The Great Society

ELLIOTT BALES

Adam Walinsky and others

makes his Arena Stage debut. Elliott works as a theater and film actor based out of Arlington, VA. Theater credits include A Midsummer Nights Dream (Folger Theatre), Occupied Territories and The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theater Alliance), Harvey (1st Stage), Not Enuf Lifetimes (The Welders), Romeo and Juliet (Unexpected Stage) and White Christmas (Little Theater on the Square). Elliott’s film credits include Manager of the Year, Wireless and The Coming Storm, and TV credits include Legends and Lies: Patriots, Nightmare Next Door and Evil Kin. He is a graduate of Abilene Christian University and the National War College. Elliott retired from the US Army after 26 years of service.

DESMOND BING

Bob Moses and others

appeared at Arena Stage in All the Way. D.C. credits include Wig Out (by Academy Award-winner Tarell Alvin McCraney / directed by Kent Gash, Studio Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Folger Theatre); Unexplored Interior (Mosaic Theater); Occupied Territories (Theater Alliance); The Migration Series(The Phillips Collection); and staged readings of Fences and The Bridge of San Luis Rey(Olney Theatre). Desmond completed a Kenan Institute Playwriting / Acting Fellowship at the Kennedy Center where he workshopped his first plays, The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker and PRIDE. He attended The North Carolina School of the Arts, Steppenwolf Classes West and The Upright Citizen Brigade. Desmond thanks his friends /family for their continued love and support and Hawaiian pop sensation, Hoku, for making the song, “Perfect Day.” Upcoming: The Legend of Georgia McBride (Round House Theatre).

DEONNA BOUYE

Coretta Scott King and others

is New York based and thrilled to make her Arena Stage debut. She last worked in D.C. on Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Barrio Grrrl tour at the Kennedy Center. New York appearances include Ars Nova, The Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists and Page 73. Regional credits include The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); This Random World and How We Got On (Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville); Clybourne Park and Safe House (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Guadalupe in the Guestroom (Two River Theater); Vanya and Sonia… (Weston Playhouse); Not Medea (B Street Theatre); Wonder of the World (Iowa Summer Repertory); and National Playwrights Conference (The O’Neill). Film/TV credits include Brazzaville Teenager with Michael Cera, PlayStation character and My Crazy Love. She holds an M.F.A. degree in acting from The University of Iowa.

JABEN EARLY

Stokely Carmichael and others

is a native Washingtonian, previously seen in All the Way and Ruined at Arena Stage. D.C. credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars (Round House Theatre), Unexplored Interior (Mosaic Theater Company), The Convert (Woolly Mammoth), Julius Caesar (Folger Theatre), F***ing A (Studio Theatre), Native Sun (American Century Theater), Titus Andronicus (Molotov Theatre), Me and The Devil Blues (Flying V), and The Cloak Room (Capital Fringe Festival). Regional credits include We Are Proud to Present… (Philly Interactive Theatre), Ruined(Marin Theatre Company) and The Death of Bessie Smith (Liberty Free Theatre). JaBen trained at Morehouse College, Sarah Lawrence University and the BADA program at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. He would like to thank his parents and extended family for their endless support.

GARY-KAYI FLETCHER

James Bevel and others

is honored to be making his Arena Stage debut. Regional theater credits include the world premiere of Marley (Baltimore Center Stage); American Hero (Rep Stage); Ruined and Fences (Everyman Theatre); and an award-winning performance as Lank in Detroit ‘67 (Paul Robeson Theatre). Film and TV credits include work in F.S. Key: After the Song, America’s Most Wanted, The 6th Degree and the critically acclaimed web series Casters and Mythos. Gary-Kayi is a member of Luna Stage’s Studio Luna Acting Company. He dedicates these performances to his late aunt, Lydia. Instagram/Twitter: @itsgarykayi www.itsgarykayi.com

CAMERON FOLMAR

Governor George Wallace and others

returns to Arena Stage after appearing in All the Way. New York credits include The 39 Steps (Broadway and Off-Broadway) and Volpone, The Merchant of Venice, The Jew of Malta, Five by Tennand Waiting for Godot (Off-Broadway). Additional credits include Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, An Ideal Husband, Hamlet, Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear (Shakespeare Theatre Company, affiliated artist); The Habit of Art (Studio Theatre); Five by Tenn (Kennedy Center); The Winter’s Tale and Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Santa Cruz); Don Juan (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Scapin (Denver Center); The Tempest and The Figaro Plays (McCarter Theatre Center); and The Little Foxes (Cleveland Play House). TV credits include Law & Order and Conviction. Cameron is the voice of Genn Greymane on “World of Warcraft.”

