a.k. payne is a playwright and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their plays love on and engage Black lives and languages beyond the confines of linear time to find/remember stories that might create conditions for our collective liberation(s). They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College and an MFA in Playwriting under Tarell Alvin McCraney from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale (formerly known as Yale School of Drama). Their work has been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. She is a three-time finalist and the 2025 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the largest and oldest international award for women+ writers. She is currently a resident artist/fellow with National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Foundation). They are a grandchild of the Great Migration; a queer & non-binary abolitionist affected in community by the “New Jim Crow;” and of a great lineage of Black women storytellers and living-room archivists; all of which deeply informs, uplifts, and amplifies their work as a playwright, community organizer, and spacemaker.

abigail jean-baptiste is a generative artist born & based in New York City. Guided by questions around Blackness, isolation, and kinship, their storytelling uses nonlinear language and repeatable gestures in a search to build nonsensical ways of being. Recent directing credits include: Chiaroscuro: a light and dark skin comedy by Aishah Rahman (NBT/The Flea), Ti Jean & His Brothers by Derek Walcott (Princeton University), King James by Rajiv Joseph (Northern Stage), and Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés (Atlantic Theater/NYU). abigail has developed work with: Playwrights Horizons, New Georges, JACK, National Black Theatre, Soho Rep, The Bushwick Starr, Roundabout, Mercury Store, and Northern Stage (BOLD Circle). abigail is a Lilly Award Winner and was named a Powerhouse Women+ Director by Playbill in 2020.

abigailjeanbaptiste.org | @abigailrosejb

Anthony Robles is a scenic designer whose work gestures toward simplicity and discovers what is essential to create visual poetry on stage. In 2025, he designed the set for the world premiere of Inebria Me, an experimental opera by San Cha at Performance Space New York. In March 2026, he designed the set for Apologiae 4 & 5 by Efthimis Filippou, directed by Andreas Andreou at Yale Cabaret. His upcoming work includes projection design for the world premiere of Ofrenda at Austin Opera, composed by Jorge Sosa and directed by John De Los Santos. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Anthony earned his B.A. from the USC School of cinematic arts in film and television production. He is currently a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama.

Rea J. Brown (they/them) is a recent M.F.A. graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, where their credits include rent free and Cleansed. They received their B.A. in theater and performance studies and visual arts from The University of Chicago (2022). Recent design credits include In Motion (Muhlenberg College); Four, Can of Worms (Juilliard); El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom (Long Wharf); We F*cked Up (Yale Cabaret); Rasheeda Speaking (Shattered Globe Theatre); WHITE (Definition Theater). Assistant credits include The Bahkkai (Queens College), Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Yale Rep), Macbeth (Geffen School), The Snow Queen (The House Theater), America V 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Definition Theater). Rea would like to thank and dedicate this work to Ma, Dad, and Jamie. Thank you for holding onto my dreams with me.

Alan C. Edwards – Work includes the world premieres of Harry Clarke (The Vineyard), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre), Gatsby: An American Myth (A.R.T.), How Shakespeare Saved My Life (Berkeley Rep), and My Joy is Heavy (NYTW). His regional design work includes Appropriate (Old Globe), Pipeline and Skeleton Crew (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and Paradise Blue (Geffen Playhouse). Additional credits include productions of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature and A.R.T.), Smith’s Fires in the Mirror (Signature), Twelfth Night and Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Bluebird Memories featuring rap artist Common (Audible Theatre), and Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge by Greig Sargeant and Elevator Repair Service. Edwards has been honored with awards and nominations for the Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Elliott Norton, and Henry Hewes Awards. His work in dance includes Where We Dwell and Chasing Magic by tap-dancer Ayodele Casel, In the Same Tongue by Dianne McIntyre, and Lifted choreographed by Christopher Rudd for American Ballet Theatre. On Broadway he was the associate to lighting designer Jennifer Tipton on The Testament of Mary. He is a graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, where he is also an Assistant Professor of Design.

Constant Dzah is a passionate sound designer born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. He has a B.F.A. in drama theater art and is currently a third-year M.F.A. candidate in sound design at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses, You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit, and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Other work includes falcon girls by Hilary Bettis (Yale Rep), Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones (Yale Cabaret), and heaven is something to keep you warm by Kandace James (Yale Summer Cabaret). Fun fact: he loves cooking. Yay! He also loves to listen to music, make music, and spend quality time with friends.

