Cheryl Paley

Been creating Theatre for Social Change for 30 years in New York City. 3 Artistic Director positions and extensive work for both large institutions (The United Nations, NYS Attorney General’s Office under Andrew Cuomo, World AIDS Day at Cathedral of St John the Divine, among others), Community Based Audiences and Commercial runs. Currently Program Director for WPArts of The Women’s Prison Association and Co-Writer and Director of the musical: RED SKY. I’m not big on social media but do post on FB and Liker.

MORE ABOUT ME
We are living through an unprecedented time of reckoning right now and while “art for art’s sake” has it’s own place, if we choose to tell the tale of our times, I believe we must take a step back and examine how we got here and how we choose to emerge. We, as theatre makers, will tell the tale for those who look back on this dark era. It’s a complex mosaic with tentacles of oppression that have the power, when faced, to bind us together.  Creating a theatre that authentically meets this challenge must include writing characters in our plays for Black and Brown People, Indigenous, LGBTQ and Trans. And.. if we are Caucasian, we owe it to ourselves and our art to form coalitions and artistic partnerships with the artists that represent the communities we seek to dramatize. It’s not enough to “sympathize” and risks doing damage by creating a patronizing and inauthentic outcome. A lot to digest here but there are countless stories to tell. It’s a daunting and exhilarating task.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
​A full scale musical, RED SKY: A Parable for Our Times. Co-written with Chuk Obasi and music by Don Rebic. Sidelined by Covid and using the downtime to edit, and working with Producer Katherine Nephew and a coalition of support to have this in the right hands when we can work again. I also have programming (now sadly, mostly remote) with my wonderful crew of artists at WPA for the women of WPA’s 2 homeless shelters.

KEYWORDS
Mother, Writer, Director, Activist, Political, Jewish