Marquee Builder, to begin constructing your first Marquee.
Marquee Database, where you can edit previously created items and create new items like Ads(for Marquee Pro users).
You may still use the auto-generated QR codes for any Marquee, found in their respective dropdown menus above.
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
After a moment, refresh the dashboard to see if it's ready to go!
Need to set a specific order to your Creative Team for your Marquee? Scroll down to Creative Team submission panel and select Set Order. You can then choose the order of the bios. The default order is alphabetical by last name.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, Director, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-founder of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
She is the curator and co-producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.
She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.
She narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
L Morgan Lee
L Morgan Lee (she/her) is a Tony Award® nominated actress and storyteller known for her history-making turn in A Strange Loop on Broadway - a performance which also garnered her an Antonyo Award and a Drama League Distinguished Performance nomination. In London, she was seen playing famed artist Lili Elbe in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (currently in development). Other work includes well over a decade of Off-Broadway, Regional, International/National concerts and tours with artists from Paul McCartney to Our Lady J. In the studio, L Morgan was the voice of Ornate Williams in the Sugar Maple Series w. Fred Savage (Osiris Media) and can be found on Joe Iconis' album (Ghostlight Records), The Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), and more. For more: @lmorganlee | lmorganlee.com
Zachary A. Myers
Zachary is a NYC transplant by way of Arkansas. She made her Broadway debut where she understudied the roles of Thought One & Thought Two in the Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Strange Loop (Broadway.) Some of her other notable credits include: Cats The Jellicle Ball (off broadway), S/He/& Me: A Musical Memoir Inspired By The Life of Alexandra Billings, A Complicated Woman (Goodspeed Musicals), Head Over Heels (The Richmond Triangle Players), Dylan Mulvaney’s 365 Days of Girlhood Live, & Emojiland (National Tour). “Much Love to Jhonika & Stacy who are my biggest supporters!” and a special thank you to Clear Talent Group. Trans rights are human rights!
Marquise Vilsón
Marquise Vilsón is a New York Native, by way of the Bronx, artist of trans experience. Marquise was first introduced to TV audiences when he guest-starred in the critically acclaimed episode of LAW & ORDER: SVU, titled Service, addressing the issues faced by transgender military service members.
Garnet Williams
Garnet Williams is an actor, writer, and singer originally from Atlanta, Ga. She was last seen in Cats: The Jellicle Ball off-Broadway. Other favorite roles include The Lovebird (Skyward: an Endling Elegy), Ms. Olivia Blonde (At Hotel Maguffin), and Pythio (Head Over Heels).
Dillon Yruegas
Dillon Yruegas (he/él) is a queer trans mixed coahuiltecan/xicano theatremaker from his ancestral lands in Central Texas. He holds both a BFA in Theatre and a BA in Spanish from Texas State University. On stage, off stage, and online, he has collaborated with theatre companies and cultural institutions across Turtle Island. He is a steering committee member of the Latinx Theatre Commons.
Dezi Bing
Dezi is an actress, writer, voice over artist, and keynote speaker whose recent work includes starring in Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares,” Wig Out, written by Academy Award™ Winner for Best Picture: Tarell Alvin McCraney, and working with Jackbox Games to voice ‘the host’ of one of their newest videos games: Roomerang. Dezi was recently published in “The Root Magazine,” a digital news publication with over half a million followers on Instagram. And she also completed a year long playwriting fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts where she wrote and workshopped her first play, “The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker.” So honored to have worked on this wonderful project!
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, Director, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-founder of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
She is the curator and co-producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.
She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.
She narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
Elisawon Etidorhpa
Elisawon Etidorhpa (they/she) is an nonbinary trans actor, writer, and director coming from a competitive theater background in Texas and studying in New York and obtaining their BFA from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy Los Angeles. Elisawon has recently appeared in Annex at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Texas For Four More Years for the Hantext Play Reading Festival, in KeyTv’s Production of Keep Me in Mind’ produced by Keke Palmer, UCLA’s I’m Here Now, and season two of Queerious. She made her directorial debut at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe festival with A THIRD SPACE: Trans Conversation Project, their most recent written work includes Seeking Faith, developed by Long Wharf Theater (NYC) for their 2023 fourth annual “Black Trans Women at the Center” digital festival, and Girls Just Wanna have Fun showcased in the first ever Shuffle Fest short play festival. Find them on Instagram @Elisawon_
Samy Figaredo
Samy Figaredo (he/him, they/them) is an actor, print model, consultant, and community organizer of over a decade. He recently season 3 of the HBO Max series The Other Two, and narrated the audiobook for the Lambda Literary award-winning novel The 30 Names of Night. Other recent appearances include Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Well-Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage Company), and Into the Woods (Ford’s Theatre). As a commercial and print model, he has participated in campaigns for CitiBank, Gilead Sciences, and JUST Water.
