Nikkole Salter

Nikkole Salter is an American actress, playwright, and advocate known for her work on the Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize nominated play In the Continuum. Salter co-wrote and co-starred in In the Continuum with Danai Gurira. Salter's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in five countries around the world. As an actress, Salter has performed Off-Broadway and at many regional theaters including Arena Stage, Huntington Theater, Berkley Repertory Theater, and the Shakespeare Theater Company. Salter studied theater at Howard University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Carnaval Jan 31, 2013 Luna Stage Lines in the Dust October 9, 2014 Luna Stage Repairing a Nation February 26, 2015 Crossroads Theatre Company Freedom Rider May 1, 2015 Shelter Theatre at the University of Missouri, Kansas City Indian Head February 2, 2017 Luna Stage Torn Asunder April 13, 2018 St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre Breakout Session In Development n/a Manchild in the Promised Land In Development In the Continuum is a play about the parallel experiences of an African Woman and an African American woman who are diagnosed with HIV/Aids. Gurira and Salter developed In the Continuum because "with black woman being the population with the highest rate of new infections both in the US and Africa- the co-creators of this piece... felt the need to have a story told from the black woman’s perspective; for her to be more than a statistic on a news report." On September 11, 2005, In the Continuum premiered at Primary Stages in New York City. The premiere production was directed by Robert O'Hara and featured Salter and Danai Gurira as the original cast members. In November 2005, the production, including the original cast, was transferred to the Off-Broadway Perry Street Theatre. After a five-month Off- Broadway run, the original cast toured with the production nationally to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati, Ohio; Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, California; Yale Repertory in New Haven, Connecticut; Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Carnaval is performed by three African American male actors and explores the characters' motivations behind their decisions to participate in sex tourism. Salter first got the idea for Carnaval when she read an Essence Magazine article that connected sex tourism in Brazil to African American male tourists. The premiere production was directed by Cheryl Katz and was performed at Luna Stage from January 31, 2013, to March 17, 2013. Less than a year later, the production was remounted in New York City at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre. The Continuum Project is a non profit organization that "provides innovative cultural programming for the enchantment and empowerment of the global African Diaspora. " Salter is also on the Council of The Dramatists Guild of America which "advances the interests of playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists writing for the living stage."

Salter's advocacy work also includes original theater pieces. Salter wrote Unknown Thousands as part of Every 28 Hours Plays, a "project that consists of over seventy short plays that reflect the current civil rights movement, and tools to help your community address those issues." Similarly, Salter wrote Peace Officer Privilege and Mahagony Corpo for UNTAMED: Hair, Body, Attitude, a collection of "short plays that collectively dig deeper into the national conversation around Black womanhood and social perceptions of Black femininity."

Acting

Awards and achievements For her work as co-author of In the Continuum, Salter was awarded an Obie Award, the NY Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Award for Best New American Play, the Seldes-Kanin fellowship from the Theatre Hall of Fame, and the Friends of the United Nations' Global Tolerance Award. When it premiered in 2005, In the Continuum was named one of the best plays of the year by the New York Times, Newsday, and New York Magazine. Additionally, for Salter's performance as Nia, she received nominations for Best Actress by the Helen Hayes Awards and the Black Theatre Alliance Awards.

Salter has also been praised for her other work as a playwright. She was nominated for an AUDELCO Award for Best Playwright for Carnaval. In 2014, Salter was awarded a MAP Fund Grant. Salter was also a finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference and nominated for both the USA Fellowship and the Playwrights of New York Fellowship.