ATHE’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement honors an individual or theatre company that has demonstrated sustained commitment and a significant impact in the field for a minimum of ten years. We are pleased to announce that this year’s award winner is::

Willa J. Taylor
Director of Education and Community Engagement
Goodman Theatre

Willa J. Taylor is the Goodman Theatre’s Director of Education and Community Engagement. She began her career in arts education at Arena Stage where, under founding director Zelda Fichandler, she established the Allen Lee Hughes Fellows Program—one of the first theater-run apprenticeships designed to increase participation by people of color in professional theater. She then went to Lincoln Center Theater where she created The Urban Ensemble, a multidisciplinary project that served at-risk youth. This collaboration between Lincoln Center and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and The Public Theater was cited by President Clinton’s Council on the Arts and Humanities in its 1996 report, Coming Up Taller. At Lincoln Center, she consulted for New Victory Theatre, where she designed the arts education program for their inaugural season. Taylor also served as cultural director for Gay Games IV, where she oversaw the production of more than 200 cultural events, including the Broadway production of Sir Ian McKellen’s A Knight Out. In addition to a longtime career in the arts, Taylor brings a wealth of experience in other areas to her current position at the Goodman. For 12 years she served as a Russian and Arabic linguist in the U.S. Navy. While overseas, she oversaw productions for the United Service Organization in Greece and managed Armed Forces Radio and Television in Turkey, where she created the Profiles in Black History series. Following her graduation from Kendall College’s culinary program in 2001, Taylor opened Taylor-Made Cuisine, a gourmet catering company, and Home Café, a neighborhood bistro. In 2005, she helped open and served as the catering chef for Chicago’s EatZi’s Easygoing Gourmet, based out of Dallas, Texas.

Acceptance Speech

Interview

ATHE offers special thanks to the Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement award subcommittee for their work this cycle.