Wiktor Freifeld is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama and is an interdisciplinary artist and designer. His work spans exhibition design, projection for stage, and new media. Using abstract forms, he creates narrative projects that provide meaningful sensory experiences.

Nikiya Mathis made Broadway history as the first wig designer to receive a special Tony Award for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh. She is also a classically trained actress, with an M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Television and film roles include recurring as N’kiyah Franklin in Power Book 3: Raising Kanan (STARZ), Candy in Snowfall (FX), The Blacklist, Chicago Med, BrainDead, New Amsterdam, Blue Bloods, The Night Of, and others. She has originated roles in world-premiere Off-Broadway plays including Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays, Dominique Morrisseau’s Skeleton Crew, and Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar. Broadway design credits include CATS: The Jellicle Ball, Liberation, Purpose, Home, The Heart of Rock and Roll, Once Upon a One More Time, Death of a Salesman, Topdog/Underdog, and Chicken & Biscuits. Off-Broadway: Goddess: The Musical, Lights Out, Liberation & Primary Trust; CATS: The Jellicle Ball, This Land Was Made, A Raisin in the Sun, Nollywood Dreams, The Cotillion, Stew, and more. She has also designed wigs for actresses including Phylicia Rashad and Danai Gurira. Her recent work can be seen on this season of The Gilded Age. Obie Award, Kathleen Perkins Behind the Curtain Award from Black Women on Broadway, Henry Hewes, and Drama Desk awards. Nakiya teaches hair/wig design masterclasses for universities and organizations including NYU Tisch Graduate Costume Design, Yale, Princeton, and the Denver Center, among others.

Ogemdi Ude is a dance and theater artist and educator based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Kampnagel, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Gibney, Harlem Stage, Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, and Recess Art. She is a 2026 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists recipient, 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, and 2025 Princess Grace Honoraria in Choreography, and 2025–28 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. In January, 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue.

Ashley M. Thomas – If June Ambrose and James Baldwin had a baby, it’d be Ashley M. Thomas (she/her(s)/herself). Born and bred in Harlem, New York, Ashley is a writer and dramaturg whose work—spanning plays, poems, creative criticism, and short stories—centers on Black life from the mundane to the surreal. She’s dramaturged classical works, plays in-development, and solo shows through organizations such as Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and National Queer Theatre. Ashley’s writing has been in publications such as Broadway News, Jabberwock Review, and 3Views Theater. She’s a proud alumna of the First Wave Urban Arts Scholarship at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Social Work. She also holds an M.F.A. in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from David Geffen School of Drama, where she is currently a D.F.A. candidate. Ashley enjoys well-designed concert merch and is a proud godmother of a fiery Aries toddler.

Shannon Dodson she/her – Originally from upstate New York, Shannon is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has held positions on several shows including Hedda Gabler (associate production manager), Notes on Killing… (assistant technical director), and the Langston Hughes Festival of New Work (properties manager). Shannon also served as the technical director for Yale Summer Cabaret’s 2024 season. Outside of her work at Yale, she has served as the safety coordinator for Santa Fe Opera, the fly captain for the Glimmerglass Festival, and as flyman for the national tour of Elf the Musical in 2022.

Kelsey Rainwater – Kelsey’s work was most recently seen in Antigone (This Play I Read In High School) at The Public Theater. Broadway: Liberation, The Last Five Years, and Hell’s Kitchen. Off-Broadway: Liberation (Roundabout), Saturday Church (New York Theater Workshop), Walden (Second Stage), Jordans, Goddess, Sally and Tom, White Noise (The Public); Regional: Two Trains Running, Laughs in Spanish, Hot Wing King (Hartford Stage); In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Keen Company); Hedda Gabler, Spunk, Notes on Killing…, The Inspector, Wish You Were Here, Between Two Knees, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep). Film and television: Baby Ruby, The Green Veil, The Artist. She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaches stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Julie Foh (she/her) is a voice, text, and dialect coach and Associate Professor Adjunct of acting at David Geffen School of Drama. Previous coaching credits include Spunk, falcon girls, Escaped Alone, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep); Death of a Salesman, The Cottage, Hurricane Diane, Romeo and Juliet, All My Sons, The Winter’s Tale (Hartford Stage); Dial M for Murder (Drury Lane Theatre); The Woman in Black (Weston Theater Company); A View from the Bridge (Long Wharf Theatre); Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus (Next Chapter Podcasts); Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol, Sense and Sensibility, As You Like It, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, A Man for All Seasons, And a Nightingale Sang, The Caretaker, A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Belfast Girls (Irish Rep); Mlima’s Tale (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Westport Country Playhouse); Ride the Cyclone: The Musical, Sleuth (McCarter Theatre Center); Wolverine: The Lost Trail (Marvel podcast); As You Like It, King Charles III (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Sherwood (Cleveland Play House); Pygmalion (BEDLAM); Familiar (Woolly Mammoth); Trans Scripts, Cardenio (American Repertory Theater); The Tallest Tree in the Forest (Tectonic Theater Project); and others. She is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork, and co-author of Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training.

