The Playwrights |
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Deborah Asiimwe
By the Banks of the Nile
Achiro and Adriko live by the banks of river Nile as husband and wife. The existence of their union is denied by the Church because they are not “properly” wed. Adriko must do anything to have a “proper” church wedding even if it means stealing mosquito nets intended for the community, to make a wedding dress for his wife.
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Radha Blank
Reverb
A daughter seeks redemption....somewhere between a melody and her mothers fading memory |
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Kelley Girod
Poetics of the Creative Process
When a professor’s beautiful young mentee mistakes a shadow of a tree limb for his arm reaching out to touch her, a dangerous game manipulating words and images is set in motion. |
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Katori Hall
THE BEYONCE EFFECT
In opposite corners of the world, three brown women, one Indian, one Ghanaian, and one American struggle with their quest for lighter skin and European features in a world where "if you white you right and if you black, get back."
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Derek Lee McPhatter
Citizen Jane
Welcome to the Future. Welcome to the Super-Network. The Universe’s most talented Archival-Architect brings our favorite super-hero, Citizen Jane, to vivid life tonight! Don’t worry if she seems fed-up or tired of saving the world. She had better give us another Happy Ending or else!
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Germono Toussaint
The Anointed
An internationally known pastor, is preparing to finally be truthful with the world about the life he has been hiding. |
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Pia Wilson
A Goddess Once
Nadia thinks she's negotiating Cat's termination. Cat thinks they're negotiating an argument from many lifetimes ago -- an argument between a goddess and a woman over an ancient mariner. |
cAST crew and artistic team |
| Shelley Miles previous credits include: SM for Cape Disappointment (PS122). ASM for …Guide to Marriage (Cherry Lane & Soho), …Story of an Atheist (Captial Fringe). PA for Make Me (Atlantic Theatre Co.), The Philanthropist (Roundabout Theatre Co.) Holds a BFA in Stage Management from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has worked with Horse Trade on Pumpkin Pie: Commencement at UNDER St. Marks and Hostage Song in The Kraine Theater She is looking forward to working on FRIGID new york this winter. |
Sound design/ Pre-Show Music by Rules of Culture Rules of Culture is a crew of talented individuals who share similar beliefs of positivity and power in numbers. Consisting of producers, engineers, DJ's, MC's, graphic designers, promoters & organizers, they work as a collective to create some of the most ingenious & thought provoking sounds, visuals & events in the world today. The key contributors are 360 Degrees, Reverend Scooter Jackson, Fi3Ld, Sham1, E Phlat, Kaneda, Kryptic Soul System (Ribbz & Docstafari) , StikTrakz, Twin Brothers Darkness (Loki Cocepeli & Shaman) & Yellownore Roosevelt. For a group of innovators who constantly collaborate to figure out the most inventive and effective methods to promote a passion - no project is impossible. For more information, email Fi3Ld at jbarefield@gmail.com or join us at rulesofculture.com. |
The Beyonce Effect by Katori Hall directed by Martin Damien Wilkins |
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Martin Damien Wilkins (Director) Martin Damien Wilkins makes his NYC directorial debut with STEP. Other directing credits include developmental readings of new work by emerging playwrights, Katori Hall (HOODOO LOVE), Jacqueline E. Lawton (DEEP BELLY BEAUTIFUL), and M.A. Robinson (DRIVING DOWN THE PRICE OF HONEY). His work has been seen at George Mason University (Laura Zam's STUPID FRAILTY) and as part of Arena Stage's Student Playwrights' Festival. Mr. Wilkins has also been a recipient of Arena Stage's Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellowship, the Contemporary American Theater Festivals' Marvin Weissberg Directing Fellowship and a Stage Directors and Chroegraphers Foundation Observership. He has assisted directed with artists such as Wendy C. Goldberg, Molly Smith, Tazwell Thompson, Kate Whoriskey and Charles Randolph-Wright. He has also served as the Assistant to the Artistic Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference. |
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Frances Uku is so very excited to be in a Katori Hall play! Previous stage credits include Twelfth Night with New York's all-female classical ensemble The Queen's Company, Richard II and Macbeth with Los Angeles' Independent Shakespeare Company and the solo show Waking Kya at the Women Center Stage Festival at 45 Bleecker. Film: By Poison and No P*ssy for Polluters, both of which recently premiered at indie festivals. Television: Girlfriends on the CW, and the daily World Music program on Link TV. Training: MFA from the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard, improv at The Second City Conservatory. Visit her sometime at www.francesuku.com. |
