Jordana De La Cruz (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based stage director, curator, creative producer, and co-conspirator in the movement to spread Black & Brown joy. She concentrates on new work that questions what it means to be free and, more urgently, how we are helping each other achieve this freedom. Their practice aims to expand the concept of community and serve as inspiration for action, whether it be protest, rest as resistance, or artistic creation. Jordana is also the Co-Director of JACK, an award winning Brooklyn performance meets civic space, whose mission is to fuel experiments in arts and activism with adventurous artists and neighbors. She has served as a visiting faculty member at Fordham University and held producing, curating, and directing positions at Park Avenue Armory, INTAR Theatre, 52nd Street Project, Story Pirates, Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, Lark Play Development Center, Japan Society, Iati Theater, La Mama Experimental Group, and The New School.
(she/her) Raised in Atlanta GA and embedded in Charleston SC’s Lowcountry, Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America. A graduate of The New School, she developed solo performance with PS 122, Dixon Place, Samuel Beckett Theater, The Royal Theater Company and the Public Theater, and held performance residences with George St. Theater, PS NBC at HERE and The Apollo Theater as well as an artist residency at Gettysburg National Military Park. Playlabs include Liberation Theater Company, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Perspectives Theater Company and American Theater Group. A 2018 TED Resident with a TED Talk about the roots of country and bluegrass, a 2022 Artist Fellow with the National Arts Club and a recipient of the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater, she is a proud member of The Recording Academy, Actor’s Equity, SAG/AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild.
Amina Henry (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright. Productions include: The Animals, Ducklings, Hunter John and Jane and The Johnsons (JACK), P.S. (Ars Nova), Little Rapes (The New Group/Long Island University), Troy (HERO Theatre), The Great Novel (New Light Theater), and Bully produced by Interrobang Theater, Clubbed Thumbs 2019 Winterworks, and SUNY Purchase, among other venues. Her work has been produced by/ developed by/presented at: The New Group, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Flea, Page 73, Project Y Theatre, National Black Theater, Little Theater at Dixon Place, The Brooklyn Generator, The Brick, Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the 2013 Black Swan Lab Series, Kitchen Dog Theater, The Brick, Brooklyn Public Library, the cell, and HERO Theatre. She has been a member of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group, Page73’s writers group, and the 2017-2018 Ars Nova writers group. She was a 2017-2018 recipient of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Space Residency and is a 2018 recipient of a space residency at Dixon Place. She is a 2020 recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award. She is an affiliate artist of New Georges.
Onyekachi Iwu is a Nigerian-American director and playwright from Nashville, TN. Drawing from her Southern and Nigerian roots, Iwu’s work explores themes of love, sisterhood, violence, and transformation. Iwu’s most recent directing credits include: Assistant Director for Stereophonic, directed by Daniel Aukin at Playwrights Horizons. Assistant Director for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman at Brooklyn Academy of Music and on Broadway. As a playwright, Iwu was an inaugural member of the American Theatre Group Playlab. She was a finalist for UCROSS +The Blank Theatre’s 2022 Future of Playwriting Prize, 2021 Crossroads Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative, and the 2020 Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers. Her short play, Georgia Rose, was published in an anthology by Concord Theatricals in 2023.
Alverneq Lindsay (she/her) is a creative producer and performer from Brooklyn, NY. She is currently working as a Line Producer at The Public Theater (Richard III, A Raisin in the Sun). She has previously worked at Little Island and the New Victory Theater, curating artistic programs and providing developmental support for artists across various disciplines. She believes the arts have the ability to generate empathy and joy and strives to help increase arts access through her work as a producer and arts advocate. Alverneq uses her independent producing projects to curate spaces that build community through shared experiences and encourage emotional vulnerability.