Samy Figaredo
Samy Figaredo (he/him, they/them) is an actor, print model, consultant, and community organizer of over a decade. He recently season 3 of the HBO Max series The Other Two, and narrated the audiobook for the Lambda Literary award-winning novel The 30 Names of Night. Other recent appearances include Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Well-Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage Company), and Into the Woods (Ford’s Theatre). As a commercial and print model, he has participated in campaigns for CitiBank, Gilead Sciences, and JUST Water.
L Morgan Lee
L Morgan Lee (she/her) is a Tony Award® nominated actress and storyteller known for her history-making turn in A Strange Loop on Broadway - a performance which also garnered her an Antonyo Award and a Drama League Distinguished Performance nomination. In London, she was seen playing famed artist Lili Elbe in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (currently in development). Other work includes well over a decade of Off-Broadway, Regional, International/National concerts and tours with artists from Paul McCartney to Our Lady J. In the studio, L Morgan was the voice of Ornate Williams in the Sugar Maple Series w. Fred Savage (Osiris Media) and can be found on Joe Iconis' album (Ghostlight Records), The Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), and more. For more: @lmorganlee | lmorganlee.com
Javon Q. Minter
Javon Q. Minter (they/she) is a a theatre artist and educator, born & raised in pre-gentrified Bed-Stuy. As a director, she’s devised works for MCC’s youth company, New York Theatre Workshop’s Youth Artistic Instigators & NYU Grad Acting, developed a new musical with the 5th Avenue Theater and is consistently working to uplift new works by Queer playwrights of color. Javon also served as the SDCF Directing Observer for Classic Stage Company’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale directed by Trip Cullman. As an educator, Javon has taught theatre across New York State and regionally, ranging from preschoolers to conservatories to members of the United States Air Force. They are a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, teaching artist with New York Theatre Workshop & served as a coach for Trans Voices, a storytelling workshop in partnership with Life Jacket Theatre Company and Sam & Devorah Foundation for Transgender Youth. Select acting credits: What to Send Up When it Goes Down (BAM & Playwrights Horizons), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), boys don’t look at boys (New York Stage & Film), and what will happen to all that beauty (Playwrights Realm)
Rocheny Princien
Rocheny Princien(She/Her) is a Drag Artist (Godiva Sterling), Playwright, Director, and a Helen Hayes nominated actress for their role in (Theater Alliance)The Events. This is her first full year of Breaking Ground. Her first show was Virtual Healing(2020). The last shows you could have seen her in were GAY Love Jones(Caged Bird Productions), her one woman show What Did 2022 Do to You?!(Restoration Station), When Boys Exhale (Cagedbird Productions), The Crucible, Cabaret, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Parallel 45), Protest in 8 (Theater Alliance) and Sleep Deprivation Chamber (Roundhouse Theatre). As a Senior at Howard University, they are currently in the process of obtaining a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
Syd Robbie
Syd Robbie is thrilled to be in his fourth year as an actor for Black Trans Women at the Center! He has been described as a nationally recognized thought leader and transgender equity activist. He is a talented change maker who stands at the intersection of multiple communities.
In recent years, Syd earned multiple leading roles including Showtime network's Work In Progress and The Chi. Syd played the role of Trevor in the celebrated transmasculine webseries, Brothers. And he was featured in the award winning documentary, Dance, Dance Evolution.
Along with his previously mentioned work, Syd is a community leader, athlete, dancer, vocalist, professional public speaker and event host. He lives in Wisconsin with his family and their three dogs.
Ianne Fields Stewart
Ianne Fields Stewart (they/she) is a black, queer, lesbian, and nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller and activist. Ianne was personally requested by Sara Ramirez (Grey's Anatomy) to play their love interest in the 3-Time Emmy-Nominated web series The Feels. Film/TV Credits include: Dash & Lily (Roberta), The Bold Type (Chloe Blair), and Pose (Pretty Bartender). In the summer of 2017, Ianne was selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action's 2017 John Lewis Fellowship.She is the founder of The Okra Project and co-organized the historic Brooklyn Liberation: A Rally for Black Trans Lives which gathered 15,000 people to march for Black Trans lives.
Ianne Fields Stewart
Ianne Fields Stewart (they/she) is a black, queer, lesbian, and nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller and activist. Ianne was personally requested by Sara Ramirez (Grey's Anatomy) to play their love interest in the 3-Time Emmy-Nominated web series The Feels. Film/TV Credits include: Dash & Lily (Roberta), The Bold Type (Chloe Blair), and Pose (Pretty Bartender). In the summer of 2017, Ianne was selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action's 2017 John Lewis Fellowship.She is the founder of The Okra Project and co-organized the historic Brooklyn Liberation: A Rally for Black Trans Lives which gathered 15,000 people to march for Black Trans lives.
N'yomi Allure Stewart
Garnet Williams
Garnet Williams is an actor, writer, and singer originally from Atlanta, Ga. She was last seen in Cats: The Jellicle Ball off-Broadway. Other favorite roles include The Lovebird (Skyward: an Endling Elegy), Ms. Olivia Blonde (At Hotel Maguffin), and Pythio (Head Over Heels).
