Kaneza Schaal

Kaneza Schaal
Schaal in 2025
Alma materWesleyan University (BA)
StyleExperimental theater[1]
Children1
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2021)

Kaneza Schaal is an American actress and stage director who works in experimental theater. She is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow.

Biography

Schaal was born to a Rwandan father.[2] Her grandfather Murara was a Tutsi Rwandan who fled to Burundi with his wife and children and ran a guest house there.[3] She was raised at her aunt's home in San Francisco, where several gay men her aunt knew died of AIDS during her youth.[4] She obtained a BA in Psychology and Theater from Wesleyan University in 2006.[5]

Schaal's first work was with Elevator Repair Service and The Wooster Group.[3] She was awarded a 2008 Princess Grace Award.[6] She was the first artist-in-residence of Performance Space 122's RAMP program.[7]

Schaal's play Go Forth, inspired by her experiences with visiting her father's funeral in Burundi, premiered as part of P.S. 122's COIL Festival in January 7, 2016.[8] She directed the three-part Jack &, which played in October 2018 and April 2019.[1] In 2019, she and Reggie Gray co-directed Maze, a street dance performance at The Shed,[9] and later that year, she directed Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), a tribute to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.[10] She also received a 2019 United States Artists Fellowship in Theater & Performance[11] In 2020, she directed Cartography, which Schaal called an attempt to "centralize the hero's journey in everyone's story" amidst anti-immigration sentiment.[2]

Schaal was awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2021 Alpert Award in the Arts.[12][13] She directed Omar, a biographical opera about Omar ibn Said; it premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA on May 27, 2022 and won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music.[14] That same year, she starred as King Leopold in KILL, a one-act play she and Myers co-directed; mixing dance, music, and anti-imperialist texts, Amber Power of Bomb called it a "bricolage of source materials and media [which] can be seen as a formal nod to the experimental theatre tradition in which Schaal is steeped".[3] She was part of the 2024-2025 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Flight Into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876 -- Now, with her performance art piece "Go Forth" taking inspiration from the Book of the Dead.[15] She starred in the 2025 documentary film BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions.[16] She was awarded a 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award.[17]

Schaal has taught at Harvard College Theater, Dance & Media.[4]

Originally based in Freestone, California,[6] Schaal is based in New York City.[18] She has a daughter.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Vincentelli, Elisabeth (April 18, 2019). "Review: An Actor's Life Story Grounds 'Jack &' With 'The Cotillion'". New York Times. ProQuest 2211043904.
  2. 1 2 Collins-Hughes, Laura (January 10, 2020). "We All Got Here From Somewhere: 'Cartography,' a theatrical work inspired by migrants' stories, is not your typical children's fare". New York Times. p. C10. ProQuest 2902824632.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Power, Amber (June 30, 2022). "Kaneza Schaal's Anti-Monument to King Leopold II". Frieze. Archived from the original on October 7, 2025. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Bhuiyan, Nuri (October 29, 2019). "Portrait of an Artist: Kaneza Schaal". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  5. ↑ "CV of Kaneza Schaal" (PDF). The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 13, 2024. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Theatre Artists Honored with 2008 Princess Grace Awards". Playbill. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  7. ↑ "AWARDS & PRIZES". American Theatre. Vol. 31, no. 5. 2014. p. 16. ProQuest 1524699300.
  8. ↑ Brantley, Ben (January 8, 2016). "Review: 'Go Forth' Finds the Living and the Dead Bound Together". New York Times. ProQuest 1755085585.
  9. ↑ Scherr, Apollinaire (July 26, 2019). "Maze — Brooklyn street-dance comes to The Shed, New York". FT.com. ProQuest 2264505663.
  10. ↑ Madonna, Zoë (October 31, 2019). "Bryce Dessner's 'Triptych' tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe is too vanilla". Boston Globe. ProQuest 2310739328.
  11. ↑ Greenberger, Alex (January 22, 2019). "United States Artists Names 2019 Fellows, Including Firelei Báez, Wu Tsang, and Cecilia Vicuña". ARTnews. Archived from the original on April 24, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Kaneza Schaal". Guggenheim Fellowships. Archived from the original on October 4, 2025. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Kaneza Schaal". The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on January 24, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  14. ↑ Hansen, Victoria (June 9, 2022). "Spoleto's 'Omar' profound and healing say reviews". South Carolina Public Radio. Archived from the original on November 16, 2025. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  15. ↑ D'Souza, Aruna (November 17, 2024). "A Wide Variety of Works, Tapping Into Egypt's History". New York Times. p. AR12. ProQuest 3129063910.
  16. ↑ Gyarkye, Lovia (January 29, 2025). "'BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions' Review: Kahlil Joseph's Feature Debut Is a Kinetic Tribute to Black Experimentalists". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 23, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  17. ↑ "2025 Doris Duke Artist Awards". Doris Duke Foundation. Archived from the original on February 11, 2026. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  18. ↑ "GO FORTH". Performance Space New York. Archived from the original on February 16, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
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