Emma Orme (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based producer and performer with a focus on new theatrical work. She is currently the Producing Director of Hypokrit Productions, where she has produced & developed work with Sharbari Ahmed, Aya Aziz, Neal Gupta, Sathya Sridharan, and more. She has performed in and developed work at NYTW, The Public, Williamstown, LaMama, The Flea, Atlantic Theater, EST, Drama League, and more. Producing credits include: Circle Jerk Off-Broadway at The Connelly; Pleasure Machine, a podcast starring Starr Busby and made with Colt Coeur; Running, a short film starring Danny Pudi; Time Out Critics’ Pick Brief Chronicle: Books 6-8 by Agnes Borinsky; NYT Critics’ Pick Red Emma & The Mad Monk; NYT Critics’ Pick AGNES; and workshops of new plays by Ruby Rae Spiegel, Sunita Prasad, Gina Femia, Celeste Jennings, Justine Gelfman, Deborah Yarchun, and others. She has served as a video producer for The New York Times, the BOLD Associate Producer at Northern Stage, and the Artistic Producer of VoxLab. BA: Dartmouth College
Sami Pyne (she/her) is an NYC-based independent producer passionate about decluttering and demystifying the production process for creators. Curiosity is a huge component of Sami’s producing process and she’s at her happiest when grappling with something new. She’s had the pleasure of working with companies such as 600 Highwaymen, The Arts & Climate Initiative, The Exponential Festival, Clubbed Thumb, New York Theatre Workshop, Aeon, The Martin E. Segal Center, Signature Theatre, The Play Company (PlayCo), Theatre Development Fund (TDF), and HERE Arts Center. Sami is currently the associate producer for ArKtype, one of the world’s leading supporters of new, experimental work under the direction of Thomas O. Kriegsmann. Sami is a proud member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA) and holds a position on the operations committee. Graduate of the Columbia University Theatre Management & Producing MFA program, 2020. www.samipyne.com
Barbara Samuels (she/her) is a queer producer, organizer and lighting designer residing on unceded Wappinger and Munsee Lenape land. Barbara values a diversity of approaches and ideas in creating intimate and explosive environments for new plays, opera and dance, aiming to unearth the human condition and consciousness of our surroundings while destabilizing harmful power structures. Barbara is currently developing projects with Kedian Keohan and Becca Blackwell. She served as the General Manager of OBIE Award-winning 13P from 2008-2012, and as Producing Director of Morgan Gould and Friends from 2014-2018. Barbara holds a B.A. from Fordham University and an M.F.A in Lighting Design from NYU. Proud member of USA Local 829. New Georges Affiliated Artist. www.barbarasamuels.com.
Julia Sirna-Frest (she/her) is a performer, composer, director and teaching artist. She has performed at WP Theater (!), The Kitchen, NYTW, BAC, The Incubator, Hartford Stage, Wild Project, The Brooklyn Museum, La MaMa, Abrons Art Center, The New Museum, Mass MoCA, PS 122, Joe’s Pub, The Bushwick Starr and New Dramatists. Directing collaborations with playwright Zoë Geltman: Puffy Hair (The Tank), Sea Fraud (Dixon Place, The Brick), Lolly, Lolly, Lolly (Development at NACL, The Bushwick Starr and New Georges). As a founding member of the Obie winning theater company Half Straddle she has toured to France, Croatia, Portland and Philadelphia with Seagull (thinking of you), In the Pony Palace/Football and Ghost Rings. She composes with Shane Chapman and their work has been at Target Margin, Ars Nova, The Exponential Festival and The Fisher Center. Their first album will be released Jan 2023. She co-fronts Doll Parts, a Dolly Parton Cover Band.
Dina Vovsi (she/her) is a New York-based director and theatermaker. Recent projects include EXITS, an audio-theatrical journey through Fort Greene, supported by New Georges and the Brooklyn Arts Council, and Love is… [Kocham Cię], a 2022 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA collaboration with Pete McGuinness Senior Center. She has directed and developed new work with The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, and more. Dina is a member of the 2022-23 Roundabout Directors Group, a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative commission recipient. She was a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee, a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, a member of The Civilians’ R&D Group, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, WP Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi, and more. www.dinavovsi.com
Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer whose work often deals with the formation and continuance of outsider communities. Their work has been incubated in groups at The Public Theatre (EWG), Ars Nova (Play Group), WP (Trans Lab), Playwrights Realm (Fellow), and Bechdel Group (Resident Artist). Fellow at MacDowell, Stillwright, and Barn Arts. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else’s plays have been finalists and semifinalists for the O’Neill, Princess Grace, ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, and the Carlo Annoni Prize, among others. Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theatre.
Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer whose work often deals with the formation and continuance of outsider communities. Their work has been incubated in groups at The Public Theatre (EWG), Ars Nova (Play Group), WP (Trans Lab), Playwrights Realm (Fellow), and Bechdel Group (Resident Artist). Fellow at MacDowell, Stillwright, and Barn Arts. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else’s plays have been finalists and semifinalists for the O’Neill, Princess Grace, ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, and the Carlo Annoni Prize, among others. Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theatre.
