Rising Stars: Meet Dontá McGilvery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dontá McGilvery.

Hi Dontá, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am the husband of the incredibly beautiful Tiffani McGilvery. We are natives of Dallas, Texas, and have lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for six years. Tiffani and I have been married nine years, and we have two of the most amazing children ever— Améiah (4-year-old daughter) and Faraji (2-year-old son). Faith is central to us, and each of our child’s names is a testimony of God’s amazing grace in our lives. Améiah means “gift from God,” and Faraji means “victory.” There’s a much longer story connected to why we chose those names but know that the story arc goes from joy to pain-to bewilderment-to promise-to joy unimaginable. I am a pastor and theatre scholar-practitioner; these two vocations have run concurrently in my life since I can remember. I currently serve as Outreach and Justice at First Institutional Baptist Church and as cofounder (along with Claire K. Redfield) of the community-based theatre company, Sleeveless Acts. I have been preaching for 15 years and am formally trained in ministry. I have gleaned spiritual education and wisdom for living from some of the most spiritual people I know, including my mother, Terry McGilvery, my grandmother, Mary Jones, and the pastors of my youth, O.G. and C.L. Mayes. Theatrically speaking, I have been blessed to learn from such theatre sages as Dr. Stephani Etheridge – Woodson, and Michael Rodh, to name a few.

In December 2021, I became the first Black male to earn a Ph.D. in Theatre from Arizona State University. While a Ph.D. student, I developed and taught the African American Theatre course (which is still being taught today); helped establish diverse reading material inside libraries on campus; and was selected by the university President, Michael Crow to serve on the Advisory Council on African American Affairs (ACAAA). The ACAAA committee was designed to help make A.S.U. a more equitable place for people of color. I founded a graduate student coalition that partners with higher education leaders to address inequities on campus and I was hired by ASU to develop the first Culture and Access department for A.S.U.’s Design and Arts college. I also have had the privilege of teaching theatre master classes at the University of Florida and Montana Western University. I currently serve as the first Theatre Artist-In-Residence to teach courses within the Black Theology and Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary. I also teach theatre courses to students at K-12 schools, various communities, churches, and organizations. My scholarship focuses on Black theatre and the Black church; theatre for social activism; developing equity coalitions for Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC); and hip-hop theatre. I have received numerous prestigious accolades and awards for my community and justice-oriented work, including A.S.U. 2019 M.L.K. Student Servant Leadership Award; 2020-21 A.S.U. Changemaker Award; Most Outstanding Graduate Student Award from both Southern Methodist University and Arizona State University; and in 2022, I received a nod from the Greater Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals as a “mover and shaker” and “one to keep an eye on.” Numerous newspapers and media outlets have interviewed me on my theatre and justice work and my perspective on various “hot topics” impacting our communities and nation.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
No journey is without its challenges, and as James Baldwin once said, “it takes a long time to learn a little.” That being the case, the most challenging obstacle I have had to face was learning how theatre and theology work together for me professionally. Considering these two fields (theatre and theology), what do I call myself? I always knew the two belonged together but articulating why and how in a way that others could understand was of equal importance. I finally reasoned that faith is a doing. Faith requires action; as such, theatre is a way of making the theoretical practical. The theological, such as “love thou neighbor,” expresses my personal, spiritual, and philosophical approach behind why I do the work of amplifying voices. For me, theatre is used as an emancipative tool. Therefore, I live out my faith not merely by preaching in a pulpit but by amplifying the voices and perspectives of oppressed communities. That’s how my faith and my practice fit together. To put it the way Fannie Lou Hamer put it, “You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.” Theatre and theology coincide naturally. Once I realized that, the road got a lot smoother. As for what to call myself, I decided not to get bogged down in categories. In many cases, categories exist to give us a sense of control and direction. However, when we get so fixated on fitting into an easily identifiable field, categories “boomerang us into chaos” At the end of the day. How I serve my neighbor matters more to me than attempting to fit into a category that does not accurately articulate what it is I do. This internal understanding of self was the first and most challenging obstacle I had to overcome.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
First Institutional Baptist Church (FIBC) is a 117-year-old church committed to evangelism and emancipation. The senior pastor, Dr. Warren H. Stewart Sr., is recognized nationally and internationally for his Jesus and justice focus. The FIBC congregation is a wonderfully loving people, too. The love of the people, the powerfully prophetic preaching, and the daily outreach the church provides for those in need are the things that drew my wife and me to the church when we joined five years ago. I see my role as the church’s first Pastor of Outreach and Justice as a tremendously blessed responsibility. The Outreach and Justice ministry focuses on fighting against everything that oppresses people (I.e., restrictive voting laws, food insecurity, healthcare disparities, and more). We have an amazing outreach and justice team. My approach to the ministry is the same approach I learned from community-based theatre: “conjoin” and “co-create” with the interests and that the people already inhabit. This means that our Outreach and Justice team joins alongside individuals (conjoin) who desire to use their professional training, gifts and talents, and areas of interest to discover (co-create) ways in which they can help lift others (emancipation) while glorifying God (evangelism). The good thing about this is that you do not have to be a member of FIBC to be a part of the Outreach and Justice team; you simply must be willing to do justice work through a Christ-center lens which requires everyone to go through the Christian training courses before joining in the work.

