Dale Ricardo Shields

By iforcolor in Activist, Actor, Dale Ricardo Shields, Director, Educator, History, Professor
February 8, 2022

The Actors Fund / Encore Award

Entertainment Community Fund 2022 Encore Award Dale, We’re honored to present you with your Entertainment Community Fund 2022 Encore Award—along with a heartfelt standing ovation! This award is given to dedicated friends like you who help provide a vital safety net for thousands of people in our performing arts and entertainment community. Thanks to you, we helped over 27,000 industry professionals in need last year, providing emergency financial assistance and other critical programs. Your compassion for those in need is an inspiration to everyone here at the Entertainment Community Fund. You should be proud of your support of the performing arts community, and I hope that you will show your pride by sharing a photo with your 2022 Encore Award on social media. Please tag us on LinkedIn and @alifeinthearts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use the hashtag #EncoreAward so we can celebrate with you. We look forward to seeing your photos! Thank you again for your amazing support!

Dale,
This year has been such an uncertain time in all our lives. But one thing I’m certain about right now is our appreciation for YOU!
That’s why I am delighted to present you with The Actors Fund 2020 Encore Award! This award is given to our dedicated and supportive friends—people like you!
The outpouring of love and commitment you’ve shown to struggling members of the performing arts and entertainment community is simply remarkable. Thanks to you, this year we’ve helped over 30,000 industry professionals. Many are in a financial crisis due to COVID-19. Some have also been impacted by wildfires and hurricanes. Because of you, we are able to provide financial assistance for such vital resources as medications, rent, food, utilities, and more.
Your compassion for those in need is an inspiration to everyone here at The Actors Fund. You shine a beacon of light on our currently darkened stages…and we applaud you.
You should be proud of all that you do for our Actors Fund community, and I hope that you will show your pride by sharing a photo with your 2020 Encore Award on social media. Please tag us @TheActorsFund on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn and use the hashtag #EncoreAward so we can celebrate with you. We look forward to seeing your photos!
Dale, it’s an honor to acknowledge your incredible commitment to The Actors Fund. Thank you!
Give Now
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Chairman of the Board
Your 2020 ENCORE AWARD
Today, you are the cause for celebration!

Biography

Dale Shields is a director, stage manager, and actor (Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and Regional). His credits include various projects and assignments at Lincoln Center (State Theatre), The Henry Street Settlement House (New Federal Theatre), The Cleveland Playhouse, The Negro Ensemble Company, The Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival), St. Clements, Project1Voice, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Penumbra Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Beck Center for the Arts, The Weathervane Playhouse, The Center for Families and Children, The Weathervane Theatre, Mindbuilders, Upward Bound, Youngstown Early Intervention Program, The American Folk Theatre, and Karamu House. Shields has appeared in Lily at Lincoln Center [Tom O’Horgan] and on Saturday Night Live, Another World, Guiding Light, The Cosby Show, and the ITV television series Special Needs, and commercials and film.

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, and an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He represented the United States at the ASSITIJ Festival (London, England) for youth theatre.

Fraternity: Phi Kappa Phi

Research Accomplishments

On the web, he is the archivist and historian of Iforcolor.org and Black Theatre/African American Voices [Facebook] (theatre, music, and art).

He has taught classes and workshops at Susquehanna University, Denison University, Randolph-Macon College, Macalester College, The College of Wooster, Ohio University, The University of Akron, and the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (NYSF).

Directing: A Raisin in the Sun, Ragtime, Crowns, Top Dog/Underdog, Fires in The Mirror, Laughter on the Twenty Third Floor, Driving Miss Daisy, Quartermaine’s Terms, Of Mice and Men, Godspell, Same Time Next Year, The Me Nobody Knows, A Streetcar Named Desire, Golden Boy, Fame, Three Ways Home, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, Rumors, The Brownsville Raid, Man of La Mancha Before It Hits Home, Golden Boy, Trouble in Mind, The Amen Corner, A Soldier’s Play, The Colored Museum, Home, I, Too Sing America, Something Wanted If you are Seeing This It’s Too Late. How do you Slam a Revolving Door – {A Word Jam}.

* Assistant Director to Lloyd Richards for the New Federal Theatre production of Ossie Davis’ new play A Last Dance With Sybil (Ruby Dee – Earle Hyman)

Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Dale Shields

*Assistant to Khandi Alexander Whitney Houston (tour)

Stage Management:
Black Nativity, The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Ebony and Life Sea Treasures at the South Street Seaport, De Obeah Mon at The Actors Studio Martin Luther King’s Birthday Celebration – Studio 54.

