Jon Royal is a director and teaching artist, from Nashville, TN. He is grateful to be a part of this team of collaborators, and Hannibal Lokumbe’s new work! Additional directing credits include: Fences, Pipeline, Topdog/Underdog, Smart People (Nashville Rep)  Citizen: An American Lyric (Actor’s Bridge Ensemble), Ghost (World Premiere), And In This Corner: Cassius Clay, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Nashville Children’s Theatre), Othello (Nashville Shakespeare Festival), Passing Strange, The Colored Museum, Hairspray, Once on This Island (Street Theatre Company), Conference of the Birds, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nashville School of the Arts), Hanging Mary (World Premiere) for People’s Branch Theatre. In 2019 he was named Best Theatre Director by the Nashville Scene. He also produced and directed the concert documentary Walk Together Children: The 150th Anniversary of The Fisk Jubilee Singers (PBS). Jon is a teaching artist for Shakespeare Center Los Angeles and works on their national design team to develop Shakespeare and Social Justice Curriculum for high school classrooms around the nation. Currently he serves as member of Metro Nashville Arts Commission’s Committee for Anti-Racism and Equity, and has facilitated Anti-Racism training for multiple institutions in the Middle Tennessee area.