Bios of the Cast, Creative & Producing Teams

CAST

LAMONT THOMPSON*

(he/him – Memphis) could not be more thrilled to be returning to the Bay Area. His last production here was the original run of Black Odyssey at Cal Shakes in 2017. Lamont began his acting career in Atlanta with Jomandi Theatre Inc., attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and has crisscrossed the country working for theatres large and small: The San Diego Rep, The Milwaukee Rep, The Indiana Rep, Penumbra, Mixed Blood, First Stage Milwaukee, The Robey Theatre. Lamont has also spent two decades working in television. His most recent and notable credits include The Resident, The Upshaws, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Miracle Workers, 68 Whiskey, Snowfall and NCIS Los Angeles. Lamont could not be more humbled and honored to be playing his favorite character in his favorite August Wilson play. In his own words: “ I saw the Broadway premiere of this show in 1992 when I was in drama school and vowed that one day I would do this show and play Memphis. I only took thirty years but here we are!” My performance is dedicated to all those who “put their shoulder to freedom” whether their backs held up or not, and Miss Nadia who inspires me every day to put happiness at the center of my choices.

KENNY SCOTT (he/him – Wolf) is an actor based in Oakland, California. He attended Morgan State University and was a member of the Laney College Fusion Theatre Project (Más, The Late Wedding, and In The Wound). Recent credits include staged readings with Magic Theatre, Golden Thread, Cutting Ball Theater, BAPF, and Lorraine Hansberry. Full productions with Quantum Dragon Theatre (Ageless), The New Conservatory Theatre Center (Mystery of Love and Sex), The Forum (Sarafael), Idiot String (Port Stories), Crowded Fire (SUBVERiTas, Inked Baby), Z Space (The Institute for Counterfeit Memory) and Cal Shakes (Lear). A company member with the Oakland Theater Project (Hamlet, Mother Courage) as well as Shotgun Players (The Claim, The Light). He is excited to be making his MTC Debut!

SAM JACKSON* (she/they – Risa) is a San Francisco-based actor, vocalist and teaching artist. Her works include film, commercial & stage acting as well as live & recorded vocal performance. While forever a student of her craft, she began her deep work at SFSU where she received her BA in Theatre performance. Her most recent stage acting credits include: Cal Shake’s Lear (Cordelia/Comic), Aurora’s The Incrementalists (Raz/Marteen), Aurora’s Father/Daughter (Miranda/Risa), Shotgun Player’s Vinegar Tom (Ellen), Aurora’s Exit Strategy (Sadie), Shotgun Player’s Kings (Sydney Millsap). She is also a company member of Nice Tan Comedy, a queer WOC led sketch comedy group whose work can be found on a screen near you! Jackson would like to send her deepest gratitude to her family (blood & chosen) for their love, support, and moments of sanity in this ever wild life. �� IG: @little_miss_sj

MICHAEL J. ASBERRY*

(he/him – Holloway) returns to the MTC Stage where he previously appeared in the production of Fences. Michael was most recently seen onstage in Lear at the California Shakespeare Theater. Regional and National Theatre credits include Aurora Theatre Company; Sacramento Theatre Company; Orlando Shakes (Orlando, FL); San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; San Francisco Mime Troupe; American Conservatory Theater; Center REPertory Company; Capital Stage; Artists Repertory Theatre (Portland, OR); Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; TheatreWorks; African American Shakespeare Company and the 6th Street Playhouse. Film credits include: FreeByrd; San Andreas; Chasing Rodriguez, Mr . Incredible and Pals and the upcoming, A Stolen Christmas. Television credits: Chance; Trauma, and Nash Bridges. Michael has recorded voiceover spots for Pixar Animation/ Clorox, Pine Sol and Sweetos, and appears in the video games Watchdogs 2 and Battlefield Vietnam. Michael is currently featured in a television commercial for Toyota. Eternal Thanks and Praises to my Ancestors, my Family and my Friends.

EDDIE EWELL* (he/ him – Sterling) hails from Detroit, Michigan. He began acting in the Bay Area and recently completed his MFA at American Conservatory Theater. He has been blessed to work on some wonderful projects, including Ti Jean and His Brothers (Mi Jean), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon/ Demetrius), and Wintertime (Francois) at A.C.T.; We Are Proud to Present… (Actor 2) at San Jose Stage; Kill Move Paradise (Isa) at Shotgun Players; The Welkin (Frederick Poppy) and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Matthias of Galilee) with ARC/ Remote Theater; To Saints and Stars (Ken) with Playwrights Foundation; VS . (Tye) with TheatreFirst; Jitney (Youngblood) at African-American Shakespeare Co.; Pass Over (Moses) at Marin Theatre Company; and most recently Gem of the Ocean (Citizen Barlow) at TheatreWorks. To God be the glory.