As I stated earlier, co-creation is a major factor in my work as the co-founder of Sleeveless Acts (theatre company), which Claire K. Redfield and I founded in 2018. Alicia Johnson is also a team leader who is deeply involved with both the FIBC Drama Ministry and Sleeveless Acts. She currently serves as Assistant Director of the FIBC Drama Ministry as well as playwright and theatre educator for Sleeveless Acts. Our company’s mission is “to join communities to co-create theatre with radical imagination.” This means we seek out stories from individuals in minoritized communities and help amplify their voices and perspectives through theatre. Our company has received prestigious grants, including funding from the National Endowment of the Arts. With FIBC and Eastlake Park Community Center as our Community partners, we teach (and have taught) theatre courses for K-12 students and performed African American Storytelling productions. And produce an annual production called “Celebration Eastlake,”- which celebrates the history, heritage, and people of the Eastlake Park community. For one of our final “Celebration Eastlake” performances, we were able to celebrate the life and legacy of Phoenix’s longest-serving councilman and civil rights activist, Calvin C. Goode. Councilman Goode attended the performance and spoke about the joy he felt seeing “young people continuing the work.” It was a pleasure celebrating councilman Goode before his death in December 2020. Our team has also taught theatre to elderly populations and youth housed in children’s shelters. Claire and I have written about our approach to teaching theatre to youth at the Eastlake Park Community Center; our chapter can be found in the recently published Routledge Companion to Drama in Education (2022). Our company offers theatre courses and productions both in-person and online.

What’s next?
I plan to continue using theatre as an emancipative tool to serve God by amplifying the voices, experiences, and stories of those who are underrepresented. I would be happy to assist if you, your organization, K-12 school, college/university, or any church are interested in integrating theatre into the mix. As a next step for the Outreach and Justice team, we will use theatre (among other means) to help educate the public on the need to vote in the upcoming elections. We welcome anyone willing to do justice work from a Christ-centered approach to FIBC’s Outreach and Justice team. In addition, Sleeveless Acts will continue to collect African American literature (well-known and those not so well-known) to prepare for the next African American Storytelling production. We hope to perform the production at FIBC, Eastlake Park, and one K-12 school in February 2023. If you are interested in joining as an actor in the production or if you are interested in having the production done at your school, church, community, or organization, please let me know.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sleevelessacts.com
• Instagram: Sleeveless Acts
• Facebook: Sleeveless Acts
• Youtube: Donta McGilvery
• Other: fibcaz.org

Image Credits
Personal Photo: Dr. Dontá McGilvery teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary in July 2022. Photo credit: Dr. Teddy Reeves Additional Photos: 1. Dr. Dontá, his wife, Tiffiani, and their two children Faraji (on the left ) and Améiah on the right) Photo Credit: Eden Grace Photos 2. Dr. Dontá with his mentor, the renowned playwright and storyteller, Dr. Njoki McElroy (June 2022). Photo credit: James McGilvery 3. Sleeveless Acts cofounders Claire K. Redfield (on the left), Dr. Dontá (on the right side), welcome Calvin C. Goode (in the center) to the “Celebration Eastlake” production. Photo credit: Patrick Breen of the Arizona Republic 4. Dr. Dontá (center stage), along with the surrounding cast of the African American Storytelling production, performing an adaptation of the memoir of “Victory Together for Martin Luther King Jr.” written by Dr. Warren H. Stewart Sr.