Nigel Barnes

About

Nigel Semaj (they/them) is a director, movement director, and educator whose work lives at the intersections of theatre, dance/movement, pedagogy, and social transformation. Nigel’s directing work spans a wide range, including the Off-Broadway premiere of Bloodshot by Elinor T. Vanderburg, Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls & Spell #7, George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… by Jackie Sibblies Drury, as well as new works such as Calley Anderson’s Collective Empathy Formation, Reid Tang’s wolfchildrenrunslowlythrough a bruegel landscape 1558, and Aeneas Sagar Hemphill’s Black Hollow.

Their adaptation work includes productions 10,000 Moor a gender swapped adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, exploring rage and violence, For Hylas—an adaptation of the Hercules myth exploring love, loss, and grief, and in the darkest forest, exploring horror aesthetics in theater. Recent productions include Call Me By Any Other Name…Just As Sweet - a new queer retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Upcoming: the serpent under’t a physical theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and an enemy to the people.

Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s belief that “it is possible to start a phrase with a word and end with a gesture,” Nigel treats movement as a vital language. Their movement direction and choreography have appeared in opera, film, and theatre, with credits including Fidelio (Heartbeat Opera), Not Him (short film), Bryony Lavery’s Slime. Shakespeare in Harlem by Gerrad Alex Taylor (UMBC/CSC), and Voyages: Chapter Seven at The National Aquarium. Upcoming: Rent at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego

Research interests

My research and practice focus on decolonizing theatre academia, reconstructing curricula, centering students’ voices, and expanding the content we teach in the theatre classroom. In 2021, a Pedagogical Development Grant funded my exploration of various anti-racist and liberatory pedagogies and practices, such as Restorative Practices, Anti-Racist Workshopping, and bell hooks’ Pedagogy of Freedom, and how they can be used to enhance curricula and reframe teaching and learning to prioritize the student. This grant project resulted in three revised courses, along with new course materials, workbooks, and chapters for each course.
As a creative educator, I am deeply committed to decolonizing the creative classroom. Inspired by Felicia Rose Chavez and her book The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, I seek alternatives to the top-down structures that dominate creative arts education. These structures have traditionally forced anyone outside white cis-heteronormative standards to conform to a homogenous norm, which is detrimental to the mental and emotional well-being of marginalized communities and hinders progress and learning.
To combat this conformity and homogeneity, I design my courses, policies, guidelines, and practices with various anti-racist and liberatory pedagogies in mind. By incorporating Emergent Strategy, Restorative Practices, Anti-Racist Workshopping, and bell hooks’ Pedagogy of Freedom, I teach from an anti-racist pedagogical approach.
Central to this work is my research in movement curriculum and embodied pedagogy. I have developed a scaffolded movement sequence across three levels of undergraduate training that reimagines how actors engage the body as a site of knowledge, history, and storytelling. This curriculum integrates practices such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Laban Movement Analysis, Contact Improvisation, and physical devising methods, while also interrogating their historical and cultural contexts. Rather than positioning these techniques as neutral or universal, I encourage students to question who these methods were designed for, how they have been institutionalized, and how they can be adapted to serve a broader range of bodies and identities.
Through this approach, students are invited to cultivate awareness, release habitual tension, and develop a more expansive physical vocabulary, while also engaging critically with the politics of the body in performance. Movement training becomes not only a technical practice, but a liberatory one—centering agency, consent, presence, and ensemble-based learning. This work also responds to the needs of contemporary students, particularly Gen Z learners, by prioritizing accessibility, adaptability, and holistic engagement with the mind-body connection.
My adaptation work is centered around queering classical texts and experimenting with form. This can be seen in my adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, entitled Call Me By Any Other Name…Just As Sweet, my upcoming dance-theatre production of Macbeth, entitled the serpent under’t, and my forthcoming adaptation of An Enemy of the People. Across both my creative and pedagogical practices, I am committed to building spaces where new forms, new bodies, and new stories can emerge.

