Anike Tourse

March 14, 2024

Keynote: Using the arts to explore challenging topics

Multimedia maker Anike Tourse tackles the challenging subjects of immigration and deportation in “America’s Family,” a film she wrote, helped produce, directed, and acted in. “America’s Family” won the Grand Jury Award for Features and the Audience Award for Competition Features at the 25th annual Dances with Films festival in Los Angeles in 2022.

Ms. Tourse (NSHS ‘88) began exploring theater at Brown Junior High School and continued at Newton South High School. While working on the joint Newton North-Newton South Shakespeare production, she remembers benefiting from mentoring by Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company. After graduating from Bates College, Ms. Tourse earned her MFA from The Ohio State University. She has written for several television series, wrote the award-winning short film “America; I Too” and the short play “No Milk Today,” and has performed several solo shows across the U.S. She has also performed at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Festival, the largest international theater festival in the world.

Ms. Tourse will talk about her 23-year effort to bring “America’s Family” to the screen and the ways in which her Newton Public School teachers provided professional-level experiences and inspiration that sparked her career in the arts.