At a Glance
-Graduate of Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, BFA Musical Theatre (yes, I will bring it up)
-Southern Idaho born and raised (special skills include downhill skiing, shooting a Diet Coke can through the "o", peeling a potato faster than anyone you've ever seen)
-Elder of two children, both actors (please pray for our parents)
-Libra sun, Sag moon, Scorpio rising
-Favorite Shakespeare: Hamlet
-Favorite Sondheim: Company
-Recently closed: Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by El Chelito and Raymond Caldwell, at the Kennedy Center's Family Theatre, directed by Raymond Caldwell
-Currently working on: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange at ArtsCentric, directed by Kevin McAllister
A graduate of Howard University's BFA Musical Theatre program, Savina has studied musical theatre, restoration comedy, Shakespeare, and devising techniques in Idaho, New York, DC, and London. They most recently closed Look Both Ways (Ensemble) at the Kennedy Center's Family Theatre. Other performance credits include one drop cool (May), Cabaret (Rosie/Rudy), Head Over Heels (Ens./Pythio u/s), Twelfth Night (Antonio/Fabian), The Addams Family (Ens./Dance Captain), Pippin (Leading Player), The Revolutionists (Marianne Angelle), Rapture Blister Burn (Avery Willard), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Robin Starveling), ¡Luchadora! (Lupita Guerrero/Mascara Rosa II), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Lucy Barker).
In addition to musical theatre, Savina studied playwriting and directing at Howard, and was a featured playwright in Theater Alliance's A Protest in Eight, a series of eight newly commissioned plays directed by artistic director Raymond O. Caldwell in response to the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement. In October 2022, they co-directed the Idaho regional premiere of Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu with longtime collaborator and best friend in the whole wide world, Roney Jones.
Offstage Savina is a teaching artist, and has worked with St. Thomas Playhouse, Sage School, The Spot, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Wood River Community YMCA, Howard University, and St. Andrew's Episcopal School directing, choreographing, and teaching dance, movement, voice for the stage, Shakespeare in performance, and ensemble building to K-12 and undergraduate students. In the classroom, Savina focuses on tailoring curriculum to individual students and classes, and teaching technique alongside an ethic of radical self-love and body positivity.
"Dance is for everybody and every body. We don't change ourselves for dance, we create dance that honors the bodies we live in."
The challenge they are most proud of meeting is directing and choreographing a cast of 129 students in St. Thomas Playhouse's Frozen Jr. They have extensive experience with choreographing large groups with varying levels of dance experience, and prides themself on creating accessible choreography for beginning students, and individualized and musically challenging choreography for experienced students.
Up Next
Savina will appear as Lady in Orange in for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf at ArtsCentric in Baltimore, MD, April 12-May 12. Tickets are available for purchase here.