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.
SOUND DESIGN (she/her) returns to WP Theater, having previously designed Hatef**k and the 2018 Pipeline Festival. She is a NYC-based Sound Designer and Audio Engineer with over 30 years of experience in Live Entertainment. Her Off-Broadway and Regional designs include work at Alliance Theatre, Asolo Rep, 5th Avenue Theatre Seattle, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Public Theater, and Seattle REP. She has extensive credits associate designing and engineering Broadway Shows and National Touring Companies. TV credits include audio engineering the NBC-Live! Productions of The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, and The Wiz. Her work as a recording engineer was honored with a 2022 GRAMMY Nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album for Snapshots. She has lectured at Ithaca College, Princeton University, and University of Cincinnati. She holds degrees in music and audio engineering from Ithaca College and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jlssound.com
PROJECTION/VIDEO DESIGN is a production designer, film & video maker and educator working in Live Music, Theater, Film & Video. For over a decade he has toured internationally as a video director & designer with multi-Grammy Award winning singer Lila Downs. As a film / video maker & cinematographer, he directs and creates visual material across a variety of mediums. Projects include work for composer Hans Zimmer, Production Design on José Rivera’s short film The Fall of a Sparrow, Executive Producer on award winning short film Early Light. He provided camera work for designer Peter Nigrini on Broadway’s MJ the Musical, Dear Evan Hansen and MCC’s Space Dogs of the Cosmodrome. Theater Design: Fandango for Butterflies and coyotes (La Jolla Playhouse), For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad; (Soho Rep), Addressless; (Rattlestick Theater), A Grave is Given Supper; (New Ohio Theater / Teatro Dallas), Definition; (Bushwick Starr) Art / Public Installations include: Sweet Crude Video Sculpture (Anna Kustera Gallery), As Above So Below (Dumbo Arts Festival) Upcoming: Public Obscenities; (Soho Rep). johnnymoreno.com IG/Twitter: @johnnymoreno
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER (she/her) NYC: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater), Broadway Bounty Hunter (Greenwich House Theater), Jersey Boys (New World Stages), Pacific Overtures (Classic Stage); Oh, Hello (Cherry Lane); Straight (Theatre Row); By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club); Pageant (Davenport Theater); Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova); The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise (Play Company); Three Men on a Horse, Bedroom Farce (The Actors Company Theatre); Twelfth Night (Sonnet Repertory Theatre). REGIONAL: May We All (TPAC), Other World (DTC), Broadway Bounty Hunter (Barrington Stage Company), Gypsy! (starring Karen Ziemba, Sharon Playhouse), I Promised Myself to Live Faster, Twelfth Night, Zero Cost House (Pig Iron Theatre Co.); Guys and Dolls, Saving Aimee, Memphis! Hello, Dolly! (5th Avenue Theatre)
(WRITER, she/her) Award-winning playwright/actress, was chosen by Toni Morrison to adapt her novel Jazz. Her adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son which had its world premiere at Court Theatre has been seen across the country and premiered off-Broadway in 2019 at The Duke on 42nd Street (The Acting Company; AUDELCO Award for “Best Play”). She is currently developing multiple commercial theatre projects and is a former playwright-in-residence at the National Black Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, The Dramatists Guild Fellows Program, and New Victory LabWorks. She is the recipient of the 2020 NNPN annual commission, the Prince Prize 2019, and a Dramatists Guild Foundation Writers Alliance Grant 2018-19. Nambi’s newly formed production company, First Woman LLC, is currently producing a digital and national tour of Nambi’s young audiences’ play, Jabari Dreams of Freedom, directed by Daniel Carlton. Also an executive story editor in television, Nambi served as a writer on Showtime’s “The Chi”, “Our Kind of People” (Fox), and on an Apple Plus show, TBA. She is also in development with several other film and TV projects. www.nambikelley.com
(DIRECTOR, she/her) is a Dominican-American director and creative collaborator based in NYC, who specializes in the development of new work and aesthetic world building. Regardless of medium, she’s invested in generating rigorous images, in support of framing stories to their fullest potential. She’s developed work with Agnes Borinsky (A Song of Songs), Aziza Barnes (NANA), Daniella De Jesús (Mambo Sauce), Deaf West (“T“), PigPen Theatre Company (Phantom Folktales), Ellen Winter (This House Is your Home), and directed the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’ Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr. Machel is a 2022 Ars Nova Visionary Resident, and a 2020 Sundance Theater Lab Fellow. BFA-NYU
(PRODUCER, she/her) is a Nigerian-American creative producer, dramaturg, and company manager hailing from Brooklyn, NY. She is the Artistic Director of The Parsnip Ship, a radio-play series and platform amplifying underproduced playwrights via audio theater. In addition, she is the Director of Artistic Programs at Signature Theatre (NYC). She is a recipient of the Fulbright International Scholarship and Gilman International Scholarship (both to Italy) and the recipient of the 2019 Mark O’Donnell Prize. Iyvon is an Affiliate Dramaturg with Beehive Dramaturgy Studio. B.A. Brandeis University. M.A. Baruch College (CUNY) Arts Administration. @iamiyvon
Broadway: Originated the role of Mrs. Phelps in Matilda The Musical. International: Starred in the international tour of Battlefield and Le Costume, both directed by Peter Brook. Karen is a proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago. Chicago Theatre: extensive work at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre, as well as Writers’ Theatre and Next Theatre Company. Karen portrayed the role of Zelmare Roulette in Season 4 of the FX television series Fargo. She most recently appeared in SEVERANCE (Apple TV+.) Other television: The Get Down (Netflix), Chicago Fire (NBC), Chicago Med (NBC), Boss (STARZ!), Blue Bloods (CBS), Unforgettable (CBS).
