Ayodele Nzinga is the founding producing director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc. Founded in 1999, they are Oakland's oldest North American Theater Company, currently in the 21st Season of continuous production. Described as a renaissance woman, Nzinga is considered a multi-disciplined creative force--she is a producing director, playwright, poet, dramaturg, actress, performance consultant, educator, and community advocate. She is the founder of Lower Bottom Playaz Summer Theater Day Camp. She is the Founding Director of the Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation, Oakland, (BAMBD CDC) and Founding Producer of BAMBDFEST. Nzinga holds an MFA in Writing and Consciousness, and a PhD in Transformative Learning. Her work includes SORROWLAND ORACLE (Nomadic Press, 2020), THE HORSE EATERS (Nomadic Press, 2017), A Narrative Inquiry into Performance Pedagogy, work in Vision Magazine, two volumes of the Journal of Pan African Studies, 14 Hills Journal, Magnolia Journal, and in the anthologies Environmental Terrorist and Say it Loud. Stage productions include Mama at Twilight: Death by Love, Mack: A Gangsta's Tale, Lifer, and Beyond the Bars: Growing Home. Film credits include The Everlasting Coconut Tree, So Beautiful, Protection Shields, Cleanse, The Story of a King, and Tent City produced by 393 Film. Nzinga is credited with directing the longest-running African American play in North America, One Day in the Life, and is the only director to produce a fully-staged play in the iconic African American Museum and Library at Oakland, CA. Nzinga is a Cal-Shakes Artist Investigator Alumni, the founding Artistic Director of the original Recovery Theater, a Helen Crocker Russell Arts Leadership Fellow, and a member of the Alameda County Women's Hall of Fame. Nzinga is recognized by Theater Bay Area as one of the 40 faces in the Bay Area that changed the face of theater.
