Salvation Road Director Danielle Drakes

Producing Artistic Director of Round House Theatre, Blake Robison, describes Danielle as, "one of the DC theatre community's most exciting up and coming hyphenates. She is a producer-director-actor of great ambition and promise". As an actor, Ms. Drakes has worked with The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Center Stage, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Imagination Stage. She most recently played Madame CJ Walker in Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention at The Smithsonian's Discovery Theatre and was featured in Referendum: A Political Arts Collective's The Trojan Women for the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival. As a teacher, she has worked with The Baltimore Shakespeare Partnership, The Theatre Lab, Round House TheatreÕs Education & Outreach, The Drama Learning Center and Montgomery College. Ms. Drakes directed a reading of The Devil's Sweet Water for the Shakespeare Theatre's education department at The Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival 2007, assistant directed A Lesson Before Dying at Round House Theatre, and Intimate Apparel at African Continuum Theatre. Other directing credits include Stop Kiss, Southern Girls, Dutchman and Chain and Late Bus to Mecca as part of her undergraduate thesis, theHegira: A Sociological and Theatrical Exploration of the African American Woman in the 21st Century- two plays by Pearl Cleage. Danielle is a 2008 TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color grant award recipient. She is on the Artist Council of Round House Theatre and a member of the Cultural Development Corporation artist network, the Red Circle. Danielle received her BA from Goucher College and MFA from The Catholic University of America and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.