The richness of embracing the entirety of ones genealogy, how society encourages the opposite, and the fallacy of Blackness as a monolith.
How they first met (and met, and met), in and around and through and because of Broadway in the late 90s.
Thoughts on the stage musical The Wiz, touching on elements that resonate broadly, and specifically what might resonate in present day.
HudsonMann LLC facilitates the creative endeavors of Nicole Hudson and Dwayne Mann. After twenty-five years of management, production, and development across numerous industries and platforms, Nicole and Dwayne founded HudsonMann to bridge their collective relationships, resources, and expertise.
Professionally, Nicole and Dwayne met in 1997 while working in the management and US production offices for international entertainment properties including Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Swan Lake, Miss Saigon, amongst others. Their professional paths have now rejoined in the formation of HudsonMann, a vehicle to develop and produce content, events, and experiences rooted in research and analysis of history, place, and sociopolitical landscape.
Commercial theatre brought Dwayne and Nicole together and is one of HudsonMann’s platforms, along with publishing, podcasting, and moving image. Ultimately, HudsonMann utilizes whichever platform is right for the story at hand. HudsonMann’s core focus is pulling the threads of our collective complex present through our complicated past to a future where we are more curious and more free.
Nicole’s common threads are people, on-to-offline and off-to-online translation, and the relationship between organizations and people’s lives. In addition to commercial and nonprofit arts, she has navigated these threads in journalism, advertising and marketing, government and public policy, and higher education in roles ranging from board member to consultant to organizational lead.
Dwayne’s common threads are structures, design and production, and the development and fabrication of concepts and ideas into actualized, material goods. Whether an academic inquiry, creative pursuit, service-based agenda, or commercial endeavor, he has shepherded large scale projects from initial impulse to final realization as team member, board member, consultant, liaison, project and organizational lead.
As a team Nicole and Dwayne bring 25 years of experience in project management, strategic communications, theatrical and project budgeting, academic research and publishing, fundraising, nonprofit and theatrical management, marketing, advertising, social media, facilitation, media relations, union relations, government relations, and organizational development (inc. equity and inclusion).
Current projects (national, St. Louis, and New York City) include Regency Girls (producers) the The Wiz National Tour (co-producers), Last Five Years Broadway premier (co-producers), Pre-Broadway Tour and Broadway Revival of The Wiz (co-producers), Appropriate (extended engagement, co-producers), developing commercial theatre, original musical development, screenplay-to-musical adaptation, short film development, artist fellowship program design and management.
Nicole and Dwayne’s first production credit was a 2003 original piece titled “Least Likely to Sing Gospel,” an exploration - through their personal stories - of identity, stereotype, and musical theater.
Personally, Nicole and Dwayne met on 41st street in April of 1996, waiting for 12+ hours in line for $20 lottery tickets to see Rent.
Northwestern University: Nicole, BS; Dwayne, PhD. New York University: Dwayne, BFA, MA.