EMSEMBLE:

Chinaza Uche (Ensemble Member) Graduate of the Experimental Theater Wing and The Classical Studio at New York University's Tisch School of The Arts. He is grateful to have to opportunity to work at NBT again, with such wonderful playwrights in remembrance of Trayvon's life. Recent Theater: 'The Last Saint on Sugar Hill' at The National Black Theatre. 'Othello' with The Kinetic Theatre Ensemble. 'Honeyfist', 'Hearts Like Fists' and 'Ajax in Iraq' with The Flux Theatre Ensemble. 'Obskene' with The Talking Band. 'Flipside' with The HartBeat Ensemble (Broadway World Connecticut Awards - Best Actor Nomination). 'The Brothers Size' at The Everyman Theatre (Best of Baltimore Awards 2012 - Best Play). 'Bintou' with The Movement Theatre Company. Film: 'Mother of George' (Sundance 2013), 'Terry Richardson’s Last Hours' (Cannes 2012), 'Threading Needles'. Recent TV: 'Blue Bloods', 'Deception' and 'Golden Boy'. An Ensemble Member with The HartBeat Ensemble. A Creative Partner with The Flux Theatre Ensemble. www.chinazauche.com

 

C. Kelly Wright (Ensemble Member) proudly marks her National Black Theatre debut. Wright recently appeared as The Lady in The Scottsboro Boys, Ahmanson Theatre, LA, reprising a role that garnered her a 2012 Critic's Circle Award for Best Featured Female in a Musical (American Conservatory Theater, SF/Old Globe, SD). Off-Broadway: Revival of The Great MacDaddy (Negro Ensemble Co.), Langston in Harlem, (Urban Stages, AUDELCO Award nomination, Best Supporting Actress). Other acclaimed performances include Black Pearl Sings!, Caroline, or Change, Radio Golf, It Ain’t Nothin But the Blues, A Civil War Christmas and Crowns. Wright loves developing new works. She appeared in world premieres of A Little Princess and Memphis and has given voice to new works from Marcus Gardley, Katori Hall, Imani Harrington, Mike Jones, Victor Lodato, Nina Mercer, Robert O'Hara, and Venus Opal Reese to name a few.  Wright's film work includes Angel Wishes, Everyday Black Man and Black Nativity.

 

Khadim Diop (Ensemble Member) is an American thespian and songwriter. Born August 18, 1997 in Harlem, New York City, NY to a Senegalese father and a mother of Puerto Rican heritage, Khadim facetiously refers to his culture as "Senerican." He has appeared in numerous NYU and Columbia University short film such as Lee, Gowanus 83, Elotes, and Play, as well as other independent film projects. He currently attends Repertory Company High School for Theater in Manhattan, where he is a staple on the Dean’s list.

 

Maechi Aharanwa (Ensemble Member) Credits include OFF BROADWAY: Mother Courage, Macbeth, The Blacks, Trojan Women (at Classical Theatre of Harlem where Maechi is an Artistic Associate), The Beyonce Effect (The Fire This Time Festival); REGIONAL: Seven Guitars (People's Light), Antigone (Quintessence Theatre Group), Miss Julie (New Day Repertory), A Women Called Truth (Open Eye Theater); JUILLIARD: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Cherry Orchard, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, Farragut North, Julius Caesar. TELEVISION/FILM: Person Of Interest, 30 Rock, Mercy, Maybe There’s A Tree, Police State.   Maechi co-writes and produces the web series Shi**y Fabulous Lives.  2013-2014 Princess Grace Award recipient.  TRAINING: The Juilliard School.  www.maechi.net

 

Marisa Duchowny (Ensemble Member)  is a graduate from the MFA Program at The American Conservatory Theatre in SF.  Some of her favorite roles include: Vieux Carre (Jane Sparks), The Verona Project (Lead Singer), and As You Like It (Celia). She recently filmed an international television show with NTV and performed in the musical "Lolpera"in The Fringe Festival & "The Grove" in a staged reading at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Marisa is a singer/song-writer and was nominated for her singing in the 2004 Daytime Emmys. 

 

Paris Campbell (Ensemble Member) Raised in the Bronx, NY Paris Campbell was bitten by the acting bug at the age of 17 when he attended Howard University and enrolled in the Fine Arts Department. Upon leaving Howard and after a brief stint in the army in 1991, Paris found himself back in New York. Here is where he began working and training with his mentor and coach Anthony Abeson. Paris has performed at the National Black Theatre in New York in it’s productions of The River Niger, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and Nzinga’s Children. He has toured with TheatreWorks USA in their production of Romeo and Juliet. Paris also has numerous Television and film credits under his belt including NY Undercover, Suckerpunch, Ghetto Dawg 2, and most recently DOA (aka The Level.) Paris is also an accomplished martial artist and has received training in Taekwondo, Doce Pares (filipino stick fighting), Hung Gar Kung Fu, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu and Wing Chun. 