Calleri Jensen Davis is a creative casting partnership among James Calleri, Erica Jensen, and Paul Davis of over 20 years. They began their collaboration with Yale Rep in 2023 with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles and the ripple, the wave that carried me home. Broadway credits: The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, for colored girls…, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Burn This, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, A Raisin in the Sun, 33 Variations. Television: Love Life, Queens, Dickinson, and The Path, to name a few.

callerijensendavis.com

ty ruwe (they/he) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their credits include Silence/The Village, Pearl’s Beauty Salon, and Hamlet, princesa de Dinamarca, as well as The Aughts, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, and Witch at Yale Cabaret. Other credits include Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Macbeth in Stride, Spunk (Yale Rep); The Pirates of Penzance (Cape Repertory Theatre); Fairview (Speakeasy Stage Company); and Ada and the Engine (Central Square Theater). ty received his B.A. in psychology from Smith College.

Rethabile Headbush is a third-year stage manager at David Geffen School of Drama. Raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rethabile has a background in and passion for devised and interdisciplinary theater. Credits include Steve Carter’s Eden (assistant stage manager) directed by Brandon J. Dirden at Yale Rep; Is God Is; Surrey Houlker’s Hot Breakfast at Paul Bunyan Inn & Suites in the Beautiful City of Farville, USA; comfort ifeoma catchy’s You Can Tell a Tree by its Fruit. Further assistant stage management credits at the School include Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, Sarah Kane’s Cleansed, and Danielle Stagger’s new play rent free. Off-Broadway: RCI Theatricals Management Fellow for Mario Correa’s new play N/A directed by Diane Paulus. Further credits include The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s SEASON 9 Programme, artsINSIDEOUT (ArtsIgnite) program, and D’haus’s Urgent Interactions Youth International Congress (Market Theatre Laboratory).

Tiffany McLarty is a Bronx-born actor, artist, and public speaker. A former member of a World Championship Speech and Debate team at WKU, she holds an M.F.A. in acting from Columbia University. Deeply committed to the power of storytelling as a vehicle for social advocacy, Tiffany uses her work to inspire, challenge, and spark meaningful change within communities. She is honored and excited to be making her theater debut and grateful to be joining the incredible Yale Rep family. She extends heartfelt gratitude to her mentors at Columbia SOA and to her chosen family who have supported and uplifted her along the way. Above all, she gives thanks to God for His continued guidance and grace.

Lauren F. Walker is a New York–based actor, director, and multidisciplinary artist who recently earned her M.F.A. in acting from David Geffen School of Drama, where she received the Herschel Williams Prize for Excellence in Acting. With over 18 years of experience as a performer and theatermaker, Lauren is passionate about collaborative storytelling that embraces both the healing and complexities of the human experience. Her recent directing credits include WORTHY at the Geffen School and The Royale at Yale Cabaret. Recent acting credits include Charmed (MCC Theater), Cullud Wattah (The Public Theater), That Damn Michael Che (HBO), Bad Monkey (Apple TV+), and Eden (Yale Rep).

Brittany Antoinette Davis is a first-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama. Her credits include the world premiere of Push Party (The Hearth), A Raisin in the Sun (Bristol Riverside), Torn Asunder (Luna Stage), The Glass Menagerie (Rep Stage). Brittany would like to thank her family for the infinite support. She holds a B.F.A. in acting from Howard University and is honored to be a vessel for storytelling.

Mik/ayla Johnson (she/him) is a gender/queer Black actor, playwright, and graphic designer from San Antonio, Texas. She holds a B.A. in theater studies and ethnicity, race, and migration from Yale University. He was last seen as a featured performer in Rosetint Community Theatre’s Love Notes: A Valentine’s Cabaret and as Addapearle in The Wiz (Yale College). Mik is thrilled to join the company of Furlough’s Paradise and deeply grateful for the opportunity to enter this story with this group of people.