Melanie Brezill (Michelle/Chrissy/LaNiece) 
Broadway/National Tour: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon, Mamma Mia!. Select Regional: Go Dog Go! Ve Perro ¡Ve! (Chicago Children's Theatre); Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, Man in the Ring, Caroline, or Change (Court Theatre); Beautiful, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Marriott Theatre); The Comedy of Errors at Shepperton, As You Like It (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Nina Simone: Four Women (Northlight Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre); Crowns (Goodman Theatre); The MLK Project (Writers Theatre). TV: Empire. Film: Reporting for Christmas. Brezill is the creator of The Grandmother Project and Pearls & Pocketbooks series on YouTube. @shinegirlshine @thegrandmotherproject 

Leovina Charles (Vanessa/Sheila/Radia) 
is a Haitian-American actress, singer, and dancer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Making her professional theatre debut as Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway, she has long believed in the transformative power of storytelling and has a passion for stepping into the shoes of those whose stories often go untold. She is thrilled to be back on the Playhouse stage and thanks God, her family and friends for their unending love and support! Select Credits: Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse), I Am Antigone (Theatre for a New City), The Waterfall (Thrown Stone), Soñadora (Tribeca Film Festival, Amazon Prime), In the Red and Brown Water (UCSD). M.F.A.: Acting, UC San Diego. B.F.A.: Musical Theatre, Howard University.

Victoire Charles (Jaja) 
Theatre: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Broadway); Golden Age (MTC); Ruined (MTC, Intiman, Geffen Playhouse); Moby Dick Rehearsed, The Tempest (The Acting Company, Group 35); Intimate Apparel (Portland Stage Company); The Trojan Women (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Company). TV: New Amsterdam (NBC); FBI (CBS); Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School (HBO Max). She can currently be seen recurring as Judge Stella McRae on this season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. @victoryc

Debora Crabbe (Understudy: Miriam/Ndidi/Aminata)
Regional: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (Kennedy Center TYA), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Round House Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Ford’s Theatre), Gloria: A Life (Theater J), The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective (Washington Stage Guild), As You Like It (Keegan Theatre), Iphigenia, The Dog in the Manger (We Happy Few). Honors/Awards: Helen Hayes — Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical (2019), Outstanding Ensemble (2020). Education: B.F.A. – VCU. Instagram: @dcdebbiecakes

Mia Ellis (Jennifer) 
Select Regional: The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Fairview, The Mountaintop, Intimate Apparel, Ragtime (Trinity Rep); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); A Raisin in the Sun (Seattle Rep); Hamlet (Santa Cruz Shakespeare). TV/Film: The Good Fight, Elementary, Person of Interest, Welcome to the Blumhouse Live, Lavender Men, The Surrender. Mia received her M.F.A. in acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep and is also a narrator, writer, producer, and member of the Trinity Rep Acting Company. She sends a special thanks to Linda, Semoune, and L.B. Instagram: @ellismia09. Website: miaellis.com

Onye Eme-Akwari (James/Franklin/Olu/Eric) 
is a Nigerian-born actor, producer, musician, and educator. He has performed in and taught numerous marching bands, indoor drum lines, and world-class touring drum corps. Recent theatre credits include the regional premiere of Spirits to Enforce (Vernal & Sere), as well as the five-time Tony-nominated Jaja’s African Hair Braiding on Broadway (Manhattan Theatre Club). Recent TV/Film credits include guest star and recurring appearances in FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), The Good Doctor (ABC), Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS), Will Trent (ABC), Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), and Outer Banks (Netflix). Onye teaches at the Robert Mello Studio in Atlanta, GA, as well as the Terry Knickerbocker Studio in Brooklyn, NY. He also holds an M.A. in Industrial/ Organizational Psychology from the University of Georgia. Instagram: @onye.emeakwari 

Tiffany Renee Johnson (Aminata) 
is a proud Chicago native with a B.F.A. in Theatre from Howard University, and is repped by Gray Talent Group. She is thrilled to make her La Jolla Playhouse debut! Regional credits: Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Remy Bumppo Theatre — Core Ensemble Member); Chlorine Sky (Steppenwolf Theatre); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Goodman Theatre); Red Velvet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); The Garbologists (Northlight Theatre); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and A Doll's House (Writers Theatre). TV/Film credits: Shameless and The Chi (Showtime); Chicago PD and Chicago Med (NBC); Soundtrack (Hulu); and Range Runners (Amazon Prime). When she is not acting, she is writing for film and speaking to students. To God be the glory. Instagram: @tiffanyreneej_ Website: tiffanyreneejohnson.com