 

Cedric Leiba Jr. (Ensemble Member) Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Cedric attended Stetson University receiving a B.M. in Vocal Performance. Beginning his professional career performing in reputable regional theaters, he then pursued a M.M. in Musical Theater from The Boston Conservatory. Upon graduating, Cedric toured nationally with MISS SAIGON (Ensemble), RENT (Angel) and GO DIEGO GO LIVE! (Diego). He then relocated to NYC and made his debut leading the cast of The Public Theatre’s world premiere hip-hop musical, KINGDOM (Juan). He later reprised that role at The Old Globe Theatre. Other NYC Theatre credits include: YELLOW BRICK ROAD (Mountain Lion)- Lucille Lortel, The Happy Enbalmer (Tenzing)- NYMF, Caridad (Vittorio Vidal, 2013 HOLA award Outstanding Performance by a Featured Male Actor and an Audelco Nomination)- NHAT and most recently NEON BABY (Juanito Xtravaganza)- Pregones Theatre. Film credits include: Millie and the Lords, Elliot Loves and Last Night at Angelo's.

 

Renee Rises (Ensemble Member) is an artivist from the SF Bay Area. She is grateful to work on a meaningful project that brings together like-minded artivists who challenge race in their every day life. Renee educates through theater highlighting untold narratives, creating and participating in productions that would otherwise not have a voice in mainstream society. Renee co-produced, co-directed and acted in a play she wrote called, “Nanay, Tatay, Anak,” which is about a Filipino American family struggling to find common ground amidst cultural, generation and health conflicts. She is also the creator of “Sidewalk Sisters,” a choreopoem she co-produced and co-directed to tell true stories of wom*n in New York City. Some of Renee’s roles and projects include “In the Cypher,” Josie in “Diwang Pinay,” My Short Skirt and The Vagina Workshop in “The Vagina Monologues,” and “Tagalogue Vol. 3: Within US.” To contact Renee, please visit www.reneerises.com.

 

CRATIVE TEAM:

Ebony Noelle Golden (Director) Creativity is conjuring, is root work, is making a way out of no way, is the practice of radical expressiveness that enlivens, incites and insists on liberation, NOW! Ebony Noelle Golden works at the intersection of art, culture and public education with individuals, communities and organizations seeking to build creative strategy, cultural performance and liberatory learning experiences for progressive social change. Working nationally, Ebony is the Director of the cultural arts direct action group, Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC and the Artistic Director of The Body Ecology Performance Ensemble. She earned a B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Texas A & M University, a M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Poetry from American University, and a M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. You can find more information at www.bettysdaughterarts.com.

 

Axel Avin, Jr. (Director) is a New York based Actor/Director. As a Director: "Personal" and "Underground" with Poetic Theater Company, Harlem 9 (2012 "48 Hrs. in Harlem"), he has also directed or assisted productions for, The Movement Theater Company, Columbia University, The Subjective Theater Company, The Horsetrade Theater Company and The 2011 24 Hr. Musicals. As an Actor: Gleam (CenterStage) Dir. by Marion McClinton, Off Broadway: Ruined ((Original Company)MTC), Streamers (Roundabout), Regional: A Raisin in the Sun (Virginia Stage Co.), Fences (Lorraine Hansberry Theater), A Christmas Carol (A.C.T), International: The Old Vic (London), Shakespeare in Paradise Festival (Nassau, Bahamas). Web Series: Splinter Cell: Extinction and Sh*tty Fabulous Lives. M.F.A. American Conservatory Theater.

 

Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Designer): Selected set &/or lighting design credits include: Sun Ra (Joe's Pub, NYC); We Won't Pay (Strasberg Institute); Wink (Terra Nova); Carmen (Tri-Cities Opera); Suor Angelica & Curlew River (Simpson Opera); Never Was Broken, premier (Jessica Chen Project); Bones in the Basket (in the Cap21 Blackbox, NYC); Will Work For (Terra Nova); The King's Whore (Walkerspace, NYC); Acis & Galatea (Madison Opera); Son of a Gun (Theatre Row NYC); Kiss Me, Kate for the Cole Porter Centennial (Yale); Holding It Down (Harlem Stage); Woman Bomb (Baryshnikov Arts Center); Madam Butterfly (Syracuse Opera); The Marriage of Figaro (Tri-Cities Opera); Illmatic (Urban Stages, NYC); The Piano Lesson, A Delicate Balance (Yale Repertory Theatre); Hedwig & the Angry Inch (Yale Cabaret); The Testament of Mary (Broadway)—Assoc. LD. MFA Yale School of Drama '11. www.alancedwards.com.

 

Paul Piekarz (Projector Designer) is an up-and-coming video designer and an associate artist with Imaginary Media Artists. Recent work includes "Asymptote to Zero Gravity" and "Perchance to Dream" with Mich-Mash Productions and "13" at NYU. He has also contributed to "Fun Home" at The Public Theater and "Buyer & Cellar" at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. 

 

VAL (Sound Designer) Haitian electronic music composer/percussionist/turntablist, Val Jeanty evokes the musical esoteric realms of the creative subconscious. She incorporates her African Haitian Musical traditions into the present and beyond, combining acoustics with electronics and the archaic with the post-modern. Her "Afro- Electronica" installations have been showcased in New York City at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Village Vanguard and internationally at SaalFelden Music Festival in Austria, Stanser Musiktage in Switzerland, Jazz à la Villette in France, and the Biennale Di Venezia Museum in Italy.'