Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj


Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj is an Indo-Afro-Caribbean American theater director, playwright, producer and activist. He holds an associate degree in Criminal Justice from St. John's University, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from St. John's University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatrical Directing from Brooklyn College. He was the Associate Artistic Producer of Milwaukee Repertory Theater. He started Rebel Theater Company in 2003 in New York City, and served as Producing Artistic Director. He was the former Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia. He is the Third Vice President for the Brooklyn Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is the Chair of the Equity in the Arts and Culture Committee for the NAACP Brooklyn Branch. He was the former artistic director at American Stage in Florida before stepping down for personal reasons after 8 months.

Career

As a director, Maharaj has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway and at some of our nation's top regional theaters. New York City selected directing/choreography credits include: The Public Theatre , Classical Theatre of Harlem , Lark Play Development Center, Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, Rebel Theater, Making Books Sing, Amas Musical Theatre.
His regional credits include: New Freedom Theatre, Passage Theatre '' Fifteen-Minute Musical Theatre Challenge Award. He received grants for the Van Lier Directing Fellowship, Brooklyn Arts Council Grant, Winthrop Rockefeller Grant, Doris Duke Charitable Grant, Andrew W. Mellon Grant and Time Warner Diverse Voices Grant. Maharaj is an alumnus of Lincoln Center Directors Lab, TCG Young Leaders of Color in the American Theater, and New Orleans Writers Residency 2020, and 2020 Letter of Marque Playwright in Residence.
Maharaj is currently working as Assistant Professor of Stage Direction Musical Theatre and Theatre at SUNY Geneseo.

''Little Rock''

As a playwright, Maharaj has authored several plays, including Little Rock, a historical drama about the Little Rock Nine. Maharaj spent thirteen years interviewing members of The Little Rock Nine, the first nine African American teenagers who integrated Little Rock Central High School. The play had its developmental premiere at Arkansas Repertory Theatre. It received another developmental production as part of the 2011 New Works Festival at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California. It went on to receive a production in 2014 at Passage Theatre in Trenton, NJ where it won the 2015 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Play.
In 2018 it made its New York Off-Broadway premiere at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture.

Additional writing credits

Produced work

  • Sweet Lorraine
  • Little Rock
  • Mother Emanuel, An American Musical Play
  • The Black Nativity
  • The Ballad of Trayvon Martin
  • Othello: The Panther
  • Salome Da Voodoo Princess of Nawlins
  • Black Footnotes
  • Brown Gyal in di RIng
  • History of the Word
  • Diss Diss and Diss Dat
  • ''Exposures''

Other plays