American Prophet

CHARLES RANDOLPH-WRIGHT

Book / Director

CHARLES RANDOLPH-WRIGHT (Book/Director) is elated that American Prophet is his 12th production at Arena. Other directing credits include the Tony-nominated Trouble in Mind (Broadway), Motown the Musical (Broadway, London, and tour), Porgy and Bess (75th anniversary tour), and The Diva Is Dismissed (starring Jenifer Lewis), as well as Guys and Dolls (the 50th anniversary National Tour starring Maurice Hines) and Born for This (co-written with Bebe Winans), both of which premiered at Arena. Charles wrote the award-winning play BLUE (starring Phylicia Rashad), and also co-wrote Just Between Friends (Bea Arthur on Broadway). For TV, Charles was the Producing Director and Executive Producer (with Oprah Winfrey) on the television series Delilah. Other credits include the upcoming The Santa Clauses, Greenleaf, The Big Leap, Katy Keene, Step Up Highwater, and Lincoln Heights. He directed the acclaimed film Preaching to the Choir, and is an Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back. Charles is truly honored to be the recipient of the Arena Stage 2022 American Artist Award. www.Randolph-Wright.com

MARCUS HUMMON

Book / Music and Lyrics

MARCUS HUMMON (Book/Music and Lyrics) is a Grammy winner and inductee to the Nashville Songwriter Association International’s Hall of Fame. Hummon has enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter, recording artist, composer, playwright, and author. His songs have been recorded in many genres, including pop, R&B, gospel, and most notably in country music, where he has written some of the genre’s most iconic songs. Hummon has written and produced six musicals and an opera. Three of his musicals, Warrior, The Piper, and the musical-dance-hybrid Tut were featured Off-Broadway. Hummon has received seven BMI Awards, and five BMI #1 Awards, including one for Rascal Flatts’ “Bless The Broken Road” which won the Grammy for ‘Country Song of The Year 2005.’ He has published two books Anytime, Anywhere and The Passion. Hummon is a native of Washington, D.C., and is thrilled to work at Arena Stage.

LORNA VENTURA

Choreographer

Lorna Ventura (Choreographer) is honored to be back at Arena Stage working alongside the skilled talent of Charles Randolph-Wright. They premiered the Guys and Dolls National Tour here, where Lorna was the Associate Choreographer, Agatha, and a Hot Box Girl. Lorna is a director/choreographer, with a long list of credits, from Broadway to film and television. Lorna’s theater career includes work on the Original Broadway productions of Wicked, Grease, All Shook Up, Harlem Song, and Nice Work If You Can Get It — as an Original Cast Member and/ or Associate Choreographer. Most recent work includes The Life at Encores with Billy Porter, and a new telenovela musical with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Karen Zacarías. Love to my family, my constant inspiration. www.lornaventura.com

JOSEPH JOUBERT

Music Director / Conductor / Orchestrator / Additional Arrangements

Joseph Joubert (Music Director/Conductor/Orchestrator/Additional Arrangements ) is a Grammy and Emmy Award nominee. Arena: Three Mo’ Divas (orchestrator); Ford’s Theatre: Grace; Broadway: Caroline, or Change (orchestrator, Roundabout), Motown The Musical (music director), Disaster!, The Color Purple (Drama Desk nom., dir. John Doyle), Violet, Leap of Faith, The Color Purple (2005), Caroline, or Change (2004); Assistant Conductor: Nice Work If You Can Get It, Billy Elliot; Off-Broadway: Carmen Jones (orchestrator/musical supervisor), Violet (Drama Desk nom.), Hercules (orchestrator, Public Works); TV: Smash; Film: Respect, Nights in Rodanthe; Recording: Broadway Inspirational Voices, Patti LaBelle, Ashford & Simpson, Diana Ross, Norm Lewis.

ARNULFO MALDONADO

Set Designer

Arnulfo Maldonado (Set Designer) is a recent Tony nominee for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for A Strange Loop. D.C. credits include: A Strange Loop, Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth); Everybody (Shakespeare); Pipeline (Studio). Broadway: Trouble in Mind (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Shhhh (Atlantic); one in two (The New Group); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls... (MCC); Sugar in Our Wounds [Lucille Lortel Award] (MTC); A Strange Loop [Special Citation Obie], Selling Kabul, Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); To My Girls (Second Stage); A Case for the Existence of God, Fires in the Mirror (Signature). Regional: Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, CTG, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth. International Tour: The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir. 2020 Obie Sustained Excellence in Set Design, Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, Henry Hewes Design Award nominee. IG: @arnulfo.maldonado.design arnulfomaldonado.com

DEDE AYITE

Costume Designer

Dede Ayite (Costume Designer) is a two-time Tony Award-nominated costume designer whose Broadway credits include American Buffalo, How I Learned to Drive, A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, Chicken & Biscuits, and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway credits include Richard III, Merry Wives (The Public Theater); Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic); Secret Life of Bees, Marie and Rosetta (Atlantic); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); Nollywood Dreams, BLKS, School Girls… (MCC); Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); The Royale (Lincoln Center); Toni Stone (Roundabout). Regionally, Ayite’s work has appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Arena Stage, and more. She has worked in television with Netflix, Comedy Central, and FOX Shortcoms. Ayite earned her MFA at the Yale School of Drama and has received an Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Award.

