Zora Neale Hurston 1891-1960, one of the foremost writers of the 20th century, was raised in Eatonville, Florida, one of America’s first incorporated Black townships. She was a major force in the Harlem Renaissance documenting African American life in the South. Hurston, an alumna of Howard University, co-founded the school’s historic newspaper The Hilltop; later, she became the first Black graduate of Barnard College. In 1939, she joined North Carolina Central University’s drama faculty. In 1997, the Library of Congress’s librarians found Hurston’s unpublished cache, including Spunk, in their holdings. Hurston co-wrote sketches, performed in Fast and Furious (1931), and choreographed The Great Day (1932) on Broadway. In 1936 she wrote her most famous work, the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston died in January 1960, consigned to an unmarked grave. In 1971, writer Alice Walker commissioned a gravestone for Hurston which now reads “Zora Neale Hurston: ‘A Genius of the South’: Novelist, Folklorist, Anthropologist.”

Tamilla Woodard is Chair of the Acting program at David Geffen School of Drama and a Resident Director at Yale Rep. She is the co-founder of the site-specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics, proudly served as the co-Artistic Director of Working Theater in New York, and she was the Associate Director of the Tony Award-winning Hadestown on Broadway in its premier season. Prior to joining Working Theater, Tamilla was the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Tamilla has directed at theaters nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, The Alliance, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Classical Theater of Harlem, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts with TheaterWorksUSA, and The Cleveland Public Theatre, among others. Recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Tamilla is also a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and a proud board member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. She received her MFA in Acting from David Geffen School of Drama.

Nehemiah Luckett creates music that bridges sacred and secular, with works ranging from pop songs to operas. His original musicals and operas include Hamlet: Prince of Funk, Brick by Brick, jazz singer, A Burning Church, and Love Out of Time. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Nehemiah has deep roots in Jackson, Mississippi’s arts community. He is the Founder/Chief Dreaming Officer of Dreaming The Future Together and a member of The Dramatists Guild, ASMAC, ASCAP, and AFM NYC Local 803. He currently lives in the Bronx with his husband.

NehemiahLuckett.com | dreamingthefuturetogether.com

nicHi douglas is an OBIE Award-winning Brooklyn-based experimental theater and dance maker who is interested in leading community care-centered creative processes. you can refer to her/them/him/us using any pronouns said with Respect. nicHi is currently a resident artist at HERE Arts Center in NYC. her work has been developed and/or produced at MacDowell, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, The Shed, and The National Black Theater, among others. they are an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU/Tisch where they teach dance and movement methodologies. Additional awards include Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Director and Best Musical, the Callaway Award for Choreography, an AUDELCO Award for Choreography, and a Princess Grace Award for theatermaking. Upcoming: ReCONSTRUCTING at BAM. mynameisnichi.com

John Bronston served as Music Direction Fellow, rehearsal pianist, and sub Key II player on Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway. Off-Broadway he was the musical director on The Harder They Come (The Public Theater) and associate music director for A Man of No Importance (Classic Stage). Additional New York credits include developmental work at Roundabout Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, and Prospect Musicals. Touring credits include Hair, Five Guys Named Moe, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. Favorite regional credits include Macbeth in Stride (Yale Rep), Smokey Joe’s Café (Long Wharf), and The Color Purple (Goodman Theatre).

Karen Loewy Movilla is a Colombian multi-hyphenated artist and a third-year set designer at David Geffen School of Drama, where she designed Kilele and Macbeth. Select design credits include S’Mores (Yale Cabaret), Aya Ogawa’s Meat Suit (Mercury Lounge), New England Summer Storms (Columbia University), Our Bodies like dams (Mabou Mines, The Brick), and The Night Alive (Chain Theatre). Assistant credits: Uncle Vanya (the Geffen School), Ogawa’s Nosebleed (Lincoln Center), Zoetrope (Abrons Arts Center), Rubalee (New Ohio Theatre), Kiss (Wilma Theatre). She was part of Ars Nova’s 2021 ANT Fest, The Tank’s Core Productions in 2023 with Tía Talk, and an Object Movement Puppetry Residency in 2023.