Jordan Rice (Marie) she/her
is thrilled to join the cast of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Jordan can currently be seen as a recurring guest star on Swagger on Apple TV+, and in the feature film One True Loves starring Simu Liu and Phillipa Soo. At age 11, Jordan made her feature debut in Ava DuVernay’s Selma and has loved creating ever since. Jordan is a 2020 National YoungArts Winner in Theatre, and a 2021 US Presidential Scholar Semifinalist. Additionally, she recently completed an intensive acting training course at LAMDA (UK). To follow her journey, follow her on Instagram: @actressjordanrice #ThatGirlBeActing

Aisha Sougou (Ndidi) she/her
was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is the daughter of immigrants from Senegal. Past credits include Beehive, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Marriott Theatre). She graduated from the School of Drama at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Class of 2023. She radiates love and gratitude for her friends and family, especially her mother and sisters, who taught her everything she knows about respect and self-worth. So much love for Stewart Talent and the faculty at UNCSA. Go Pickles! Instagram: @_aisha_marie_ 

Vandous Stripling II (Understudy: James/Franklin/Olu/Eric) he/him
La Jolla Playhouse: Understudy/Debut. Regional Theater: Henry VI, Parts one and two, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Old Globe); Trouble in Mind (Pittsburg Public Theater); Passover (Second Thought Theater); What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Stage West); Berta Berta (Jubilee Theater). Education: M.F.A. from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program.

Donae Swanson (Understudy: Marie/Vanessa/Sheila/Radia) she/her 
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: As You Like It (Divadlo Na Pradle); Twelfth Night (Loud Fridge); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Coronado Playhouse). Educational: Hamlet (Conrad Prebys); Love, Labors, Lost (SDSU); A Raisin in the Sun (SDSU). Readings: Desire (Native Voices). Education: B.A. from San Diego State University.

Bisserat Tseggai (Miriam) 
is an Eritrean-American actor whose work in theatre includes The Jungle at St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Curran Theatre, and For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad at Soho Rep. Her television credits include The Accidental Wolf, Seven Seconds, Succession, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Orange Is the New Black, Billions, Alternatino with Arturo Castro, Luke Cage, and Rival Speak. You can follow her @bisserat on all social media platforms.

Jocelyn Bioh (Playwright) 
is an award-winning, Tony Award-nominated Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theatre include Jaja's African Hair Braiding (MTC), which premiered on Broadway in 2023 and was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play; Merry Wives (Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, PBS Great Performances) which won the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation; Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater); and the multi-award-winning School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 70 regional productions and premiered in the UK in 2023. Jocelyn was a 2017 Tow Playwriting Fellow and has won several playwriting awards, including the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Prize (2018 and 2024), Steinberg Playwright Award, Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award, and is the winner of the 2024 Horton Foote Prize. Jocelyn has also written for TV on Russian Doll, Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It (Netflix), Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu), and the Star Wars series The Acolyte (Disney+), and is writing the live-action film adaption of the hit Broadway musical Once On This Island for Disney. 

Whitney White (Director) 
Broadway: The Last Five Years, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Marvin’s Room. Off-Broadway: Jordans, What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Public Theater); Soft (MCC Theater); On Sugarland, Othello (New York Theatre Workshop); If I Forget (Roundabout Theatre Company), Vineyard Theatre, The New Group, Page 73, The Playwrights Realm, Juilliard, Trinity Rep, The Drama League, and others. International: The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida Theatre); Sundance. Regional: The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre Company); An Iliad (Long Wharf Theatre); Canyon (IAMA Theatre Company); world premiere of Jump (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Trinity Repertory Company. Original Works: Semblance, Definition, Macbeth in Stride. Education: M.F.A. in acting, Brown University; B.A., Northwestern University. Awards: Obie, Lilly, Tony nominations for direction, writing, and music; two New York Times Critic’s Picks, LA Times Critics Choice, Elliott Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Performance, Susan Stroman Directing, Herb Alpert, Jerome Fellowship. White is an Artistic Associate (Roundabout Theatre Company) and former staff writer on Boots Riley’s I’m a Virgo. 