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Vella Lovell (Fury #1) Most recently was seen in The Bacchae at The Public, and The Great Recession at The Flea Theater, where she appeared in Sheila Callaghan and Thomas Bradshaw's short plays. Other recent projects: Andromache with Full of Noises Co., The Secret Keeper with Examined Man, Kaspar Hauser at The Flea Theater. Training: Experimental Theater Wing and Classical Studio at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; Williamstown Theatre Festival Apprentice Program. So many thanks to Katori for this wonderful opportunity! |
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Maechi Aharanwa (Fury #2) is a 2009 graduate from The Juilliard School. Her credits there include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Julius Caesar, The Greeks Part III:The Gods, Antony and Cleopatra, Katori Hall’s Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and many more. Her favorite credits include Beneatha in A Raisin In The Sun, Augusta Snow in The Blacks: A Clown Show, and Kattrin in Mother Courage. Television: 30 Rock(NBC), Mercy(NBC). Maechi holds a BA in Theater from Temple University and studied at Circle In The Square Theatre School. www.maechi.net |
By the Banks of the Nile by Deborah Asiimwe directed by Christopher Burris |
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Christopher Burris is a stage director, actor, singer and writer. He has directed productions throughout the country, including: Love's Fire, Hilly Hicks Jr.'s The Home Life of Polar Bears, and George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum at the Old Playmakers Theater in North Carolina. New York credits include recently directing a reading of Derek McPhatter's Bring the Beat Back for Freedom Train Productions, as well as work with Phare Play and Unconscious Collective. He is currently a member of the directing company at NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, where he has worked with some of the most exciting new playwrights in the theater world including Jaye Austin Williams and Camille Darby, along with screenwriter Robin L. Williams. He holds a BA from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA from UC San Diego. www.christopherburris.com |
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Reynaldo Piniella is a New York native representing East New York, Brooklyn. He has performed recently with the Castillo Theatre, New Federal Theatre and Primary Stages. He has also appeared in film projects with the Discovery Channel, Pearson Education, New York Magazine and Chai Lifeline. Reynaldo is looking forward to his journey with The Drafts! |
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Michael Awusie trained at Harbor Conservatory during his formative years. It is here that he began to develop a taste and appreciation for theater that engages with its surrounding community. Some of his credits are: How to Lose Yourself, The Island, Pa's Hat: A Liberian Tale, Man Up and Away, and The Dutchman. Michael is a resident actor in NYU's Graduate Dramatic Writing Program. He is also a member of Pride Not Prejudice, a theater company that performs plays in New York City high schools that center around positive health choices, acceptance, and self-esteem. Michael is thrilled to be a part of “By the Banks of the Nile.” |
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Lee Avant is originally from Greensboro, NC and is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA. She most recently co-starred in the TV pilot "The Tenderloins" which screened at the New York Television Festival. She co-wrote and performed in the stage play "Black Girl Ugly" at the Wow Cafe Theatre, and just completed a staged reading of "The Waiting Room" at the Kraine Theatre. Lee has also performed all over Los Angeles with productions at the Stella Adler Theatre, The Open Fist Theatre, and The Evidence Room. |
The Anointed by Germono Toussaint directed by Andre Lancaster |
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Freedom Train Productions (Artistic Producer, The Anointed) organizes theatre artists and audience communities around a common purpose: centering black queer protagonists in struggles that matter to all. Performance, new work development, and artist/community dialectics are the tools of our underground movement. The theatre's guiding citizen theatre tenets -- stage democratics, rememory, and canaries rule -- informs all that we do. Sign up for their theatre trainings for theatre artists and community organizations set for March 2010: www.freedomtrainproductions.org. |
