POET, ACTRESS, EDUCATOR, PRODUCER, DIVERSITY PRACTITIONER, CULTURAL ARTS ACTIVIST

Bernadet V. Pitts-Wiley is Cofounder and Executive Director of Mixed Magic Theatre, an acclaimed non-profit 501 (c) 3 arts organization founded in Pawtucket, RI in 2000 with her husband Ricardo Pitts-Wiley. For over 25 years she has been a cornerstone of Rhode Island’s arts and culture world using the theatre’s outstanding legacy of bringing diverse stories to the  stage  with its mission of  building more literate  and  arts-active  communities. Under her leadership Mixed Magic Theatre received  The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities’ Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement which recognizes  leadership,  creative  achievement,  innovation ,  and  scholarship. A life long champion of the arts, education, social justice,  diversity and inclusion, and cultural collaborations, she  is  passionate  about promoting  the  value  of  theatre arts as a leverage to construct community on a local, national and  international  level and create opportunities for the next generation of artists.

Her ability to build community rooted in collaboration  was  exemplified  by Mixed Magic Theatre’s partnership with MIT’s New Media Literacies Project funded by the MacArthur Foundation to investigate digital media and literacy education which produced Mixed Magic Theatre’s landmark Moby Dick Project , which uses theater and literature to address literacy and challenging social issues in creative ways. The outcome of this powerful collaboration led to Moby Dick Then and Now: Reading in A Participatory Culture – a book that MIT partnered on using Ricardo Pitts-Wiley’s Moby Dick play/project as a national teaching tool in the classroom, and ultimately led to the Pitts-Wileys presentations in Poland at the International Conrad/Melville Conference in 2007 and at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC in 2008.

Pitts-Wiley, a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, is an accomplished actress and poet, as well as a cultural arts educator. Having  also cofounded The Human I Theatre Ensemble in San Diego, The  Artship Project and The Providence International Theatre Company in Rhode Island, her background has spanned a wide variety of theatrical endeavors including management, acting, writing, directing, and producing in the theater community spanning the south, and both the east and west coasts. Some of her most notable performances have included For Colored Girls, A Raisin in The Sun, Celebrations: An African Odyssey , Fences  and numerous poetry events and readings. An avid lover of poetry, she created the signature Poets On Fire! , The UnExpected Poetry Affair,  POetWomen and the National Poetry Month Series which are all produced at Mixed Magic Theatre annually.

Additionally, as a diversity, equity and inclusion  professional , Pitts-Wiley has collaborated with non-profit  organizations, government agencies, universities and human services to create and implement  community  diversity  initiatives. Over the course of a ten year tenure at Johnson  &Wales University, she was the Director of the Multicultural Center, and Assistant Director and cofounder of its Office of Campus Diversity, where she created and spearheaded the innovative Diversity  And The Future 2000 Initiative  to develop  programming  and community  relations building projects to further the actual practice of diversity in the Rhode Island community.

Bernadet V. Pitts-Wiley is the mother of two sons , a multi -talented lawyer in Washington, DC and a son who is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus in the performing arts and photography, he’s also a gifted historian and artistic director of Mixed Magic Theatre. She is the very proud, grateful  grandmother of four very creative and inspiring grandchildren.