Ato Essandoh (Cheikh Malick Diallo) can currently be seen as a lead in the hit Netflix series The Diplomat opposite Keri Russell. Prior, he was seen as a series regular in the Netflix series Away opposite Hillary Swank for Matt Reeves, Jason Katims and Ed Zwick and in the Netflix feature Reptile opposite Benicio del Toro and Justin Timberlake which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
In film, Ato can been seen in Jason Bourne for Paul Greengrass and Django Unchained for Quentin Tarantino. Other credits include X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Get Him To The Greek, Blood Diamond and Hitch.
On the television front, Ato recurs as Dr. Isidore Latham on the NBC series Chicago Med. He was also seen as a series regular in the CBS series The Code, the Netflix series Altered Carbon and the HBO series Vinyl. Other credits include Tales From The Loop, Elementary, Copper and Blue Bloods.
Nedra Marie Taylor (Céza Depina) holds an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School. Broadway: The Book of Mormon (Eugene O’Neill), Marvin’s Room (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Good Bones (The Public), The House that Will Not Stand (NYTW), The Underlying Chris (2nd Stage), Mr. Burns, and A Life (Playwrights Horizons), Lost Lake (MTC). TV: Rose Callaway on Invasion (Apple TV+), Brilliant Minds, Elsbeth, NCIS: New Orleans, Orange is The New Black, Random Acts of Flyness, Jessica Jones and more. @nedramarietaylor
Nimene Sierra Wureh (Sami Monroe) is an NYU Tisch Drama grad and professional auntie. She speaks 4 languages (can you guess which ones?), has always known how to pose, and was a casting intern for the medical drama New Amsterdam on NBC. She has studied and performed improv at UCB Theater & Groundlings. She is a Story Pirate, who transforms stories written by kids, and turns them into sketch comedy and songs. As a Story Pirate, she is a producer, songwriter, and main cast member on ‘The Story Pirates podcast.” They have won many awards at Webby, iheartradio, and more for Best Kids and Family Podcast. She is the host of the new iHeartRadio podcast Historical Records produced by Questlove and Jonathon Glickman. nimene.com @nimenesierrawureh
P.S.- it’s pronounced “NIM-IN-KNEE” *insert Finding Nemo Joke here*
Broadway: Our Town, Mary Jane. Off-Broadway: The Apiary (Second Stage) TV: FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), That Damn Michael Che (MAX), Inside Amy Schumer (Hulu).
francisca da silveira (playwright) is a Cape Verdean-American playwright, dramaturg and TV writer. Current WP Theater TOW Playwright in Residence. Fellowships/Residencies: 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, The Public Theater’s 2020-2023 Emerging Writers Group, 2022-2023 Jerome Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center, The Apollo Theater’s New Works initiative 2023 Cohort, Winter 2024 MacDowell Fellow, 2024 Banff Playwrights Lab participant, 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at WP Theater. Plays : NOT-FOR-PROFIT (OR THE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLAY) (La Jolla Playhouse 2021 DNA New Works Series); CAN I TOUCH IT? (2022/2023 Rolling World Premiere at Company One Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre); PAY NO WORSHIP (2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist); MINOR·ITY (Colt Coeur Commission). TV: HBO’s Industry Season 3. BFA: New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. MSc: University of Edinburgh.
Shariffa Ali (Director) is an international creative leader committed to advancing radical change through the power of art & activism. She works across disciplines directing and producing films, virtual reality experiences & plays and moves her audiences to engage with timely issues touching upon Black, Afropolitan, and African-American identities. Originally from Kenya and raised in South Africa, Shariffa has been a New York resident since 2013 where she has worked primarily as a director, community organizer and administrator at The Public Theater and The New Group among others. She is currently on faculty at Princeton University.
As a filmmaker, Shariffa’s works have been featured at acclaimed film/VR festivals & institutions worldwide including Sundance Film Festival (USA); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (South Africa); Brooklyn Film Festival (USA); Pan African Film Festival (USA); Electric Africa VR festival (South Africa) and DOK Neuland (Germany). Select theatre credits include Mies Julie (Classic Stage Company), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), The Copper Children, (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Mlima’s Tale (St Louis Rep) Film/VR: “Ash Land”, “Atomu” (Official Selection at Sundance Festival 2020), “Sink Sank Sunk, You Go Girl!” (Official Selection at Sundance Festival 2022), “O-Dogg” (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) Honors: New Frontier Fellow, Sundance Institute Lab, and the Royal National Theater (UK); POV/PBS Spark Grant. Education: BA with honors, Theatre and Performance, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Brittany Vasta (Set Designer) Some recent projects include the Off Broadway premier of Kate Hamill’s new play The Light and the Dark (Primary Stages); Julia May Jonas’s A Woman Among Women (Bushwick Starr) and the live tour Insidious, The Further You Fear (based on the Sony film franchise). Other work: Dave Malloy’s Octet (Signature Theatre/Berkeley Rep); Phillip Howze’s Self Portraits (Bushwick Starr/Jack); Bill Irwin’s Harlequin & Pantalone (NY City Center); Happy Birthday Wanda June (The Duke); I thought I would die but I didn’t (The Tank); Choir Boy, the ripple, the wave that carried me home and Redwood (Portland Center Stage); Welcome to Fear City (KCRep); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Syracuse Stage); August: Osage County (Resident Ensemble Players, Delaware). Long time associate collaborator of Mimi Lien: Uncle Vanya (Broadway, Lincoln Center), The Green (Lincoln Center public art installation); The Lifespan of a Fact (Broadway, Studio 54). Drama Desk Nomination for Octet. MFA, NYU. USA 829 member. brittanyvasta.com
Celeste Jennings (Costume Designer) (she/hers) is a passionate costume designer and playwright who is really proud to collaborate on Minor.ity with The Women’s Project. Most recently, she designed Oh Happy Day and Pride and Prejudice at Baltimore Center Stage, Memnon with The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Rough Crossing wtiht eh Resident Ensemble Players, and the summer season at The Arkansas Reparatory Theatre and two of her plays, Citrus and ‘Bov Water, were fully produced at Northern Stage. Upcoming projects include Appropriate at The Old Globe, Furlough’s Paradise at the Geffen, and a reading of her new play Potliqka at the Spotlight Series at the Public Theatre. Jennings holds an MFA in costume design from NYU Tish School of the Arts and recently finished her tenure as a 2050 fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. She’s a current member of the Emerging Writer’s Group of the Public Theatre. IG: celestejenn_ Website: celestejenndesigns.com
Daisy Long (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer for theater, opera, concert and dance. New York credits include: The Shed, Keen Company, BAM, Atlantic, The Barrow Group Primary Stages, Abingdon Theater Company, Mason Holdings, HERE Arts Center, LaMaMa, NYU, AMERINDA, TADA! Youth Theater (National Youth Arts Award for Outstanding Lighting for The Perfect Monster), Manhattan School of Music. Regional credits include: Everyman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Alliance, Speakeasy Stage Company (IRNE Award for Best Lighting for The Scottsboro Boys), Kitchen Theatre Company, Yale, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Smith, Interlochen. She is the lighting director for Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, a Roundabout teaching artist, and a USA 829 member. She also writes gentle fantasy stories about farming, teaching and tavern-keeping under the name “James Falcon”.
Tosin Olufolabi (Sound Designer)(she/her) is excited to be at WP Theater again. NYC: Dirty Laundry, Bite Me (WP Theater); Stargazers (Page 73). REGIONAL: The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf Theatre); Gloria (2018 Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Sound Design for a Hayes Production); There’s Always the Hudson and Hi, Are You Single?; Incendiary; The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (Woolly Mammoth); Ain’t No Mo (Woolly Mammoth/Baltimore Center Stage); Life is a Dream (Baltimore Center Stage); Crying on Television, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, The Sound Inside, The Chinese Lady, Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Everyman Theater); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play; it’s not a trip it’s a journey (Round House Theatre); A Wind in the Door (Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences).
Samantha Tutasi (Properties Supervisor) Ecuadorian-American theater artist, most recent collaborations include: Properties Design – Dirty Laundry, Munich Medea: Happy Family (WP Theater), Coping Mechanism (Wild Project); Scenic Design – La Musica Deuxième (A/Park Productions). Authorial Intent; Exit, Pursued By A Bear; The Laramie Project (ASDS Rep Theater). Captain Courageous; The Secret Garden (Powerhouse Theater Collaborative). Virgin, Mother, Whore (Boundless Theater Co.). Film – Egg Timer (dir. Annie Tippe). She frequently works with the American Theater Wing on their educational program, Springboard To Design. BFA: State University of New York at Purchase, 2022. samanthatutasidesign.myportfolio.com
Caren Celine Morris (Production Stage Manager)(she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from The Bronx. She aims to promote inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in all of her projects. Caren has worked on projects with WP Theater, The Shed, Ping Chong & Company, HERE Arts Center, Audible @ Minetta Lane Theatre, NYC Civic Engagement Commission, Colt Coeur, The Public, Perelman Arts Center, and The Bushwick Starr. Colt Coeur Company Member.
Siobhan Petersen (Assistant Stage Manager) (They/them) is a Brooklyn based stage manager. Their past credits with WP include Bite Me. They’re so very excited to be back with WP for another production. Thank you Mom and Dad, for guiding me into the world, and thank you to my partner for accompanying me on this journey.
Eunice S. Ferreira (Dramaturg) is a scholar artist whose research, teaching, and artistic practice focus on and amplify global artists. She has produced and directed a variety of plays and musicals, including Black Super Hero Magic Mama, Providence Garden Blues, Once on This Island, Songs for a New World, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Polaroid Stories, and the multilingual premiere of Caridad Svich’s The Orphan Sea. As a dramaturg, she specializes in new works that center Black and global majority lives, most recently with WP Theater, Colt Coeur, Capital Repertory Theater, and Brown University. She also consults on new musical development. She has published in U.S. and international journals, including the first English translation of a play from Cabo Verde, West Africa, and created materials for the last U.S. tour from the longest-running Cabo Verdean theatre troupe. Forthcoming books include Applied Theatre and Racial Justice (Routledge, co-editor Lisa L. Biggs) and Crioulo Performance: Remapping Creole and Mixed Race Theatre (Vanderbilt Press). She served as Black Theatre Association president and is a board member of arts and civic organizations, including The Orchard Project, DNAWORKS Ensemble, MIT Catalyst Collaborative, and Greatest Minds. She is Associate Professor of Theater at Skidmore College where she was selected as a Mellon Periclean Faculty Leader and is an affiliate faculty member in Black Studies, Latin American and Latinx Studies, and Intergroup Relations. Her teaching and research areas include Black theater, multilingual performance, directing, theater history, translation studies, mixed race performance, theater for social justice and change, musical theater, new play development, and theater of Cabo Verde, her ancestral home. She trains students to be innovative theater makers who reflect a greater breadth of the human experience by engaging with the dynamic intersections of race, gender, language, culture, and social justice. She brings her expertise in diversity efforts, cultural competencies, dramaturgy, and antiracist theatre practices to her work in and out of the classroom, often sharing as a guest scholar artist and presenting at national and international conferences. She was honored to be appointed as a MLK Visiting Professor at MIT for the 22-23 academic year. She has a B.A. from Eastern Nazarene College, a M.A. from Emerson College, and a Ph.D. from Tufts University, which honored her with the 2023 Outstanding Service Award. She invites you to follow @BIPOCTheatre, her Instagram teaching account to amplify BIPOC theatre artists and scholars.
Jack Phillips Moore (Dramaturg) is a New York-based dramaturg, teacher and theater administrator with a focus on new play development, originally from the District of Columbia. Jack works as the Associate Director of New Work Development at The Public Theater, where he has served the development of dozens of new plays and musicals over the last decade. At the Public, Jack also leads the Emerging Writers Group and other artist-focused programs. Projects Jack has helped develop have premiered at theaters across the country and have received numerous honors including Obie Awards, Tony Award nominations, the Princess Grace Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has also dramaturged/consulted on new work for Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Colt Coeur, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Lark, Long Wharf Theatre, Ma-Yi Theater, New Dramatists, The Orchard Project, the Playwrights Center, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and WP Theater, to name a few. Recent and upcoming productions include Good Bones by James Ijames (Public Theater), Oh Happy Day! by Jordan E. Cooper (Baltimore Center Stage), The Other Americans by John Leguizamo (Arena Stage), and Let’s Keep Dancing by John Purugganan (Public Theater) as well as new plays by Lisa Sanaye Dring, and Mona Mansour. Jack has taught courses in dramaturgy, theater history and administration at NYU, the Atlantic Theater School, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Tepper Semester at Syracuse University and has served as a juror/consultant for the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Leah Ryan Prize and the Kilroys, among many others. He is a graduate of New York University and lives in Brooklyn.
