New Arts in Education Director at Court

Bayeza will oversee planning and implementation of the education programs offered by Court Theatre. These programs include the High School Matinee Program, which incorporates professional theater into the curriculum of local high schools, and the DuSable Initiative, Court's long-term partnership with DuSable High School, which serves students from the Robert Taylor public-housing community.

"Ms. Bayeza is a tremendous addition to the Court Theatre family," said Charles Newell, Court's Artistic Director. "Through her experience and creative talent, Court's education programs will introduce many more lives to the value of the arts."

Bayeza's recent work includes the play Homer G & the Rhapsodies in the Fall of Detroit, for which she received a grant from the Fund for New American Plays, awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The play will be presented in autumn 1995 by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco, where Bayeza served as associate managing director and artist-in-residence from September 1993 until joining Court Theatre.

She also has been a writer and producer for the Gene Davis Group, an independent news and public-service television production company, and she co-produced and served as senior writer for the acclaimed two-hour NBC television news special "Images & Realities: African American Men," which was nominated for a Peabody award and an Emmy award. Bayeza's other television credits include "You Gotta Pay the Band: The Words, Music and Life of Abbey Lincoln" (PBS), "Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame" and the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes."

Bayeza has worked in a variety of educational settings developing, writing and producing programming for young audiences. Her work has included serving as an evaluator for the Challenge Grant Program of the National Endowment for the Arts and as a consultant and evaluator for Stage Fest, the high school outreach program of the Oakland Ensemble Theatre.

Bayeza received her B.A. in English and African American studies from Harvard.