MICHAEL WAYNE RICE*

(Hambone) A graduate of the University of Missouri – Kansas City, with an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing, Michael has taught acting at University of Missouri, University of the Pacific, and University of San Francisco. He has acted in over 30 productions in Missouri, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and has been with Shakespeare & Performing Arts Regional Company, SPARC (formerly known as Livermore Shakespeare Festival), since 2004 as an actor/teaching artist/director. Favorite SPARC roles include Trigorin in The Seagull, Cloten in Cymbeline, and Jaques in As You Like It. He played Martin Luther King Jr, in The Mountaintop, a Theatre Bay Area Editor’s pick, Theatre Bay Area Recommended Production, SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle “Go See” Pick 2016, and as Best Production by the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee. This is his first time working at MTC, and the journey has been fantastic.

KHARY L. MOYE* (he/him – West) is thrilled to be making his Marin Theatre Company debut! He was last seen in The Lorraine Hansberry production of Intimate Apparel. He also starred in the world premiere of Hieroglyph with SF Playhouse. Other productions include the Audio Drama The Flats with Aurora Theatre Company, Toni Stone with A.C.T. , A Streetcar Named Desire with African American Shakespeare Company,

and Six Degrees of Separation at Custom Made Theatre Company. Film/Television credits include The Dave Chappelle Show and Sense 8. He is beyond grateful to be back on stage speaking August Wilson’s words! Thank you to all his loved ones who have supported him during these Covid filled times and thank YOU the audience members for supporting us!

CREATIVE TEAM

AUGUST WILSON (he/ him – Playwright) (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decadeby-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theatres across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street - The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.

DAWN MONIQUE WILLIAMS (she/her – Director) is the Associate Artistic Director at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, CA. Recent directing credits include the world premieres of Marcus Gardley’s Lear (Cal Shakes) and The Incrementalist by Cleavon Smith (Aurora); Une Tempête by Aimé Césaire (American Shakespeare Center), Beehive: The 60’s Musical (CenterREP), Lauren Gunderson’s The Half-Life of Marie Curie (TheatreSquared), Sweet Water Taste (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre), Letters to Kamala (American Stage Company), Earthrise (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Bull in a China Shop (Aurora), The Secretaries (Profile Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (Chautauqua

Theatre), August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (Le Petit), Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Douglas Morrisson and UNCO), and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Town Hall); audio versions of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye adapted by Lydia R. Diamond (Aurora) and Lynn Nottage’s Las Meninas (Profile Theatre). Dawn’s awards include the 2022 Pfaelzer Award, a Princess Grace Theatre Fellowship, a TCG Leadership U Residency Grant, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. She holds an MA in Dramatic Literature and an MFA in Directing. Dawn is a proud member of SDC.

STEPHEN C. JONES (Scenic Designer) is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829- Lighting and Scenic Designer. Selected Regional Theatre and Off-Broadway design credits include: Utah Shakespeare Festival (UT), Orlando Shakespeare Theatre (FL), The Dressmaker’s Secret (Off-Broadway), Jodie’s Body (Off Broadway) Simon Studios (off Broadway),Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CO), Portland Stage Company (ME), Sacramento Ballet (CA), Alley Theatre (TX), B Street Theatre (CA), Capital Stage Theatre Company (CA), Sting and Honey (UT), American Stage Theatre (FL) HalfMoon Theatre (NY). Publishing credits include serving as Contributing Researcher for a book on world scenography, Technical Editor for a book on computer aided drafting, and a Contributing Writer for an upcoming book about praxisbased approaches to training young artists. Stephen conducts regular webinars on design and drafting techniques, speaks at national conferences such as Lighting Dimensions International (LDI), United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT), Vectorworks Design Summit, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. He has been highlighted in Live Design Magazine for the creativity of his design process using 3D software. ALICE RUIZ (she/her – Costume Designer) Over the years, Alice has been a freelance Costume Designer, Assistant Costume Designer, Costume Mentor, and Theatrical Dresser throughout the SF Bay Area. She’s happy to be returning to MTC after Costume Designing Pass Over earlier this year. Other recent credits include Dream Hou$e at Shotgun Players (Berkeley) and Book of Sand (a fairytale) at Oakland Theater Project. She is grateful to everyone in a seat supporting the arts making their way back to the stage! You can view her other work at www. aliceruizdesign.com.

