Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley
Artistic Director
Dr. Hodges Persley is the Artistic Director of KC Melting Pot Theater since 2018. She is a Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas and the Vice Provost of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging for the university. Dr. Hodges Persley is a professional actor and director with credits in theater, film, and television. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA Equity, SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), and the NTC (National Theatre Conference). Notable directing credits include Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Kristoffer Diaz’s Welcome to Arroyo’s, Angelina W. Grimke’s Rachel, Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, and Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby and Lewis Morrow’s Ain’t No Such Things As Midnight Black, Baybra’s Tulips and Mother/son. Film directing credits include the award-winning short film Epiphany. She is the author of Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance, coauthor of Breaking it Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority, Hip- Hop in Musical Theater and co-editor of Diva: Hip-Hop, Fierceness and Feminism. Her plays include Secrets & Lies and Time Squared: An Eartha Kitt Musical.