Kristen Taylor is from Celebration, Florida, and has a B.F.A. in costume design and technology from the University of West Florida. She is an M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Ain’t No Mo’. Other credits include Pride of Doves (Yale Cabaret Spring 2024), These Shining Lives (Studio Theatre Tierra Del Sol, 2023), and Xanadu (Emerald Coast Theatre Company 2022).

Gib Gibney is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Silence/The Village, Metamorphoses, and Measure for Measure. Other select credits include Into the Woods and Blood at the Root at Penn State Centre Stage as well as associate lighting designer on Invasive Species at the Vineyard Theatre and Chiaroscuro at The Flea Theater (NBT). Originally from Long Island, he is a graduate of SUNY Suffolk and Penn State University.

Justin Ellington is an award-winning composer and sound designer whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and radio with credits both nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of an OBIE Award, an AUDELCO Award, the Henry Hewes Design Award, and multiple Tony Award nominations. Broadway: Pass Over, Other Desert Cities, Othello, Our Town, McNeal, Topdog/Underdog, Clyde’s, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Off-Broadway: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons); The Rolling Stone, Pass Over, and Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater); Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Ars Nova); The House that will not stand and Fetch Clay, Make Man (New York Theatre Workshop); He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box and The Winter’s Tale (Theatre for a New Audience). He has worked with renowned regional and international theaters such as Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alliance Theatre, Guthrie Theater, The Stratford Festival (Canada), The Royal Shakespeare Company, and The Old Vic. Ellington has also been recognized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Grammy Foundation for his work in the recording industry. He received a Cinema in Industry Award for his original score to MOVE ACT FREE, an exhibit at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

Ke Xu 许可 is a multidisciplinary theater designer. She graduated from Central Saint Martins (UAL) with first-class honors in product design and is currently a projection design M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Silence/The Village and Ain’t No Mo’. She was working professionally in China before coming to Yale and is passionate about exploring new theatrical language that integrates digital media with physical space. Recent credits include video and set design for Detective Zhao Gan’e (Beijing 77 Theater); projection design for And the Beetle Hums and Can the Peruvian Speak? (Yale Cabaret); Miss Julie (Beijing Star Theatre); 10:59 (Off Broadway Theater). behance.net/kxu

Matthew Armentrout — Broadway: Redwood, A Wonderful World, The Mother Play, Paradise Square (Drama Desk nominee), Birthday Candles, Flying Over Sunset, The Sound Inside, Bernhardt/Hamlet. Off-Broadway: The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (The New Group); The Gardens of Anuncia (Lincoln Center Theater); Dear World (NYCC Encores!); Suffs, The Visitor (The Public); Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout); Othello (NY Stage and Film). National Tour: Jitney. Regional: The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (Signature Theatre); The Inspector, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Yale Rep); 3 Summers of Lincoln (La Jolla Playhouse); Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil (The Goodman Theatre); Gatsby (A.R.T.); A Transparent Musical (Center Theatre Group); Ava: The Secret Conversations (Geffen Playhouse); Bliss! (The 5th Avenue). Television: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Emmy Nominee).

Eric M. Glover is an Associate Professor Adjunct at David Geffen School of Drama and a Faculty Fellow in the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration. Glover was also a production dramaturg for Ain’tNo Mo’ at the Geffen School and The Salvagers, the ripple, the wave that carried me home, Choir Boy, and A Raisin in the Sun (canceled due to COVID-19) at Yale Rep. Glover is the author of African American Perspectives in Musical Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2023), “1991: Original Broadway Production of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston’s Antimusical Mule Bone Is Presented” (Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 2021), and “Joy and Love in Zora Neale Hurston and Dorothy Waring’s 1944 Black Feminist Musical PolkCounty” (TDR, 2021). Glover is an At-Large Member in the International Society for the Study of Musicals and the Secretary of the American Society for Theatre Research.