Praycious Wilson-Gay (she/her) is an arts administrator and creative producer. She received her B.F.A in Stage Management from Syracuse University and her M.F.A in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College. She is currently the Associate Director for The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit. She works from an anti-racist and decolonized praxis in all her projects and encourages artists to do the same. Amongst many other projects in her position, she launched a digital Hip-Hop vs. Shakespeare writing course for the incarcerated community amidst the pandemic. Praycious has years of experience in community organizing, event planning, stage management, theater management and producing. Recently, Praycious was an adjunct lecturer for the Performance Arts Management Master’s Program at Brooklyn College. She is also a Board Member of SpiritHouse South based in Durham, NC. Praycious specializes in working with communities to amplify the stories that matter to them.
Lorna Ventura (Director – Blackbirding) is a Director/Choreographer with a long list of credits from Broadway to film and television. Original Broadway productions include: Wicked, Grease, All Shook Up, Harlem Song, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and The Life, as an Original Cast Member or Associate Choreographer —In addition, her collaborations and relationships with elite directors such as George C. Wolfe, Joe Mantello, Kathleen Marshall, Charles Randolph Wright, Ruben Santiago Hudson and Billy Porter have allowed her to hone her craft and transition with grace into the Director/Choreographer’s seat.
Recent projects include: Destiny of Desire (Choreographer) Old Globe, American Prophet (Choreographer) Arena Stage, Christmas in Hell (Director/Choreographer) Reinkus Heinz Theater (Las Vegas premiere), Fiddler on the Roof (Choreographer) Olney Theater, Women on Fire (Director/Choreographer) Royal Family.
Last season Lorna’s choreography was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for American Prophet at Arena Stage. She is very excited about the continued development of Blackbirding with Queen Esther at WP Theater.
Ran Xia (she/her) is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based Playwright/Director/Audiogremlin. Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Resident Director at the Tank where she directed and composed for the film adaptation of Prometheus Bound (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019, In Blue, Tallest Man in the World, etc.); Guest director ar Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Montclair State (Randi & Roxanne), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co (Sound Design for the NYT critics’ pick Zoetrope, audio installation for Memory House, and many more); audio producer at Black Revolutionary Media. Playwright/Director for the theatrical portion of Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape with Creative Time. She’s also recently sound designer for productions at LIU Brooklyn, John Jay College, Theater Lab, and more. Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird at Rattlestick Global Form Festival. ranxia.info | thearcticgroup.org/echo
KATE KILBANE (Author/Procne/Bass, She/Her) & DAN MOSES (Author/Keyboard, He/Him). The Kilbanes are a theatrical rock band led by married songwriting duo Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses. Their rock musical Weightless ran at ACT after productions at the Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival and Z Space in San Francisco. Weightless received the highest rating from the SF Chronicle as well as a Bay Area Critics Circle Awards nomination for Best New Music. Their piece, Eddie the Marvelous, Who Will Save the World, was selected for the O’Neill National Music Conference in 2018. Eddie got its start at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor and was featured at Theatreworks’ New Works Festival. The Kilbanes collaborated with SF Shakespeare Festival on a musical version of As You Like It that played throughout the Bay Area. They currently have commissions with Theatreworks Silicon Valley and ACT’s Youth Conservatory program and have collaborated on several pieces with nationally renowned playwright Lauren Gunderson.
(Director, She/Her) was recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, she is the co-artistic director of Working Theater in New York; the founder of the site specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics; and the associate director of Tony Award-winning Hadestown on Broadway. Prior to joining Working Theater, she served as the BOLD associate artistic director at WP Theater. She has directed at theaters nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Classical Theater of Harlem, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts with TheaterWorksUSA, and The Cleveland Public Theatre, among others. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Donnetta Lavinia Gray’s award-winning Where We Stand at WP Theatre, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, and the critically acclaimed immersive off-Broadway production of 3/Fifths, by James Scruggs. Currently, she is represented online with the visionary, interactive digital tour of American Dreams, which she directs and developed with Leila Buck. Her work has been recognized with an Off-Broadway Alliance Award and Lucille Lortel Nomination. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she also teaches.