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Andre Lancaster (Director, The Anointed) is a producing artist and Artistic Director at Freedom Train Productions. Director credits include: Origins of Us by Jerome A. Parker (Juilliard School) and A Love Like Damien's by Andrea E. Davis (HERE Arts Center, WOW Café Theatre). He has trained at University of Texas at Austin, SITI Company, Movement Research, and The Missoula Oblongata and he holds an associate membership at the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Andre would like to thank the cast and crew for their commitment to discovery and play. You can find him on Facebook. |
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Terell Richardson (Assistant Director, The Anointed): After participating in 2009's Open Workshops, Terell is thrilled to be working on a production with Freedom Train. A recent graduate of Hampshire College, his directing credits include The Last Stop Between Us, Hair, and The Sacred Marriage. Shout-out to family, Spirit, and all those who are doing the work! |
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Travis M. Allen (Pastor Raymond, The Anointed) |
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Ronald De Suze (RJ, The Anointed) was born and raised in Trinidad West Indies. Following his dream of becoming a working actor, he migrated to the United States in 1997. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors, in Theater from Brooklyn College and an MA in American Studies from Michigan State University. Ronald has done work in many of the main media, which include theater, film and television. His film credits include, I am Legend, The Soul Searchers, and Finding Me. He has performed both classical as well as contemporary works which include, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Le Malade Imaginaire,” “Twelfth Night,” “You Can’t Take it with You,” “Slave Trade,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” Our Country’s Good” and “Out of Order.” Ronald has also advertised for companies such as American Airlines, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and CitiBank. He is part of Hollie Harper’s American Candy rotating casts, the fastest rising sketch comedy show in New York City. Presently, Ronald is involved in the filming of the sequel, Finding Me – Truth. Ronald is slowly composing vignettes for a one-person show which he hopes to perform in New York and abroad in the future. |
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Aurin Squire (Dramaturg/Script Doctor, The Anointed): is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and reporter. Aurin has been produced around the country and has been a guest artist at Gettysburg College, New School University, and Malloy College among other places. In 2007 he spent most of the year working in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a research/writer with Tectonics Theatre on a historical drama. His dark comedy To Whom It May Concern won best play and best playwriting at the LGBT Fresh Fruit Festival and in 2009 was produced off-broadway at ArcLight Theatre. In 2009 Vital Theatre commissioned him to write the book for the family musical Matthew Takes Mannahatta which opened off-broadway at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. Aurin is the co-creator of Bodega Ave, a web-based cartoon that has been featured in the New York Daily News, Ambiente Magazine, and LATV. As Director of New Play Development at Freedom Train Productions, he leads the new work creation processes at the theatre. |
Poetics of the Creative Process by Kelley Girod directed by Michael Rau |
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MICHAEL RAU is a New York based director and adapter, specializing in new plays, re-imagined classics, and opera. His work has been presented at PS 122, HERE Arts Center, Ars Nova and Dixon Place and his productions have toured to Germany, Greece, and Ecuador. His New York credits include: Evanston: A Rare Comedy , (PS 122), The Ted Haggard Monologues (a New York Magazine Critic's Pick) at Collective: Unconscious Theater, The Italian Songbook, a chamber opera with the NYU Steinhardt School of Music, and an adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, (developed in Papingo, Greece and presented at the Bushwick Starr). His show, the games we used to play, which he co-created with Max Goldblatt, took first place at Les Fêtes théâtrales du Suroît in 2005, and his production of Four Saints in Three Acts was selected as a noteworthy production of the 2008 Opera America Director/Designer Showcase. His productions have been remounted in Germany, Greece, and Montreal. He has directed readings of new plays at New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages and Lincoln Center. Columbia University credits include: Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum and O'Neill's The Great God Brown.
