Ardencie Hall-Karambe

A native of Texas, Ardencie Hall-Karambe, PhD is an associate professor of English/Theatre Arts at Community College of Philadelphia and is an avid professional artist. She has worked as a college professor, professional actress, and director for 20+ years. Dr. Hall has a BFA in Acting and MA in Directing (emphasis in Musical Theatre) both from Texas State University, and a PhD in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. As an actress, she performed in NYC at The Public Theatre, Theatre for The New City (TNC), P.S. 122, and other venues working with directors George C. Woolf, Woody King, Crystal Fields, and others. Ardencie has a passion for directing and has directed shows appearing at TNC (NYC), The Knitting Factory (NYC), Greenhouse Theatre (TX), and Community Education Center (PA). In 2008, she founded Kaleidoscope Cultural Arts Collective, which toured a musical she wrote entitled, Ain’t Nobody…A Civil Rights Musical, for several years in and around the tri-state region, finally landing in 2011 at the Dream Up International Theatre Festival (NYC) where is ran successfully with an offer to extend. Most recently, she adapted, scored, and directed “Lysistrata, Cross Your Legs Sister!” presented at Community College of Philadelphia in fall 2014. This production has been accepted to appear in TNC’s 2015 off-off-Broadway theater festival in the fall. A few years ago she teamed up with two partners and in January 2015, Dr. Hall et al. launched Arden Blair Enterprises, LLC., a multi-service production company; they are planning their coming theater season. She has two blogs (which need more attention), the one called “Thoughts on Theatre” can be found at http://divaarden.blogspot.com and the other, “The Dharma Kitchen,” at http://thedharmakitchen.org. In the fall, Page Publishing will publish her book, The Actor’s Toolkit. Dr. Hall lives in Philadelphia with her son.