Welcome the Incoming MFA Class of 2023

Meet the first-year Brown/Trinity Rep MFA students

Ross Barron, acting

Hometown: Boulder, CO Alma mater: Princeton University Favorite role: Pig (Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh)

There are so many reasons why I chose Brown/ Trinity Rep! To name a few, auditioning for [MFA Director] Angela Brazil and [Artistic Director] Curt Columbus was an especially positive experience because of the warmth, openness, and genuine interest they showed me. Furthermore, I am a screenwriter/playwright as well as an actor so the trinity of curricular opportunities here, (acting, playwriting, and directing), aligned with my desire to grow as fully and widely as possible. Finally, I know Providence to be a beautiful city with incredible parks, warm people, and unimpeded stargazing that reminds me of home. You can find more information about my writing and acting at www.rossbarron.com.

Bianca Rosa Brockl, acting Hometown: Manteca, CA Alma mater: CalArts Favorite role: Stella (A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams) because the actor playing Stanley was also Latinx. THEClass OF2023 JāQuan Malik Jones, acting Aizhaneya Carter, acting

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Alma mater: University of Pennsylvania (International Relations and Theater Arts double major, with a concentration in French) Favorite role: I haven’t played her yet. She may currently be unwritten.

I chose Brown/Trinity Rep because I wanted a container to record and illuminate the stories of Black womxn for our collective liberation, joy, and light. I am a producer of the series Gales about Black millennial nurses in Baltimore who are navigating the roller-coaster that is “adulting.” You can learn more about me www.aizhaneya.com.

Molly Houlahan, directing Alma mater: Yale University Shakespeare as a high schooler) I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep for the amazing and unique community of theater-makers. You can learn more about me at www.mollyhoulahan.com.

Hometown: South Norfolk, VA Alma mater: Norfolk State University Favorite roles: Booth (TopDog/UnderDog by Susan-Lori Parks), Citizen Barlow (Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson)

I chose to attend this program because it was the place that felt like home. I equally felt like this was the ideal place to serve as my new artistic playground. During the pandemic this summer, I had the opportunity to write a play and later publish it called Billiards. I am excited about the journey it will embark on while I’m here in Providence. I am currently a recipient of the Brown Arts Initiative Grant which will help fund a special project attached to Billiards, which will be made accessible to the public on December 19, 2020. I am indeed blessed and honored to call myself an artist during this time that we are living in.

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Favorite role: Paulina (A Winter’s Tale by William

Sophie Zmorrod Laruelle, acting Hometown: Westchester, NY Alma mater: Columbia University Favorite role: Scheherazade (Marjana and the

Forty Thieves at Target Margin Theater)

I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep because the curriculum is built upon the notion of the actor as a multi-dimensional artist. The opportunity to take directing, playwriting, and dramaturgy classes in addition to technique work was thrilling to me. I can already tell I am going to learn so much in collaboration with such exceptional artists! Find out more at www.sophialaruelle.com.

Hometown: Dallas, TX Alma mater: University of Texas at Austin (studying Radio-TV-Film and Nutritional Science) Favorite roles: Doug (Gruesome Playground

Injuries by Rajiv Joseph); Miller (The Royal

Society of Antarctica by Mat Smart); Ferdinand (The Tempest by William Shakespeare)

I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep because the idea of a debt-free arts education is revolutionary and I’m here for it. I feel called to be a versatile, collaborative actor, standing in myself all parts magic, queer, nonbinary, global majority. I’m excited about both the diversity of Brown/Trinity Rep’s recent graduate classes and continuing that transformative work. I am a co-founder of Altered Shakespeare Company and community member and supporter of Public Works Dallas. I was the recipient of the Lizz Ketterer Memorial Trust Scholarship.

Gabby Momah, acting Hometown: Diamond Bar, CA Alma mater: Stanford University Favorite roles: Sam (They/Them by Nick Mwaluko), Nana (Schoolgirls by Jocelyn Bioh), Angie (Top Girls by Caryl Churchill) I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep because I was drawn to their investment in developing my skills as a well-rounded theater-maker.

Hometown: Cincinnati, OH and Raleigh, NC Alma mater: Ball State University Favorite role: Charles Douaihy (Sons of the

Prophet by Stephen Karam)

I chose Brown/Trinity Rep because of the people. I am a people person through and through and I believe the community we surround ourselves with has such a huge impact on our artistic vocabulary. So in my years in New York, when I met current students, alumni, and then later meeting some of the faculty during the audition process, I had a strong gut feeling that this was a cohort and a community that I could connect and grow with, be pushed further by, and make art and mistakes with. I am so happy I followed that instinct. When I’m not doing theater, I love to cook, I love to travel, I collect vinyl records, and I consider myself a proud New Yorker.

Madeleine Russell, acting Hometown: Pasadena, CA Alma mater: Middlebury College Favorite roles: Anna (The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel); Andromache (Women of Troy by Euripides); Claudia Roe (Enron by Lucy Prebble) I chose Brown/Trinity Rep because I believe this program, at its core, values ensemble and risk-taking. I feel those principles succinctly capture why I’m here: to grow as a collaborator and ensemble member, discover my artistic family, and reinvent my understanding of the word “failure.”

Hometown: Boston, MA Alma mater: Knox College Favorite roles: Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s

Dream by William Shakespeare), Jack Worthing (The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde), Lawrence (Home Free! By Lanford Wilson), Agamemnon (Iphigenia 2.0 by Charles Mee)

I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep because I’d been working in the local theater scene in Boston for a few years, and was looking for a catalyst for a kind of artistic growth I just wasn’t finding there, and I thought grad school might be it. I had worked adjacent to Michael Hisamoto, now a second-year acting student at Brown/Trinity Rep, then a first-year, and everything he said about the program, made it sound like exactly the program I was looking for.

Andrew Watring, directing Hometown: Huntsville, AL Alma mater: American University Favorite role: Director of Hamletmachine by Heiner Müller and Jen Jourdheuil

I chose to attend Brown/Trinity Rep because I wanted to be challenged beyond my bounds. I wanted to engage in a transformative, revolutionary process of creation that centers and brings power to the most vulnerable. I am Black. I am Trans. I am committed to using theatre as a revolutionary political education tool for the international liberation of all Black people.