Eisa Davis
Eisa Davis is a writer, composer, and performer. A recipient of a USA Artists Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, an AUDELCO, an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance and the Herb Alpert Award in Theater, Eisa was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play Bulrusher. Along with her thirteen full-length stageworks, she has written for television, recorded two albums of original music, Something Else and Tinctures, and directed a short film, Remembrance. Notable performance work includes Kindred, Mare of Easttown, The Wire, Kings, The Essentialisn’t, the musical of The Secret Life of Bees, and Passing Strange. An alumna of New Dramatists, Eisa has received residencies, awards and fellowships from Sundance Theater Lab, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Helen Merrill Foundation, the Van Lier and Mellon Foundations, and Cave Canem. Eisa co-created the WARRIORS concept album with Lin-Manuel Miranda. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Ty Defoe
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Rob Esposito
Robert Esposito - LWT Board 2024 Rob Esposito’s (ESPO as he is known to his
high school students) “day job” for the past
nineteen years has been as a Theatre teacher/director at Cooperative Arts &
Humanities High School in New Haven where he has directed over 60 major
musicals/plays such as: In the Heights, Hairspray,
Steel Magnolias, Importance of Being Earnest, Drowsy Chaperone, Last Days of
Judas Iscariot, BAT BOY, Sister Act, Jesus Christ Superstar, Taming of the
Shrew, Urinetown, Little Shop of Horrors, and many others.
Esposito has also directed shows for Fair Haven Middle
School, St. Bernadette School, Children’s Opera Project, Bregamos, Square Foot
Theatre, Center Stage Theatre of Shelton and Vintage Soul Productions. He
is a proud member of Long Wharf Theatre board and also a board member of The
Roundtable Players where he serves as resident director. During the
summer time for the past decade or so, he has been teaching theatre classes at
local dance studios including Dance Unlimited and Dance Connection. He
holds a Masters Degree in Oral Traditions from the Graduate Institute and a
Bachelors from Fairfield University.
Passionate about the importance of the arts in education,
Esposito is involved in many theatre outreach organizations. Aside from
the occasional acting “gig”, he finds teaching his most rewarding artistic
experience to date.
Madeleine Hutchins
Madeleine Hutchins (she/they) is a Mohegan storyteller and scholar who has studied (and lived) Indigenous lifeways and literature, story medicine, and philosophy with a focus on ethics, particularly bioethics. She is trained as a spiritual care provider and in providing support to those going through the transitions of birth and death. Their work focuses on relationality, interdependence, and mutual flourishing. Madeleine believes that a better world is within reach and we must be courageous enough to imagine it into being.
Jacob G. Padrón
Jacob G. Padrón is the Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project, a national theater initiative that works in partnership with leading theater companies to amplify the voices of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Padrón has held senior-level artistic positions at theater companies across the country. He was the Senior Line Producer at The Public Theater where he worked on new plays, new musicals, Shakespeare in the Park, and Public Works. He was formerly the Producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where he oversaw the artistic programming in the Garage – Steppenwolf’s dedicated space for new work, new artists, and new audiences. From 2008 to 2011, he was an Associate Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he was instrumental in producing all shows in the 11-play repertory. Under the guidance of his late mentor Diane Rodriguez, he served as the producer of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays for Center Theatre Group, a collaboration that included over 50 theater companies to launch Festival 365 in Los Angeles. He is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama where he teaches artistic producing in the graduate theater management program. He is also a co-founder of the Artist Anti-Racism Coalition, a grassroots movement committed to dismantling structural racism within the Off-Broadway community. Originally from the central coast of California, Jacob holds degrees from Loyola Marymount University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA).
Jacob G. Padrón
Jacob G. Padrón is the Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project, a national theater initiative that works in partnership with leading theater companies to amplify the voices of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Padrón has held senior-level artistic positions at theater companies across the country. He was the Senior Line Producer at The Public Theater where he worked on new plays, new musicals, Shakespeare in the Park, and Public Works. He was formerly the Producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where he oversaw the artistic programming in the Garage – Steppenwolf’s dedicated space for new work, new artists, and new audiences. From 2008 to 2011, he was an Associate Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he was instrumental in producing all shows in the 11-play repertory. Under the guidance of his late mentor Diane Rodriguez, he served as the producer of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays for Center Theatre Group, a collaboration that included over 50 theater companies to launch Festival 365 in Los Angeles. He is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama where he teaches artistic producing in the graduate theater management program. He is also a co-founder of the Artist Anti-Racism Coalition, a grassroots movement committed to dismantling structural racism within the Off-Broadway community. Originally from the central coast of California, Jacob holds degrees from Loyola Marymount University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA).
Candyce Testa
Candyce Testa is a Pequot woman who is grateful for the ability to live within, and learn from, the homelands and people of her ancestors. She is an artisan of traditional handmade items of deerhide, cornhusks, and beads. She is new to playwriting and is thankful for the opportunity to use this powerful platform to share her voice, viewpoint, cosmovision and opinions. The importance of Indigenous Peoples’ having full access to their traditional homelands to nourish their bodies, minds and Spirits, underscores all her work. She is honored to spend her days organizing Art Bazaars for the Indigenous people who work in partnership with Cultural Survival, a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, everywhere.
