About
About Crooked Shadows
Crooked Shadows has more than one story to tell….
Once upon a time, a young girl sat up late at night and giggled with her Grandma as she shared the stories from her childhood and young adulthood so very long ago. Some stories were lovely and some were quite painful. As the young girl listened, the stories began to link together like the chapters of a book. The book was the story of her grandma’s life which the young girl would read time after time, after time . . .
Once upon a time, two young theatre artists met at NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts. They connected through their shared Italian heritage, their love of making theatre and most importantly, their hearts discovered they were longtime sister-friends in this great big world. Even when their lives took them 3,000 miles away from each other, their friendship continued to grow and their connection strengthened. Each became a safe space for the other to share the most profound truths time after time after time . . .
Once upon another time, a now lifelong theatre artist rediscovered her actual self. She learned to turn off the destructive and limiting voices in her life and tuned in to her own authentic voice. This was big and scary and she couldn’t do it alone. She carefully and wisely surrounded herself with those who supported her truest self. When she felt brave enough to share, she wrote Crooked Shadows, a story that had been tugging at her heart for a very VERY long time. She performed it all over Philadelphia and NYC and still felt something was missing time after time after time….
Once upon this time, Shawneen, the playwright/performer reached out to her wildly talented heart sister from NYU, Daniela, to collaborate as director of Crooked Shadows. What a beautiful collaboration it became! The Bridge Initiative of Phoenix AZ wisely made them a part of their 2025 theatre season and that was just the beginning. The heart and soul of Crooked Shadows and these two artists continue to bloom and grow in this partnership time after time after time…..
Once upon a future time, our next chapter, Edinburgh Fringe Festival here we come!
Meet the Team
Playwright/Actor
Shawneen Rowe
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Director
Daniela Crispo
Originally from the New York metropolitan area, Daniela has been involved in theatre since childhood. She studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and had the privilege of working with critically acclaimed theatre companies and artists in New York City. Once she moved to Arizona, she engaged with the theatre community there and has since acted in and directed numerous productions with various companies. Her first foray into the Arizona theatre community was as an AD for several productions at the Hale Theatre. From there, she directed original plays with the Arizona Women’s Theatre Company with Joy Bingham Strimple, working closely with playwrights and collaborating with them as they workshopped their new plays. Daniela has also directed plays that were produced at Mesa Arts Center black box theatre, Chandler Center for the Arts and Tempe Center for the Arts, along with other local community theatres, playwrights and producers. She has been an adjudicator for new play festivals for Arizona Women’s Theatre Company and The Bridge Initiative. Since 2015, Daniela has been an active artistic and board member for The Bridge Initiative, directing new works and published plays at Tempe Center for the Arts and most recently, the Arizona premiere of Crooked Shadows. The opportunity to collaborate with Shawneen to bring Crooked Shadows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year is one she will forever treasure.