Catherine Sheehy is Resident Dramaturg at Yale Repertory Theatre and the Chair of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama. Her Yale Rep credits include Escaped Alone, Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3, Happy Days, Elevada, These Paper Bullets!, In a Year with 13 Moons, The Winter’s Tale, Bossa Nova, POP!, Trouble in Mind, and The King Stag (which she also co-adapted with Evan and Mike Yionoulis). She’s a founding member of Rolin Jones’s Dwight Street Book Club and New Neighborhood. Her television work with Rolin includes HBO’s Perry Mason and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. Her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has been produced at Asolo Repertory Theatre and Dallas Theater Center. She has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Public Theater, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the Signature Theatre, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Center Stage, and in New York and Ireland with the late Joseph Chaikin. For four seasons she was Festival Dramaturg at Shakespeare Santa Cruz. She is a former associate editor of American Theatre and a former editor of Theater magazine.

Tom Minucci — Originally from New Jersey, Tom is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Kilele, The Carlotta Festival (2024, co-production electrician), and Hamlet, princessa de Dinamarca (properties manager). He was also technical director for falcon girls and assistant technical director for The Salvagers, both at Yale Rep. Prior to Yale, he served as the Technical Director for DeSales University and Barrington Stage Company. Other credits include Technical Director for the Berkshire Theatre Group, Assistant Technical Director for the Virginia Opera Association, and an engineering intern at Hudson Scenic. B.F.A., Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

Kelsey Rainwater is an intimacy and fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in Liberation at Roundabout and Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway. Some of her other credits include Walden at Second Stage; Hot Wing King at Hartford Stage; In the Southern Breeze, Measure for Measure, Jordans, Manahatta, and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Sally and Tom and White Noise at The Public Theater; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; 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 at Yale Rep. Film and television: Baby Ruby, The Green Veil. 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.

Michael Rossmy is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep, a lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, and Stage Combat and Intimacy Advisor for Yale College. Broadway credits include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose directed by Phylicia Rashad, A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout, The Atlantic, Primary Stages, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe, TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for The Public’s production of Troilus and Cressida and is a 2024 Barrymore Award nominee for Bonez at People’s Light.

Julie Foh is a voice, text, and dialect coach and Associate Professor Adjunct of acting at David Geffen School of Drama. Previous coaching credits include falcon girls, Escaped Alone, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep); Hurricane Diane, Romeo and Juliet, All My Sons, The Winter’s Tale (Hartford Stage); 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); 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.

Stephanie Rolland (Associate Director) is a director, curator, and Lilly Award-winning creative producer. Teaching Artist-in-Residence, the Film Over Gun Violence Program (CMCArts, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands); Director, SCC Redux (staged reading, New Black Fest); Associate Director, Our Town (Broadway); Assistant Director, Eden, Spunk workshops (Yale Rep); Visiting Director, “Collaboration Reloaded” led by Oskar Eustis and Suzan-Lori Parks (Tisch at NYU); Associate Director, Hamlet (The Public Theater). Select curating and producing credits include Theater Curator and creator/director/producer of the Beyond the Red Door theatrical event series (August Wilson African American Cultural Center); Producing Fellow, Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative; Producing Faculty (Why Not Theatre); 2018–20 WP Theater Producing Fellow; Co-Founder, Interfest. B.A., UPENN; M.F.A., David Geffen School of Drama.

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

James Mountcastle has been at Yale Rep since 2004, where he has stage managed productions of Wish You Were Here, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Girls, An Enemy of the People; Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince; Arcadia; A Streetcar Named Desire; American Night: The Ballad of Juan José; Three Sisters; The Master Builder; Passion Play; Eurydice; and the world premiere of The Clean House. Broadway credits include Damn Yankees, Jekyll & Hyde, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Boys from Syracuse, The Smell of the Kill, Life (x) 3, and Wonderful Town, as well as A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. National tours include City of Angels, Falsettos, and My Fair Lady. He was Production Stage Manager for Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis for both its national tour and at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End. In addition, Mr. Mountcastle has worked at the Kennedy Center, Center Stage in Baltimore, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and elsewhere. M.F.A.: David Geffen School of Drama, 1990.

