About Kaneza
Bio
Kaneza Schaal (New York, NY) works in theater, opera and film. Her work has shown in divergent contexts from NYC galleries, to courtyards in Vietnam, to East African amphitheaters, to European opera houses, to USA public housing, to rural auditoriums in the UAE. By creating art that speaks many formal, cultural, historical, aesthetic, and experiential languages, she seeks expansive audiences. She directed the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar. Schaal is a Guggenheim Fellow, Doris Duke Artist Awardee, and Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Awardee. An Arts-in-Education advocate, she taught a course on theater and social practice at Harvard University and served as the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre at Fordham University. In her commitment to artist-centered institutions, Schaal co-founded Gihanga Institute for Contemporary Art in Kigali, Rwanda; served on the board of PS122/PSNY; the Leadership Council for Creatives Rebuilt New York artists' employment and guaranteed income initiative; and was co-Director of Under The Radar Festival, NYC from 2024-2026.