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"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" in London!
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Taharka Ekundayo is an Assistant Director on the London production of the smash hit play 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'!
Featuring a dynamic cast led by Academy Award® nominee and two-time Tony winner James Earl Jones, Tony Award® winner Phylicia Rashad, Olivier Award winner Adrian Lester and Tony Award® nominee Sanaa Lathan.
Directed by renowned Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award winning actor, director and choreographer Debbie Allen, who is best known for playing Lydia Grant in the original film and television series of ”Fame“.
Learn more & book tickets: www.catwestend.com
From left to right: Adrian Lester,
Taharka Ekundayo, Phylicia Rashad
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Taharka Ekundayo is an actor, writer, director and drama & emotional literacy specialist. He is also co-founder and artistic director of Nucleus Theatre & Film Company, which also houses the Face Value education initiative and Stage Masons Mime troop.
His most recent stage performance was during the Liverpool & Everyman Playhouse national tour playing Gene, the title character of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Drama Finalist play ‘Yellowman’ written by Dael Orlandersmith.
He has a multi-faceted ground breaking approach of intuitive working that incorporates empowering individuals while utilising drama as a personal and social development tool. For many years in his capacity as a freelance educator & consultant he has been delivering drama workshops for a wide-range of public and private organisations including schools, colleges, prisons, children’s homes, NHS Trusts, youth / community centres and theatres.
Born to Irish immigrants & raised in West London, his birth name was Anthony David Lennon although his name has changed legally several times over the years - now, most people know him by his stage name of Anthony Ekundayo Lennon or his preferred name of Taharka Ekundayo. It is over a long period of time that he has delved deeply into a continuing study, re-education, appreciation and application of world culture and wisdom.
From birth, Taharka was viewed by family and society as a child of ‘mixed race’ heritage: his infant and junior years were full of incidents of being questioned, positively nurtured or sometimes physically / psychologically attacked for being a black child in a dominantly and institutionally racist white society. It was not until a shift in personal awareness and consciousness during his late teens that he fully comprehended the circumstances of his birth in relation to ‘Race’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Culture’.
From the age of 13 he focused on a natural gift for acting by starting at school, then attending drama sessions at the Cockpit Youth Theatre, Forum Youth Theatre and also the Old Vic, Young Vic and Lyric Youth Theatre Company. He also attended the Weekend Arts College studying mime with Adrian Headly.
While attending the Hammersmith based Lyric Youth Theatre (Shiftwork Company) he met Lucy Parker and Lennie James who nurtured his self-awareness and an appreciation for his points of view on racial identity.
A prominent outcome of one of the plays at the Lyric theatre (‘Waking Hours’ written by Lennie James) was an invitation to Lucy Parker and Lennie James from the BBC Everyman series to create a drama documentary specifically about the ‘experience and spirit of being Black and living here’ in the UK. The result was the groundbreaking film ‘Chilling Out’ a film packed full of so many issues facing the Black community without sacrificing any of the perceived complexities.
His career then continued with the likes of Double Edge Theatre, Carib Theatre and then Black Theatre Forum, Black Theatre Co-Op, Tara Arts he was able to secure membership of the actors union Equity. It was under the mentorship and artistic direction of Amani Naphtali from Double Edge Theatre that Anthony received training in African Ritual theatre while being cast in ‘The Remnant’, ‘Song of Songs’ and the hit reggae musical 'Ragamuffin'.
Taharka then went on to work with companies such as Staunch Poets and Players, African Peoples Theatre, Black Mime, Talawa Theatre, Creative Origins and UK Arts International.
In 1995 he met Paul Obinna and Kwasie Lance Lewis and began attending classes run by their Manchester based organisation K.E.G. (Kemetic Educational Guidance). While attending classes he became a tutor on the Heru children’s classes as part of the 'Education of the Black Child' National Conferences until 1997.
While living in Manchester he was also invited onto pirate station Sting FM. Under the name of 'DNA' he presented a hugely successful bi-weekly programme - a mixture of consciousness raising conversation, music and pre-recorded lectures by world-class teachers. It was also during this period of time that he was to find himself in the company of and learn from eminent speakers such as Anthony Browder, Prof. James Small, Patricia Newton, Marimba Ani, Wade Nobles, NneNne Iwuji-Eme & Abena Walker to name but a few.
He is also known as a theatre director and has directed productions for Stereo Hype, The Mellow Campaign, Birmingham Arts Festival, Revolver Productions, Creative Origins / UK Arts International, Contact Theatre (Manchester), Kuumba Arts (Bristol) and Camden People’s Youth Theatre.
A few of the organisations he has worked with and been commended by are: Pegasus Theatre (Oxford), Tricycle Theatre, Shades of Black, Forest Hill Boys Mental Health Programme, Nottingham Playhouse, Riding Lights Theatre (York), Institute of Karmic Guidance (Washington D.C), Social Solutions, Obi Developments, Griot, Personal Power UK, Hackney Empire, 100 Black Men, African Caribbean Diversity Summer Schools, Barnado’s and the Peacock Educational Needs Centre (Manchester).
Taharka lives in London, UK. He has two daughters, one son and one granddaughter.
