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James A. Williams (AEA),

A Broadway veteran and founding member of Penumbra Theatre Company, James has been a regular on local and national stages for 47 years. He originated the role of Roosevelt Hicks in August Wilson’s, “Radio Golf.” He has performed at The Arena Theater, Cal Shakes, Center Stage Theater, The Goodman Theater, The Huntington Theater, The Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, The McCarter Theater,  Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage and Yale Repertory Theater. James has appeared Off Broadway in August Wilson’s, “The Piano Lesson,” and Athol Fugard’s, “My Children! My Africa!” James is a McKnight Theater Fellow, a Fox Distinguished Acting Fellow and a Ten Chimneys Acting Fellow. A multiple Ivey Award recipient, he was named 2008 “Artist of the Year” by the Minneapolis StarTribune. James is a 2008 Beverly Hills chapter of the NAACP Image Award Nominee.

He has lead Social Justice Theater workshops at Brown University, Colby College, The International School of Theater of Kenya, Macalester College, Nshupu & Akeri Schools in Tanzania and the Penumbra Theater Summer Institute.  He was a Founder, Co-Director and Acting coach for Seeds of Change, a group utilizing theater to teach manhood skills to African American males. He served as Artistic Director of the Hennepin County Home School Theater Project, A six week playwriting project for incarcerated youth. He is currently Artistic Director of The Mill City Players, a theater program for homeless youth.    In 2012 Macalester College, his Alma Mater, named Mr. Williams a Distinguished Global Citizen. In 2023, the school bestowed upon him a Doctorate of Humane Letters and renamed the Black Box Theater in his honor.