Leslie Blatteau
Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean
Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean is an award-winning scholar and author of Identity Politics in the United States. She is Wesleyan University Professor and Executive Director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. She's also a frequent contributor to media outlets across all platforms.
With a keen eye toward the practical implications of democratic conflict, Dr. Brown-Dean is a preeminent expert on issues of American politics, criminal punishment, mass incarceration, voting rights, and U.S. elections. In 2021 she was recognized by the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame as a Spotlight Recipient for her work on justice and civic engagement.
Annalisa Dias
Annalisa Dias is a Goan-American transdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and award-winning theater-maker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is a co-founder of Groundwater Arts and a co-director of HERE Arts Center. Prior to joining HERE, Annalisa was director of artistic partnerships and innovation at Baltimore Center Stage.
Previously, she has been acting creative producer and a producing playwright with The Welders, a DC playwright's collective; and a co-founder of the DC Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice.
Annalisa's work has been produced or developed by arts institutions across the US and UK, and her artistic work has taken her to South Africa, India, Malawi, Arctic Norway, and more. Annalisa frequently teaches theatre of the oppressed and decolonization workshops and is a sought-after speaker about race, identity, and performance.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Lucy Gellman
Ra Joy
Ra Joy was appointed to serve as Chief of Staff at the National Endowment for the Arts on day one of the Biden Administration. He currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Chair of the NEA. Joy brings more than 25 years of senior leadership experience in the arts, public policy, and nonprofit management to the NEA. Previously, he served as executive director for CHANGE Illinois, a nonpartisan coalition leading systemic political and government reform. From 2007 to 2015, he served as executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois, one of the nation’s most prominent statewide arts advocacy and service organizations. In this role, Joy championed the arts as a public policy asset and civic priority at all levels of government.
From 2001 to 2007, he served as a senior staffer for U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, specializing in appropriations, community development, education, youth development, and the arts. He is a frequent writer and speaker on issues of social justice, creative expression, and participatory democracy.
Judith Lichtman
Dr. Lichtman is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, Co-director of the Center for Neuroepidemiology and Clinical Neurological Research, and Director of the Humanities, Arts, and Public Health Practice at Yale (HAPPY) Initiative.
Dr. Lichtman has been actively involved in regional and national studies of cardiovascular and stroke outcomes using large administrative databases. She is principal investigator for several studies examining disparities in recurrent stroke among elderly Medicare beneficiaries, with a special emphasis on studying the patterns of care and outcomes for women. She has served on numerous National American Heart Association and American Stroke Association Committees and Writing Groups, including leading both an Advisory and Scientific Statement on depression and heart disease.
She was the recipient of the C. Miller Fisher, MD Neuroscience Visionary Award from the American Heart Association and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.
Todd London
Todd London has been a leading figure in the U.S. nonprofit theater for more than 35 years and was the first recipient of Theater Communications Group’s Visionary Leadership Award for “an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theater field as a whole...” He spent 18 seasons as Artistic Director of New York's New Dramatists. He’s served on the faculties of Yale School of Drama, Harvard, NYU, the New School, and the University of Washington, where he was Executive Director of the School of Drama. His many books include two novels, If You See Him, Let Me Know and The World's Room; This Is Not My Memoir (with Andre Gregory); and numerous theater books, An Ideal Theater; Outrageous Fortune; The Importance of Staying Earnest; The Artistic Home, and Zelda Fichandler’s The Long Revolution (editor). A past winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and recipient of an honorary doctorate from DePaul University, Todd is director of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative and Dramatists Guild Fellows Program.
Jennifer Newman
Associate Artist Director at Yale Schwarzman Center, Jennifer Harrison Newman joined the center in 2019. An artistic director, producer, educator, choreographer, and performance artist with over twenty-five years in the visual and performing arts, she has collaborated extensively with artists across disciplines throughout her career pushing the boundaries of dance, opera, and theater.
Sun Queen
Sun is a poet, artist, activist and inspirational messenger based in New Haven, where she has lived all her life. In 2015, she co-founded Black Lives Matter New Haven (BLMNHV) to inspire and empower the community through advocacy, education, and community service. As an organizer, she has run annual backpack, back-to-school and winter coat drives, started a BLMNHV scholarship fund, led rallies and tied Black liberation to healing, collective care and communal artmaking. She is regularly in the community, organizing nonviolent marches, rallies, protests, as well as fundraising campaigns geared at empowering and educating the young and older community of their rights.
In 2019, Sun published her first book, It Happened Within The Sun, followed by an affirmation journal and the brand Black Girls Are Sunshine. She prioritizes sharing her work in spaces that empower Black women and Black liberation, as well as schools and other venues that center racial and social justice. Through her passion and love for advocacy and guidance, she plans to encourage others, especially Black women, to be able to share their stories.