Manna-Symone Middlebrooks (Additional Direction for La Jolla Playhouse)
Recent work on Broadway includes Jaja's African Hair Braiding. Recent directing credits include The Tempest, sandblasted, Precious Little and The Revenger's Tragedy at Northwestern University; Romeo & Juliet at Wittenberg University. Other regional associate and assistant director credits include The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf), The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre Company), All's Well That Ends Well (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Indecent and Turn Me Loose (Arena Stage); Henry IV, Part I and Amadeus (Folger Theatre), The Wolves, Skeleton Crew and Translations (Studio Theatre), BLKS (Woolly Mammoth). IG: @mannasymone. Website: mannasymone.com

David Zinn (Scenic Design) 
Previous work at La Jolla Playhouse includes set design for Tobacco Road, Notes from Underground, Peer Gynt and Diana. Recent set designs on Broadway include The Last Five Years, Stereophonic, The Notebook, Kimberly Akimbo, Funny Girl and The Humans; set and costume design for Here We Are (also at the National Theatre), SpongeBob SquarePants, Amelie and Fun Home; and costumes for Enemy of the People and A Doll’s House Part 2. Recent Off-Broadway includes Bess Wohl’s Liberation, as well as work at Playwrights Horizons, MTC, NYTW, Lincoln Center and Second Stage. He’s also designed at A.C.T., A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, The Guthrie, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Young Vic, Hampstead (UK), Berlin Staatsoper and Theater Basel. He's received Tony, Drama Desk, Hewes and Obie awards for his work. 

Dede Ayite (Costume Design) 
is a Tony Award-winning costume designer. La Jolla Playhouse: Here There Are Blueberries, The Year to Come, The Last Tiger in Haiti. Recent: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera. Select Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony Award), Hell’s Kitchen, Appropriate, Topdog/Underdog, Slave Play. Select Off-Broadway: Merry Wives (Public), Buena Vista Social Club, Days of Wine and Roses (Atlantic). Select Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage. TV: Netflix, Comedy Central. Awards: TDF/Kitty Leech Young Master Award, Obie, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, Audelco, Jeff awards. 

Jiyoun Chang (Lighting Design)
loves to work on new stories and adaptations that connect her to communities around her and share a deep understanding of them with the audience. Her credits on Broadway are Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Stereophonic, The Cottage, KPOP, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, and Slave Play. Her other credits are from the Noël Coward Theatre at West End, Arena Stage, The Public Theatre, Roundabout, NYTW, MCC, Signature, ATC, Guggenheim, Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Cal Shakes, Guthrie, Old Globe, and OSF. She has been nominated numerous times for Tony, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel Awards. She is a recipient of the Henry Hewes Design Award ‘24, Obie Award, and Suzi Bass Award. Jacob Zedek is the Associate Lighting Designer who has transferred Jaja from Broadway to La Jolla Playhouse.

Justin Ellington (Original Music and Sound Design)
La Jolla Playhouse: The Outsiders, to the yellow house, The Seven. His impressive portfolio spans theatre, film and radio, with Broadway credits including Othello, Our Town, McNeal, Home, Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Tony nomination), for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (Tony nomination), Topdog/Underdog, Pass Over and Clyde's. Off-Broadway he's contributed to productions at New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center and The Public Theater. Justin has earned awards like the Obie, Audelco and Henry Hewes Design, and has been recognized by ASCAP and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is currently a Lecturer in Sound Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.

Stefania Bulbarella (Video Design) 
is a projections designer from Argentina based in NY. Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (MTC). Off-Broadway: Space Dogs (MCC); Travels (Ars Nova); A Bright New Boise, The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre); Semblance (New York Theatre Workshop); among others. Nominations: 2024 Tony nominee for her work in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominee for Outstanding Video/Projection Design for Space Dogs. Awards: HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design for Vamonos!. stefaniabulbarella.com 

Nikiya Mathis (Wigs and Hair Design)
is a multi-hyphenate actress and wig designer. She has originated roles in world-premiere plays including Blood Quilt at Arena Stage; Off-Broadway premieres including Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays, Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew, Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar; and Lynn Nottage’s NY revival of Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine. She currently recurs as N’Kiyah Franklin in Power Book III: Raising Kanan on Starz. Nikiya is the first wig designer ever to receive a special Tony Award for her design of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She is an Obie Award winner, Drama Desk Award winner, Black Women on Broadway Award winner, and Henry Hewes Award winner. Nikiya’s Broadway credits include Purpose, Home, The Heart of Rock and Roll, Once Upon a One More Time, Death of a Salesman, Topdog/Underdog, and Chicken & Biscuits. Her Off-Broadway credits include the re-envisioning of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Goddess, Liberation, among others. Instagram: @our_black_tresses @nikiyamathis

Ann C. James (Sensitivity Specialist) 
debuted as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator on Broadway for Pass Over. Recently, her company Intimacy Coordinators of Color was awarded a Special Citation from the Obie Awards. Broadway: John Proctor Is the Villain, Sunset Boulevard, A Wonderful World, Eureka Day, Lempicka, The Outsiders, Hamilton, Parade, Sweeney Todd, Heart of Rock and Roll, Illinoise. Off-Broadway: Shit. Meet. Fan., The Hippest Trip, Sunset Baby, Jonah, White Girl in Danger, How to Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, My Broken Language, The Half-God of Rainfall, Here There Are Blueberries, Life and Trust, The Lonely Few. Tour: Hamilton USA, UK and AUS.

