Ethnic Gem: Ricardo Pitts-Wiley
Company: Mixed Magic Theatre & Cultural Events
Title: Development Director
State: RI
By: Mike Bruny, Sr. Contributing Writer
Ricardo Pitts-Wiley is an accomplished actor, director, playwright and composer. He has performed in noted theaters throughout the United States, and has directed over fifty plays and musicals.
In 2003, Ricardo Pitts-Wiley and his wife, Bernadet, formed Mixed Magic Theatre & Cultural Events, a non-profit arts organization, dedicated to presenting a diversity of cultural and ethnic images and ideas on the stage. Ricardo serves as the company’s development director.
Originally from Michigan, Ricardo has been in and out of Rhode Island for the past forty years. He fell in love with the theater at age sixteen. He found it to be a great way to express his creativity and love of words.
"The theater freed my dreams of becoming something more than a factory worker at one of the Michigan auto plants. While that is not the worst life one can have, it was not for me," says Ricardo.
Following his dreams gained Ricardo national and international acclaim for his page-to-stage adaptations of Moby Dick. He has created a myriad of page-to-stage adaptations including: Don Quixote, Frankenstein, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and The Life and Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
During the 2009-2010 school year, Ricardo was the Martin Luther King visiting scholar at MIT in Cambridge, MA. At MIT, he taught and lectured on Shakespeare and page-to-stage adaptations of classic literature. In addition to his work as an adaptor of classic literature, Ricardo is also the composer of over 150 songs and the author of musical plays including: Waiting for Bessie Smith, Celebrations: An African Odyssey, Sara’s Jukebox, The Spirit Warrior’s Dream, Man, Woman, Chaos: A Cabaret Show, Night Voices, Night and Shakespeare, Fate Comes Knocking and A Kwanzaa Song. This December, A Kwanzaa Song will have its 12th annual production.
When Ricardo is not acting, he enjoys playing. Golf and fishing are his activities of choice. In the next five years, Ricardo plans to spend more time writing and acting. He would also like to teach at the college level.