Sun’s work has been featured prominently in several exhibitions, testimonials, and media outlets, including Nasty Women Connecticut’s 2019 Complicit: Erasure of the Body and #MeToo Testimonials project, New Haven Register, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arts Paper, New Haven Independent, Yale Daily News, Hartford Courant and Pittsburgh Post Gazette. She has been a featured speaker for the Bereavement Care Network, Black Women’s March in Houston, Texas, and Elm City LIT Fest among others.
Joseph Roach
Joseph Roach, Sterling Professor of Theater and Professor of English Emeritus at Yale, is a theater historian, stage director, and Long Wharf board member. He co-founded the Creede Repertory Theatre, which will celebrate its 60th season next year, and the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theater at Northwestern University.
Michael Rohd
Michael is a theatre-maker, educator, process designer, writer and facilitator. His research and creative practice is focused on civic imagination. He has a 30+ year history of projects across sectors bringing cultural activity to the work of public engagement, community planning and cross-sector coalition building. In 1992 in Washington DC, Michael co-founded Hope Is Vital, an arts & public health program that, over 8 years, helped start up theatre-based public engagement/HIV prevention coalitions in over 80 communities around the US. In 1999, Michael co founded Sojourn Theatre and served as artistic director for 20 years, co-creating & directing nearly 30 devised, often site-specific and participatory theatre works. In 2012, he co-founded the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, a collective of nine artist/facilitators who work with organizations and agencies around the country on community research, transformational process and system change. He is currently Civic Collaborations Director for One Nation One Project, a national arts/municipality/public health project & research cohort in partnership with National League of Cities and he is co-designer/ co-facilitator for Art-Train, a virtual national technical assistance program in partnership with Springboard for the Arts. He recently founded the Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at the University of Montana, and he is author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue (Heinemann Press).
Nisha Sajnani, PhD
Nisha Sajnani, PhD, RDT-BCT is the Director of the Program in Drama Therapy and Theatre & Health Lab at NYU Steinhardt. She is also on faculty at NYU Stern where she teaches improvisation and leadership and with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma where she lectures on the role of the arts in global mental health. She is a co-founding, co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established as a collaboration between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, NYU Steinhardt, Culturunners, and Community Jameel, with a mission to measurably improve lives through the arts.
Recent publications include a commentary for the National Endowment for the Arts on realizing the potential of the arts in clinical and public health, a co-edited ebook on the psychological and physiological benefits of the arts, a Howlround article on teaching theater in times of crisis, and the first WHO policy brief on the role of the arts in supporting the mental wellbeing of people who are forcibly displaced. Her performance and curatorial practice reflects concerns with memory, placemaking, and migration. Dr. Sajnani leads the Jameel Arts & Health Lab - Lancet Global Series on the health benefits of the arts, in collaboration with the WHO. She is the principal editor of Drama Therapy Review and serves on the editorial boards of The Arts in Psychotherapy and the Journal of Applied Arts & Health.
Catherine Shen
Catherine is the Host of Connecticut Public’s morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live. Catherine and the WWL team focus on going beyond the headlines to bring in meaningful conversations that put Connecticut in context.
Before her current position, Catherine was Connecticut Public’s education reporter for just over a year. She covered a variety of stories like student mental health, childcare shortages, and teacher burnout. She joined Connecticut Public's newsroom in 2021. The Los Angeles native came to CT Public after a decade of print and digital reporting across the country.
She started her journalism career in the Los Angeles fashion scene. While that was an exciting time, Catherine ultimately needed to get back to her news roots. She was soon traipsing all across California’s Central Coast as a freelance news reporter for several newspapers, where she broke stories about local government, law enforcement, and education. She also covered crime, healthcare, business, as well as arts and culture.
After finding herself on the East Coast, she continued reporting in New Jersey, covering a mix of academic news, nonprofit projects, and human feature stories both off and on camera. Then she moved to Connecticut and started reporting for the New Britain Herald, where she won several Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists awards for her coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, and police accountability.
Catherine received an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism from Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. While an undergraduate student, she was a reporter for the university newspaper and its student-run television station, Cable 8 News. She’s also a proud member of the Asian American Journalism Society.
In her downtime, she tries her best to catch up on her reading list but often fails due to a variety of distractions, including reorganizing her bookshelves, scavenging library book sales, and thinking about reading books.
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is credited with having created a new form of theater. Her plays,which focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view, are composed of interview excerpts. President Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She’s the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie awards, and the George Polk Career Award in Journalism. She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for two Tony Awards. Plays and films based on them include Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field about the school-to-prison pipeline. Television and film acting includes: Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, Black-ish. Philadelphia, The American President, and Rachel Getting Married, She’s a professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has several honorary doctorate degrees including those from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Spelman College and Juilliard and Oxford.
Stephanie Ybarra
Stephanie Ybarra is a program officer for Arts and Culture, shaping individual grantmaking and launch philanthropic initiatives in the performing arts, leveraging the grantmaking, convening, and research assets of the Foundation.