KURT LANDISMAN (he/ him – Lighting Designer) is happy to return to Marin Theatre Company with this production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running helmed by Dawn Monique Williams. Previous Designs at MTC include the following award-winning Lighting Designs for Anne Boleyn, Choir Boy, Seven Guitars, and Wilder, Wilder, Wilder. Mr. Landisman’s designs have spanned the Bay Area over way too many decades to count, and have garnered 22 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards. His designs have also been seen across the U.S., as well as internationally in Japan, Singapore, and China. kurtlandisman.com

GREGORY ROBINSON

(Sound Designer / Composer) is a United Scenic Artists Local USA 829, IATSE Member and ‘An Artist That Paints With Sound’. His sound effects, sound design, music, production sound recording, post-production mixing, and recordings have been featured in local, regional, and national radio and television

advertising, short films, documentaries, corporate video, and theatre. His work has been featured in an Emmy-award winning documentary, and he has been recognized by the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle, with a Sound Design ‘Excellence in Theatre Award’ for Water By The Spoonful, and a nomination for Proof. Gregory recently designed for the Syracuse Stage Company’s production of Salt/City/Blues. Other select Sound Design credits include Jazz at MTC, Calligraphy, The Mountaintop, The Pitmen Painters, Snow Falling On Cedars, Time Stands Still, Living Out, You Can’t Take It With You, An American Daughter, Be Aggressive, and Present Laughter.

KHALID Y. LONG, PHD (he/ him – Publications Dramaturg) is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia. Khalid has published scholarly essays in The Black Theatre Review (tBTR), Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. A freelance dramaturg, Khalid’s dramaturgy credits include (select listing): Feeding Beatrice by Kirsten Greenidge, Forward Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin; Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, Court Theatre, Chicago, IL; Relentless by Tyla Abercrumbie, TimeLine Theatre, Chicago, IL (World Premiere); Sweat by Lynn Nottage, Paramount Theatre, Aurora, IL; Mom, How Did you Meet the Beatles? by Adrienne Kennedy and Adam Kennedy, Forward Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin; Kill Move Paradise by James Ijames. REP Stage, Howard County, Maryland; Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge. Mosaic Theatre, Washington, D.C.

CHERIE CORINNE RICE

(she/her – Dialect Coach) Credits include The Wedding Band (TFANA), Lobby Hero (Capital Rep), Three Musketeers (Cleveland Playhouse), The Bluest Eye, Our Daughters Like Pillars, Skeleton Crew (Huntington), I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf), Breath and Imagination (Lyric Stage Co), House of Joy (Cal Shakes), Song of the Northwoods, Rapture Season, Bernarda’s Daughters, Evil Eye (Audible.com). MFA, Brown University/Trinity Rep; BA Theater & Performance, UC Berkeley. Current Head of Voice and Speech, Waterwell Drama, NYC. Past teaching appointments include NYU Tisch MFA, Rutgers MGSA, and Columbia MFA.

JEUNÉE SIMON (she/ her – Intimacy Coach) is an actor, director, and intimacy director in the Bay Area. She is dedicated to creating braver spaces where artists can be vulnerable and play. Recent intimacy direction credits include: Lear (California Shakespeare Theater), The Code (A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory), Coming Soon (Z Space), Boys Go to Jupiter (Word for Word), Circle Mirror Transformation (Custom Made Theatre Co.), Little Shop of Horrors (Berkeley Playhouse), and more. Simon is a proud recipient of the 2017 RHE Artistic Fellowship for acting and is a 2019 Directing Apprentice with PlayGround.

LIAM RUDISILL (he/him – Props Designer) is a carpenter and props maker who has been working with Marin Theatre Company since moving to the Bay Area in 2014. He’s excited to be back at full capacity as Assistant Technical Director and Props Lead for the company this season. Recent design credits include Boys Go to Jupiter (Word for Word at Z Space), The Sound Inside (MTC), Pass Over (MTC), Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (MTC), and Dunsinane (MTC).

CHRISTINA HOGAN* (she/ her – Stage Manager) returns to Marin Theatre Company after working on Pass Over, Georgiana and Kitty, Brilliant Mind, The Catastrophist, Mother of the Maid, and The Wolves. Her other theatre credits include Fefu and her Friends, Gloria, Top Girls, Edward Albee’s Seascape, Men on Boats, and Hamlet (American Conservatory Theater); Sanctuary City and It Can’t Happen Here (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Lear (Cal Shakes); In Old Age, The Baltimore Waltz, runboyrun, and And I and Silence (Magic Theatre); and Ripped (Z Space). Hogan has a BA in theater arts from Saint Mary’s College of California.

