Kathryn Bentley, Director of Bold, Brave, Curious!

Kathryn Bentley is a community focused artist and an Associate Professor of Theater at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) as well as the Director of the SIUE Black Studies program, Director of The IMPACT Academy, and the Artistic Director of SIUE’s Black Theatre Workshop. She has performed and directed with numerous theater companies regionally and nationally, notably directing the 2019 Shakespeare in the Streets production Love at the River’s Edge with Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. From 2018-2021, she was the Artistic Director of Bread & Roses Missouri for the Workers’ Theater Project where she directed the company’s first full length productions of Jailbird in 2019 and the radio drama Mrs. Palmer’s Honey in 2021. She currently serves as an advisory board member for the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis where she has been a consultant involved in programming and facilitation for the last 20 years. She is a Certified Diversity FaciliTrainer with NCCJ St. Louis and conducts diversity and inclusion trainings throughout the metropolitan area. In 2020, she was granted the St. Louis Visionary Outstanding Working Artist award. In 2000, she was instrumental in developing the CHIPS In Motion program at CHIPS Health and Wellness Center in North St. Louis. This program continues to utilize performance to teach the community about pertinent health and wellness issues. Kathryn commits herself to community-engaged arts collaborations, striving to create compassionate artistic experiences, using theater to lift social consciousness.