JONATHAN MCCRORY

Jonathan McCrory is an Obie Award-winning & Audelco Nominated, Harlem-based artist who has served as Artistic Director at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre since 2012. Currently serving on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards & The Lucille Lortel Awards. Throughout his career, McCrory has worked professionally as a director, producer, and actor. A Washington, DC native, he attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where he trained in musical theater and theater production. He earned a BFA degree in Acting and Africana Studies from New York University TISCH School of the Arts.  He has directed numerous professional productions and concerts which include:  Dead and Breathing, HandsUp, Hope Speaks, Blacken The Bubble, Last Laugh Enter Your Sleep, Iron John (NAMT), How the Light Gets In (2018 & 2017 at NYMF), and Klook (NAMT). He has worked at Experimental Theatre Wing at TISCH NYU creating devised work like Emergence: A Communion (based on adrienne marie brown's book Emergent Strategy), and evoking him: Baldwin and at Suny Purchase directing a production of Exit Strategy and A Beautiful Day in November. Outside of his own directorial work, he has been able to work as an assistant director to Talvin Wilks: Anne & Emmet, One Quarter, and Banana Beer Bath and Charles Randolph-Wright: Motown [Workshops].

 

During his senior year at NYU, he joined a group of actors to become one of the founding members of The Movement Theatre Company [TMTC]. For seven seasons, Jonathan functioned as one of the organizations Producing Artistic Leaders. During his time with TMTC, he helped produce all of the company's events and productions. Most notable were TMTC's landmark production of the North-American Premiere of Bintou, TMTC Harlem Nights, Honoring Excellence in Black Theatre, Go Green Series, and Testament Project with Talvin Wilks. Jonathan is also a co-founder of a producer collective called Harlem 9 [H9]. Through this organization, Jonathan helped to develop and produce the sold-out festival 48 Hours in.... ™️ Harlem which they received the Obie Award for in 2014. The festival has gone one to publish multiple anthologies of the work created and been able to gain national reach with iteration happening in the Bronx, Detriot, and Winston Salem.  He also served on the selection committee and helped to curate the 2011 River to Rivers Festival at Ensemble Studio Theatre under the direction of Elizabeth Van Dyke. 

 

He has been acknowledged as an exceptional leader through Craine’s New York Business 2020 Notable LGBTQ Leaders and Executives and  in 2016 he was awarded 40 under 40 Rising Star award from the New York Nonprofit Media. In 2013 he was awarded the Emerging Producer Award by the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, NC and the Torch Bearer Award in 2013 by Woodie King Jr. In 2010 he became a Hemispheric Institute alumni after going through their Emerge-NYC program.

 

In 2012 he officially became a published journalist through Howlround.com and within that same year he began serving on the advisory board for the organization.  In 2013 he curated a week of articles on Howlround centered on The State of Black Theatre. [Click Here To Learn More] He also is a graduate of the American Express Leadership Academy 2014 and through NBT has been through the DeVos Professional Development program at BAM 2014. Lastly looking to address the issues of equity he is currently working with two different collectives. In June of 2014, he joined the steering committee for the creation of the Black Theatre Commons, and in 2017 become one of the committed producer of The Jubilee. Currently, McCrory sits on the National Advisory Committee for NEFA’s National Theatre Project. Finally, he was an apart of the original cohort of ArtEquity and one of the founding member of the Next Generation National Network.