Erica A. Hart, CSA (Casting) 
Broadway: Chicken & Biscuits, Pass Over, Death of a Salesman, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Television: Black Mirror, A Black Lady Sketch Show (Artios winner), That Damn Michael Che, Bust Down, The Girls on the Bus, The Equalizer, Survival of the Thickest. Film: The Surrogate (Artios winner), We Strangers (SXSW), Cupids (Tribeca). Music video: “Fight for You” by H.E.R. Thanks Jocelyn Bioh, Whitney White, Kelly Gillespie, David Caparelliotis, and the Jaja’s African Hair Braiding family! 

Kelly Gillespie, CSA (Casting) 
has been on the casting staff at Manhattan Theatre Club for 17 seasons. Favorite MTC projects include Prayer for the French Republic (Broadway and Off Broadway), Mary Jane, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, The Best We Could, Skeleton Crew, Ink, Choir Boy, and The Explorers Club. Other credits include Bite Me, Sancocho, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, What We’re Up Against, Sundown Yellow Moon, Ironbound (WP Theater); Melancholy Play, A Map of Virtue, The Zero Hour, Monstrosity (13P); Good Person of Szechwan (Foundry and Public Theater); Photograph 51 (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Exclusion, POTUS (Arena Stage); Age of Innocence, Trouble in Mind (The Old Globe); Two Sisters and a Piano (Two River Theater); and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America, Residence, Seven Guitars, 4000 Miles, Dot, The Roommate, and Eat Your Heart Out (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Gillespie also was resident casting director for several seasons for the Off Broadway companies TACT and Keen Company. She holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan. 

David Caparelliotis, CSA (Casting)
Select Broadway/Off Broadway: Good Night and Good Luck; Mary Jane; Prayer for the French Republic; Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; 2:22 A Ghost Story; Grey House; Summer, 1976; The Comeuppance; Ohio State Murders; Cost of Living; Macbeth; The Minutes; Skeleton Crew; Ink; Letters From Max; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Waverly Gallery; Boys in the Band. Select theatres: Signature NYC, Atlantic, Ars Nova, The Old Globe. TV/Film: New Amsterdam (NBC, series casting), The Boys in the Band (Netflix, original casting). 

Jacqueline Springfield (Voice and Dialect Coach)
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regional: South Coast Repertory, Goodman Theatre, Alliance Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Players Theatre. Education: M.F.A. from UNC Greensboro, Certified Instructor of Fitzmaurice Voicework^®. jacquelinespringfield.com

Melanie J. Lisby (Stage Manager) she/her/hers
La Jolla Playhouse: Wild Goose Dreams. Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Tina—The Tina Turner Musical, Grand Horizons, On the Twentieth Century. Off-Broadway (select): Dark Disabled Stories, american (tele)visions, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Hurricane Diane, Wild Goose Dreams, Jersey Boys, Pacific Overtures, Dead Poets Society, Mobile Unit’s Hamlet, Once Upon A Mattress. Regional: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown, Two River, Pig Iron, Gulfshore Playhouse, The Barnstormers, Crossroads Rep. Numerous readings, labs, workshops and special events. Proud Indiana State University alumna.  

Edward Khris Fernandez (Assistant Stage Manager, May 30 – June 15)
La Jolla Playhouse: The Garden. Regional: Cambodian Rock Band, Pacific Overtures, On This Side of the World, Vietgone (East West Players); This Bright Wilderness, A Christmas Story: The Musical, Clyde’s (Center Theatre Group); The Engagement Party (Geffen Playhouse); The World Is Not Silent (Alley Theatre); Clyde’s (Goodman Theatre); In the Heights (Colorado Fine Arts Center). Opera: Roméo et Juliette, Cosi Fan Tutte (San Diego Opera). Education: San Diego State University. Visit ekfsm.com for more!

