Cantrella Canady
Cantrella Canady is one of the best young actors in Southwest Florida today. She appears regularly in productions at Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts, Laboratory Theater of Florida, Cultural Park Theatre, The Naples Players and Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, where she currently appears in Broadway Palm Thru The Decades, a revue celebrating 30 years of musicals produced by Broadway Palm.
Among her impressive credits are roles in The Colored Museum for the Alliance for the Arts (2022), The Curious Incident 
of the Dog in the Night-Time for Players Circle Theatre (2022), West Side Story and Bulletproof Backpack for Florida Repertory Theatre, Sofia in The Color Purple and Susan in David Mamet’s Race for Lab Theater, as Trix the Aviatrix in The Drowsy Chaperone (for Creative Theater Workshop), Tonya in August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Donna in Engagement Rules and the runaway wife in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone for Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts, street urchin Crystal in Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors (for which NBC2’s Dave Elias said she “[carried] the group with her amazing vocal range), and an adult woman in Florida Rep Conservancy’s 
Spring Awakening. She also performed in Gulf Coast Symphony’s production of Showboat at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, and was Lala Lamazing Grace in George Wolfe’s edgy The Colored Museum, Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (for which she received a Broadway World Best Actress nomination), Ruby in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Ma Rainey in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Lady Fidget in The Country Wife, Claudia in The Bluest Eye, Quincy/Bart Simpson in Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play and Lady in Green in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, all for Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts.
Cantrella’s other acting credits include Eternal Flame, Junk in the Trunk and Lemon Twist in Lab Theater’s inaugural Festival of Tens (2019), Andorra (the Innkeeper), Madagascar: A Musical Adventure (for Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre), Sister Act: The Musical (for The Naples Players), Sister Act: The Musical (for Cultural Park Theatre), Mabel in The Pajama Game (for Cultural Park), Deborah Lake Fortson’s Body & Sold (for Lab Theater) and The Rauschenberg Project Play (also for Lab Theater). For her portrayal of lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act, Canady won a 2018 Cultural Park Marquee Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical and also received a Broadway World Best Actress nomination.
A graduate of the Alliance for the Arts’ inaugural 9-week CHANGE acting course, Canady finds staged readings useful for expanding and honing her formidable acting skills. She read the part of Mary in A Day of Absence for Florida Rep, Inez Jessie in Soulforce at Florida Gulf Coast University, Smoke during Florida Repertory Theatre’s PlayLab staged reading, and more recently, Routine at The Naples Players (January 28, 2018) and Julie at Lab Theater (February 12, 2018).
During the COVID-19 pandemic shut-down, Trella appeared as June in SoDis Theater’s virtual reading of Rachel Lynett’s Good Bad 
People and Victoria in Phil Dawkins’ Charm, along with two virtual cabarets produced by Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre.
Setting her sights on directing, Cantrella made her directorial debut in Lab Theater’s filmed theatrical production of The Realish Housewives of Fort Myers.
Prior to that, she served as Assistant Director to Rachael Endrizzi in Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts’ 2020 production of Baskerville: A Sherlock Holms Mystery.
Cantrella also currently co-hosts Divine Destiny Radio Talk Show 
and is a member of the Gospel Jams Radio Show, Jam Crew. Canady also appeared in Angela Pierre and the Motown 4 at Cultural Park Theater in Cape Coral and hosted the “As Small as a Mustard Seed: Planting as We Grow” Benefit Dinner at The New Beginnings of SWFL. She also understudied for the role of Silvia in Cultural Park Theater’s production of All Shook Up.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication (with a 
minor in theater) from Florida Gulf Coast University.
When she isn’t on stage bringing characters to life, Cantrella enjoys her free time by listening to all genres of music, attending live theatrical performances, spending time with her family, and traveling at any opportunity she gets.
April 27, 2019; revised August 27, 2022.
RELATED POSTS.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.