About IForColor

WE RISE BY LIFTING OTHERS!

 

~ IforColor ~

Created by

Dale Ricardo Shields

 

IforColor – Artistic-minded individuals of color who are accomplished and received little if any, recognition or media coverage in America.

IforColor brings historical key innovators to light for the knowledge and enjoyment of us all.  The collection of profiles included on this website contains historical facts, not judgments.

We Celebrate!

About:  Dale Ricardo Shields

~ Archivist, Director, Educator, and Historian ~

Dale Ricardo Shields is a 2017 winner of The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award®. He is the 2021 winner of the Paul Robeson Award, presented (jointly) by the Actors Equity Association and the Actors Equity Foundation, the 2017 AUDELCO/”VIV” Special Achievement Award, 2017 and 2015 Tony® Award nominee for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund.

He won the 2022 Legend Award (alma mater, Ohio University, in 2024. Professor Shields was interviewed and included in The HistoryMakers archives (2025).

His professional credits include Director, Stage manager, and Actor (Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and Regional). As an actor, he has appeared on Saturday Night Live, Another World, Guiding Light, The Cosby Show, the ITV television series Special Needs, and National commercials and films.

He is a member of the Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Guild of Musical Artists performance unions,

Professor Shields began his artistic academic career in New York City at Playwrights Horizon, The South Bronx Action Theatre, MindBuilders, and the teaching staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival) for six years. He represented the United States for Theatre Young Audiences at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England.

As an actor, he studied acting at The Negro Ensemble Company (Anderson Johnson), The New Federal Theatre (Hal Scott, – Dick Anthony Williams) and The National Improvisational Theatre in New York City. Additional acting workshops with Dorothy Silver (Karamu House) and The Cleveland Playhouse.

He has been a professor and visiting artist at Ohio University, The South Bronx Community Theatre, Karamu House, The Cleveland School of the Arts, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Susquehanna University, The Cleveland Playhouse, and SUNY Potsdam.

B.F.A. and M.F.A – Ohio University. [Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society]

“My artistic work purpose is to widen the cultural radius towards imagining that inspiration itself, is a constitutional right afforded to all students and audiences of the Arts, to have world access to the impulse of creativity, unafraid of its beauty, diversity, grace and truth.”

Website(s)

Iforcolor.org [Research]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Ricardo_Shields [Career]

The vision of Dale Ricardo Shields is to preserve history about African Americans and artists of color on the Facebook website Black Theatre / African American Voices and African American Theatre Outlook Collective on the Internet for everyone to acknowledge, enjoy and learn about the past and present history.

Iforcolor

acknowledges the research talents of students from: 
Randolph Macon College (Ashland Virginia), Denison University (Grandville, Ohio), and                                                                                                                                                      Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania) 

 

No copyright infringement Intended 

 

Iforcolor.org

DALE RICARDO SHIELDS  ARTIST / ARCHIVIST /  ARTISTIC ACTIVIST / HISTORIAN      As America reckons with generations of racial injustice and destroyed hidden history, the stories that we will preserve, present, and honor are the very things that will hopefully foster world empathy, change lives, and ensure that our next generations of Americans have …