RUI RITA

Lighting Designer

Rui Rita (Lighting Designer) Selected Broadway: Velocity of Autumn, Trip to Bountiful, Present Laughter, Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April. Off-Broadway premieres: A Sherlock Carol (New World Stages), Paradise Blue (Signature), Horton Foote’s Old Friends & Orphans’ Home Cycle (Hewes Award, Signature), Happiest Song Plays Last (Second Stage), Just Jim Dale (Roundabout), Nightingale, Moonlight and Magnolias (Manhattan Theatre Club), Carpetbagger’s Children, Far East (Lincoln Center Theater), Dinner with Friends (Variety Arts Center). Off-Broadway revivals: The Piano Lesson (Signature), Talley’s Folly (Roundabout), Engaged (Obie Award, TFANA). Recent regional credits include Alley, CenterStage, Center Theatre Group, Dallas Theater Center, Ford’s, Guthrie, Huntington, Oregon Shakespeare, Old Globe. www.designbyrui.com

DAN MOSES SCHREIER

Sound Designer

Dan Moses Schreier (Sound Designer) Broadway: Flying Over Sunset, Trouble in Mind, A Soldier’s Play, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, The Iceman Cometh, Falsettos, American Psycho, Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, Gentleman’s Guide, Gypsy (Patti LuPone), Sondheim on Sondheim, John Doyle’s production of Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Topdog/Underdog, Into the Woods, Noise/ Funk, others. Compositions for Broadway include: The Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino), Julius Caesar (Denzel Washington), The Glass Menagerie (Jessica Lange), The Tempest (Patrick Stewart). Upcoming Projects: Soundscape for a new work for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Duncan Sheik’s A Secret Life of Bees, Barry Manilow’s Harmony. Awards: 5 Tony Award nominations, 5 Drama Desk Awards, Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. Fellow of MacDowell. 

MIA NEAL

Hair, Wig, and Makeup Designer

Mia Neal (Hair, Wig, and Makeup Designer) is a highly-praised hairstylist and wig designer, who made history alongside fellow stylist Jamika Wilson as the first Black Oscar nominees and winners of the Academy Award in the makeup and hairstyling category. For her outstanding work as the hair department head and hair and wig designer on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Neal was additionally recognized with BAFTA, Critics Choice, Variety Artisans, Hollywood Critics Association, and Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild awards. For the film, Mia custom built over 100 wigs, including Ma Rainey’s historically and socioeconomically accurate horsehair wig. Other films that display Mia’s talents include Adam Sandler’s Hustle, Uncut Gems, the upcoming Tyler Perry production A Jazzman’s Blues, and Noah Baumach’s Wheat Germ. Television work for Mia includes Annie Live! and FX’s Pose, which earned her an Emmy nomination for its pilot episode. Before breaking into film and television, Mia worked on Broadway for numerous productions, where she won the first-ever Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Wig and Hair for her work on Shuffle Along. She also designed A Raisin in the Sun and Iceman Cometh starring Denzel Washington. Mia is a graduate of The Juilliard School Professional Internship Program for Wigs and Makeup, attended Jackson State University, and grew up in Gary, Indiana.

PAUL BYSSAINTHE, JR.

Associate Music Director / Replacement Music Director / Conductor

Paul Byssainthe, Jr. (Associate Music Director/Replacement Music Director/ Conductor) recently completed a run as Associate Music Director/Conductor for the world premiere of Grace at Ford’s Theatre. He is the Choral Director & Organist at Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park. An active organist in the Atlantic region, Paul has performed solo concerts at the Franciscan Monastery and at St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC). He collaborates with The Washington Chorus for their annual Candlelight Christmas Concerts at the Kennedy Center. Paul was a Quarterfinalist in the 2019 St. Albans International Organ Competition in England and a Finalist in the 2018 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance. Paul is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance at Peabody, where he holds the Dean’s Fellowship. 

JOCELYN CLARKE

Dramaturg

Jocelyn Clarke (Dramaturg) is senior dramaturg at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He was Theatre Advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland for ten years. As a dramaturg, Clarke has worked with writers such as Katori Hall, Taylor Mac, Lydia Diamond, Abhishek Majumdar, Eduardo Machado, Charles Randolph-Wright, Lisa Kron, Craig Lucas, Carl Hancock Rux, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Tanya Saracho, and Karen Zacarías. He was a script editor on several Irish films, including Young Offenders, and was executive story editor on all three seasons of the BBC/RTE TV series Young Offenders. He is a writer on the second season of P-Valley, Katori Hall’s acclaimed TV series for Starz. His new adaptation of Elizabeth Swados’ musical The Beautiful Lady, will be directed by Anne Bogart at La Mama Theatre in New York in May 2022.

