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Young artists
Training and mentorship for young Black artists in Acadiana: acting, directing, writing, and the backstage crafts, with real coaching toward competitions, auditions, and scholarships.
The Name
Annie Will Bell Gatlin had a phrase for the way she moved through the world: you gotta know how to do. It meant adaptability: learn every room, even the ones that were not built for you, and carry yourself ready, so that when opportunity shows up it finds you prepared.
She passed that standard to her daughter, Twana Benoit. Twana passed it to her son, Josiah Price, who grew up to make theatre with his mother and now directs, teaches, and produces across Louisiana.
This foundation is his gift to his mother, made in his grandmother’s memory. Annie Will’s daughter raised an artist; Annie Will’s creed will now raise many more.
Her Own Hand
Annie Will woke to pray at 4AM. In the last entry of her prayer journal, a Sunday morning in March of 2020, she prayed over her children, her grandchildren, and “even those who are not here yet.” Two of her lines sit at the center of this work:
“Stir up the gift in their life you have given them.”
“If they fall, give them the courage to get up again.”
That is the whole job, said plainly, before we ever thought to say it. This foundation exists to stir up the gift, and to be the room where getting up again is expected of you and made possible for you.
“You gotta know how to do” is the whole curriculum: craft you can stand on, readiness that meets opportunity, and the wit to navigate a world that was not built for you.
The Work
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Open seats
Free and subsidized seats for students, elders, and neighbors, because the audience is part of the art form and nobody should be priced out of their own story.
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The stage
Producing and presenting culturally significant Black and Creole theatre for Acadiana audiences: work with weight, staged with care, held to Annie Will’s standard.
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Shared tools
Production equipment and infrastructure that community arts organizations can actually use, so one company’s investment becomes a whole community’s capacity.
In Development
Know How to Do
Our flagship youth training program will carry the creed as its name: a season of rigorous, joyful apprenticeship in the theatre arts for young people in Acadiana. Details will live here as the program takes shape.
Build With Us
Annie Will’s Daughter is newly organizing as a Louisiana nonprofit corporation and will seek federal 501(c)(3) recognition. Until that recognition is granted, gifts are not tax‑deductible.
If you want to be part of the founding, as a teaching artist, a partner, or an early supporter, we would be glad to hear from you.