Director

David Oxendine – Artistic Director

Dr. David Oxendine is a Lumbee Indian and a native of Pembroke, N.C. He received his B.A. in Theater from Catawba College and holds a Doctorate in Psychology from North Carolina State University. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor and Assessment Coordinator in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Dr. Oxendine began his association with Strike at the Wind! in 1983 as Assistant Director and in 1984 became the first American Indian to direct the show. In 1985, public television’s American Playhouse in New York for the television series ROANOAK, and he cast forty local Lumbee tribal members as extras and in featured roles. Afterwards, he joined the Screen Actors Guild and moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Upon graduation, David appeared in films and television shows such as Big, Shakedown, Crossing Delancy, Arthur II, Working Girl, Slaves of New York, The Equalizer, Kojak, and New York Stories.

David has completed a screenplay based on the book by William McKee Evans entitled To Die Game. One of Dr. Oxendine’s many hobbies includes photography, which allows another form of creative expression. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has published several of his photos of Lumbee life to be included in the Smithsonian’s Handbook of North American Indians. Last year, he was contacted by Harcourt Books, of Time-Life Books, to publish several photos for an entire article on the Lumbee Indians.