her 5 grandchildren and her steadfast girlfriends for their supportive nurturing and love.