is a Brazilian Multidisciplinary Theatre artist based in New York, with focus on set design, props and directing. Upcoming designer works: The Seagull and Ulisses by Elevator Repair Service; Eva Luna by Repertório Espanhol; Recent theatre credits Song of Songs (Bushwick Starr, dir. Machel Ross), 7 Minutes (Waterwell, dir. Mei Ann Teo); Wolf Play (Soho Rep, Ma-Yi Theater Company), Black Exhibition (Bushwick Starr with Jeremy O. Harris dir. Machel Ross), Preparedness by Hillary Miller (Bushwick Starr), SKiNFoLK (Bushwick Starr & National Black Theatre), Addressless (Rattlestick Theatre), In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Theatre) and Lost & Found (The Tank + En Garde Arts & Downtown Alliance). Recent interactive live performance credits include The Sunset PICNIC (The Tank) and Carnavalize the Matter (TheatreLab). Patricia has also recently directed What Will Become of Kaaron? (The Tank) and her own work as a playwright A Song to Keep the Wolves Awake (The Tank)
is originally from the Coast Salish territory on so-called Vancouver Island, she works on a wide range of projects including dance, installation, music, and theatre. Select Recent Design Credits: Be More Chill (Area Stage Company, Miami), Polylogues (Colt Coeur), The Softstream (Digital Concert from Softee), PNEUMOTHERAPY (II) (Miles Greenberg at PERROTIN New York), HAEMOTHERAPY (1) (Miles Greenberg at Reena Spaulings), Black Exhibition (The Bushwick Starr), The Slow Room (PSNY), AGNES (59E59, Lesser America). Select Assistant/Associate Credits: Bonnaroo Site Lighting (David Weiner Design), Outside Lands Site Lighting (David Weiner Design), Mary (Kanye West at Lincoln Center), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwright’s Horizons), “Daddy” (New Group/Vineyard), The Good Swimmer (BAM), Drake-Boy Meets World (European Tour).
is a New York based interdisciplinary artist. (Select Sound Credits): David Cromer’s A Case for the Existence of God (Signature Theater), NY Times Critic’s Pick This Beautiful Future (TheaterLab), Yoga Play (PlayMakers Rep. Co.), PS (Ars Nova), Fly Away (Petzel Gallery), Preparedness, Black Exhibition (The Bushwick Starr), MTA Radio Plays (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Neptune (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum). Chris has serviced sound design for installations, devised works and theatrical productions in collaboration with National Black Theater, The Movement Theater Company, WP Theater, Playwrights Horizons, The TEAM, Trinity Rep, Theater for a New Audience, The Atlantic, and The Shed. Wingspace 2019-2020 Sound Design Fellow. www.darbassiedesign.com
(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 The Tank, The Shed, Ping Chong & Company, Derek Fordjour Studios, The Public, and The Bushwick Starr.
has an extensive career in international stage direction and theater education spanning over three decades. James recently made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator of Broadway for Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over. In addition to her Broadway credit, she served as Intimacy Director and Sensitivity Specialist® for the provocative Off-Broadway productions of Moises Kaufman’s Seven Deadly Sins by Tectonic Theatre Project, Seize the King produced by Classical Theatre of Harlem, Twilight Los Angeles:1992 at Signature Theater, F*cking A at Fordham University and most recently for Dominique Morisseau’s compelling play, Confederates also at Signature Theater.. On the West Coast, James provides consultation and intimacy coordination for the television and film industry most recently working with Rashida Jones, Mark Wahlberg, Issa Rae, Will Ferrell and Cynthia Enrivo. Her intimacy work has featured James as an expert voice for Theatre Communications Group, HowlRound, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and Lincoln Center’s Directors Lab West. Her company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color, has partnerships with Adelphi University, New York University, Columbia University, American Conservatory Theater, Brown University, Trinity Repertory Theater and A.R.T./New York. James is in the second year of her studies as America’s first MFA in Performance Pedagogy with an emphasis in Afrocentric Intimacy Pedagogy at Loyola Marymount University.
(they/them) is a performer and maker of music, video and live shows, and collaboration is a vital part of their process. A member of the bands A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Roman à Clef, Goma also works in partnership with Obie Award winning writer Haruna Lee. Recently the duo brought their iterative performance piece plural (love) to the Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab and Goma worked as a composer for Haruna Lee’s Suicide Forest directed by Aya Ogawa (Ma-Yi Theater Company, Bushwick Starr). A frequent collaborator with Ziwe, the two create live performances and are currently working on Ziwe’s eponymous television show. Goma’s 2017 album Smiley Face, released under the moniker Showtime Goma, made with Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier and A Sunny Day in Glasgow bandmates, was placed on Rolling Stone’s list of “Albums to Stream Now” and Showtime Goma’s music and videos have appeared on Playboy, NPR and Pitchfork. Goma has toured frequently, opening for acts like of Montreal, in a piece made with Lou Tides (Teeny Lieberson of the band TEEN.) Goma has been featured in recorded and live collaborations with musicians like Jherek Bischoff and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. As a member of People Get Ready, Goma worked with Steven Reker, James Rickman and Luke Fasano to mount shows at The Kitchen and New York Live Arts. P.G.R. have also provided live, original music for Jodi Melnick in the Fall For Dance festival and performed at the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival.
