Carla Blank (director, dramaturge)

Carla Blank has served as artistic director of the Domestic Crusader Project since 2003, mounting staged readings and performances of Wajahat Ali’s The Domestic Crusaders, including 2005 showcase productions at the Thrust Theatre of Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the San Jose State University Theatre, a 2008 New York City reading at the festival, Performing the World, and this 2009 New York City premiere production at The Nuyorican Poets Café.

Recently she has collaborated with director and designer Robert Wilson to create Kool, a performance portrait inspired by legendary Japanese choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi, a long time collaborator and dear friend of both artists. Kool premiered at NYC’s Guggenheim Museum April 17, 2009 and was presented at East Hampton’s Guild Hall August 8 and 9, with two film productions presently in process.
Ever since making her professional debut as a choreographer/dancer in 1963 as a participant in a Judson Dance Theater Workshop performance in New York City, she has devoted much attention to helping create youth and community arts collaborative performance projects, partially funded with grants from state and local governments and private foundations. These projects provided experiences with performers from pre-school through aged adults, and were the basis for her anthology of performing arts techniques and styles, Live OnStage! (Dale Seymour Publications, a Pearson Education imprint, 1997, 2000). Co-authored with Jody Roberts, and still in print, it is widely referenced in school districts throughout the U.S. and Canada. 

With Ishmael Reed, she edited the anthology, Powwow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience, Short Fiction From Then to Now (Da Capo Press, 2009); she is author and editor of the 20th century timeline reference Rediscovering America (Three Rivers Press, 2003), which carries the imprimatur of Before Columbus Foundation. Her current research and writing projects include a study of eight American women who became architects in the 19th century and a 19th century U.S. timeline. Carla Blank made her recording debut as a violinist with The Ishmael Reed Quintet, on the CD For All We Know, available through cdbaby, iTunes and Amazon.com.