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 Sottile Theater on May 27, 2022.[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. ^ a b Vincentelli, Elisabeth (April 18, 2019). "Review: An Actor's Life Story Grounds 'Jack &' With 'The Cotillion'". New York Times. ProQuest 2211043904.
  2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d Power, Amber (June 30, 2022). "Kaneza Schaal's Anti-Monument to King Leopold II". Frieze. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  4. ^ a b Bhuiyan, Nuri (October 29, 2019). "Portrait of an Artist: Kaneza Schaal". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  5. ^ "CV of Kaneza Schaal" (PDF). The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  6. ^ a b "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.
  12. ^ "Kaneza Schaal". Guggenheim Fellowships. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  13. ^ "Kaneza Schaal". The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. April 14, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  14. ^ Hansen, Victoria (June 9, 2022). "Spoleto's 'Omar' profound and healing say reviews". South Carolina Public Radio.
  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. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  17. ^ "2025 Doris Duke Artist Awards". Doris Duke Foundation. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
  18. ^ "GO FORTH". Performance Space New York. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
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