NICK CARVALHO* (he/him –Stage Manager: Dec 12-18) is excited to stage manage his second production with Marin Theatre Company, following Dunsinane. His recent credits include the world premiere of Monument, or Four Sisters (a sloth play) (Magic Theatre), The Cherry Orchard and Cinderella: A Fairytale (Town Hall Theatre), as well as Head Over Heels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Book of Will, Seussical: The Musical, and Our Lady of 121st Street (Diablo Valley College). Nick earned two Associates degrees from Diablo Valley College in 2021 and has served as the Stage Management Advisor since 2021. He was awarded three certificates of merit in stage management from KCACTF for his work on Our Lady of 121st Street, Seussical: The Musical, and The Book of Will. Nick is also the Assistant Technical Director and a Production Supervisor at El Campanil Theatre. Nick’s upcoming project with MTC will be Justice: A New Musical .

JO DAVITA ORTIZ* (they/ them – Assistant Stage Manager) is the assistant stage manager and has been stage managing for 5 years at an academic, community, and regional level. Their favorite part about stage management is bringing the shows together from pre-production through closing. Credits include School of Rock, Funny Girl, All the Great Books [Abridged], The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged], The Agitators, and Crumbs From the Table of Joy.

DARIA PERKOVA

(she/they – Assistant Costume Designer / Costume Shop Manager / Wardrobe Lead) is a Bay Area native costume designer. She has designed, stitched and run wardrobe for many theatres around the Bay. Her most recent design works include Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya at Chabot College, and How Black Mother’s Say I Love You at Theatre Rhinoceros. She is the Costume Shop Manager and Wardrobe Lead here at Marin Theatre Company.

JASSON MINADAKIS

(he/him – Artistic Director) is in his 17th season as artistic director of Marin Theatre Company, where he has directed Dunsinane, The Sound Inside, The Catastrophist, Mother of the Maid, Sovereignty, Oslo, Shakespeare In Love, Thomas and Sally, Guards at the Taj, August: Osage County, The Invisible Hand, Anne Boleyn, The Convert, The Whale, Failure: A Love Story, the world premiere of Lasso of Truth, The Whipping Man (San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Best Production and Best Acting Ensemble), Waiting for Godot, Othello: the Moor of Venice, The Glass Menagerie, Edward Albee’s Tiny Alice, the world premiere of Libby Appel’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull, Happy Now?, Equivocation (SFBATCC Award, Best Director), the world premiere of Sunlight, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Saïd, Love Song, and The Subject Tonight is Love. As artistic director of Actor’s Express Theatre Company, he directed The Pillowman, Bug, The Love Song of J . Robert Oppenheimer, Echoes of Another Man, Killer Joe, Burn This, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, Blue/Orange, and Bel Canto. As producing artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, he directed Jesus Hopped the ’A’ Train, Chagrin Falls (2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Best Production), and numerous others, including 19 productions of Shakespeare. Regional credits include The Whipping Man at Virginia Stage Company, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Hamlet at Georgia Shakespeare, Copenhagen at Playhouse on the Square (2003 Ostrander Theatre Award for Best Dramatic Production), and Bedroom Farce at Wayside Theatre. He is a Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

MEREDITH SUTTLES

(she/her—Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer) joined Marin Theatre Company as its new Managing Director in April of 2021. Meredith is an arts leader with an extensive background in creative and performing arts in the areas of development, management, strategic planning, fundraising, and performance. She has held senior leadership roles at TheaterWorksUSA, Soho Repertory Theatre, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and the New York City Opera. Meredith is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and former EmcArts: Arts Leaders as Cultural Innovators (ALACI) Fellow. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a Steering Committee Member of the Black Theatre Commons and currently serves on the Board of Directors of vibe Theater Experience (Brooklyn, NY). As a visionary leader known for her ability to win community support, develop key coalitions and build strong relationships with a shared sense of purpose, she is passionate about devising meaningful ways to address and further the goals of MTC.

NAKISSA ETEMAD (she/ her—Associate Artistic Director, Producer) is the Associate Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company (MTC) and an Iranian American dramaturg and producer, and French translator specializing in new BIPOC plays and musicals for 30 years. She is a Resident Artist of Golden Thread Productions, Regional VP Metro Bay Area for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and a member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and the Anti-Oppression Task