Introduce Yourself : James Reed Faulkner, Director/Writer/Actor/Teacher by James Reed Faulkner

Wassup, Artists! My name is James Reed Faulkner, a Black man and an artist making a transition. I got my Bachelors at Michigan State University in TV, Theatre, & Film. I founded the first Black touring theater company in Lansing, Michigan. Add the first Black soap opera on cable TV (National Cable Co.) and other 'firsts' in Lansing and then moving on to Detroit, a veritable crucible for Black Theatre, in 1980. I was able to write my own plays, produce them, act in them if I was needed, and put artists to work. My company, the Afrikan American Studio Theatre Co. toured to every state except New Hampshire, Vermont, Hawaii, and Alaska. Mostly in a 15-passenger van! Moving to Houston, Texas (not for the arts), meant dealing with challenges, such as no support. Transitioning to more solo performance work, was eye opening. Attaching myself to the fledging Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, I convinced them that live performances was a way to build patronage. I hit on a character, "Trooper Biggs", and wrote a scene about his transition from a slave to a cavalry officer, which was used as part of the museum's Week-end tours. I was also booked for touring performances to schools and other engagements throughout the state and outside of Texas. I injured myself during a performance and had to have surgeries, which have hampered my live performances. During my three-and-a-half year recuperation, I wrote a TV screenplay about the Buffalo Soldiers' 10th Cavalry. The TV show displays Black settlers fighting to build their own world in Southwest Texas, with the 10th Cavalry and outside conflicting forces to deal with. It is exciting, enlightening, and critical to the history of Black Americans during a critical time in America...Reconstruction! Now it is making the 'rounds' of Hollywood...SLOWLY!!!