Michael Rau is a recipient of the Willard Fellowship, a 2006 Kennedy Center Directing Fellowship, a 2007 New Play Network Directing Fellowship and a 2008 TCG National Conference Grant. He has served as an assistant for John Turturro at Classic Stage Company, Les Waters at A.R.T., Anne Bogart at Glimmerglass Opera, and Robert Woodruff at San Francisco Opera. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005, with honors in American Studies and Theater and has recently completed his MFA in theater directing at Columbia University. He is currently an Artist in Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. |
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Ariel J Woodiwiss is honored to be performing with the Horse Trade Theatre Group. While completing her MFA at Southern Methodist University, she was a two-time recipient of the Bob Hope Award. Having been in NYC for the past year, she has worked with other actors and playwrights through LAByrinth Theater, in a recurring role on As The World Turns and performed in numerous theatrical readings around the city including at NYTW, The Centrifuge and Spaghetti Sundays. She loves acting in new works, hates the late winter months and would love to sign with an NYC agent! For more info and contact: www.arieljwoodiwiss.com. |
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Nick Maccarone recently ended his run at The Flea Theater where he performed in 'The Great Recession.' He had the matchless experience of performing in a world premiere play written and directed by Adam Rapp as well as a new production by Thomas Bradshaw. He is delighted to once again be collaborating with his friend, colleague, and fellow alum Kelley Girod. Nick received his M.F.A. in theater from Columbia University. |
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Christopher Diercksen (Assistant Director) is a passionate director of new plays. Director: Parabolas by Kelley Girod (Best Director, 20/20 New Play Festival); Cassandra by Katharine Sherman (upcoming). Assistant Director: Laika Dog In Space by New York Neo-Futurists; Illyria by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel. Christopher is the Associate Technical Director for the New York Neo-Futurists and often can be found working their show, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. He is an alumnus of the National Theater Institute, National Playwrights Conference, and Albright College. Thanks to Kelley for keeping him on speed-dial. |
Reverb by Radha Blank directed by Nicole A. Watson |
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Nicole A. Watson Credits include Traffic Jam, (Secret Theatre), One Minute-Play Festival (Here), Derek Walcott’s Ti-Jean and His Brothers (NYU-Tisch), Foreclosure (NYTE), Just Exactly Like (The Flea), Eli and Cheryl Jump (2009 Fringe Festival), and The Snow Queen (Urban Stages on Tour) She assisted on Signature Theatre’s production of The First Breeze of Summer directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Nicole has worked with the 52nd Street Project, the Lark, the Women’s Project, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Lincoln Institute for Arts and Education, the Working Theatre, and the McCarter where was a teaching artist for The Hamlet Project. She currently teaches a playwriting course at the Museum of the City of New York and is the Teen Shakespeare Coordinator at the 52nd Street Project. BA History, Yale. MA interdisciplinary studies, NYU. |
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Rob Richardson was born in Baltimore Maryland and is a graduate of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy. He has recently been seen as Jeremy in the Kick-It One Act Festival, Mike in Stage Blood is Never Enough and the independent film Prayer for a Vengeful God. Other off off Broadway credits include Manuel in Manuel vs. The Statue of Liberty. Mr. Green in Aenigma, Todd in the one act [pwnd], Hamish Cornish the Blind bluesman in All Kinds of Shifty Villains. Insight 13 one act festival with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, A’spress, Decadence, Southern Werewolf, HellCab, multiple Cabarets and independent films. |
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SHARON HOPE
Have enjoyed sharing my gift in Regional Theater, TV, Film, Storyteller and now as Older Woman in Reverb. www.slicesoflifeproductions.com |
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Bridget Kelso is an actor and writer living in Harlem. Hailing from Chicago, she has performed on several prominent New York stages, and around the world. She has also appeared on daytime television and in several commercials. As a member of the Public Theater’s 2009 Emerging Writers Group, she completed a new play, “Hiding in the Garden." She is also working on a children’s book series based on her experiences with her son, and a book of poetry. Her writing has appeared in Essence and Harlem Parent Magazine. |
'Phantom Love' Lyrics by Radha Blank, Music composed by Emi Augustin. |
A Goddess Once written and directed by Pia Wilson |
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Bonna Tek is a Cambodian-American actress who has worked in theater, film, television, commercial, industrial, and voiceover. Recent theater credits: Sweet Karma (Queens Theater in the Park), Just Knots (Samuel French OOB Festival 2009 winner), Never Disconnected (Nuyorican Poets Café). She also works as an actor with the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater and as part of an ensemble for Suzan Lori-Parks’s NYU playwrights class. MFA: New School University, 2003. Alumna of the Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theater, 2008. |
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Nichole Donje’, is thrilled to be on stage again fulfilling her passion after much directing and producing. For 20 years from NE to NYC, Nichole has been extremely passionate about new works both as an actor and director. She is proud to be a founding member of The Playwrights Continuum. Nichole is the Artistic Director of TAPt., an up-in-coming NYC Theatre company gaining a fast reputation for its quality & professionalism. She would like to thank Pia for trusting her to be a part of this talent filled festival and Bonna for calling me! Check out my IMBD profile. |
