A Catalyst for Change, that’s who!

Kandace Crystal (she/her) is an Actor, Director, Producer, & Florida State alum from Miami, FL. As Artistic Director of American History Theatre and Associate Artistic Director of Trinity Theatre Company, Kandace implemented an online discussion series examining historical American events on the mental health of marginalized communities.  With Trinity, she has built a partnership with Kitabu Club Adventures for our youngest audiences to see themselves in the books they read.  Additionally, in response to the disproportionate murder of black and brown people at the hands of police, Kandace developed a Podcast/Oral Documentary with Cloudcast Media entitled 8:46-The Catalyst for Change as a means of documenting feelings and responses to the current epidemic. Her directorial credits include The Mountaintop (AHT/TRTC), Donna Orbits the Moon (Scripps Ranch Theatre), and Clybourne Park (Trinity Theatre Company).  

So, What is She up to Now?

SDMNEWS sat with Kandace during pizza and iced tea one sunny San Diego day, Kandace enthusiastically expressed her sentiments about her goals and dreams. ” The murder of George Floyd created a ripple of change for everyone says Kandace, I was no exception.” In recent years when unfortunate incidents like that of George Floyd, the world reacts initially and then the world turns and life goes on by. Kandace states “I found myself being a catalyst for change in a strange way. The 8:46 project was sort of therapy for me, I found myself involved in the project that recounted the shooting, then the following reactions.” Kandace goes on to note, “The 8:46 interviews were interesting, all those interpretations created a unique experience in that I felt sort of a camaraderie that other incidents had not.”

8:46 is a podcast that will enlighten, provoke and retrospectively deliver insights on how the aftermath created change in people’s lives to some degree. 8:46 encourages the listener to introspectively examine their own perspective. Launching the last week of Black History Month, 8:46 will be easy listening but definitely impactful. So watch out for 8:46 THE CATALYST FOR CHANGE; The World’s Wake Up Call on Cloudcast in the Monitor Studios section at https://cloudcast.us/

In the Meantime…

Kandace hopes to continue using her art to tell the stories of people whose stories need to be told.  Feel free to keep up with her journey on social media, @KandaceCrystal on all platforms.Show Synopsis:Harlem Duet is a 1997 dramatic play by Canadian playwright Djanet Sears. Billie, a young graduate student in Harlem, deals with her husband Othello leaving her for a white woman named Mona.^[1] The play moves through time to show Billie and Othello’s relationship (or an analogue thereof) being torn apart by racial tensions at a Southern US cotton plantation in 1860, and in Harlem in 1928 and the present. Though the characters draw inspiration from Shakespeare‘s play Othello, Billie and the story are original creations.