Detra Payne, (MFA, The New School for Drama/Actors Studio Drama School), is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University, her area of focus is Acting. Professor Payne has acted professionally in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Memphis and in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. She is a founding member and board member of the Los Angeles based theatre company, Sacred Fools. Detra has produced and directed for stage, and has worked on films and television as an actor, production coordinator and talent coordinator. Her written work has been published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics and Studies in Theatre and Performance. Her research interests include the contributions made by African American Women to the American theatre scene, the intersectionality of acting, movement and other forms of art creation in devising theatre, and developing intentional theatre for online and the uses of AI in actor development and performance. Detra is a member of the Screen Actors Guild American Federation for Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), some of her acting credits include (television): Chicago Fire, The Big Leap, 24, Moesha, and The Parkers; (film): Tempestad, Forced Move, Kudzo Killers, Imbroglio, Long Black Limousine S for Sally ; (theatre): The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, A Christmas Carol, She-Wolf, Slideby Babette's Feast, Fabulation or The Re-education of Undine, Miss Edna Lewis, The Mountaintop, The Bluest Eye, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Steel Magnolias, Who Will Bell the Cat Prophet, It's Gulliani Time, and Baby Talk. She is a member of Actors Equity Association (AEA); National Alliance of Acting Teachers (NAAT); Black Theatre Network (BTN); Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) - as a member of the Nominations Committee, Black Theatre Association, the Acting Focus and the Directing Focus Group; and Steering Committee member for the Organization of Women Faculty at Northwestern and a committee member of Northwestern University School of Communications Access and Accountability Committee (AAC). Currently she is developing performances around the topic of grief and grieving, and a one woman show using Shakespeare’s sonnets and monologues.

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