Barbara Rubin (Dialect Coach) is thrilled to lend her ears to this production and to be reunited with Shariffa Ali after previous collaborations on Mies Julie and Mlima’s Tale. For Colt Coeur, she coached Peter Mark Kendall and Rosaline Elbay in Dodi and Diana (HERE). She is a proud WP Directing Lab alumna & ardent supporter! Broadway: The Road to Mecca. Off-Broadway: The Mulberry Tree (La Mama); The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center); Mies Julie (CSC); Fugard Residency at Signature including Boesman and Lena, Master Harold…and the Boys, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, The Train Driver, My Children! My Africa!; The Blood Knot (Signature); My Name is Asher Lev (Westside). Regional: Crazy for You, My Best Friend’s Wedding (Ogunquit); Mlima’s Tale (St. Louis Rep) Photograph 51, Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club (Audible/Williamstown); A Raisin in the Sun, A Human Being of a Sort, Dangerous House (Williamstown); Going to St. Ives (Barrington Stage); Born Yesterday (Pittsburgh Public); Judgement Day (Bard SummerScape). Tours: Beautiful; The King & I. Film & Television: Inventing Anna & Ozark – Julia Garner; Jigsaw – Peter Mark Kendall; Escape from Pretoria – Daniel Radcliffe; Official Secrets – Adam Bakri; Winnie – Jennifer Hudson, Terrence Howard; Chicago Med; The Americans; Blindspot. Faculty: AADA. www.barbararubin.net
Cori Thomas (Playwright)(she/her) is an-award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and author. She is the Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at WP Theater and a Soros Equality Fellow. Produced Plays include LOCKDOWN (TRW Plays); When January Feels Like Summer (Dramatic Publishing Company); Co- Author: I Cried To Dream Again – Penguin/Random House (May 2022) Finalist “In The Margins” Social Justice Book Award. Multiple residencies and fellowships including Mellon Foundation Playwright-In-Residence at WP Theater in NYC; MacDowell; Sundance Institute; O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; Bogliasco Foundation; Baryshnikov Foundation, Jerome Foundation; New Dramatists Alum; Helen Merrill Prize, American Theater Critic’s Association Osborne Award- Best New Play, and
more.
Co-Founder San Quentin Film Festival SQFF (Fall 2024) www.sanquentinfilmfestival.com
Tea Alagić (Director) is an internationally recognized theater maker and producer based in New York City. She holds a BFA in acting from Charles University in Prague and an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama, where she was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize. Since 2012, she has taught directing and collaboration at The New School for Drama, where she served as Head of Directing from 2016 to 2020.
Alagić has directed major productions across the U.S. and Europe, including world premiere of The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney (The Public Theater, Lortel Award nomination), Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek (WP Theater, Lortel Award nomination ), Romeo and Juliet (CSC Rep), and Passing Strange (The Wilma Theater), for which she received several awards and nominations, including a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction and nominations for Outstanding Production. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alagić fled her country in 1992 due to war and found refuge in theater. Her work reflects a deep commitment to cross-cultural collaboration and storytelling.
Lisa Peterson (Director/Playwright) is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer/director. Her works include An Iliad, written with Denis O’Hare (NYTW, OBIE and Lortel Awards); The Good Book (co-written with O’Hare, Court Theater, and Berkeley Rep); The Waves (adapted from Virginia Woolf with composer David Bucknam, NYTW). Lisa is renowned for directing new plays and classics across the country; recently she directed the world premiere of Doug Wright’s Good Night Oscar on Broadway. She was Associate Director at Berkeley Rep, Center Theatre Group, and La Jolla Playhouse. She is a recent recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement. Upcoming writing projects include The Song of Rome with O’Hare, and The Idea of Order with composer Todd Almond.
Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Playwright)(she/her) is a playwright and TV writer from Los Angeles who lives in New York City. Her plays have been developed with The Alley Theater, Rising Circle Theater Collective, On-Site Opera, Astoria Performing Arts Center, WP Theater, The Public Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Westport Country Playhouse, and Long Wharf Theatre. She is an alum of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, R&D Group at The Civilians, Fresh Ground Pepper’s Playground Playgroup, WP Theater Playwrights Lab, and the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. She has been in residence at MacDowell, Ucross, Stillwright, La Mama Umbria, Millay Arts, The MITTEN Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Monet was a writer/producer for seasons 21-24 of Law and Order: SVU. Episodes she co-wrote won three Imagen Awards for positive portrayals of Latinos in media and a nomination for Mystery Writers of America’s 2023 Edgar Allen Poe Award. Proud member of The Kilroys, The Dramatist Guild, and WGAE.