Thomas Nagata he/they — Selected credits include Eden (Yale Rep); Sort, Fucking A, Uncle Vanya, Cactus Queen, Tempt Me (David Geffen School of Drama); The Tempest, it’s not a trip it’s a journey, Quixote Nuevo (Round House Theatre); King Lear (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Ain’t No Mo’, The Nosebleed, Incendiary, Rose: You Are Who You Eat (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company); In the Heights, Annie, Proof (Olney Theatre Center); All the Way, The Roommate, The Yoga Play (South Coast Repertory). Thomas received their B.A. from Wheaton College, Massachusetts.

ty ruwe they/them is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where their credits include Silence/The Village, HellYouTalmBout Part 1, Pearl’s Beauty Salon, and Hamlet, princesa de Dinamarca, as well as My Six Therapists, The Aughts, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, and Witch at Yale Cabaret. Other credits include Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Macbeth in Stride (Yale Rep); The Pirates of  Penzance (Cape Repertory Theatre);Fairview (Speakeasy Stage Company); honeyhole (MoonBox Productions, Boston New Works Festival); The Half-Life of Marie Curie, and Ada and the Engine (Central Square Theater). ty received their B.A. in psychology from Smith College.  

Jeannette Bayardelle — From the Bronx to Broadway and beyond, Tony nominee Jeannette Bayardelle has traveled to over fifty countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and the Caribbean, sharing her gift. She is the founder and CEO of Broadway to Wall Street. Jeannette wrote and starred in SHIDA the Musical and the web series I Take Thee Zoe. Broadway: & Juliet (Angelique), Girl from the North Country (Mrs. Neilsen), Hair (Dionne), The Color Purple (Celie). Off Broadway: The Harder They Come, Girl from the North Country (The Public Theater); Rock of Ages (New World Stages); SHIDA (Ars Nova). National tours/Regional: Gun and Powder (Paper Mill Playhouse) The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (La Jolla Playhouse), The Color Purple, Deaf West’s Big River, Rent. Film: Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning.

Shawn Bowers is a second-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. Yale Rep: The Inspector (understudy). Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations. Off-Broadway: Jelly’s Last Jam (City Center Encores), The Harder They Come (The Public Theater). Additional credits: Ragtime, Rent, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, After Midnight. Film: Rio Uphill (musical adaptation). Television: Tony Awards and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the original cast of Ain’t Too Proud. He would like to thank his family and friends for their continuous love and support.

Tyler Clarke is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Macbeth, Ain’t No Mo’, and rent free. She also understudied Eden at Yale Rep. @Tylerl_clarke

Alaman Diadhiou is a singer, dancer, songwriter, and entertainer from Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Alaman aspires to be one of the world’s premier live performers, carrying the traditions of legendary artists who precede him while innovating with his own voice. Trained at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Alaman is a 2019 Presidential Scholar in the Arts (tap dance), and a 2023 graduate of Yale College (B.A., comparative literature). Recent features include starring as Young Jelly in Jelly’s Last Jam (New York City Center) and guest-starring as Damian in ABC’s High Potential. National Tours: MJ/Michael Standby in MJ the Musical. Regional: Twist (Pasadena Playhouse), 3 Summers of Lincoln (La Jolla Playhouse), Anything Goes (The Muny).

Amahri Edwards-Jones makes her Yale Rep debut with Spunk. Her credits include the first National Tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Duckling Donna in the National Tour of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Regional: Goodspeed Musicals (Gypsy), Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Little Shop of Horrors), Virginia Musical Theatre (Freaky Friday, Mamma Mia, Chicago), Virginia Stage Company (Matilda). All thanks to God, her lovely parents, Bloc, family and friends for their unconditional support! @amahri_e_j

Janiah-Camile François (Daisy/Ensemble, u/s Evalina) returns to Yale Rep with Spunk, having recently been part of the company of The Salvagers. Broadway: McNEAL (Lincoln Center Theater). Regional: Thumbelina: A Little Musical (A.R.T.). Janiah was also seen in Furlough’s Paradise at David Geffen School of Drama, where she received her M.F.A. B.A., Harvard University.