Prior to Mellon, Stephanie served as Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage, where she broke ground as the country's first Latina artistic director of a League of Resident Theaters (LORT) member theater. Over four seasons, she was instrumental in leveraging powerful artistic works as a catalyst for conversation, reflection, and action. With more than twenty years' experience in nearly all aspects of the theater both on stage and behind the scenes, she is a preeminent voice in the fight against racism and inequity in theater-establishing the Artists' Anti-Racism Coalition in 2016 to uproot the systemic racism in New York's off-Broadway theater community. In addition to staging compelling works, she has been instrumental in closely examining demographic data on playwright commissions, director hiring patterns, fighting for change related to pay equity, tiered fee systems, and even reviews.
In addition, Stephanie is a faculty member at The Juilliard School and New York University and is currently on the board of Citizen University, Make Believe Association and Maryland Citizens for the Arts, as well as the Artistic Council for the People's Theatre Project.
She holds her Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Baylor University.
Alice Berry
Caitlin Boho
Caitlin Boho is a writer, drag artist and actor based in Los Angeles. Her drag alter ego Maureen SanDiego was a contestant in Alaska Thunderfuck's Drag Queen of the Year pageant, has been a featured guest on the popular drag podcast ‘Sloppy Seconds’, a drag defendant on ‘The Judge Mathis Show' and has performed comedy nationwide at The Dynasty Typewriter, The Elysian Theater, The Paper Machete, The Green Mill Chicago, The Laugh Factory, The House of Blues, The Lincoln Lodge, and the The Chicago Is A Drag Festival. Maureen has also written and performed sold out runs of her original plays 'Cher & Cockroaches', 'Problematica', ‘A Star is Aborted’ and more at the prestigious Newport Theater in Chicago. She is honored to be a part of Keegon’s reading at Yale and is beaming with pride for her insanely talented friend that she met at a malort drenched basement drag show many cactuses ago.
Emily Childers
Emily is a New York-based actor, teacher, and improviser originally from Memphis, TN. She holds an MFA in Physical Theatre from Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. It was there that she studied Commedia dell’arte, buffon, clowning, Grotowski method, and Italian men. She’s been a resident artist for physical theatre companies across Europe- some of which include Continuo Phyisical Theatre in Malovice, Czech Republic, Teatro C’art in Castelfiorentino, Italy and Familie Flöz out of Berlin. She’s worked across Italy teaching English and theatre through mediums of storytelling and gesture. Emily moved back to the states at the end of 2019- just in time to sit in quarantine in her tiny apartment for 6 months. You might have seen her on the PIT stage in Old School Sketch Show, Backdoor BBQ, and Unfinished Business. When she’s off stage you can catch her either shaking a martini for the finance bros off Park Ave or teaching hot yoga at Fierce Grace yoga studios. She values the courageous, encourages the funny, and looks for the stupid. And finally, she’s just happy to be here, y’all. (Bio from the Peoples Improv Theater, NYC) Instagran @emilders
Atlie Gilbert
Atlie Gilbert is a dynamic actor and multi-disciplinary artist with a diverse blend of experience in entertainment and business. Known for her passion for developing new work, she has produced and cast numerous acclaimed plays, films, and large-scale events. Regional acting credits include: Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, American Blues Theater, Muse of Fire, Emerald City Theatre, Williams Street Repertory Theater. Recent Film/TV: "Famous Canadian Actors," "Mimic," "Searching for Yoo," among others. Atlie has been a featured guest artist at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Convention, the Chicago Met Tower, and served as the spokesperson for Best One Tire & Service. Teaching Credits: Chicago Dramatists, Stagecrafters, Columbia College Chicago, Muse of Fire, and SCA. She is represented by Grossman & Jack Talent, Shushu Entertainment, and Metropolis Artists Agency, and a proud member of SAG-AFTRA & AEA. A very special thank you to the brilliant Keegon Schuett for this opportunity; your artistry, heart & creative vision continue to inspire me.
Luciana Q. McClure
Luciana Q McClure is an interdisciplinary Afro-Brazilian public feminist scholar, activist, and artist. With a background in studio art focused on photography, she recognizes the power of art as a language to bridge communities and explore issues of gender, race, culture, and historical narratives, while examining how power operates in daily life. As an activist and community organizer for over seven years, Luciana co-founded the collective Nasty Women Connecticut in response to a global call initiated in NYC. Through her work, she has embraced collaboration as a vital tool for community building, care, healing, and knowledge production. In recent years, Luciana’s organizing efforts have led her back into academia. She completed her MA in Women’s and Gender Studies during the pandemic and began teaching immediately while continuing her practice as a public scholar and organizer. Luciana has organized art exhibitions, presented at various conferences across disciplines and engaged in conversations with influential feminist thinkers, activists, artists and scholars who share her belief that a better world is possible.
Currently, she teaches at Southern Connecticut State University, UConn, Quinnipiac, and Sacred Heart University.
