Theme for the 2024 season:
"In Honor of You": Amplifying the Ways Black Families Honor & Celebrate the Life of Their Loved Ones.
Each project and production for the 2024 season reflects the ways in which Black families honor and celebrate the life of their loved ones. The purpose of these projects and productions is to explore and shed light on the ways "legacy" and "honor" is interpreted and performed by Black families and also, by amplifying these stories, to value the diverse ways honor is given.

Dontá McGilvery, PhD
​Co-Artistic Director

The first Black male to graduate with a PhD in Theatre (for Youth and Community) from Arizona State University, Dr. Dontá is a justice visionary and an architecture of equitable change for all people -- especially those from underrepresented groups. He employs performance/theatre as vehicles for advocating for equity and justice inside and outside of K-12 and higher educational institutions, the church, and communities.
A scholar-artist, his research interests include:

• Developing equity performance coalitions 
• Black theatre and the theological approaches to justice
• Theatre as a tool for activism  
• The performativity of the American Civil Rights Movement

With 21 years of experience as a playwright/theatre educator and 14 years as an ordained minister, Dr. Dontá has developed and taught unique theatre courses within communities, seminaries, universities, K-12 schools, and churches. He is both the co-founder and co-artistic director of Sleeveless Acts.

Education:

• Ph.D. Theatre (for Youth & Community) Arizona State University
• Doctor of Ministry--Urban Ministry, Aspen Christian College & Seminary
• Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies—Humanities/Social Justice, Southern Methodist University
• Bachelors of Arts in Sociology, University of North Texas

Claire K. Redfield
​Co-Artistic Director

Claire K. Redfield is a director, educator, and community-engaged artist who believes in groups’ abilities to make lasting change in their communities. Originally hailing from Chicago, Claire worked as a teaching artist and freelance director for six years at several companies including the Tony Award winning Lookingglass Theatre, Adventure Stage Chicago, and Northlight Theatre. She is the Educational Theatre Manager at Expect Respect/SAFE Alliance in Austin, Texas. Claire earned her MFA in Theatre for Youth and Community from Arizona State University and is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Sleeveless Acts.
​More info at clairekredfield.com. ​

Benedicta Akley-Quarshie, PhD
Research Scholar In-Residence 

Dr. Benedicta Akley-Quarshie works as the Coordinator Senior for Equitable Student Engagement and Success at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Dr. Akley-Quarshie provides co-curricular empowerment and support to underrepresented and minoritized students in the Herberger Institute for success and retention. She is also a drama therapist, theatre educator, and applied theatre researcher who works and conducts arts-based and mixed-method research with youth experiencing incarceration and minoritized higher education student populations. Her research interests are youth agency and adultism in applied theatre spaces for justice-involved youth, architectural imperialism in post-colonial Ghanaian theatre, and Drama therapy practices for youth experiencing incarceration.
Education
​    •    Ph.D. Theatre (Youth and Community) - Arizona State University
    •    MA. Theatre (Drama Therapy) - Kansas State University
    •    MPhil. Arts and Culture - University of Education Winneba, Ghana
    •    BA. Theatre Arts - University of Education Winneba, Ghana

Alicia D. Johnson
Playwright, Actor, and Theatre Educator
​A native of St. Louis, MO., Alicia D. Johnson serves as a playwright, actor, and theatre educator for Sleeveless Acts. Some of her production credits include African American Storytellers a production and Celebration - Eastlake Park. Alicia’s talent and theatrical ambitions has afforded her prestigious opportunities such as performing the prologue at the Arizona Regional Theater for August Wilson’s play Two Trains Running and she co-taught a community-based theatre workshop class for students at Princeton Theological Seminary entitled, Defiant Joy: Storytelling and Dramatizations of Joy Embodied in Blackness.
In addition to her work with Sleeveless Acts, as a member of First Institutional Baptist Church, Alicia serves as the Assistant Director of the theatre program, THEE-Theater of Evangelism and Emancipation. As such, she has performed for several of the church’s productions, which include African American Storytellers, General Missions Skit, The Urban Christmas Story, and A Look Back at Black Arts which was performed at the Arizona Commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Africans Brought to North America as Slaves. Alicia has a passion for helping people, health, and fitness.