Dominique Morisseau
Playwright
Dominique Morisseau is the Tony-nominated bookwriter of the record-breaking Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. Additionally, she is best known for The Detroit Project. A 3-Play Cycle representing three distinct periods in Detroit’s history which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Detroit '67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre), Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre), and Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group, Women's Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Eugene O'Neil Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theater, Women's Project, South Coast Rep, People's Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless.”
Awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award (2), and the Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship. She was named one of Variety's Women of Impact for 2017-18, named of member of Variety’s Broadway Impact Report of 2019, and a recipient of the 2018 MacArthur Genius Grant.
In the television space, Dominique has a pilot in development with Scott Rudin based on her play Skeleton Crew. She has other projects in development with Annapurna, Netflix, and is writing the miniseries "Unruly" for HBO that will star Mahershala Ali. On film, Dominique is currently adapting the documentary, Step, into a feature for Fox Searchlight with producer Amanda Lipitz. She recently signed on to create a musical based on the SOUL TRAIN franchise in conjunction with BET and QuestLove.
Dominique was featured in the prestigious Variety Women's Impact Report 2017 as well as the Variety Power of Broadway List 2019.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Director
Director/Actor/Writer
Directing: JITNEY (Arena Stage, DC; Tony Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, NY Drama Critics, Outer Critics Awards for Outstanding Revival), The Piano Lesson (Lucille Lortel, Joseph A. Callaway, Audelco, OBIE), The Happiest Song Plays Last (2nd Stage), My Children My Africa, The First Breeze of Summer, Seven Guitars (The Signature Theater), Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine, Two Trains Running, Jitney (The Two River Theater Co.), Things of Dry Hours (NY Theater Workshop), Gem of the Ocean (The McCarter Theater and A.C.T. San Francisco), Radio Golf (The Kennedy Center), Artistic Director of August Wilson’s The American Century Cycle (Recording all ten plays for WNYC at The Greene Space NYC).
Acting: Broadway: Seven Guitars (Tony Award), Stick Fly, Gem of the Ocean, Jelly's Last Jam. Off-Broadway: How I Learned What I Learned (The Signature Theater), Lackawanna Blues (Obie, Helen Hayes), The Winter's Tale, Measure for Measure, Henry VIII (Public Theater, NYSF), Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (NEC).
André Holland
P-Sam
André Holland most recently starred and co-executive produced in Damien Chazelle’s Netflix series "The Eddy", which was released on April 2020. Other film credits include High Flying Bird, Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Moonlight (Academy Award for Best Picture), Selma (Academy Award Nominee), 42, Miracle at St. Anna, and the acclaimed 2008 independent film Sugar. Holland’s TV credits include the Stephen King inspired series, "Castle Rock" (Hulu/Bad Robot) and Steven Soderbergh’s "The Knick".
Holland made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning 2009 revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and most recently performed in Othello alongside Academy Award and Tony-winning actor Mark Rylance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. Other select theater credits include the Tony Award-winning production of August Wilson’s Jitney, The Whipping Man at MTC, The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park productions of All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It.
Kristolyn Lloyd
Pumpkin
Grammy and Emmy Award winner.
Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen.
Off-Broadway: Little Women (Primary Stages), Blue Ridge (Atlantic), Paradise Blue, The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre) Invisible Thread (Second Stage Theatre), Heathers: The Musical (New World Stages), Cabin In The Sky (Encores City Center)
Selected Regional: Paradise Blue (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Witness Uganda (A.R.T.), Hairspray, Rent (Hollywood Bowl).
TV: “Random Acts of Flyness” (HBO), "Elementary", "Madam Secretary” (CBS), “ER” (NBC), and “Lie to Me.” (FOX).
@kristolynlloyd Instagram and Twitter.
Simone Missick
Silver
Simone Missick headlines the new CBS series, "All Rise" in the role of Judge Lola Carmichael. "All Rise" follows the dedicated, chaotic, hopeful, and sometimes absurd lives of the judges, assistant district attorneys, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops, and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles. Simone was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Drama) at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards for her role on the show.
