Tempestuous Elements

KIA CORTHRON

Playwright

Kia Corthron (Playwright)’s New York productions include A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick and Breath, Boom (Playwrights Horizons), Force Continuum (Atlantic Theater Company), Light Raise the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop), Seeking the Genesis (Manhattan Theatre Club), and in March Fish will be produced by Keen Company/Working Theater. Regional credits include Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre, Eclipse Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Humana/Louisville, Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Children’s Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; and in London the Royal Court Theatre and Donmar Warehouse. For her body of work, Kia has garnered the Windham Campbell Prize, Horton Foote Prize, USArtists Fellowship, and others. She has written two novels, Moon and the Mars and The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, which won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

PSALMAYENE 24

Director

Psalmayene 24 (Director)’s directing credits include Good Bones, Flow, and Pass Over (Studio Theatre); Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play (Ford’s Theatre); Native Son (Mosaic Theater); and Word Becomes Flesh (Theater Alliance, Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Direction of a Play). He is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater. Playwriting credits include Monumental Travesties, Dear Mapel, and Les Deux Noirs (Mosaic); Out of the Vineyard (Joe’s Movement Emporium); and Cinderella: The Remix (Imagination Stage). His acting credits include Ruined, Cuttin’ Up, and Anthems (Arena Stage); Dear Mapel (Mosaic); and HBO’s The Wire. He is the writer/director of the Arena Stagepresented short film The Freewheelin’ Insurgents, and he is the former Master Teaching Artist at Arena Stage. Instagram: @psalmayene24

TONY THOMAS

Choreography and Associate Direction

Tony Thomas (Associate Director and Choreography) is an award-nominated director, choreographer, and interior architect. Credits include The Freewheelin’ Insurgents at Arena Stage; Fat Ham, Good Bones, People, Places & Things, White Noise, Pass Over, Flow, and PYG or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle at Studio; Out of the Vineyard at Joe’s Movement Emporium; Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience and P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical at Imagination Stage; Native Son at Mosaic Theater Company; and Mysticism & Music and The Last Five Years at Constellation Theatre Company. In education, Tony has worked with Strathmore Children’s Chorus, ATMTC Academy, Landon School, Levine Music Theatre, Holton-Arms School, and actively leads numerous privates, workshops, and coaching circuits between New York, D.C., and Los Angeles.

TONY CISEK

Set Designer

Tony Cisek (Set Designer) designed the Arena productions of Disgraced, King Hedley II, The Miracle Worker, Oak and Ivy, and Dimly Perceived Threats to the System. Recent D.C. credits include Ink (Round House Theatre), Selling Kabul (Signature Theatre), In His Hands (Mosaic Theater), and the production design for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Folger Theatre at the National Building Museum). Recent regional credits include Blue (New Orleans Opera), The Color Purple (Denver Center Theatre Company), Thurgood (People’s Light), Choir Boy (Denver Center and ACT), and Toni Stone (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre/Alliance Theatre). His work has also been seen OffBroadway and regionally at Roundabout Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Ford’s Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Cincinnati Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, and The Kennedy Center. www.tonycisek.com

LEVONNE LINDSAY

Costume Designer

LeVonne Lindsay (Costume Designer) received the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage 2001-2003 and was the Resident Designer for the African Continuum Theatre in Washington, D.C., 2002-2004. Now based in her hometown of Philadelphia, recent credits include Kiss and Kill Move Paradise at the Wilma Theater; Into the Woods, The Bluest Eye, and Gem of the Ocean (Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award winner for Outstanding Costume Design 2019) at the Arden Theatre; Sweat and The Garbologists at Philadelphia Theatre Company; and the world premiere of Time Is On Our Side by R. Eric Thomas at Simpatico Theater. Other regional credits include Hangar Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Indiana Repertory Theater, Everyman Theatre, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, and Indiana Repertory Theatre.

WILLIAM K. D'EUGENIO

Lighting Designer

William K. D'Eugenio (Lighting Designer) is a lighting and sound designer based out of Washington, D.C. Favorite regional lighting credits include The Chosen and The Brothers Size [Helen Hayes Award] (1st Stage); Good Bones (Studio Theatre); Love Like Tuesday (Faction of Fools); In His Hands and Native Son (Mosaic); Mnemonic and Word Becomes Flesh [Helen Hayes Award] (Theater Alliance); and Long Way Down (The Kennedy Center). His television credits include Cynthia Erivo & Friends: A NYE Celebration, Robert Glasper’s Black Radio, Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Let My Children Hear Mingus, and A Joni Mitchell Songbook (PBS/NEXT at the Kennedy Center), among others. More recent concert designs include Joshua Redman Group; DECLASSIFIED: Laufey, dodie & Jacob Collier; Gavin Creel in Concert; Robert Glasper and Jason Moran; and Ledisi Sings Nina (The Kennedy Center).

