Rudolph Shaw

Rudolph Shaw is an actor, and Artistic Director of the Caribbean-American Repertory Theatre in Queens.

From a very young age, Rudolph Shaw gained knowledge in Theatre Arts at the Theatre Guild in Georgetown, Guyana. He was also tutored by his father who was in a Drama Group which entered the British Guiana National Drama Festivals in the early pre-independence years. That groomed Shaw to become an actor above average. Migrating to the USA and joining the United Nations (UN) in 1974, he became a member of the UN Drama Group the next year. That led him to become active in the annual UN Staff Day Talent Show.

Through a casual conversation with a visiting South African who is married to a cousin of Steve Biko, the South African freedom fighter, Shaw was introduced to the book “I Write What I Like” written by Biko. That proved to be the catalyst for the play “Steve Biko Rising” in which Rudolph Shaw played the title role in a production staged in Cape Town, South Africa.

Playing real-life characters on stage as well as in films and television puts extra pressure on actors and actresses who want to get it right. That is so especially when the character they are playing, is still alive or recently passed. In both cases, Ron Bobb-Semple and Rudolph Shaw face mountainous challenges in their roles, including the accents of the characters they play.

NFT Credits

Credit Type	Production	Season
Actor	Moon on a Rainbow Shawl	2006-07 Season