EIU Department of
Theatre

Undergraduate Research mentor award for Emma Walker (Chris Wixson her faculty advisor)

RON HIMES, award-winning director and founder of the Saint Louis Black Repertory Company, is coming to campus in late November for three special events. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, November 28 at 5pm, and book your tickets (no cost!) for Saturday December 2 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, December 3 at 2pm for two very special “Devised Theatre Performances.”

Mr. Himes will work with a company of EIU students to devise and present a theatre piece that will be performed for the general public on Saturday, December 2 at 7:30pm and Sunday December 3 at 2pm. Performances are free to the public and presented in the Black Box Theatre. Audience post-show discussions will be integral to the theatre event. According to Mr. Himes, the company of students will “come up with themes based on social justice and change. Our work would be a collage of poetry, prose, and music.”

Mr. Himes will also be delivering a public address, (Black Theatre: Filling the Void) recounting his experiences in theatre and in communities over the past 40 years and meditating on our present-day challenges. The talk will be held on Tuesday, November 28 at 5pm in the Doudna Lecture Hall, followed by a reception .

This guest-artist residency, in response to national events and in support of EIU’s commitment to making excellence inclusive, is co-sponsored by The College of Arts & Humanities, Departments of Theatre and English, The Humanities Center and The Tarble Arts Museum.

Himes has been directing for over 40 years and has served since 2003 as the first Henry E. Hampton, Jr. Artist-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis, a joint appointment of the Performing Arts Department, African and African American Studies. Producing and directing over 200 plays at The Black Rep, his credits include Sunset Baby, Purlie, Black Nativity: A Holiday Celebration, and the critically acclaimed productions of Ruined and The Montford Point Marine. Himes has served on boards, panels, and advisory councils for a number of arts organizations, including the United States Artists, The Joyce Foundation, The Theodore Ward Playwriting Awards, National Endowment for the Arts, and the John F. Kennedy Center.

In 2010 he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the third World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures in Dakar, Senegal and he has received too many honors and awards to list here, but a few of which include the 2013 Outstanding Organization of The Year Award from 100 Black Men and The Citizen of The Year Award from the Gateway Classic Foundation, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Life and Legacy Award from the National Pan-Hellenic Alumni Council.

He received 2017 Larry Leon Hamlin Producer Award at the National Black Theatre Festival.