Austene Van

Austene Van is a 2013-2014 McKnight Fellowship Award winner, IVEY Award recipient for GUTHRIE THEATER’s Trouble in Mind, and Woodie Award nominee for Best Actor and Best Supporting actor for her multiple roles in both Spunk and Colored Museum at the ST. LOUIS BLACK REP.

Austene is founder and artistic director for New Dawn Theatre Company and has been a local and national theater professional for 30 years. She is acclaimed as a gifted, “quietly powerful” and “innovative” actor, director and choreographer. Inextricably woven into her artistic aesthetic is her deep passion to advocate for social justice, equity and equality, which is why Austene also enjoys her roles as educator, administrator and community builder through varied disciplines of theater.

Austene’s stage credits include:
• Familiar, Disgraced, Trouble in Mind, Amen Corner, Gem of the Ocean, Crowns, and A Christmas Carol at the GUTHRIE THEATER
• Disgraced at MCCARTER/MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER
• Wedding Band, The Owl Answers, Detroit ’67, Spunk, Amen Corner, Blue, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Dinah Was, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Zooman and the Sign, Seven Guitars, and Lost in the Stars at PENUMBRA THEATRE
• Title role of Aida in Aida at THEATER LATTÉ DA at the PANTAGES
• Radio Golf at IRT/CLEVELAND PLAYHOUSE
• Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire; Henry IV, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown at TEN THOUSAND THINGS THEATER
• In the Next Room at the JUNGLE THEATER
• Might as Well Be Dead, and To Kill a Mockingbird at PARK SQUARE THEATRE
• Shrek the Musical, Once on This Island, Two African Tales, A Very Old Man, and Not Without Laughter at CHILDREN’S THEATRE COMPANY
• A Christmas Story, Singin’ in the Rain, and Dinah Was at the ORDWAY MUSIC THEATRE
• Hair at CHANHASSEN DINNER THEATRE
• Vices, Two Queens One Castle, Dance on Widows’ Row, and Point of Review at MIXED BLOOD THEATRE

Austene’s directing credits include:
• The Royale at YELLOW TREE THEATRE
• Annie (awarded Best Play, City Pages Best of 2018) at ORDWAY MUSIC THEATRE
• Hot Mikado at SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
• Intimate Apparel at TEN THOUSAND THINGS THEATER
• Blues in the Night at MCKNIGHT THEATRE, THE ORDWAY
• Gee’s Bend, Hot Chocolate, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at PARK SQUARE THEATRE
• Black Nativity (2006-2008) at PENUMBRA THEATRE
• Lonely Soldier Monologues, and A Civil War Christmas at HISTORY THEATRE
• Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the CAPRI THEATER
• Six Degrees of Separation at THEATRE IN THE ROUND
• Joan: Voices in the Fire for the GUTHRIE THEATER EXPERIENCE at RARIG