Academic:
Susquehanna University
Denison University
Randolph-Macon College
Macalester College
The College of Wooster
Ohio University’s Theater Division
Wayne State University The University of Akron
Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival)
South Bronx Community Theatre
Mind-Builders Karamu House
Cleveland School of The Arts

Courses Taught:
Acting 1
Acting 2
Scene Study
Improvisation
Directing 1
Directing 2
Introduction to Theatre
Black Theatre History
Introduction to Black Studies
Stage Management Introduction to Theatre Through Film

“We will rehearse everything that moves. Anything that does not move, rehearse it until it does!”

Pages:

A Raisin In The Sun, A Soldier's Play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Allyson Tucker Mitchell, Andre De Shields, Angela Winborn, Anna Marie Horsford, Anne Yuan, Another World, Autumn Stiles, Bebe Neuwirth, Before It Hits Home, Bill Cosby, Bill Ransom, Brandon Hummons, Brandt Gentry, Brian Evaret Chandler, Brian Stokes Mitchell, CCH Pounder, Chuck Cooper, Claude Shields, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland School of the Arts, Connie Lawson-Davis, Crowns, Dale Ricardo Shields, Dale Shields, Daniel Fiorentini, Darlene Darby Baldwin., Denison University, Dennis Dalen, Dorothy Silver, Dr. Roger Jelliffe, Driving Miss Daisy, Ed Blunt, Edan Noelle, Erich McMillan-McCall, Fame, Fannie Shields, Fires in The Mirror, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, Godspell, Golden Boy, Grace Miller, Guiding Light, Home, I, If you are Seeing This It's Too Late. How do you Slam a Revolving Door - {A Word Jam}., ITV, Jaguar Turtle, Jaime Weinfeld, Jamila Atkinson, Jasmine KP, Jeremy Wright, Jerry Jackson, Jimmie D. Woody, Johnny Cash, Justine Nape, Karamu House, Keith Mullings Jr, Keith ScootDawg Nolen, Kendra Petite, Khari Riley, KiKi Shepard, Lafayette Robinson, Laughter on the Twenty Third Floor, LaZette McCants, Lennie Johnson III, Leslie Varnick, Lincoln Center (State Theatre), Macalester College, Maha McCain, Maha McClain, Man of La Mancha, Mariama Whyte, Marilyn Bianchi, Mark Anthony Arceño, Mark Horning, Marlaine Browning, Melvinia Shields, Mindbuilders, Moses Shields, Myky Tran, Najee Rollins, New Federal Theatre, Nicole Antoinette Smith. Kyle Bowser, Nina Domingue Glover, Of Mice and Men, Ohio University, Ossie Davis, Oz Scott, Peyton Dean, Phi Kappa Phi, Phylicia Rashad, Pia Long, Playwrights Horizons, Project1Voice, Quaanzale Thompson, Quartermaine's Terms, Ragtime, Randolph-Macon College, Reggie Kelly, Rosanne Cash, Ruby Dee, Rumors, Same Time Next Year, Sara Blike, Sarah Shields, Saturday Night Live, Scott Holmes, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Shields Brothers, Singers, Something Wanted, South Bronx Community Action Theatre, Special Needs, St. Clements, Stephen Sondheim, Susquehanna University, The Amen Corner, The American Folk Theatre, The Beck Center for the Arts, The Brownsville Raid, The Center for Families and Children, The Cleveland Playhouse, The College of Wooster, The Colored Museum, The Cosby Show, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Henry Street Settlement House (New Federal Theatre), The Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival), The Kennedy Center, The Me Nobody Knows, The Negro Ensemble Company, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The Penumbra Theatre, The University of Akron, The Weathervane Playhouse, The Weathervane Theatre, Thomas Schmitz, Three Ways Home, Tom O'Horgan, Tony Liu, Too Sing America, Top Dog/Underdog, Trouble in Mind, Upward Bound, Vivian Distin, Wayne State University, William Bryant Shields Sr., Wizzy Dorceus, Xavier Jesus Vargas, Youngstown Early Intervention Program

iforcolor

ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Ricardo Shields is a 2017 winner of The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award®, 2017 and 2015 Tony® award nominee for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, the 2017 AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award, 2020, 2021, and 2022 ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund and winner of the 2022.

Recently, he won the 2022 Legend Award from his alma mater Ohio University.

He is the 2021 winner of the Paul Robeson Award, presented (jointly) by the Actors Equity Association and the Actors Equity Foundation.

Research Accomplishments:
His extensive professional credits as a 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, and the ITV television series "Special Needs" and commercials and film.

Professor Shields is a member of the Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the American Guild of Musical Artists performance unions and an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

He began his artistic academic career in New York City at Playwrights Horizon, The South Bronx Action Theatre, and Mind Builders, and then was invited to join the teaching staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival). He represented the United States for Theatre Young Audiences at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England.

He has been a Professor and Visiting Artist at Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Randolph- Macon College, Susquehanna University, and SUNY Potsdam.

He holds B.F.A and M.F.A, Degrees from Ohio University.

Website(s)

Iforcolor.org [Research]

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