Megan Meinero
Megan Chan Meinero is a playwright, screenwriter and performer from New York. Credits include Dear Edward (Apple TV+), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) and Good Fortune. MFA: Northwestern - where she was honored to be Keegon’s cohort-mate!
Jaehan Pag
Jaehan Pag is an actor newly graduated from Juilliard's MFA Drama program this May. Prior to Juilliard, Jaehan earned a degree in acting from Seoularts in Seoul, South Korea. He is based in Queens, NY.
Shakiera Sarai
Shakiera Sarai is a New York-based performer, comedian, and writer. Past credits include: TV: Netflix’s Ozark NEW MEDIA: Rocking Chair; or Settlement, a musical horror podcast series NEW YORK: King John INTERNATIONAL: The Justice League (Middle Eastern Tour 2019, 2023, 2024) NATIONAL: As You Like It, The Tempest, To Kill A Mockingbird; REGIONAL: The Wizard of Oz, Then Sings My Soul, I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Shakiera is a proud alumna of Dekalb School of the Arts and Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA), both based in her hometown, and University of Memphis (BFA, Musical Theatre Performance). She can next be seen starring in Scantic River Productions’ newest musical, Favola.
Jacob Wingfield
Paige Williams
Paige Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist who is critically acclaimed as a performer, director, choreographer and playwright. As an AEA equity actress, Paige has performed on many stages throughout the country. She has collaborated with the Lincoln Center and has been commissioned by several companies including the National New Play Network, the Smithsonian, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council as well as four Helen Hayes nominations for choreography, directing and performance. Paige has also been named a “classroom hero” by The Huffington Post, a “Citizen Artist Fellow” with the Kennedy Center, “40 under 40” by the Washington Post and one of “Six Theatre Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. Her work on inclusive spaces and theatre-based trauma informed practices has received international acclaim and garnered her such acknowledgement as the inaugural Victor Shargai Leadership Award and a repeat keynote speaker and presenter for Disney. In 2023, Paige was appointed to the Maryland State Arts Council by Governor Wes Moore. Paige was recently named one of the Top 5 Most Produced Artists for Theatre for Young Audiences. She is elated to be the Associate Artistic Director of Everyman Theatre in her hometown of Baltimore, MD. With her company B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, Paige continues to develop and tour original work internationally.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award-winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.
Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.
She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
Joseph Distl
Joseph is a queer Puerto Rican theater artist from Queens with dreams to produce unconventional theater for unconventional audiences. Recent credits include Fun With Panic Attacks(INTAR), The Hours Are Feminine(INTAR), Spain(2ST), Toros(2ST), demons.(Bushwick Starr & ¡OYE GROUP!), Eight Tales of Pedro(Queens Theatre) THIS & THAT(The Chocolate Factory). Joseph would like to remind you that theater can be used as a force of activism. Take the time to celebrate and uplift marginalized communities that are losing their rights everyday. We are stronger together!
Joey Reyes
Imara Jones
Imara Jones, whose work has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, is the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform, non-profit journalism and narrative organization, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. She was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People on the planet in 2023. As part of her work at TransLash, Imara hosts the TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones, which received the 2023 Outstanding Podcast Award from GLAAD ; as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine.
Khalil White
Khalil is thrilled to return to for this years Black Trans Women at the Center festival! Their previous credits include Lighting Designer (ArtsCentric)The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, LaCage, Snapshots, and DreamGirls at Baltimore Center Stage. Production Assistant (Baltimore Center Stage) The Hot Wing King, The Importance of Being Ernest.
Assistant Stage Manager (ArtsCentric) Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, For Colored Girls, The Scottsboro Boys
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award-winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.
Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.
She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
Morticia Antoinette Godiva
Audria LB
Audria LB (she/her/hers) is a Black transfeminine filmmaker, poet, and interdisciplinary artist, based in Durham, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2017 with B.A’.s in Media Arts and African American Studies. Audria LB seeks to fill the world with dope Black queer and trans art, shifting culture for left and progressive causes. Having published work in Lambda Literary Award-winning The Black Trans Prayer Book, she is currently a co-director on the upcoming Black Trans Prayer Book Documentary. Audria also serves as Festival Coordinator at the Hayti Heritage Film Festival. She is thrilled & honored to be part of yet another installment of Black Trans Women at the Center.
Marcela Michelle
Marcela Michelle is a transdisciplinary artists living and working on Mni Sota Makoce. She is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow (Combined Artistic Fields), a 2019 mentee of the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation, and a member of Actor’s Equity. She has held residencies with Rosy Simas Dance Studio 331, Hennepin Theatre Trust (teaching artist), and Pancake House. Her work has been presented by Red Eye Theatre (NW4W), Walker Art Center (Choreographer’s Evening, Sadie Barnett’s New Eagle Creek Saloon), Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio, and many more. She served as the Artistic Director of 20%Theatre Company from 2019-2022 and as an Artistic Co-Director of Lightning Rod from 2017-2024. She enjoys cooking elaborate meals, video essays, and extended periods of rest with her Wife and Dogter.
