Lou Bellamy

Lou Bellamy is the founder and co-artistic director of Penumbra Theatre Company in Saint Paul, Minnesota. During his thirty-nine-year tenure, Penumbra has evolved into one of America’s premier theaters dedicated to dramatic exploration of the African-American experience.

Under his leadership, Penumbra has grown to be the largest theater of its kind in America and has produced thirty-nine world premieres, including August Wilson’s first professional production. Penumbra is proud to have provided more of Mr. Wilson’s plays than any other theater in the world.

Mr. Bellamy is an OBIE Award-winning director, an accomplished actor, and for thirty-eight years was appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

Directing credits include plays at the Guthrie Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Signature Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Cleveland Play House, Hartford Stage Company, and the Kennedy Center.

Mr. Bellamy directed Dance, Salome! Dance! in 2012 at Penumbra Theater and in 2016 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His vision and wisdom have impacted the play profoundly; we will forever be honored to have worked with him.