Citizen Jane written by Derek Lee McPhatter directed by Rhonney Greene |
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Rhonney Greene has been performing and actively involved in the theatre industry all his life. He has been an actor, singer, dancer, costume designer, and director in numerous stage, film, and television productions in Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, and New York City, NY. A graduate of Morehouse College, where he received a BA in Drama, Rhonney Greene continues to put God first in his efforts to change the world for the better through his art. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Under the Spell Productions, which has produced work in New York, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom. He is the co-author of the production company’s signature show, It Goes Unsaid. Recent performances include a starring role in the equity showcase, Dance Bojangles Dance, and a vocalist in a tribute concert to Mariah Carey. He recently finished working as a costumer for The Lovely Bones (starring Mark Wahlberg) and key costumer for Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too (with Janet Jackson and Jill Scott). |
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tygerlily (nee’ Lauren Rhodes Cooper) hails from Washington, D.C. by way of Atlanta, Georgia. The self-proclaimed East Coast Woman of Mystery has been writing since the age of 14. This poet, playwright and essayist first earned recognition at the age of 15 as she became one of Black Entertainment Television’syoungest writers by creating stories for theSaturday Morning children’s program, Story Porch, narrated by Al Freeman and Ozzie Davis among others. Ms. Lily is an alumna of both Spelman College where she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theater and of New York University’s (NYU) Performance Studies Department where she received her Master of Arts Degree. While attending Spelman College, tygerlily was the only Spelman student working as a staff writer for the Maroon Tiger, the Morehouse College Newspaper. While enrolled at NYU, she was a twice featured speaker as a part of NYU’s collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum’s 2000-2001 Hip Hop exhibit ROOTS RHYMES AND LIFE. In February 2002, she was awarded a residency at the New Professional Theater as a part of their annual Writer’s Festival which culminated in a staged reading of her play a rough draft of my life. In June of 2002, the play was performed as a part of the 3rd Annual NYC Hip Hop Theater Festival and starred Karen Malina White. |
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LaJune first female inductee of 106 & Park’s Freestyle Friday battle Hall of Fame, demonstrated that she has the lyrical precision of a sharp shooter when it comes to eliminating all contenders on the hip-hop battlefield. LaJune has been featured on MTV’s TRL where she was interviewed by rap sensation Chingy and VJ Vanessa Minnillo. In addition to her lethal rhyming skills, LaJune possess a sultry voice that flows in beautiful riffs over heavy bass tracks. This two-in-one combination has earned her lofty praise, with some calling her the second-coming of Lauryn Hill. Her voiceovers have drifted across the radio waves attacking the ears of NYC’s HOT 97 and 98.7 Kiss FM listeners. And with a minor in Theater, LaJune continues to show-stop as she extends her newly discovered theater talent to productions like Citizen Jane and her work in progress, Little Man In My Pocket. Always on her grind, working hard behind the scenes of the music industry, now it’s time for the true Mistress of Ceremonies, LaJune, to step up front and center. |
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Dylan Kammerer makes his New York City debut with Citizen Jane. He is a recent graduate of the University of Florida where he received his Bachelors of the Fine Arts in performance. He currently resides in Brooklyn. |
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Darren Mallet - Born in Brooklyn and raised in Tampa, FL; Darren is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Credits include: Off-off b’way: Urinetown, Follow Me. National Tour: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Pilots for both Comedy Central and Spike TV. Thanks to the Heavenly Father and much love to friends and family for continued encouragement! www.darrenmallett.com |
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Sheree Renée Thomas is a writer, editor, small publisher, educator, visual artist, performer, and mother. She is the co-publisher of the literary journal, Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora and founder of Wanganegresse Press. Thomas is a member of the Beyond Dusa Women's Collective, the Black Pot Mojo Craft Circle, the New Renaissance Writers Guild, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the Carl Brandon Society, and teaches creative writing and short fiction at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Manhattan. Her first anthology, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Washington Post Book World Editor's "Rave," won the World Fantasy Award and the Gold Pen Award. Her second book, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, was released on January 2, 2004 by Warner Aspect. She is currently editing a third volume in her groundbreaking black science fiction series, tentatively titled Dark Matter: Africa Rising, in addition to Eldersongs, her oral history and poetry program and other writing projects designed to uplift, engage, and enlighten the community. |
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Nicole Judd (Citizen Jane Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working with Under the Spell Productions and the Horse Trade Theater Group. She is an artist manager for an emerging Femcee/Singer/Songwriter and the co-founder of Generation Give. By days, Nicole works in the Executive Producer’s Office at the Apollo Theater, in addition to working on several independent productions.
Kelly “Fancy” Roberts – Costume Design
Special thank you: Ricke Williams |