Dezi Bing
Dezi is an actress, writer, voice over artist, and keynote speaker whose recent work includes starring in Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares,” Wig Out, written by Academy Award™ Winner for Best Picture: Tarell Alvin McCraney, and working with Jackbox Games to voice ‘the host’ of one of their newest videos games: Roomerang. Dezi was recently published in “The Root Magazine,” a digital news publication with over half a million followers on Instagram. And she also completed a year long playwriting fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts where she wrote and workshopped her first play, “The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker.” So honored to have worked on this wonderful project!
Elisawon Etidorhpa
Elisawon Etidorhpa (they/she) is an nonbinary trans actor, writer, and director coming from a competitive theater background in Texas and studying in New York and obtaining their BFA from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy Los Angeles. Elisawon has recently appeared in Annex at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Texas For Four More Years for the Hantext Play Reading Festival, in KeyTv’s Production of Keep Me in Mind’ produced by Keke Palmer, UCLA’s I’m Here Now, and season two of Queerious. She made her directorial debut at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe festival with A THIRD SPACE: Trans Conversation Project, their most recent written work includes Seeking Faith, developed by Long Wharf Theater (NYC) for their 2023 fourth annual “Black Trans Women at the Center” digital festival, and Girls Just Wanna have Fun showcased in the first ever Shuffle Fest short play festival. Find them on Instagram @Elisawon_ .
MJ Rawls
MJ is excited to have her play This Whiskey and Me ready by BTWAC. She is a member of Actors Equity and represented by Big Mouth Talent. She is a trans activist and hopes that her projects expand the theatre community.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award-winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.
Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.
She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
Venus Kii Thomas
Venus has been a Pink Door Writing Retreat Fellow twice (in 2017 and 2019) and has also served as a TransFire Artist-In-Residence at the Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom. Over the last 17 years, xe has performed and featured across xyr home state of Louisiana, art venues in Washington, D.C., and several institutions including Wellesley College, Princeton University, Brown University, the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.
Simone Immanuel
Simone’s name, Immanuel, means “God is with us,” and her work embodies this belief. A multidisciplinary artist and writer from New Orleans, she attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and earned a BFA in Acting from Ball State University. She is a member of the 2023-2024 Creative Assembly cohort at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Simone completed the Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Artivism Fellowship in 2022 and made her Off-Broadway debut in *7 Minutes* by Stefano Massini. Her play *I’m Gonna Let It Shine* was a Kennedy Center John Cauble Award finalist. Recently, she worked as an Artist at Work Resident with Ashé Cultural Arts Center and the Office of Art and Film, focusing on artistic civic engagement. Simone is also a partner with Loud Queer Youth Theatre and founder of Bulbancha Beholders, supporting young Black queer artists.
L Morgan Lee
L Morgan Lee (she/her) is a Tony Award® nominated actress and storyteller known for her history-making turn in A Strange Loop on Broadway - a performance which also garnered her an Antonyo Award and a Drama League Distinguished Performance nomination. In London, she was seen playing famed artist Lili Elbe in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (currently in development). Other work includes well over a decade of Off-Broadway, Regional, International/National concerts and tours with artists from Paul McCartney to Our Lady J. In the studio, L Morgan was the voice of Ornate Williams in the Sugar Maple Series w. Fred Savage (Osiris Media) and can be found on Joe Iconis' album (Ghostlight Records), The Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), and more. For more: @lmorganlee | lmorganlee.com
Keegon Schuett
Brian Fruits-Esparza
Brian Fruits-Esparza holds an M.F.A. in Stage Direction from the University of Memphis and hails from Chicago. He also holds a B.A. in Secondary Education from Concordia University of Chicago in River Forest. Brian has directed several educational, community, regional, and professional productions throughout the country and is an Intimacy Consent-Forward certified director. While he was in graduate school, he received the prestigious 2012 Meritorious Teaching Award, given to one graduate student teacher a year, and the 2013 Creative Excellence Award, given to one student in the Fine Arts Department. He was the Ostrander Award Winner for Best Director at the University of Memphis for Wit and received a full scholarship for one year to study masks and physical Theatre in Europe with Donato Satori and Paola Coletto. He has taught and created drama classes for adults with special needs and disabilities at the L'Arche Community Center and West Suburban Special Recreation Association and served as an intern with the StillPoint Theatre Collective and Chicago Shakespeare. In 2014, he worked for B.B. King and helped mount the current show Beale Street Heat on a few of the major Holland America Cruise Lines. Brian is a proud member of the Illinois Theatre Association (ITA) and an associate member of the Stage Director & Choreographers Union (SDC). Most recently, he studied under Anne Bogart during The Beautiful Lady at La Mama in NY and directed an equity musical in Houston. Later this fall/winter, he will be directing Macbeth and Superior Donuts. Check out his Joseph Jefferson award-winning 501c3 theatre company, Saltbox Theatre Collective. He dedicates this show to Keegon, April, and Chewie.
