Offsite Gallery September 20 – November 8, 2024
Clyde Santana has been a screen writer and mural painter since 1986, at the community level and periodically at Norfolk State University, the Attucks Theater and most recently, the Zeiders American Dream Theater in Virginia Beach, VA, and Bushfire Theater of Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA.
Commissioner, Norfolk Arts 6/2018 – 6/2025
Dramatists Guild of America Ambassador for Virginia Beach and Norfolk, 2019 to Present (DGA Regional Committee, One Year appointment, 2020 -2021)
Instructor (Adjunct) Norfolk State University 8/2016 – Present
Taught Public Art / Mural Painting to junior / senior, and graduate MFA art majors enrolled in the Fine Arts program. To date, NSU art students painted fourteen murals. Also, taught three classes in the NSU Theater Dept., Dramatic Theory and Criticism and Black Drama to theater majors in 2019.
Also, teach the Playwriting course to Norfolk State University theater majors 2021, 2023.
Attucks Writers Workshop imdb.com/name
Board Member /Eastern District, Appointed by the past Governor to the Virginia State Board of Social Services. Virginia Department of Social Services, July 2014 to June 2018, reappointed 6/1/2018 to 6/2022 to serve a second four-year term. (Vice chair, 6/2020 -21, Chair from 6//2021 – 6/22 end of appt.)
Assistant Special Agent in Charge (RET.) Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (VDABC) 1988 – 2013
Police Officer Norfolk Police Department Norfolk, Virginia 1987 – 1988
Naval Officer (Commander, USNR-R (RET.) Surface Warfare Officer qualified) United States Navy 1982 – 2004
Projector Coordinator New Jersey Department of Education, Trenton, New Jersey 1978 – 1981
Coordinated the state’s artists in the schools and supervised approximately twenty-five artists / consultants who performed short term residencies in identified New Jersey Public School Systems.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science: Art in Urban Life / Arts Education, Springfield College – Springfield, Massachusetts, 1973
Master of Fine Arts: Studio Arts, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, Massachusetts, 1975
Studied screen and teleplay writing with Blake Snyder, Ellen Sandler, Pilar Alessandra, Steve Kaplan, Fred Hudson, Gotham Writers Teleplay Workshop, and the Writers Boot Camp.
Studied stage playwriting and poetry in New York City with Sonia Sanchez, Steve Carter and Fred Hudson and acting training workshops with Steve Kaplan, and Mary Lou Belli and in New York at the New Federal Theater with Woodie King, Jr., Charles Turner, and Ira Zuckerman.
AWARDS, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AFFILIATIONS
Busboys and Poets Restaurant, Baltimore, Md. Awarded an Exhibit of Four large paintings, Main dining room, January 31, 2023 to April 30, 2023
Art Exhibit of 13 large paintings, Dowling Gross Cultural Arts Center, City of Newport News, Va. December 17, 2022 – January 18, 2023
Selected, “A Playground Miracle”, Christian World Arts Film Festival 2023, Washington DC
Winner, “A Playground Miracle,” Virginia Film Office’s “Virginia Screenwriting Competition 2022”
“Likker Outta Control,” comedy stage play, (Workshop production), Zeiders Va. Beach Proteus Festival, October 2022, “Audience Choice Winner, received a full two-week production at the Zeiders American Dream Theatre, November 4 to November 11, 2022
Selected Workshop Stage Readings of new play, “Insects and Giants, Zeiders Va. Beach Proteus Festival, September 30, October 5, 2023
Commonwealth Mural, Fresh Paint: assisted in the recreation of two murals painted in the city of Springfield Ma. One, “The Wall of Black Music” co designed by myself and AFRICOBRA original member, Nelson Stevens (deceased) City dedication: Sept 24, 2022
NBTF 2022, Winston Salem, NC Garland Thompson Jr. Readers Theater, OOPS, (stage play)
Zeiders American Dream Theater, Virginia Beach, Va. “OOPS” (Workshop Production) October 2018
Semifinalist, Story Pro International Screenplay Competition 2021, “A Playground Miracle”
Semifinalist, Nashville International Screenplay Festival, 2023, “Angels in Hip Hop Land”
Selected, Screenplay, Hip Hop Film Festival 2020, “Angels in Hip Hop Land”
Finalist, Screenplay, Virginia Screenwriters Competition 2019, “Angels in Hip Hop Land”
Finalist, Screenplay, Beverly Hills International Film Festival 2019, “Angels in Hip Hop Land”
Finalist, Screenplay, Peachtree Village International Film Festival 2018, “Angels in Hip Hop Land”
Finalist, Screenplay, Peachtree Village International Film Festival 2018, “Ace and Bingo’s Butt Revenge”
Finalist, Screenplay, Peachtree Village International Film Festival 2023, “A Playground Miracle”
Finalist, Screenplay, South Carolina Underground Film Festival 2017
Winner 2016 International Family Film Festival (IFFF) Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Screenplay Competition Feature “A Playground Miracle.”
Sundance Read My Screenplay Top 100 Finalists 2011 for “A Playground Miracle.”
Capital City Black Film Festival 2013, Austin, Texas. Co-wrote and produced “The Way” a teenage narrative half hour film.
Capital City Black Film Festival 2015, Austin, Texas, Co-wrote, acted in, and produced “Welcome Home Daddy Seal” sitcom.
*Co-wrote two Equity Theater produced musical stage plays performed at Bushfire Theatre of Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pa., 1991, 1994, (“The Phantom of the 87th Street Playground” 1991 and “Bo, The Musical” 1994)
Dramatists Guild of America Member 2017 – present
SAG – AFTRA Member, 2007 – present
Acted in over sixty local reenactments, commercials, industrial training films and short documentaries for New Dominion. Pictures, The Discovery Channel, M2 Productions, CBN 700 Club, and Dupont / Coastal Technologies Films 2006 to present.
Created and wrote the Video Script and co-designed the poster for the Virginia Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control (VDABC) four-minute training film, ‘ASK 4 ID’ 2009.
Created and co-directed / filmed 8 Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (VDABC)/ Military Initiative Public Service Announcements (PSA) that aired nationally on the military network and regionally in the greater Virginia area, 2009 – 2012.
Created and wrote the first 9-minute training film For VDABC titled “ABC in the 90’s,” 1992.
The Governor’s Award for Volunteering Excellence, Gold Medal, Virginia 1992. (Children’s Theater programs 1986-1992).
KIT HURST Award, Outstanding Police Academy Graduate, 39th Academy, 1988. Norfolk Virginia Police Academy.
Designed, co-designed and coordinated 19 Public Arts Mural Projects painted in three states (New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts) from 1972 to 1981.
Bushfire Theatre of Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pa. (Equity Theater) Resident writer since 1991. Two professional productions of musicals book and lyrics created by this writer, “Phantom of the 87th Street Playground” and “Bo, the Musical” produced at the theater in 1991 and 1993. Also, teach the playwrights workshop, as needed, since 2013 at Lincoln University / Langston Hughes Playwrights Workshop and the theater in person and online.
Lead Co-sponsor and participant playwright in the Zeiders American Dream Theater Proteus Festival 2022, Virginia Beach, Va. city wide arts festival.
Norfolk State University: taught the public arts course and coordinated the design and painting by undergraduate art students of 14 indoor and outdoor mural projects from 2016 to 2921 in the Norfolk Churches, the university and several Norfolk Public Housing Residential Apartment complexes.
Co-produced “When a Baby Cries” at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Florida with Theater South Company, 8/29 – 9/42018
Attucks Writers Workshop Playwriting / Screenwriting Instructor at the Attucks Theater, Norfolk, Virginia. 2009 to 2017.
Zeiders American Dream Theater, Va. Beach, Va. Lead Instructor for the Zeiders Dreamwrights (Playwrights) Workshop stage play presentations. Coordinate the development of over twenty new plays developed in the workshop from 11/2017 to present. Plays written by fifteen member playwrights. Also, sponsored the Zeiders American Dream Theater’s Proteus 2022 and 2023 New Plays Festivals at the Zeiders American Dream Theater
Photographed the two-poster campaign for Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (VDABC) 2012 Deterring Underage Purchases of Alcoholic Beverages and Over-serving Patrons Initiative.
Published article on “Children’s Murals” in School Arts, National Arts Education Magazine, 1978.
Published article, “A Meeting of Two Generations” in the International Tai Chi Magazine, Wayfarer Publications, 2001.
Published thirteen (13) newsletter articles on effective techniques for deterring underage sales and over-serving of alcoholic beverages for Training Intervention Procedures for Sellers and Servers of Alcoholic Beverages (T. I. P.S).