OTIS RAMSEY-ZÖE

Dramaturg

Otis Ramsey-Zöe (Dramaturg) is a care worker, dramaturg, director, theatre arts educator, Literary Manager at Arena Stage, and Lecturer in Dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. 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 Theatre at Northeastern University, Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon 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.

TARA RUBIN CASTING CSA

Casting Director

Tara Rubin Casting CSA (Casting Director) Arena Stage: Dear Evan Hansen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Ruined, Other Desert Cities. Selected Broadway and National Tours: Mr. Saturday Night, Six, Ain’t Too Proud, King Kong, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, Cats, Falsettos, School of Rock, Bullets Over Broadway, Aladdin, Les Misérables, Big Fish, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, …Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, The Phantom of the Opera. Selected Off-Broadway: Sing Street, Trevor, Between the Lines, Clueless, Gloria: A Life, Smokey Joe’s Café, Here Lies Love. Film: Here Today.

JOSEPH PINZON

Local Casting

Joseph Pinzon (Local Casting) is the founder and creative producer of the Los Angeles-based circus company Short Round Productions and its award-winning show Filament. With over 25 years of international performing experience, he also holds an MS in Arts Leadership from USC, a BA in Psychology from UCLA, and is a graduate of the National Circus School in Montreal where he specialized in aerial techniques. He has worked with renowned companies such as Cirque Éloize, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, Cirque du Soleil, The 7 Fingers, and Chämaleon Productions. In addition to serving as the casting director and resident director for Chamäleon, as well as CAA’s experiential affiliate Constellation Immersive, 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.

KENNETH B. MORRIS, JR.

Douglass Family Consultant

Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. (Douglass Family Consultant) descends from two of the most influential names in American history: he is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. Ken continues his family’s legacy of anti-slavery and educational work as co-founder and president of Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI), a nonprofit organization based in Rochester, New York. His career and life path have been driven by a clear focus on FDFI’s mission, “To Build Strong Children and to end systems of exploitation and oppression.” Ken appeared in the 2022 documentaries Abraham Lincoln and The American Presidency with Bill Clinton on the History Channel, Frederick Douglass in Five Speeches on HBO and HBO Max, Becoming Frederick Douglass on PBS (October 2022), and 1000 Years of Slavery on the Smithsonian Channel. Like his forefathers, he firmly believes that education is the pathway to freedom. Twitter: @kmorrisjr

RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT

Stage Manager

Rachael Danielle Albert (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back at Arena Stage with this timely new musical. Favorite credits include: Change Agent, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Junk, Native Gardens, among others. Selected regional credits include: Hi, Are You Single, Fairview, Describe the Night, and Botticelli in the Fire (Woolly Mammoth); The Wolves (Studio Theater); Seize the King, Up Here, and Ether Dome (La Jolla Playhouse); The Odd Couple, Sylvia, and Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). During quarantine, Rachael entered the brave new world of digital theatre, as the livestream stage manager for Amir Nizar Zuabi’s new play This Is Who I Am, produced by Woolly Mammoth and PlayCo, in partnership with The Guthrie, A.R.T., and OSF. Showcaller: ArchiteX. Founding member: Oakland Theater Project. MFA: University of California, San Diego. BFA: University of Michigan. Proud AEA member. 

MARNE ANDERSON

Assistant Stage Manager

Marne Anderson (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working on American Prophet after last working with Charles Randolph-Wright on Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. Other Arena Stage highlights include August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Disney’s Newsies, Jubilee, Indecent, Dave, Two Trains Running, The Great Society, A Raisin in the Sun, Moby Dick, All the Way, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, Metamorphoses, Arabian Nights. Additional D.C. credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Folger Theatre); Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2 (Round House); and The Arsonists, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Woolly Mammoth). She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. 

ALEX MURPHY

Assistant Stage Manager

Alex Murphy (Assistant Stage Manager) is coming to Arena directly from Actors Theatre of Louisville where he stage managed their production of Still Ready. Previously, he worked as a stage management apprentice for Macbeth on Broadway. Alex was the ASM on the Off-Broadway productions of Romeo & Bernadette and Two’s a Crowd. Recently, Alex was the ASM on the first national tour of The Prom. Other productions include An Iliad and How I Learned What I Learned (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Songs for a New World (Canadian Music Theatre Project), Unwritten Law (Two River Theatre), Token (Theatre Aspen). Alex was the Resident Stage Manager for Kansas City Actors Theatre in Kansas City, MO, working on such productions as Death and the Maiden, And Then There Were None, and Skylight.