MEGAN GRAVES

Pat Nixon and others

returns to Arena Stage after appearing in The Little Foxes. D.C. credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Second Shepherd’s Play (Folger Theatre); Peter and the Starcatcher (Constellation Theatre); Love and Information, Passion Play and Clementine in the Lower 9 (Forum Theatre); Redder Blood (The Hub Theatre, Helen Hayes Award nomination); and Wild Sky (Solas Nua). Megan received her B.F.A. from Shenandoah Conservatory and is a proud company member of Forum Theatre and Only Make Believe.

RICHMOND HOXIE

J. Edgar Hoover

returns to Arena Stage after appearing in All the Way. D.C. credits include Vienna Lusthaus: Revisited (Kennedy Center) and Butley(national tour). He made his Broadway debut in I’m Not Rappaport (also first national tour). Off-Broadway credits include If Only (Cherry Lane), The Film Society (Keen Company), To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (Circle in the Square) and Lenin’s Embalmers(Ensemble Studio Theatre). Additional credits include Justice and The Dining Room(Playwrights Horizons) and Angel Street (The Pearl). Richmond has performed at many regional theaters, including American Repertory Theater, George Street Playhouse, Seattle Repertory, Hartford Stage, La Jolla, Huntington and Yale Repertory. Film/TV credits include Shades of Blue, Boardwalk Empire, JFK, Still of the Night, Without a Trace, the various iterations of Law & Order, China Beach and L.A. Law. richmondhoxie.com

LAWRENCE REDMOND

Vice President Hubert Humphrey

was last seen at Arena Stage as Joe Wilson in Intelligence. Other Arena Stage credits include Richard Russell in All the Way, The Music Man, Ruined, Christmas Carol: 1941, Damn Yankees (Helen Hayes nomination), Passion Play: a cycle, South Pacific (Helen Hayes nomination), The Misanthrope, The Great White Hope, Guys and Dolls and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Earlier this season he played Sartorius in Widowers’ Houses at Washington Stage Guild. Other D.C.-area venues include Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre and Gala Hispanic Theatre. He is a member of Actors Arena, a two-time recipient and multiple nominee of the Helen Hayes Awards and a 2018 D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellow.

SUSAN ROME

Lady Bird Johnson

returns to Arena Stage after appearing in All the Way. D.C.-area credits include Hand to God (Studio Theatre); The Diary of Anne Frank(Olney Theatre); After the Revolution, Vanya and Sonia…, An Enemy of the People and Mud Blue Sky (Baltimore Center Stage); The Whale, Las Meninas and A Shayna Maidel(Rep Stage); Richard III, Macbeth and All’s Well That Ends Well (Baltimore Shakespeare Festival); and is an associate artist-in-resident at Theater J where credits include The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, and others. Regional credits include The Substance of Fire (Mark Taper Forum) and The Legacy (Seattle’s Centerstage). Film/TV credits include House of Cards, NYPD Blue, four seasons as DA Ilene Nathan on The Wire, A Dirty Shame and My One and Only. www.susanrome.com

JOHN SCHERER

Senator Robert F. Kennedy

appeared at Arena Stage in All the Way, On the Town (Helen Hayes Award nomination) and Animal Crackers. Last season he appeared in Michael Kahn’s production of Cloud 9 at Studio Theatre. At the Kennedy Center, he played Bertie Wooster in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves, directed by Sir Alan Ayckbourn (Helen Hayes Award nomination). Broadway credits include By Jeeves, Sunset Boulevard and Lovemusik, directed by Harold Prince. He received the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for his performance in George M! at Goodspeed. Other regional credits include Goodman Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Film / TV credits include Spinning into Butter, Crossing Jordan, The Shield, Law & Order (all three series) and Titus.

STEPHEN F. SCHMIDT

Senator Everett Dirksen and others

returns to Arena Stage having previously performed in All the Way, Death of a Salesman, Noises Off, Damn Yankees and Guys and Dolls. At Ford’s Theatre, where he is an associate artist, he has appeared in Ragtime, Violet, Hello Dolly! (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble) and 1776. Other D.C. appearances include The Producers, Triumph of Love, Stuff Happens and Crave (Olney Theatre); Urinetown (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical); and Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka (the Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical). Stephen’s screen work includes J. Edgar, My One and Only, La Bamba, House of Cardsand The Wire.

CRAIG WALLACE

Ralph Abernathy and others

returns to Arena Stage after performing in All the Way, Hot ‘n’ Throbbing, All My Sons, K2 and The Great White Hope. His D.C. credits include performances at Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre and others. Regionally, he has performed at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Craig received his B.F.A. from Howard University and his M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University.

