My name is Sefanja Richard Galon, theatre artist, and I was born in Miami, Florida, but when I was eight moved to Paramaribo, Suriname and was raised there. In Suriname, I was blessed with the honor of learning about my family, and my country’s heritage, and most importantly about the Maroon people, commonly known as self-liberated slaves, who rose up, fought, managed to free themselves, and even secured a peace treaty to cement their freedom. This kinship to my native culture, and more importantly their values have dictated my life thus far. My parents also placed a large emphasis on education, knowing it would allow us our true freedom of mind, by pushing my siblings and I to excel at school. In 2016 after I graduated highschool in Suriname, I moved to the US for college. Later, I...
My name is Sefanja Richard Galon, theatre artist, and I was born in Miami, Florida, but when I was eight moved to Paramaribo, Suriname and was raised there. In Suriname, I was blessed with the honor of learning about my family, and my country’s heritage, and most importantly about the Maroon people, commonly known as self-liberated slaves, who rose up, fought, managed to free themselves, and even secured a peace treaty to cement their freedom. This kinship to my native culture, and more importantly their values have dictated my life thus far. My parents also placed a large emphasis on education, knowing it would allow us our true freedom of mind, by pushing my siblings and I to excel at school. In 2016 after I graduated highschool in Suriname, I moved to the US for college. Later, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Theatre from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida Year of 2022. My tenure at New World only caused my ambitions to grow, because I no longer merely wish to be an actor but a playwright in order to codify, historicize, and immortalize my own Surinamese culture before the stories and legends of my forebears are forever lost to the effervescent mists of oral tradition and memory. During my time at New World, I wrote, directed, and starred in a play, Oskuneru, that held tribute to my people as they had been in the past- resilient in the face of war, death and uncertainty. I had to bring their flame of determination in to thaw the creeping coldness of depression that the pandemic had allowed to creep into my heart. Since graduation, I have been part of City Theatre’s Homegrown Collective playwriting workshop and have enjoyed mentorship by Vanessa Garcia, Richard Blanco and Susan Westfall and am currently one of their commissioned playwrights for the Summer Shorts Series 2023. I started my own theater production company, Maroon Isle, LLC in order to produce original art locally and connect with the community. I have had a successful production of one of my plays, Oskuneru (at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes, Florida, 2022) and another sold out production of another of my plays, Jealousy (at local Little Havana bar, Thank You Miami, 2023) with more shows on the way. I am currently working as a director at Main Street Players for their production of Sweat and on producing Oskuneru again in Miami to introduce this story of resilience to more audiences and producing it back in Paramaribo, Suriname as a part of a cultural exchange between the US and Suriname. I work primarily in the Miami area as a member of the Homegrown playwright cohort, an actor and director. Upcoming projects include: Sweat at Main Street Payers (Director), City Theatre Summer Shorts: Homegrown Edition (Playwright) and Jealousy (Producer).