Tatiana Pandiani (Director) is a director-choreographer and writer who works in English and Spanish. She’s the creator of bilingual musical Azul (Jonathan Larson Winner, NAMT, O’Neill, Goodspeed) which has sold out shows at 54Below and Joe’s Pub. Recent: Dial M for Murder (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Indecent (Perseverance Theatre, Alaska), Our Town (Dallas Theatre Center). Tatiana directed and choreographed the world premiere of Torera at the Alley Theatre, in Houston. She received a Lucille Lortel Alcove commission for her new play, Hinge Baby, a climate change comedy she is co-writing with Danny Tejera; she is also developing English Only based on the true events of the English Only movement in Florida in the 1980/s alongside journalist and author Nick Griffin. Columbia MFA. Reps: UTA & Brillstein. For more info: www.tatianapandiani.com / www.azulthemusical.com
Kayla Amani is a director and storyteller from and based in NYC. Kayla is passionate about creating and uplifting work involving the intricacies of Black and Queer experiences, while also finding delight in seeking out the humanity and complexities within morally compromised characters. They are a company member and frequent director with PlayGround-NY, winning the season’s “People’s Choice Award” for their direction of @rudymocha has entered the chatroom. In addition, they’re a member of TAG, an artist-led collaboration cohort run through The Tank. Kayla has proudly assisted directors such as Lileana Blain-Cruz (Flex, White Girl in Danger), Caitlin Sullivan (The Keep Going Songs), and Tamilla Woodard (Weightless) among others. They have loved working with companies such as Second Stage, Lincoln Center and WP Theater.
Britt Berke is a director whose work interrogates love, power, and how these entities are intertwined and revolutionized. She directed the world premiere of Betty Smith’s Becomes a Woman (Mint Theater Company), which received an Outer Critics Circle Nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. Recently: watch me (NYTW at Adelphi); Springtime (Chautauqua Theater Company); DOGS (Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep); Anne Carson’s Antigonick (Torn Out Theater); Promenade in concert (The Public Theater’s Fornes Marathon); I Don’t Trust Adults (Joe’s Pub); Scenes with Girls (TheaterLab); All My Sons (NYU Grad); workshops with Mabou Mines and La MaMa; and short films SHIPS and The Skin of the Water. Select assisting: The Skin of Our Teeth (dir. Lileana Blain-Cruz); Mud / Drowning (dir. JoAnne Akalaitis). Britt is an alumna of the Drama League Directors Project, Roundabout Directors Group, MTC Directing Fellowship, and Mercury Store Directing Intensive. BA, Barnard College of Columbia University. brittberke.com
Penzi Hill (she/her) is a New York based theatre artist/producer/dramaturg. Penzi started her career at Williamstown Theater Festival where she was a part of the inaugural class of Black Theatre United’s Early BIPOC Theatre-Makers. Subsequently, Penzi was the Associate Producer of WP Pipeline Festival (2022), an intern for the Movement Theatre Company in Harlem, the Producing Intern at Tom Kirdahy Productions, and the Assistant for the Theatrical Literary Department at IAG. Currently, Penzi is the Artistic Assistant at MCC Theater. NYU Tisch (2023).
Susanna Jaramillo is a Queens-based director and stage manager hailing from Cranford, New Jersey. Artistically, Susanna believes in radical inclusion. She aims to create work that subverts our expectations of identity and uplifts voices that are often left out of the theatrical canon. Her work lives in a world of sensorial extremes and seeks to interrogate the ways that we do and don’t engage with the intersectional nature of identity and what that means for each of us. Recent credits include: The Memory Brigade (The Motor Company) the doctor will see you shortly (Keen Company), azn sad grl (Mercury Store) Myth of the Mountain (Open Jar), Jesus 2.0 (Workshop Theatre), Fucking A (PPAS), Best Life (JACK). Assisting credits include: Yellow Face (Broadway, Roundabout) The Ants (Geffen Playhouse), Wolf Play (MCC) Dom Juan (Bard SummerScape). Susanna is an alum of the Roundabout Director’s Group and the Drama League Directing Assistantship Program.
Alex Keegan is a director of new work, adaptations, and devised pieces. She’s a 2023 Drama League FutureNOW Directing Fellow, 2022/2023 Directing Fellow at Rattlestick Theater, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and on faculty at Wesleyan University. Recent directing: MANNING by Benjamin Benne (World Premiere, Portland Stage), MAIDEN VOYAGE by Cayenne Douglass (The Flea), WOLFCRUSH by Haygen-Brice Walker (Wesleyan), CHARLOTTE’S WEB (National Tour, TheaterWorksUSA), BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA by Anna Ouyang Moench (Chester Theatre Co.), AFFINITY co-adapted with Ryan Adelsheim from Sarah Waters’ novel and UHURU by Gloria Majule (Yale Drama), AUNTIE VANYA by Reed Northrup (Ars Nova ANT Fest), and new work in development with Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and NYTW Adelphi Residency. Alum: Roundabout Directors Group, The Civilians R&D Group, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Williamstown Directing Corps. MFA: Yale School of Drama, where she received the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize for Directing. alex-keegan.com