ANDREW WEEMS

Mayor Richard Daley and others

Arena Stage credits include A Perfect Ganesh, What the Butler Saw and You Can’t Take it With You. He recently appeared at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Twelfth Night and As You Like It. Favorite Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Julie Taymor’s The Green Bird, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Bach at Leipzig (NYTW); Troilus and Cressida directed by Sir Peter Hall, and Cymbeline and Pericles directed by Bartlett Sher (Theatre for a New Audience); A Man’s a Man (Classic Stage Company) and Manahatta (The Public). Regionally, Andrew recently played UNcle Vanya and Bottom at The Guthrie, and Skylock at Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. Andrew is the author / performer of two solo plays Namaste Man (Intiman Theater, Boise Contemporary Theater, Two River) and I Really Want to Know You (BCT, Fourth Street Theater).

TOM WIGGIN

Robert McNamara and others

an Alexandria native, last appeared at Arena Stage in All the Way and The City of Conversation. Other D.C. credits are Gus in The Intelligent Homosexuals’s Guide… (Theater J) and Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song(MetroStage). Broadway credits include Grease, Bobbi Boland, Breakfast with Less and Bess and Abe Lincoln in Illinois (Lincoln Center). Off-Broadway credits include The Foreigner, Livin’ Dolls and Class Enemy. Film credits include Diggers and Brother to Brother. Daytime TV credits include a 10-year run as Kirk Anderson on As the World Turns, and primetime TV credits include Mike in Breaking Away, Izzy and Moe (with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney), The Bronx Is Burning, Iron Jawed Angels, Law & Orderand Person of Interest. He recently played Gen. Ash Mackey on Madam Secretary.

JACK WILLIS

President Lyndon Baines Johnson

Arena Stage credits include The Little Foxes, All the Way, Sweat, Mother Courage and Her Children, Book of Days, Of Mice and Men and Agamemnon and His Daughters. Broadway credits include Julius Caesar, The Crucible, Art and The Old Neighborhood. Off-Broadway credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, World of Mirth, The Iphigenia Cycle and Valhalla. He has appeared in more than 200 productions worldwide and been a company member at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Trinity Repertory Company and Dallas Theater Center. Film / TV credits include Toy Story 3, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Cradle Will Rock, The Out-of-Towners, Love Hurts, I Come in Peace, Problem Child, Law & Order, Ed and Dallas.

BOWMAN WRIGHT

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

was last seen at Arena Stage as Martin Luther King, Jr. in All the Way and The Mountaintop and King in King Hedley II. Theater credits include Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre Company); TogDog/UnderDog(Marin Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun (Geva Theatre Center); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (La Jolla Playhouse); The Dreamer Examines His Pillow (Shakespeare & Company); The Piano Lesson (Virginia Stage); Since Africa and A House with No Walls(Interact Theatre); Fences (Actors Theatre of Louisville); and Death and the King’s Horsemen (Lantern Theatre). Films credits include Sight (Lionsgate Productions) and Vinson (Sainvil Productions). TV credits include Person of Interest, Blue Bloods and Elementary. Bowman is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego.

BROOK BERRY

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut. Other regional appearances include The Man Who Came to Dinner (Prince George’s Little Theater). Previously, Brook was a writer / director at NBC Universal, creating on-air promotion for shows including Friends, Seinfeld, Law and Order, Frasier, E.R. and, appropriately for this production, The West Wing.

ELI EL

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut. Theater credits include VOICES (Joe’s Movement), Boxes (Flashpoint), Katrina Monologues (Anacostia Playhouse) and A Matter of Perspective (Silver Spring Black Box). Film projects include The Meek, Last Night, Canned Hunt and THICK, and direction of The Healing Floor, All the Man I Need and The Cracked Mask.

CLAYTON PELHAM JR.

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut. Recent credits include Words Become Flesh (Theater Alliance), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1st Stage), Charm (Mosaic Theater Company), The Orbit in Mercury (Spooky Action), A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s (Flying V), Season of Lights (Discovery Theatre), The Miser(Faction of Fools) and Solomon and Marion (Anacostia Playhouse).

BEN RIBLER

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut! Some recent D.C.-area credits include Madagascar—A Musical Adventure (Red Branch Theatre Company), and Trey Parker’s Cannibal! The Musical and The House of Yes (Capital Fringe Festival 16/17). Ben is also an AFYP Teaching Artist. Special thanks to Hollyann, Skye Lindberg and all who have made this experience possible. www.benribler.com

REGINALD RICHARD

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut. Recent credits include Exit, Pursued by a Bear (Capital Fringe Festival 2017); Clover and The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington(Ally Theatre); and Petruska in York, PA. He has studied with the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts where he is a faculty member, and Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.

ALANA D. SHARP

Supplemental Ensemble

is ecstatic to be making her Arena Stage debut! A local actress, she holds a B.F.A. in acting from Wright State University. She thanks Robert Schenkkan and Kyle for creating the “Super Six” and for this opportunity. Sam, thank you for letting me “play.”