Brillian Qi-Bell (Assistant Stage Manager, May 17 – June 1)
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. New York: PSM for Amerikin (Primary Stages); ASM for Bees & Honey (MCC Theater); ASM for 38th Marathon of One-Act Plays (Ensemble Studio Theater);  PA/ASM sub for The Harder They Come, PA for Hell's Kitchen (The Public Theater); PA for Suffs development (101 Productions). Regional: ASM for previous stops of Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); ASM for A Thousand Maids (Two River Theater). National Tour: PA/ASM sub for & Juliet, PA/ASM sub for Funny Girl, PA for Jagged Little Pill. Qi-Bell has participated in advocacy programs including the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship, Beyond the Stage Door (Baseline Theatricals), and the Harriet Tubman Effect. 

Arena Stage
The first racially integrated theatre in our nation’s capital and a pioneer of the regional theatre movement, Arena Stage was founded in 1950 in Washington, D.C. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. They produce plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep, and dangerous in the American spirit, and present diverse and groundbreaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Consistently contributing to the American theatrical lexicon by commissioning and developing new plays, Arena Stage impacts the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement and serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. arenastage.org

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 
has grown from a storefront stage to an international leader in innovative theatre and has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. Berkeley Rep’s shows have gone on to win eight Tony Awards, nine Obie Awards, eleven Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and many other honors. Berkeley Rep received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997. The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work was launched in 2012. Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre helps build the audiences of tomorrow with its nationally recognized programs. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org.

Center Theatre Group
One of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, Center Theatre Group is Los Angeles’ leading not-for-profit theatre company, which, under the leadership of the Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director Snehal Desai, Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman, and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, programs the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Center Theatre Group is one of the country’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics, and circumstances to serve Los Angeles. CenterTheatreGroup.org 

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
a Regional Tony Award recipient, produces a bold and innovative year-round season that includes Shakespeare, original plays, musicals, family programming, and international theatrical events. CST is committed to serving as a cultural center across its three stages – the 700+-seat Yard, 500-seat Jentes Family Courtyard Theater and the 200-seat Carl and Marilynn Thoma Theater Upstairs as well as in classrooms, neighborhoods and venues around the world. CST has a deep commitment to education and lifelong learning with robust programming for students, teachers and lifelong learners, and engagement with communities across the city. Onstage, in classrooms and neighborhoods across the city, and in venues around the world, Chicago Shakespeare is a multifaceted theatre – inviting audiences, artists and community members to share powerful stories that illuminate the complexities, ambiguities and wonders of our world. chicagoshakes.com

Madison Wells Live
is the live entertainment arm of Madison Wells, Gigi Pritzker’s award-winning, independent production company who believes in telling stories by, and about, badass women, as well as people who love pushing boundaries. Led by Executive Producer Jamie Forshaw, Madison Wells Live focuses on producing purpose-driven projects through collaboration with partners who are aligned in the belief that great storytelling can provoke, inspire, and move audiences around the world. Broadway credits include Swept Away, Water for Elephants (Tony Award nomination), Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony nomination), Shucked (Tony nomination), Company (Tony Award for Best Revival), The Old Man and The Pool, Pass Over, Hadestown (Tony Award for Best Musical), The Inheritance (Tony Award for Best Play), Million Dollar Quartet (Tony nomination). West End: Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder!, The Motive and the Cue (Laurence Olivier nomination) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Laurence Olivier nomination). Off-Broadway: We Live in Cairo, Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience). For more information about Madison Wells Live, visit madisonwellsmedia.com.

LaChanze
Broadway: Celie in The Color Purple (Tony Award), Ti Moune in Once on This Island (Tony Award nomination), Trouble in Mind (Tony Award nomination), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Tony Award nomination), A Christmas Carol, If/Then, The Wiz, Company, Ragtime and Dreamgirls. Off-Broadway: The Secret Life of Bees, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, The Vagina Monologues and Cabin in the Sky at New York City Center Encores!. TV: Handel’s Messiah Rocks: A Joyful Noise (Emmy Award), East New York, The Blacklist, HBO’s The Night Of, Law & Order: SVU, The Good Fight, Sex and the City. Film: The Help, Melinda and Disney’s Hercules among other titles. As Director: Alice Childress’ Wine in the Wilderness at Classic Stage Company next season. As Producer: The Outsiders, adapted from S.E. Hinton’s classic novel (Tony Award), Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh (Tony Award nomination), Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim along with the 20th Anniversary revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’ acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog (Tony Award) and Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s new musical, Kimberly Akimbo (Tony Award), both co-produced with David Stone. President of Black Theatre United, a community dedicated to awareness, accountability, and advocacy. Proud mother to Celia Rose and Zaya LaChanze. She resides in Westchester, New York with her three cats and gardening hats.