Carla Debbie Alleyne: Stand Together for Fairness

Artivism is a combination of Art and Activism. I wrote about Bayard Rustin who served as the right hand of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for many years. He was a gay Quaker from Pennsylvania and a black man who was instrumental in organizing the March On Washington.  Many had issues with Bayard working with Dr. King due to his sexuality. However, it was Bayard’s influence that brought celebrities, politicians, and the like to support The March on Washington.  Bayard was an amazing singer who combined his art and activism to change the world.  Hence, the title The Artivist for my One-Man show.

Carla is a playwright, filmmaker, and educator – born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Brooklyn.  In the toolbox of life – writing has always been Carla’s means to heal herself and the world around her. 

Carla Debbie Alleyne is a playwright, screenwriter, and director who received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Film and Television and Dramatic Writing from New York University. Carla’s play Hey, Little Walter was produced Off-Broadway at Playwright’s Horizon as part of the Young Playwrights Festival when she was 16 years old.

The play was also published by Dell Books. Carla collaborated on the musical Bring in the Morning which was produced at the Apollo Theater and starred Lauryn Hill. It was the Apollo’s first theatrical production. Carla has directed several music videos and was the first to interview the Notorious B.I.G. as part of a hip-hop music video show she produced out of her NYU dorm room entitled Keep It Real. Carla has also written numerous screenplays, which have been optioned by production companies such as HBO and Miramax Films. While studying at Princeton Theological Seminary, Carla produced, wrote, and directed the plays The Artivist and The Mogul at Princeton University’s Frist Campus Center.  The Mogul, a hip-hop musical, went on to win the Grace Infused Theater Festival in 2015, and the Artivist, a one-man musical about Bayard Rustin, was produced at the East Village Theater in 2019.  Carla is the designer of the sustainable and repurposed clothing line Arm Candy Culture Inc… She has also received Master’s Degrees from Mercy College in Education and Princeton Theological Seminary in Theology.  Carla currently works as a content and scriptwriter for various Fortune 500 companies and teaches screenwriting workshops through her production company Scarlet Cord Entertainment.

Carla is currently working on commissioned screenplays and a musical about Coretta Scott King.  She is also working on a short film which is the urban version of Hitchcock’s The Rear Window.

Carla is a New York State Certified teacher. Carla has taught playwriting and drama to public middle school students in the Bronx. Carla’s mentorship in playwriting has led many of her students to become award winners yearly in the Young Playwrights Competition. Carla has directed a 2005 version of “Hey, Little Walter,” as well as the 2006 version of student Cindy Vo’s “Differences” at Frank D. Whalen Creative Arts Academy for Media Studies. 

“Because I am a product of successful arts programs within the New York City Public School system, I believe that the Arts incorporated in the general, special education, and ENL curriculum is an effective way of developing better speaking, self-expression, self-realization, and self-determination in today’s student and new language learner. Organizations like the Young Playwrights Festival, the Citykids Foundation, and Theatre Rehabilitation for Youth inspired and developed me into the teacher I am today.”

Educator site: https://www.carladebbiealleyne.com/

Writer/Filmmaker Site: https://www.scarletcordentertainment.com/