Teaching interests

Civics, Democracy & Power
Nigel has developed an immersive class focused on the discussions, debates, and activites around plays that discuss civic engagement, democracy and power. They were also one of the first inaugural artists in residence with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins focused on civics and democracy.

Inteedisciplinarly Collaboration
Nigel has taught interdiscipinary courses on experimental theatre making, and collaborating with a variety of different artists' disciplines.

Directing, Movement, Choreography, Dance, Fight Direction/Combat and Adaptation:
Nigel has extensive experience as a Director, Movement Director, Fight Director, Choreographer, and Adapter. Their work spans classical adaptations, new play development, and innovative adaptations that address contemporary social injustices.
Script Analysis/Dramaturgy Nigel's script analysis and dramaturgy courses challenge traditional definitions of theatre by exploring various modes of textual analysis and engaging in conversations around the meaning of plays. Nigel’s approach to these analytical practices fall under providing students with the three core principles: Culture, History and Language.

Movement and Embodied Performance:
Central to Nigel’s teaching is a robust movement curriculum that positions the body as a primary site of knowledge, storytelling, and critical inquiry. They have developed a scaffolded sequence of movement courses that integrate practices such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Laban Movement Analysis, Contact Improvisation, and physical devising. Their pedagogy emphasizes the mind-body connection, physical awareness, ensemble building, and the development of an expansive movement vocabulary.

Nigel’s approach to movement training is both technical and critical. Students are encouraged not only to develop strength, alignment, coordination, and expressive range, but also to interrogate the cultural and historical foundations of movement systems. This work reframes movement as a liberatory practice;centering agency, consent, access, and responsiveness, while equipping students with tools to create dynamic, embodied performances. Courses often culminate in devised, movement-based work that blends choreography, text, and visual storytelling.

Queer Performance Narratives:
Nigel has experience teaching courses such as "Histories of Queer Performance" that examine queer narratives, storytelling techniques, and dramatic structures across various forms of performance, including theatre, film, television, animation, music, and fashion. They have reconfigured courses to incorporate a more inclusive range of texts and foreground the contributions of artists, writers, and scholars from marginalized communities, particularly from the Global majority.

Queer Studies and Horror Genre:
Nigel has developed a seminar titled "Queers and Their Fears," which explores contemporary anxieties within the queer community through the lens of the horror genre. This course critically analyzes the portrayal of queerness in horror and investigates the unique intersections of queerness and fear.

Black Theatre Traditions + Africana Studies
Nigel strongly focuses on Black theatre traditions, examining the history of Black people in America, their stories, and teaching specifically a afro disaporic approach to theatre. Courses Nigel would like to teach range from Shange and her Contemporarie to a class on Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and its many media adaptations.

Decolonization of Theatre Academia and Curriculum Reconstruction:
Nigel's research and practice center heavily on decolonizing theatre academia and reconstructing curricula. They are dedicated to centering students' voices and expanding the scope of what is taught in the theatre classroom.

Performance Courses with Cultural Responsiveness:
In performance courses, Nigel ensures students understand the approaches to performance of Black artists by incorporating Black Acting Methods and works by playwrights like Suzan Lori Parks, Amiri Baraka, and Ntozake Shange. They emphasize the development of students' hearts, minds, and bodies through culturally responsive teaching methods.

Community Engagement and Educational Programming:
Nigel is invested in creating educational programming surrounding theatre productions through workshops, panels, and roundtable discussions. They believe such programming strengthens community engagement and provides opportunities for audience members to reflect and participate actively in storytelling.

Education

MFA, Theatre Directing — The New School (2020)
Spell #7 by Ntozake Shange
BA, Theatre Directing — Lycoming College (2017)
The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
AS, Fine and Performing Arts — Garrett Community College (2013)

Resources

Important Contacts

Emergency Info

Top Stories of the Week