LINDSAY JONES

Original Music and Sound Design

Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design) Broadway: Slave Play (Tony nominations for Best Score and Best Sound Design of a Play), The Nap, Bronx Bombers, and A Time to Kill. Off-Broadway: Privacy (Public), Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons), Feeding the Dragon (Primary Stages), and many others. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Hartford Stage, Alliance Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Old Globe Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, and many others. International: Stratford Festival (Canada), Royal Shakespeare Company (England), and many others. Audio dramas: Marvel, Audible, Next Chapter Podcasts, and the award-winning The Imagine Neighborhood. Film/TV scoring: HBO Films’ A Note of Triumph (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject) and over 30 other films. He is the co-chair of Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA). www.lindsayjones.com

LASHAWN MELTON

Hair and Wig Designer

LaShawn Melton (Hair and Wig Designer) is a native Washingtonian hair and wig designer. Film: Loiness (Hairstylist), White House Plumbers (Hairstylist), Rustin (Hairstylist). Utah Shakespeare Festival: Raisin in the Sun, Emma The Musical, The Play That Goes Wrong (Wig Master). Montgomery College: Little Women (Wig Designer). GALA Theatre: On Your Feet! (Wig Designer). Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Botticelli in the Fire, Describe the Night, Fairview (Wig Designer). The Kennedy Center: The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 (Wig Designer). Olney Theatre Company: Comedy of Tenors (Wig Designer). Round House Theatre: School Girls (Wig Designer). Arena Stage: Disgraced (Hair Designer), Smart People (Assistant Wig Designer), Nina Simone: Four Women (Assistant Wig Designer), Pajama Game (Assistant Wig Designer), Snow Child (Hair and Makeup Designer). Education: Fashion Merchandising, Graphic Design, UDC. Stage Makeup, Montgomery College.

LISA NATHANS

Dialect and Vocal Coach

Lisa Nathans (Dialect and Vocal Coach) is an Associate Professor of Voice and Acting at University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. She’s coached voices and accents for Arena Stage, Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney, Signature, Ford’s, Folger, Guthrie (Minneapolis), 5th Avenue (Seattle), and Theatricum Botanicum (LA). Lisa received her MFA from Central School of Speech and Drama and BFA from Boston University. She’s a designated Linklater Voice teacher and a certified Colaianni Speech practitioner.

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Text Director

Anita Maynard-Losh (Text Director) was the director of community engagement and senior artistic advisor at Arena Stage for two decades, leading the theater’s education and outreach programs and serving on the artistic team. Anita has been involved in an artistic capacity on more than 45 Arena productions: she directed last season’s Holiday and the world premiere of Our War, and has been an associate director, text director, and vocal/dialect coach on multiple other productions. Her first show at Arena was assisting former artistic director Molly Smith on South Pacific in the 2002/03 Season. Anita trained and taught at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, was on the faculty at Webster University in St. Louis, headed the theater department at the University of Alaska Southeast, and was the associate artistic director of Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, where she directed 21 mainstage productions. Anita traveled extensively with the artist-in-schools program in Alaska, working primarily with indigenous populations within the context of traditional villages. The Alaska Native-inspired production of Macbeth that Anita conceived and directed was performed in English and Tlingit at the National Museum of the American Indian as part of the Shakespeare in Washington Festival, and is currently being edited into a full-length film. Her essay about the project was published in Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance, Palgrave MacMillan. She has coached dialects for the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, the American Conservatory Theater, and the Broadway revival of Ragtime. Anita has traveled with Arena’s devised theater program, Voices of Now, to India (2012, 2014), Croatia (2015, 2019), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2019) to collaborate with communities in devising original plays addressing social justice issues.

OTIS RAMSEY-ZÖE

Dramaturg

Otis Ramsey-Zöe (Dramaturg) is a care worker, dramaturg, director, theater arts educator, and Literary Manager at Arena Stage. He has developed new works at such institutions as Sundance Institute, Kennedy Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Center, and National New Play Network. He has held posts in Dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Carnegie Mellon University, Theatre at Northeastern University, Women’s Studies and Honors Humanities at University of Maryland, Performing Arts at American University, and Theatre Arts at Howard University. He was Associate Artistic Director at banished? productions, Future Classics Program Coordinator at The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Literary Manager at Center Stage, and an Allen Lee Hughes Senior Fellow at Arena Stage.

JOSEPH PINZON

Casting Director

Joseph Pinzon (Casting Director) is the founder and creative producer of the contemporary circus company Short Round Productions and its award-winning show Filament. With over 25 years of performing experience, he has worked internationally with renowned companies such as Cirque Éloize, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, Cirque du Soleil, and The 7 Fingers. He holds an MS in Arts Leadership from USC, a BA in Psychology from UCLA, and graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal with a specialization in aerial techniques. He was the casting and resident director for Chamäleon Productions (Berlin) and Constellation Immersive (CAA’s experiential affiliate). He is also a member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance and a founding board member of the American Circus Alliance. You can see him causing chaos on season 6 of Nailed It! on Netflix, where (spoiler alert) he is a part of the series’ first three-way tie.

CHRISTI B. SPANN

Stage Manager

Christi B. Spann (Stage Manager) has been working as a stage manager in D.C. since 2011. Recent Arena Stage productions include Holiday, The High Ground, Exclusion, and POTUS. She previously spent 12 seasons on the stage management staff at the Denver Center Theatre Company and has also worked with The Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN, and Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond, VA.

JALON PAYTON

Assistant Stage Manager

Jalon Payton (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be returning to Arena Stage for Tempestuous Elements. Recent Arena credits include The High Ground and Swept Away. Recent Baltimore/D.C. credits include Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville (Everyman Theatre); The Swindlers: A Tru-ish Tall Tale, The Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage); and 10 Seconds (Imagination Stage). Other credits include The Royale, Anton’s Shorts, The Brothers Size, and A Raisin in the Sun (American Players Theatre). Jalon has also stage-managed play readings/workshops with Arena Stage, Taffety Punk Theatre, and Round House Theatre. Jalon is a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.