Wunderkind Alumna Blazes Her Own Trail in the Theater and Arts Community

After a thorough audition process, she was accepted into the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts at Temple with an acting concentration. She chose the African American studies program for a minor concentration, which she says was influential in becoming a Black theater artist. When her four years at Temple were coming to a close, she decided to pursue grad school. But it didn’t come easy: She consistently auditioned but found herself getting waitlisted because she was too young or didn’t have enough experience.

Just as things were looking down, she received an email that reignited her. The local production of The Color Purple at Theatre Horizon was looking for an apprentice, and because of her connection to Amina Robinson, a professor of acting and musical theater at Temple, she was able to score the position. At the same time, she also added duties as a head storytelling teacher for the summer at Yes! And... Collaborative Arts, a theater program for youth in Germantown, and as a teaching artist with Philly Young Playwrights.

Right out of Temple, she was juggling three positions for six months. Those positions led to other opportunities down the road, like leading the after-school program at Tree House Books in North Philly, after the director had seen her work the previous summer at Yes! And... Collaborative Arts. This was a recurring situation for Sabriaya; the connections she made lasted, leading to more opportunities. Her career continued its upward trajectory, with a promotion to full-time executive program director at Tree House.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sabriaya was lucky enough to retain her position at Tree House, but she wanted to do more for the community during such a trying time. “I have kids who are not getting food. I have people who are not getting access to books and things they need for human touch and interaction. I became the food pantry lady!” At the height of the pandemic, she delivered hundreds of meals and partnered with Black Education Matters to run equity pods for kids so they’d have a place to eat and do their work safely with adult supervision.

The pandemic brought on a revelation for Sabriaya: It was time to try and go back to grad school. She enrolled in a virtual program on social justice and community organizing at Prescott College in Arizona. During this same period, she was chosen as a recipient of the Art Works Grant from the Philadelphia Foundation, which awards $25,000 over two years for individual artists. She also released her book of poetry, Somewhere Between God and Mammy. The grind didn’t stop there. Sabriaya parted ways with Tree House, received a Black Lives Matter Philly grant to launch a summer program with students and even joined a monthlong London residency with Residency 11:11. She also went back to Baltimore for her return to theater, starring as Diane in Hurricane Diane at Iron Crow Theater, the only LGBTQIA+ theater in the city. For Sabriaya, this was all in a typical day’s work.

After a whirlwind few years, Sabriaya was craving something that she hadn’t had in a while: a bit more stability. As luck would have it, a few friends sent her a job posting for an executive director position at Theatre Philadelphia. She knew this was something she couldn’t pass up. “Something in my spirit said to do it. It was a return to the theater and a return to me bringing all these experiences together. I had done everything. Let's do it.”

With an extensive list of accomplishments in a multitude of areas, Sabriaya has focused on different passions at different points of her life, and as she puts it, it’s just the mindset of tending (or not tending) to the garden. “My passions all introduced themselves to me in various parts of my life for different seasons of my life. You have different plots in the garden, and you cannot tend to all of them at the same time. There can be a season where one must dry up because I do not need to tend to that right now. Maybe I’ll come back and check the soil, replant and then be able to grieve certain plots. Some plots are not growing, and so certain areas were not going to support me. The love never goes away for any of my passions. What happens is there is a semblance of prioritizing when you are feeling being called to and what the community needs from you in that moment.”

Sabriaya remains strongly connected to the alumni community. She has worked with alumni in many capacities, including at alumni-owned Power Street Theatre. She also maintains connections with her mentors from the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts, constantly checking in with them for their guidance or advice. She’s also connecting her alumna status to her work at Theatre Philadelphia, partnering with Temple to raise money for OwlCrowd’s Uplift Black Theatre with Temple University’s Theatre Underground fundraiser. They hope to raise $5,000 to empower present and future Black artists to advance the realm of theater arts in their local community and beyond.

“When I think of this OwlCrowd program, I am so excited to be supporting young artists making these collectives in these communities. Youth are my passion. It is important to nurture the next generation because they are going to be the shapers of the theater.”