Simone can also be seen starring in Season 2 of the just released Netflix series, "Altered Carbon", opposite Anthony Mackie.
Simone made history for her powerful and extraordinary portrayal in Marvel’s "Luke Cage" on Netflix as TV’s first black female superhero, Misty Knight. She has been touted as the show’s “breakout star” and was featured as one of People Magazine’s “Ones to Watch” prior to the first season premiere. She continued to portray this impactful character in the other Netflix/Marvel shows "The Defenders" and "Iron Fist".
Previously, Simone filmed the lead in an independent film Jinn directed by Nijla Mumin which premiered at SXSW Festival in 2018. The film tells the deeply intimate and timely story of a woman that converts to Islam and how this affects her family dynamic.
Outside of film and television, Simone’s impeccable theatre work includes: The Signature’s Paradise Blue written by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Center Theatre Group’s Citizen: An American Lyric. Based on a book of poetry by Claudia Rankine, adapted for the stage by Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs, and directed by Shirley Jo Finney, Citizen fuses poetry, prose, movement, music, and the video image in a provocative stage adaptation. She starred as Sweet Tea in The Road Weeps, the Well Runs Dry at the LA Theatre Center, which earned her an NAACP Theater Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2014.
Simone’s other television appearances include, CBS All Access’ "Tell Me a Story", ABC’s political thriller "Scandal", Fox’s "Wayward Pines" and Showtime’s criminal drama "Ray Donovan". She also starred in the comedy short "Voicemail", which she was nominated for the Best Actor award at the NBC Universal Shorts Festival.
Simone resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Dorian Missick and pup Charlie.
Keith Randolph Smith
Corn
Most recently seen in Paradise Blue at The Signature.
Broadway: Jitney; American Psycho; Fences; Salome; King Hedley II; The Piano Lesson; Come Back, Little Sheba.
Off-Broadway: First Breeze of Summer; The Piano Lesson (Signature); Tamburlaine (TFANA); Jitney (2ST/National Theatre London); Intimacy (New Group); Holiday Heart (MTC); Fabulation (Playwrights Horizon); Before It Hits Home (2ST/Public Theatre).
Regional: Our Town (Miami New Drama); The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, Sunset Baby (Pittsburgh City Theatre); Water By The Spoonful (Old Globe); In Walks Ed (Long Wharf); Anthony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage); The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove (Goodman); God of Carnage, Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Whipping Man (Alliance Theater).
Core Member of Quick Silver Theatre Company in NYC; Fox Fellowship in Acting; Lunt-Fontanne Fellow in Acting; Member of The Actors Center NYC.
Graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts Conservatory.
Blair Underwood
Blue
On screen Underwood was most recently seen co-starring in the Netflix limited series, "Self-Made", opposite Octavia Spencer. His performance earned a Black Reel Award earlier in August. While audiences were streaming that performance, Underwood was onstage, starring on Broadway opposite David Allen Grier in the Roundabout Theatre revival of A Soldier’s Play at the American Airlines Theater. His performance garnered accolades and was recently nominated for a Drama League Distinguished Performance Award. In 2019 Underwood recurred on the Netflix comedy series, "Dear White People", and in Clark Johnson's "Juanita", opposite Alfre Woodard, also for Netflix. He spent two years as a series regular on the ABC drama series, "Quantico", while also recurring on another hit ABC drama, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". He also had a co-starring role in The After Party, from writer/director Ian Edelman, which Netflix released late in 2018. He can be seen co-starring in Justin Simien’s horror comedy, Bad Hair, which will premiere on Hulu in October 2020. Past television credits include series regular roles on "Dirty Sexy Money", "The New Adventures of Old Christine", "In Treatment", "L.A. Law" and "The Event". Film credits include Rules of Engagement, Madea's Family Reunion, and Full Frontal, for director Steven Soderbergh. Underwood co-starred opposite Cicely Tyson in the Lifetime telefilm, A Trip To Bountiful, based on the Tony Award-winning play. In 2012 he made his acclaimed Broadway debut in the iconic role of Stanley in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he earned a Drama League Distinguished Performance Award nomination.