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Anthony's Latest CRB References
CRB, an Executive Agency of the UK Home Office, provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service.
This service enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially those that involve children or vulnerable adults.
CRB check undertaken by: @tlantic Data Ltd
Disclosure Number: 00115771****
Issue Date: 20th March 2007
E-mail us for the full CRB Disclosure Number.
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Taharka Ekundayo is an actor, writer, director and drama & emotional literacy specialist. He is also co-founder and artistic director of Nucleus Theatre & Film Company, which also houses the Face Value education initiative and Stage Masons Mime troop.
His most recent stage performance was during the Liverpool & Everyman Playhouse national tour playing Gene, the title character of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Drama Finalist play ‘Yellowman’ written by Dael Orlandersmith.
He has a multi-faceted ground breaking approach of intuitive working that incorporates empowering individuals while utilising drama as a personal and social development tool. For many years in his capacity as a freelance educator & consultant he has been delivering drama workshops for a wide-range of public and private organisations including schools, colleges, prisons, children’s homes, NHS Trusts, youth / community centres and theatres.
Born to Irish immigrants & raised in West London, his birth name was Anthony David Lennon although his name has changed legally several times over the years - now, most people know him by his stage name of Anthony Ekundayo Lennon or his preferred name of Taharka Ekundayo. It is over a long period of time that he has delved deeply into a continuing study, re-education, appreciation and application of world culture and wisdom.
From birth, Taharka was viewed by family and society as a child of ‘mixed race’ heritage: his infant and junior years were full of incidents of being questioned, positively nurtured or sometimes physically / psychologically attacked for being a black child in a dominantly and institutionally racist white society. It was not until a shift in personal awareness and consciousness during his late teens that he fully comprehended the circumstances of his birth in relation to ‘Race’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Culture’.
From the age of 13 he focused on a natural gift for acting by starting at school, then attending drama sessions at the Cockpit Youth Theatre, Forum Youth Theatre and also the Old Vic, Young Vic and Lyric Youth Theatre Company. He also attended the Weekend Arts College studying mime with Adrian Headly.
While attending the Hammersmith based Lyric Youth Theatre (Shiftwork Company) he met Lucy Parker and Lennie James who nurtured his self-awareness and an appreciation for his points of view on racial identity.
A prominent outcome of one of the plays at the Lyric theatre (‘Waking Hours’ written by Lennie James) was an invitation to Lucy Parker and Lennie James from the BBC Everyman series to create a drama documentary specifically about the ‘experience and spirit of being Black and living here’ in the UK. The result was the groundbreaking film ‘Chilling Out’ a film packed full of so many issues facing the Black community without sacrificing any of the perceived complexities.
His career then continued with the likes of Double Edge Theatre, Carib Theatre and then Black Theatre Forum, Black Theatre Co-Op, Tara Arts he was able to secure membership of the actors union Equity. It was under the mentorship and artistic direction of Amani Naphtali from Double Edge Theatre that Anthony received training in African Ritual theatre while being cast in ‘The Remnant’, ‘Song of Songs’ and the hit reggae musical 'Ragamuffin'.
Taharka then went on to work with companies such as Staunch Poets and Players, African Peoples Theatre, Black Mime, Talawa Theatre, Creative Origins and UK Arts International.
In 1995 he met Paul Obinna and Kwasie Lance Lewis and began attending classes run by their Manchester based organisation K.E.G. (Kemetic Educational Guidance). While attending classes he became a tutor on the Heru children’s classes as part of the 'Education of the Black Child' National Conferences until 1997.
While living in Manchester he was also invited onto pirate station Sting FM. Under the name of 'DNA' he presented a hugely successful bi-weekly programme - a mixture of consciousness raising conversation, music and pre-recorded lectures by world-class teachers. It was also during this period of time that he was to find himself in the company of and learn from eminent speakers such as Anthony Browder, Prof. James Small, Patricia Newton, Marimba Ani, Wade Nobles, NneNne Iwuji-Eme & Abena Walker to name but a few.
He is also known as a theatre director and has directed productions for Stereo Hype, The Mellow Campaign, Birmingham Arts Festival, Revolver Productions, Creative Origins / UK Arts International, Contact Theatre (Manchester), Kuumba Arts (Bristol) and Camden People’s Youth Theatre.
A few of the organisations he has worked with and been commended by are: Pegasus Theatre (Oxford), Tricycle Theatre, Shades of Black, Forest Hill Boys Mental Health Programme, Nottingham Playhouse, Riding Lights Theatre (York), Institute of Karmic Guidance (Washington D.C), Social Solutions, Obi Developments, Griot, Personal Power UK, Hackney Empire, 100 Black Men, African Caribbean Diversity Summer Schools, Barnado’s and the Peacock Educational Needs Centre (Manchester).
Taharka lives in London, UK. He has two daughters, one son and one granddaughter.
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Anthony's Latest CRB References
CRB, an Executive Agency of the UK Home Office, provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service.
This service enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially those that involve children or vulnerable adults.
CRB check undertaken by: @tlantic Data Ltd
Disclosure Number: 00115771****
Issue Date: 20th March 2007
E-mail us for the full CRB Disclosure Number.
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