Deidra LaWan Starnes

 

Deidra LaWan Starnes, MFA

Adjunct Professor
Areas of Specialization - Acting, Directing, Movement

Deidra LaWan Starnes, Associate Artistic Director at 1st Stage, is a theatre educator, performer, and director throughout the DMV.  Her 1st Stage acting credits include Duck Harbor, The Member of the Wedding and The Good Counselor. Other regional credits include The Amen Corner,  Amadeus, Milk Like Sugar, The Gospel of Lovingkindness, Julius Caesar, Invisible Man (Helen Hayes Award Most Outstanding Ensemble), Intimate Apparel (Helen Hayes Award), A Raisin in the Sun, I Have before Me a Remarkable Document…., Two Trains Running, Spunk (Helen Hayes Nomination), Twelve Days of Christmas, Charlotte’s Web, Passing Strange, In the Red and Brown Water, Radio Golf, King Lear, Doubt (Helen Hayes Nomination), The Old Settler, Seven Guitars and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, (Audelco Award for Best Ensemble) directed by Ntozake Shange. Film credits include Chasing Refuge, Nocturnal Agony, and Ladder 49. Directing credits include A Civil War Christmas and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Helen Hayes Nomination for Most Outstanding Production), for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (Theatre Alliance), Street Life and The Name Game (DC Theatre Festival), Soul Collector (Port City Playhouse), Once on This Island, Jr. and 101 Dalmatians (The Theatre Lab Summer Musical Camp for Tweens). Her ten-minute play The Three Amigos was presented at African Continuum’s Blaze of Horns II Play Reading Festival. Her Film credits include Ladder 49 and Nocturnal Agony.She holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland, an MFA in Drama from the University of Connecticut, and an MA in Producing Film, TV, and Video from American University.