Kenny Rampton
Original Compositions
Darron L. West
Sound Designer
10th WTF Season: Before The Meeting, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Paradise Blue, True West, Johnny On A Spot, 2, The Visit, Booth is Back, Inherit The Wind, Speed-the-Plow, Picnic, The Moonstone, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Death Takes A Holiday, Marat Sade, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Closer Than Ever, The Sum of Us, Passion, Mother Courage, Rose Tattoo, Henry IV, John Browns Body.
Broadway: Lobby Hero, Six Degrees of Separation, Jitney, Fully Committed, Misery, Velocity of Autumn, Grace, Peter and The Starcatcher, Chinglish, Time Stands Still, The Royal Family, The American Plan, To Be Or Not To Be, Top Girls, Wait Until Dark.
New York: The Public/New York Shakespeare Festival, BAM, Lincoln Center, Theatre for a New Audience, Circle Repertory, Classic Stage Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Women’s Project, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard, The Atlantic, The Signature, Soho Rep, PS122, 2nd Stage, Playwrights Horizons.
Awards: 2012 Tony Award, 2012 Princess Grace Statue, 2006 Lortel and AUDELCO Award, 2004 and 2005 Henry Hewes Design Award, OBIE Award, and the Entertainment Design Magazine EDDY Award. Former Resident Sound Designer Williamstown Theater Festival 1989-1991 and Actors Theater of Louisville 1990-1993.
Bianca LaVerne Jones
Assistant Director
Bianca LaVerne Jones is a New York based multi-hyphenated artist.
During quarantine 2020 Bianca has directed via Zoom: Gift of the Mad Guys by Brian Pope produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater; Covered by Kevin R Free produced by NYC Seeing 2020; Oh, This is Rich by Kevin R. Free produced by Miles Square Theater; Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston produced by Hedgepig and Classical Theater of Harlem; Choices by Chanel Carroll, Semon I Wish I'd Heard by Lakhiyia Hicks, Oldest Town in Texas by Kristen Adele produced by BOLD; The Gaze (a film quilt) Episodes 108 & 109 by Larry Powel; While We Breathe produced by Brian Moreland and Arvind Ethan David: Take Yo Shit by Bianca Sams and Do You Really Wanna Know by Liza Jessie Peterson; Uhuru by Gloria Majule (Yale MFA ’21) produced by AYE DEFY; Don't Call Me Brother by Jeanette Hill; Othello (Opera); 5 Aspects for Bass and Chamber Orchestra produced and performed by Kevin Maynor and composed by Richard Thompson in Newark Veterans Park.
Bianca has directed at HERE Arts, Dream Center Harlem, Amoralist Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts showcase).
London: Carne Theater, Ambassador Theater (West End).
Associate Director: Thoughts of a Colored Man by Keenan Scott II dir. Steve Broadnax (Syracuse Stages; Baltimore Center Stage); A Small Oak Tree Runs Red by LaKeithia Dalcoe (Billie Holiday Theater) dir. Harry Lennix.
Assistant Director: BLKS by Aziza Barnes dir. Robert O’Hara (MCC); The First Noel co-written by Jason Michael Webb and Lelund Durond dir. Steve Broadnax III (Classical Theater of Harlem, Apollo Theater).
Film: Mother's Milk by Larry Powell; Undercover Sidechick by Cherie Danielle, Storkers by Cyril Nri.
Training: NCSA (diploma), SUNY Purchase (BFA-Acting), Yale, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (MA-Directing). Awards: Best Direction: DC Black Theater Festival for Best One Act Play, 2019 Best Actress Broadway World, AUDELCO for Best Ensemble 2018.