CHOREOGRAPHER (she/he/they/we). nicHi douglas is a Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, director, playwright, educator and ART-IVIST who spells her name with a capital H. She is the Head of Movement in the NYU/Tisch Playwrights Horizons Theater School studio. She has developed original theater work at Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, and The Public Theater, among others. She recently developed an interactive dance exhibit for the National Museum of African-American Music, and Co-Directed an evening-length event for the Women’s Summit at this year’s all-virtual Sundance Film Festival (2021). Her sacred offering for Black womxn, (pray), co-composed by Starr Busby & JJJJJerome Ellis, has been commissioned by Ars Nova. nicHi’s reparations-based mutual aid fund, nicHi’s SuSu, launched in October 2020. nicHi is currently a Resident Artist in Ars Nova’s Vision Residency 20-21 and New Victory Theater’s LabWorks Residency 20-21. Recent stage credits: A Time Like This: Music for Change (Carnegie Hall, Stage Director), Girl From the North Country (Public Theater, Associate
Choreographer), where love lies fallow (Open Call/The Shed, The Public Theater,
Playwright/Choreographer/Director), SKiNFoLK: An American Show (NYT Critic’s Pick//The Bushwick Starr/National Black Theater, Choreographer). Upcoming: The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel (The Movement Theatre Company/New Georges, Movement Director)BFA, Tisch/NYU; MFA, The New School www.mynameisnichi.com | @mynameisnichi
(Philomela, They/She) Off-Broadway credits include Anya in Cherry Orchard (Lake Lucille Chekov Project), Philomela in Weightless (Z Space), and Lila in Live From the Basement (New Conservatory Theatre Center). Television and film credits include her original music in the film Story of A Girl (Lifetime), as well as original music in the documentary Each and Every Day (MTV). She is currently pursuing a B.A. at Sarah Lawrence.
(Iris/Percussion, She/Her). An Oakland, Calif. musician, singer and songwriter, she has been a pioneering force in the Bay Area’s hip-hop soul/rock scene. She’s played the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival, toured with Iggy Pop, and played with Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, Macy Gray and others as well as placing music on MTV, OWN and other independent films. Her band, the KBB (Kofy Brown Band), have spread the gospel of Brown’s unique style of soul, rock, funk and more all-over North America, Canada and Europe while on tour. She is also the drummer/singer for Skip the Needle and bassist/singer for Sistas in the Pit. Her new release, Child of Providence, an homage to her great, great grandfather Providence Powers, is released on her indie label Simba Music. This is her 10th release – available on all electronic formats.
(Percussion, He/Him) has been the drummer with the Kilbanes for over 10 years. He also plays with San Francisco rock band Society of Rockets. In the early and mid-2000s he produced hip hop with various rappers in St. Louis, and played drums with the St. Louis hip hop band Sac Lunch. When not drumming, he develops cutting-edge digital audio technologies for consumer electronics and professional audio companies. He received his Master of Science degree in Music Engineering Technology from the University of Miami Frost School of Music.
(Tereus/Guitar, He/Him) is an actor, composer, and musician who’s performed throughout the world in about 4,000 bands and in collaborations with the likes of John Cale, Flea, Acid Mothers Temple, and Van Dyke Parks, amongst others. He was last seen on stage as Catesby in Cal Shakes’ The War Of The Roses, on television as Wolverine #2 in the series Trauma (NBC), and on film as Coughing Man in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion. He can also be heard narrating the audiobook of I’m Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen, by Sylvie Simmons. JoshPollockInc.com
SCENIC DESIGN is a scenographer and interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She designs sets, installations, and costumes for live performance and film. Select off-Broadway and downtown credits include set+costume design: The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), A Hunger Artist (Sinking Ship|The Tank), MukhAgni (The Public UTR), The Seventh Voyage and All the Different Ways…(Theater in Quarantine); set design: The Vicksburg Project (Mabou Mines), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution|Working Theater), Look Out Sh!^head (Object Collection|La Mama), Memoirs of a…Unicorn (NYLA, 2018 Bessie Award Outstanding Design), Charleses (The Tank, Hewes nomination); costume design for Namour (ARRAY feature film, on Netflix). Upcoming: SPEECH (Lightning Rod Special). Faculty at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, NYU Tisch. MFA, CalArts. www.peiyiameliawong.com
COSTUME DESIGN (She/Her/Hers) Regional Theater: Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (OSF); When Monica Met Hillary, (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth/The Guthrie/ART/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Off-Broadway: The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Spindle Shuttle Needle (Clubbed Thumb); Heartland (Geva Theater/59E59); First Down (Noor Theater/59E59); Hindsight (Fault Line Theater); Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Hypokrit Theatre); The Russian and The Jew (Anna and Kitty Inc/The Tank); Dead Are My People (Noor Theater). Other Theater: One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves Pay No Attention To The Girl, (Target Margin Theater); Design for Stage and Film M.F.A. – NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.dinae.me
LIGHTING DESIGN Credits: Fat Ham (Public Theater), sandblasted (Vineyard Theatre and WP Theater), This Beautiful Future (TheaterLab), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (The Shed), The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater Company), Stew (Page 73), for all the women who thought they were mad (Soho Rep), White Noise conceived by Daniel Fish (NYU Skirball), Playing Hot! (Pipeline Theater Company), Lewiston/Clarkston (Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater). 2018 Recipient of The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award.
