Monday Spotlight: Tommie Muhammad

In Monday Spotlight, we share information about and highlight members of the regional arts and entertainment community.

This week, we spotlight an artist who continues to make a mark on the region’s African American theater scene, including Modesto’s Sankofa Theatre Company’s production of “Fences” at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

NAME: Tommie Muhammad

HOME BASE: I’ve lived in Stockton from 1960 to the present.

WHAT YOU DO: Retired director of the King-Kennedy Memorial Center in Modesto. Founding President of Inner City Theater, Inc. in Stockton. I love theater arts, jazz, blues, and spoken word.

HOW YOU KNEW: From 1969-71 I enrolled in San Joaquin Delta College’s first black theater class and production. I was also active in the South Stockton Summer Theater Project and Stockton Civic Theater. The ’70s hooked me; it was black theater or bust.

GO AHEAD, BRAG: I taught the black theater class/production company for San Joaquin Delta College in late 1970s through to 1983. I then went on to found Inner City Theater Inc. In 1989-1990 we won the Stockton Civic Theatre Willie Awards and got best director, for the award-winning production of the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” I directed a successful run of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” for the Modesto Civic Theater in 2000, and “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2002 and “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” in 2007 for Modesto Junior College. Collaborated with Townsend Opera Players on “Porgy & Bess” in 2008. Currently directing the August Wilson play “Fences” for the Sankofa Theatre Company and Gallo Center for the Arts.

CHECK YOU OUT: “Fences” will be staged at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 19-20; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, at the Gallo Center for the Arts in downtown Modesto. Tickets are $10-$20.

ONLINE: For more information, visit sankofatheatreco.org or www.galloarts.org

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Monday Spotlight: Tommie Muhammad."