Charlie Hudson III — Broadway: A Raisin in the Sun. Off-Broadway: Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater), (A) Loft Modulation (American Vicarious), Hurt Village (Signature Theatre). Regional: Welcome to Matteson (New Jersey Repertory); King Hedley II, A Raisin in the Sun, Seven Guitars (Two Rivers Theater); Detroit ’67 (Playmakers Rep); The Mountaintop (Northern Stage); Father Comes Home From the Wars (American Repertory); Clybourne Park, Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Centerstage); August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (Yale Rep); ‘Master Harold’…and the boys (Portland Stage Company); Fly (Crossroads Theater); Richard III, All the King’s Men, Cyrano de Bergerac (Trinity Rep); Mother Courage and Her Children (The Public Theater/NYSF); The Threepenny Opera (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Television: Archive 81 (Netflix); Daredevil: Born Again (Disney); Manifest, Shades of Blues (NBC); The Night Of (HBO); NCIS: Hawaii, The Good Fight, Unforgettable, The Rosa Parks Story (CBS); Forever (ABC); and A Raisin in the Sun Revisited: The Raisin Cycle at Center Stage (PBS). Film: Roxanne, Roxanne; A Complete Unknown; Twelve; Newlyweeds; Lillian. Training: Alabama State University and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium. I would like to thank my family for their love and support.

J. Quinton Johnson is a multi-hyphenate from the small town of Athens, Texas. He studied musical theater at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was discovered by Richard Linklater for the film Everybody Wants Some!! He also appeared in Linklater’s Last Flag Flying. Other screen credits: ABC’s Dirty Dancing, The Son, We Can Be Heroes, and The Summoned. Quinton made his Broadway debut in Hamilton as the first replacement for Hercules Mulligan/James Madison. He was in the Tony-nominated play Choir Boy and productions of Footloose and In The Heights at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Quinton combined many of his musical passions in Alice’s Wonderland when he co-wrote the music, book and lyrics, and did the orchestrations and produced the tracks for licensable productions.

Naiqui Macabroad is an actor, writer, musician, and graduate of Howard University, where he obtained his B.F.A in acting. Stage/Screen: I Am Delivered’t (Irma P. Hall Award nomination), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Long Way Down, Power (STARZ), Timeless (NBC), Start-Up (Netflix). Spunk marks Mr. Macabroad’s Yale Rep debut.

Kimberly Marable recently starred as the iconic Velma Kelly in Chicago on Broadway. Additional Broadway credits include Hadestown (original company), The Lion King, and Sister Act. International and North American Tours include Hadestown (Persephone), Sister Act (Deloris van Cartier), The Book of Mormon, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, and The Wedding Singer. Television/streaming: FBI, Bull, Netflix Anime’s Cannon Busters (Lorelai), NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series, and promo voice for various networks. Kimberly co-founded Broadway Serves, which connects theater professionals with community service opportunities. Love always to Fam, CLA Partners, and MA. Salaams! kimberlymarable.com @misskimizzo

Christian Pedersen most recently appeared in Boeing Boeing and Dial M for Murder at Peterborough Players in New Hampshire. Earlier this year, he was seen at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Hamlet and Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood. Other recent credits include Florida Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Workshop Theatre of Nantucket, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in San Francisco. He made his Broadway debut in Ohio State Murders opposite Audra McDonald at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Television credits include This Is Us, SEAL Team, The Offer, Superstore, The Good Wife, and One Life to Live. Graduate of the University of Richmond and The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

Isaiah Reynolds is excited to be making his Yale Rep debut. Isaiah has had the privilege of traveling all over the country performing. Some favorite credits include Beautiful: the Carole King Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse), Sweeney Todd (Portland Center Stage), Choir Boy (Speak Easy Stage), Five Guys Named Moe (The Fulton), Buddy (Cape Playhouse), and Hairspray (Theater Aspen). B.F.A., Boston Conservatory. He would love to thank his friends, family, and DGRW for their love and support. @Isaiahreynolds55.

Kimber Elayne Sprawl most recently played Emilia in Othello on Broadway (Joe Callaway Award recipient). Additional Broadway credits: Marianne Lane in Girl from the North Country (OBC); Nessarose in Wicked (20th anniversary cast); Jane in A Bronx Tale, Home (Roundabout); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. National tour: Sarabi in Disney’s The Lion King, Regional: Zoe in The Niceties (Milwaukee Rep). Television appearances include East New York (CBS), That Damn Michael Che (HBO Max), Inside Amy Schumer (Paramount +).

