Founding Members
The Renaissance Guild Founders:
Paul Riddle, Jr., Danielle King, Latrelle Bright (standing).
Photo by Mark Greenberg
Paul Riddle Jr.
Paul is a co-Founder and President of the Renaissance Guild (TRG).
He is a military brat and has been an active member of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church since the age of five. He graduated from Sam Houston High School and later graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a degree in Biology. Paul has been employed as an Advisor IV for the Department of Human Services for over eighteen years as well as a part-time commission salesperson at Sears Ingram Mall for over twenty-seven years. (Anyone in need of lawn and garden equipment should visit Paul. Tell your friends!)
Paul began his acting career about fourteen years ago with his church theatre group founded by Kathy Hornsby. He continued acting with Hornsby Theatre Group for several years. Some of Paul’s onstage appearances include The Gin Game, A Soldier’s Play, The Stye of the Blind Pig, Ceremonies and Dark Old Men, To Be Young Gifted and Black, The Colored Museum, A Raisin in the Sun, The Piano Lesson, and Fences. Paul received a best actor Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of Troy in Fences.
More recently he appeared in the Renaissance Guild’s premiere play Betrayal, as well as Spell #7, Blessed Assurance and From the Wilderness into the Promised Land. His credits also include the S.T.A.G.E production of Blessed Assurance in Bulverde, TX, also winning Bulverde’s Best Actor award for the 2002 – 2003 season. He co-produced The Left Hand Singing and produced the ActOne Series Volume II through X, Riff Raff, A Raisin in the Sun (2006 winner of 6 ATAC awards), Fences and Steel Magnolias. Paul is also a member of the performance choir The Kindred Consort formed by Michael Kindred.
He continues to be thankful to the community and his family and friends for their love and support.
Danielle King
This Christian woman is a co-Founder, Treasurer, and ActOne Program Manager for TRG, and has been acting (a fool) all her natural born life. Born in Los Angeles, California, her family moved to Seguin, Texas when she was eight. She attended school in Seguin and while in High School, she was cast in the lead for the children’s show, The Velveteen Rabbit.After hearing the sound of the children’s laughter and applause, she was hooked! Things have pretty much been the same ever since.
She recently completed a 14-year career in Corporate America, is aggressively pursuing her life-long dream of having a professional entertainment career and has started her own Entertainment company-Drama Child Productions. This year she has performed in Blues for an Alabama sky with TRG, and in the musical Crowns with The San Pedro Playhouse. In 2007 she won ATAC Awards for her roles in Harlequin’s Proposals for Best Actress-Comedy; and Best Supporting Actress-Comedy in TRG’s Steel Magnolias. Other roles in 2007 included Hollywood and Time, by the late, great Sterling Houston. Some of her most recent works on stage have been: premiering in several Sterling Houston pieces- Living Graves, Black and Blue, and Cameoland, a musical. As well as Spell #7 and Betrayal. Off stage and behind the screens, she has Co-produced and assisted with numerous TRG productions, including: Dearly Departed, Blues for an Alabama Sky Steel Magnolias, Fences, Godspell, and several ActOne Series.
Co-founding TRG with Latrelle and Paul has been a “dream come true.” Not only in acting and performing, but also in bringing opportunities and encouragement to others as they pursue their destinies. This one of the greatest things TRG can do to give back to the supportive San Antonio community. There is still a massive amount of untapped talent in this area that must be seen, heard, and experienced. Bring it on!
Latrelle Bright is a co-founder, past president and past artistic director (January 2001 through August 2005) of The Renaissance Guild (TRG), and has been involved in theatre since the age of ten. She studied theatre at the Boston Conservatory of Music and the US International University in San Diego before settling in at Florida State University from which she received a B.S. degree in Communications (Media Production) with a minor in Theatre. Starting from scratch is nothing new to her. While a student at FSU she co-founded a black theatre troupe on campus -The Black Players Guild. She has been active in the San Antonio theatre community for the past seven years by serving in a number of capacities for various theatre groups, on the Board of Directors and as Judge Coordinator for the Alamo Theatre Arts Council, Drama Director at Holy Spirit School, Drama Director at Antonian High School and a Producer Level member of the San Antonio Theatre Coalition. She has directed numerous plays for The Renaissance Guild, Jump-Start Performance Company, Playwright Festivals and special events.
Under Ms. Bright’s artistic direction, TRG produced the following plays in her four season tenure:
2001-2002
Betrayal by Harold Pinter
Bee-Luther-Hatchee by Thomas Gibbons
Godspell by Stephen Schwartz
2002-2003
Spell #7 by Ntozake Shange
The Left Hand Singing by Barbara Lebow
Riff Raff by Laurence Fishburne
2003-2004
The Magic Act by Laurence Klavan
In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
2004-2005
Frankenstein by Victor Gialanella
Somebody Else’s Life by Antoinette Winstead
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
In addition to the three MainStage productions each year, Ms. Bright also developed the ReadersTheatre Series, the ActOne Series which features the works of local and unpublished playwright’s and the Drama Workshops for kids which she facilitated in cooperation with the Carver Cultural Community Center.
Ms. Bright resigned from her positions of president and artistic director at the end of season four to pursue her MFA in Directing at The University of Memphis. She is grateful to her family for their support and understanding but particularly her mother for teaching her “to pray as though everything depended on God, and to work as though everything depended on herself!”
She hopes that TRG will continue playing an integral role in San Antonio’s growth as a viable performing arts community.
Check out Latrelle’s web site
