Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park 2021-22 Season

NEED YOUR LOVE ANTONIO MICHAEL WOODARD (ANTONIO/LITTLE WILLIE JOHN) Antonio is pleased to be making his Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park debut.

His off-Broadway credits include Macbeth (John Doyle) with Classic Stage Company. Regional credits include: Williamstown Theatre Festival: A Human Being of A Sort; Trinity Rep: Ragtime; and Pyramid Theatre Company: The Amen Corner, Mississippi Goddamn. On television, he has appeared in Evil (CBS, Peter Sollett). His awards include: Cloris Leachman Award Nominee (The Amen Corner), Alabama State University Faculty Senate Award of Excellence (The Color Purple), and the Irene Ryan Best Actor Finalist KCACTF Region IV. He received his Master’s of Fine Arts from Brown University (Brown/Trinity Rep Acting Program) and a B.A. in Theatre from Alabama State University. I dedicate my performance to my heavenly father, my mother and father, my entire family and Dr. Tommie Tonea Stewart. Other works include: Pure Artistry Café: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Rites and Reason Theatre: Trippin’ Over Roots, Walk Out! 68’; Brown/Trinity Rep: Love’s Labour’s Lost, Twelfth Night, Tick, Tick…Boom!; Leila Barlow Theatre: Crowns, The Color Purple, The Piano Lesson. Instagram: @a.michaelwoodard. Facebook: Antonio Woodard or Antonio Michael Woodard. Website: being-amw.com KJ SANCHEZ (PLAYWRIGHT/DIRECTOR) KJ wrote and directed the world premiere of Cincinnati King. Her other directing credits here include Jane Eyre by Polly Teale, Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club by Jeffrey Hatcher, the world premiere of Seven Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman, Joan the Girl of Arc by Darrah Cloud and Venus in Fur by David Ives. As a playwright, she has been produced at The Guthrie Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Round House Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company and off-Broadway at Urban Stages Theater and HERE Arts Center. Other recent directing credits include Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis at Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, the Alley and California Shakespeare Theater; The Upstairs Concierge by Kristoffer Diaz at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago; The Diary of Anne Frank and Noises Off at Milwaukee Repertory Theater; along with Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful at the Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. KJ is the voice of many characters in the cartoons Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! She is a Fox Fellow, the 2012 Douglass Wallop Fellow, an Albert Award nominee and an NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors recipient. She is the CEO of American Records, a theatre company and an Associate Professor and Head of Playwriting and Directing at University of Texas at Austin.

RICHARD LIVINGSTON HUNTLEY (MUSIC DIRECTOR/ DRUMMER) Following the success of the 2018 world premiere of Cincinnati King, Richard is thrilled to be returning to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for Need Your Love. A drummer and percussionist, he has performed in over 30 countries worldwide, including major jazz, blues and world music festivals. He has performed and or recorded with jazz greats such as John Benitez, Ron Blake, Luis Bonilla, Cameron Brown, George Coleman, Jerry Gonzalez, Harold Mabern, Mulgrew Miller, Scott Robinson, Lew Soloff, Esperanza Spaulding and Fred Wesley. For over 20 years he has played with Brazilian piano legend and samba funk innovator Dom Salvador. Other musical associations include singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, New York bordello blues band Hazmat Modine, and globe-trot36 | 2021–2022