OFF BROADWAY
april has been nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show for the world premiere of liberty city co-written by April Yvette Thompson & Jessica Blank (The Exonerated) at New York Theatre Workshop.
april has appeared Off Broadway in the New York premiere of The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban) which ran for a year and half and was named best play of the year; the world premiere of Tanya Barfield & Lynn Nottage's The Antigone Project Women's Project (dir. Annie Dorsen & Liesl Tommy); the world premiere of Kia Corthron's Light Raise the Roof (dir. Michael John Garces) at NYTW; the world premiere of Zakiyyah Alexander's SICK??? (dir. Daniella Topol) at The Summer Play Festival, The Acting Company's The Rivals (dir. Nicky Martin), Macbeth (dir. Anne Justine D'Zmura) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (dir. Matt August). A Classical Theatre of Harlem company member, april has received AUDELCO nominations for her work in Medea (dir. Alfred Preisser) and Macbeth and has also appeared in productions of King Lear with Paul Butler and Jean Genet's The Blacks (dir. Christopher McElroen). april recently appeared in Susan-Lori Parks' 365 Plays/365 Days (dir. Liz Diamond) at NYTW & The Public Theatre.
A great supporter of new work and the classics, april has played the leads in the workshops of Tanya Barfield's Of Equal Measure (dir. Leigh Silverman), Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro and Marcus Gardley’s the road weeps, the well runs dry (dir. Leah Gardiner) all at The Lark Play Development Center.
FILM & TELEVISION
An accomplished New York based actress, april has appeared in the films Phoebe in Wonderland with Felicity Huffman & Bill Pullman (dir. Daniel Barnz), Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman (dir. Griffin Dunne), Bernard & Doris with Ralph Fiennes & Susan Sarandon, The Exonerated with Danny Glover, Aidan Quinn, Delroy Lindo & Susan Sarandon (both dir. Bob Balaban) and the independent film I am Ali at Sundance (dir. Dream Hampton). april's television work includes Third Watch, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Dave Chappelle Show, Guiding Light and As the World Turns.
REGIONAL THEATRE
april won a Seattle Footlights Award for Best Performance in Wine in the Wilderness (dir. Valerie Curtis-Newton) at Seattle ACT, A Raisin in the Sun at Hartford Stage (dir. Seret Scott), the world premiere of Seret Scott's Second Line (dir. Regge Life) at Passage Theatre Company, the world premiere of Kia Corthron's The Venus De Milo is Armed (dir. Valerie Curtis-Newton) at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, A Raisin in the Sun (dir. L. Kenneth Richardson) at Dallas Theatre Center & Great Lakes Theatre Festival, A Christmas Carol (dir. James Bundy) and From the Mississippi Delta (dir. Kaia Calhoun) at GLTF & Merrimack Repertory Theatre and The African Company Presents Richard III (dir. Hal Scott). april has workshopped her solo show, liberty city at 651 Arts, Hartford Stage, New York Stage & Film, Seattle ACT, The Daryl Roth Theatre and The Mark Taper Forum.
INTERNATIONAL THEATRE
april received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her portrayal of Sunny Jacobs in The Exonerated. She toured the US and Zimbabwe with From the Mississippi Delta which she performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
TEACHING
april has served on the faculty of the Harlem School of the Arts, The Maggie Flanigan Studios and Rutgers University teaching performance for the classical text, movement, voice, playwriting and the business of acting. She has served as voice/speech/movement coach for CTH's productions of Medea, King Lear and The Blacks as well as dialect coach for Hal Scott's The African Company Presents Richard III. april has served as Artist in Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club, Listen, Inc., The Acting Company and The Children's Defense Fund where she founded the fundi freedom schools - Arts in Education summer & after-school enrichment programs in economically disenfranchised Washington, D.C. communities.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts, English from Vassar College
Master of Fine Arts, Theatre from Rutgers University