Matthew Elijah Webb is a dynamic performer and storyteller committed to creating art that uplifts, empowers, and inspires. Whether acting, writing, or building new work, Matthew seeks to tell stories that matter. Broadway: Fat Ham and Our Town. Off-Broadway: Fat Ham. He continues to explore the transformative power of performance to reflect, heal, and spark change. MFA, David Geffen School of Drama. @matthewelijahwebb

Correy West — Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Lincoln Center Theater’s South Pacific. National Tours: Love Never Dies (first national U.S. premiere), Anything Goes (first national), 42nd Street. New York: The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Chicago/Toronto), PBS Great Performances Season 50: Celebrating 50 Years of Broadway’s Best (Live from Lincoln Center), Showboat (New York Philharmonic/Live from Lincoln Center). Regional: The Ballad of Johnny and June (La Jolla Playhouse, Citadel Theatre); American Prophet (Arena Stage Company); Mary Poppins, Primary Trust (Hope Repertory); Beautiful (Theatre Aspen, the REV); Oliver! (Virginia Stage Company), The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee (Arkansas Repertory); Kiss Me, Kate (Cape Playhouse); Guys and Dolls (Barrington Stage Company); Paint Your Wagon (Pioneer Theatre Company); Shrek (North Shore Music Theatre).

Christian Brailsford — Broadway National Tour: Pretty Woman (David Morse, Happy Man u/s, Alfredo u/s). Off-Broadway: Oratorio for Living Things, Cleopatra, Francois & the Rebels, Songs of a Serpent. Television: The Beast in Me (Netflix). International: Scar in Hong Kong Disney’s The Lion King. Regional: Oscar Clifton in A Complicated Woman (Goodspeed), Preacher/Sheriff in Bonnie & Clyde (Pioneer Theatre Company, Mayor Joe in May We All (The REV), Benny in In the Heights (WPPAC, The Gateway), Andrew Gaines in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (The Gateway). Christian is ecstatic to be making his Yale Rep debut in Spunk. He thanks his family and friends for their unwavering love and support.  

Mikey Corey Hassel (male swing/understudy for Jim, Admiral, Nunkie, Blue Trout, Willie Joe) A proud native—and Duke—of Paducah, Kentucky, Mikey is fresh off the national tour of Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations and is proud to join the company of Spunk. National tours: Mean Girls, Tina—The Tina Turner Musical (Australian Premiere), Hairspray (Australia and U.S.). Regional: Joseph (Joseph), Ronnette (Little Shop of Horrors), Pepper (Mamma Mia!), Richie (A Chorus Line). Mikey dedicates his performance to his mother, Crystal, and his voice teacher, Michael. Ball State University. HCKR Agency. Black Lives Matter. Philippians 4:13 @mikeycorey 

Victoria Price is completely overjoyed to be joining the cast of Spunk at Yale Rep. National tour: Escape to Margaritaville, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, PAW Patrol Live. Regional: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Gateway); The Pirates of Penzance (Park Square Theatre); The Wiz, Mamma Mia! (Weathervane); Hairspray, Leap of Faith (Tent Theatre). Television/film: PAW Patrol Live at Home (Nickelodeon/Paramount +). As of 2022, Victoria is a proud breast cancer survivor and advocate, working to spread breast cancer awareness to young people, especially young Black women. Victoria also works full time as a social media manager, so yes, it’s giving young, gifted, and Black, and also busy, but most importantly, blessed. Glory to God, endless love to my beautiful family and gratitude to Hudson Artists. For you, Dad. @__victoriaprice

Michael Saguto is a third-year actor at David Geffen School of Drama, where his credits include Silence/The Village, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Charity, as well as The Royale and The Day the Butcher Shop Closed (Yale Cabaret). Other select theater credits include The Misanthrope (HERE Arts); Lobby Hero (Florida Rep); London Wall, Men Should Weep (Griffin Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre). Select television and film credits include Easy (Netflix), Tour Bus Legends (pilot), and the series Play by Play. B.F.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts.