We would love for the whole EnActe community to welcome Douglas Graham as our new Associate Artistic Director!
Douglas Andrew Graham has spent his life in and around the theatre — as an actor, an educator, a founder, and a storyteller. Originally from Kansas City and a graduate of Drake University with a BFA in Acting, Douglas launched his career with The Atlanta Shakespeare Company, where he worked as both a performer and education artist.
From there, his stage credits grew to include celebrated companies like The Alliance Theatre, Dad’s Garage, Horizon Theatre, and others across Atlanta and Seattle.
But Douglas has never been content to stay only on stage. In 2012, he founded The Fern Shakespeare Company and stepped into the role of Producing Artistic Director—developing year-round programs, directing beloved plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night, and building theatre outreach initiatives from the ground up. He’s also a voice-over actor, playwright, and amateur photographer. In other words: a true creative through and through.
So what brought someone with such deep roots in classical Western theatre to EnActe? For Douglas, it came down to shared values across different worlds.
“I’ve always had a passion for learning and experiencing new things,” he says. “EnActe provided the opportunity to immerse myself amongst people whose culture was very much not my own, and yet our view on theatre aligned so strongly.”
His belief in new works, emerging playwrights, and the central role of theatre education found a natural home here — and that alignment made the decision easy.
Looking ahead, Douglas’s vision for his role is as much about people as it is about productions. He wants to help build a community — not just within the theatre, but in the broader sense of the word.
“I don’t want to succeed at my neighbor’s expense,” he shares. “I have always believed that theatre and the arts have the ability to bring us all closer together. It is a universal language.”
And UNSTITCHED, his very first event at EnActe, put that belief to the test — and then some. Standing in an exhibition celebrating the sari, a garment far outside his own cultural experience, Douglas found himself discovering an unexpected and deeply personal connection:
“I was honestly just so honored and excited to be a part of this incredible exhibition that is so far removed from the culture that I know and grew up with. Despite the sari not being part of my culture, I was able to recognize the common bonds that unite us together. As someone who has a Scottish lineage, I recognize the importance of the saris much in the same way that tartans carry importance to the Scottish people — so very similar not only as an article of clothing, but also in its history, culture, and as a target of suppression in attempts to rid a people of their heritage.” — Douglas Graham
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