Writer, Director, Producer

Dyann Robinson was born in 1942 in Tuskegee, Alabama.  She was graduated from St. Joseph Catholic School and Tuskegee Institute High School. She began her theatre career with dance lessons,  from her second grade teacher who was a Dominican Sister.  She made her stage debut, in Tuskegee, as a member of Jessie Gibson’s Gibsonian Dance Troupe, which toured African American schools and colleges in Alabama and Georgia.

Miss Robinson holds a B.A. degree in Dance from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a M.F.A. degree in Drama from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  She has taught dance since she was a teenager, teaching together with her sister Clintonia in their Robinette School of Dance located in the basement of the family home.  Miss Robinson has taught  dance at Howard University in Washington, DC, at the Dance Theatre of Boston, at The National Center for African American Artists in Boston, at The Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City, for the City of Tuskegee Department of Cultural Affairs, at  Auburn University, in Auburn, Alabama, as Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, and for her own Tuskegee Repertory Theatre, Inc., in Tuskegee, Alabama.

 Miss Robinson has performed in dance companies throughout this country and abroad.  She and dancer/choreographer Mike Malone toured the country as The Concert Ballet Duo.  She founded The Chamber Dance Group in Washington, DC.  She was a member of the Dance Company of The National Center of African-American Artists, in Boston, Mass., a member of Maurice Bejart’s Ballet of The Twentieth Century, based in Brussels, Belgium, and a member Billy Wilson’s Dance Theatre of Boston.    Miss Robinson was a member of the original Broadway cast, and assistant to the choreographer, Billy Wilson in the hit musical “BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR”.  She has subsequently staged numerous professional companies of that show in this country and in Europe.

 In 1980, Miss Robinson returned home to Tuskegee, and was appointed Director of the City of Tuskegee’s Department of Cultural Affairs by Mayor Johnny Ford.  As part of the Department of Cultural Affairs, she formed and directed The Tuskegee City Dance Theatre School and Company.  Dancers from the school and company were to become the core of the cast of a production of “BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR”, which Miss Robinson staged for the Tuskegee Department of Cultural Affairs, and which was performed to great acclaim, in 1988 and ’89 in Tuskegee, and at the prestigious Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama.  

When The Department of Cultural Affairs was discontinued in 1989, Miss Robinson was invited to become a full-time member of the faculty of the Department of Theatre at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.  As Associate Professor of dance and theatre, for 15 years, she taught dance and directed dance and theatre productions, creating six original full-length dance/dramas for the Department of Theatre.  She concluded her career at Auburn, by serving for 2 years as the Theatre Department’s  first Scholar-In-Residence.  In that capacity, she wrote and directed her last play at Auburn, the highly acclaimed, “STRANGE FRUIT, THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA LYNCHING”. 

Determined not to give up her dream of founding a theatre company in her hometown, Miss Robinson founded The Tuskegee Repertory Theatre, Inc. (TRT) 1991. In 1996 she purchased the downtown Tuskegee Post Office building, and opened it as The Jessie Clinton Arts Centre in order to house the offices, and the teaching/ rehearsal/performance space for the school and company. The Jessie Clinton Arts Centre has become the home of what has now become a full fledged theatre company, The Tuskegee Repertory Theatre, Inc., directed by  Miss Robinson, who writes or co-writes the company’s original plays, which she also directs, choreographs, and in which she sometimes performs as a dancer and/or  as an actress. Miss Robinson has also written a screen play about Dr. Booker T. Washington:  "BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, GOING HOME. 

Miss Robinson was the recipient of The Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s 1996 Pioneer Award, and is the subject of an Alabama Public TV documentary entitled THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF DYANN ROBINSON,  which is part of a series called the ALABAMA EXPERIENCE.  Miss Robinson was also a recipient of a 2001 Governor’s Arts Award, presented by The Alabama State Council on The Arts. In the year 2002, she was appointed  a member of The Alabama State Council on The Arts, and served a six year term. She is an Alabama State Council on the Arts Playwright Fellowship recipient. Miss Robinson is also the recipient of the Alabama State University Theatre & Dance 2017 Trailblazer Award “In Recognition of Exemplary Contributions & Achievements in the Arts”.

 In addition to her work as playwright, and Director of TRT, Miss Robinson currently serves as Chairperson for the Tuskegee Historic Preservation Commission (THPC), as Secretary General of the World Conference of Mayors, Inc.(WCM), and as a Board member and Secretary for  the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA).