Toni Stone

LYDIA R. DIAMOND

Playwright

LYDIA R. DIAMOND (Playwright) is a 2013/14 Arena Stage resident playwright. Award-winning plays include Smart People, Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, Harriet Jacobs, The Inside and Stage Black. Theaters include Broadway’s Cort Theatre, The Arden, Chicago Dramatists, Company One, Congo Square, Goodman, Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Huntington, Jubilee, Kansas City Repertory, Long Wharf, Lorraine Hansberry, McCarter, Mo`olelo, MPAACT, New Vic, Playmakers Repertory, Plowshares, Second Stage, Steppenwolf and True Colors. Commissions from Arena Stage, Steppenwolf, McCarter, Huntington, Center Stage, Victory Gardens and Roundabout. Lydia was a W.E.B. Du Bois Institute non-resident fellow, TCG/NEA playwright-in-residence at Steppenwolf, Huntington playwright fellow, Sundance Institute Playwright Lab creative advisor, Radcliffe Institute fellow and serves on the Dramatists Guild Legal Defense Fund Board of Directors. She is a Northwestern University graduate and has an honorary doctorate of arts from Pine Manor College.

PAM MACKINNON

Director

PAM MACKINNON (Director) This is Pam’s third season as A.C.T.’s fourth artistic director. She is a Tony, Drama Desk, and Obie award-winning director, having directed upwards of 75 productions around the country, off-Broadway, and on Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman (with Uma Thurman), Amélie: A New Musical, David Mamet’s China Doll (with Al Pacino), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles (with Elisabeth Moss), Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (with Glenn Close and John Lithgow), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle nomination), and Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (Obie Award, Tony and Lucille Lortel nominations). Her most recent credits include world premieres of Bruce Norris’s Downstate (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, London’s National Theatre), Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre Company, A.C.T.), Kate Attwell’s Testmatch (A.C.T.), Christopher Chen’s Communion (A.C.T.), as well as Edward Albee’s Seascape (A.C.T.). She is an artistic associate of the Roundabout Theatre Company, an advisory board member of Clubbed Thumb, and an alumna of the Drama League, Women’s Project, and Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors’ Labs. She just completed a three-year term as executive board president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and continues to serve on the board. She grew up in Toronto, Canada, and Buffalo, New York, acted through her teens, but majored in economics and political science at the University of Toronto and briefly pursued a Ph.D. in political science at UC San Diego, before returning to her true passion: theater. (she/her)

CAMILLE A. BROWN

Choreographer

CAMILLE A. BROWN (Choreographer):  Broadway: Choir Boy (nominee: Tony, Drama Desk Awards), Once on This Island (nominee: Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Chita Rivera Awards), and A Streetcar Named Desire. Off-Broadway: For Colored Girls… (The Public Theater); Opera:  Porgy & Bess (The Metropolitan Opera), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park, Audelco Award Winner), Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre Company), tick, tick…BOOM!, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Encores!) Bella (Lucille Lortel Nominee, Audelco Award Winner), Fortress of Solitude (Lucille Lortel Nominee) and ink at The Kennedy Center (Camille A. Brown & Dancers). Television: “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” (NBC); Film:  Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix). Ms. Brown will make her directorial debut with Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Westport Country Playhouse & Barrington Stage Company in July 2020. www.camilleabrown.org

RICCARDO HERNÁNDEZ

Set Designer

RICCARDO HERNÁNDEZ (Scenic Designer)’s Broadway credits include: Jagged Little Pill; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Indecent; The Gin Game; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; The People in the Picture; Caroline, or Change (National Theater London); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (Old Vic London); Topdog/Underdog (Royal Court); Bells Are Ringing; Parade (Hal Prince director, Tony and Drama Desk nominations); Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk; and The Tempest. Recent: Claudia Rankine’s The White Card (Diane Paulus director, ART); Lempicka (Rachel Chavkin director, WTF); Admissions (LCT); La Dame aux Camélias (France); and The Invisible Hand (NYTW – Henry Hewes Outstanding Set Design Award). He has designed over 250 productions in the U.S. and internationally. Awards include: OBIE Award Sustained Excellence; Yale School of Drama Design Faculty.

DEDE AYITE

Costume Designer

DEDE AYITE (Costume Designer) is a costume designer whose Broadway credits include American Buffalo, A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, and Children of a Lesser God. Select off-Broadway credits include The Secret Life of Bees and Fireflies, (Atlantic Theater Company); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre); BLKS, School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play (MCC Theater); Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Royale (Lincoln Center Theater); and Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company). Regionally, Ayite’s work has appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre, Signature Theatre in VA, California Shakespeare Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage and McCarter Theatre Center. Her television work includes Netflix, Comedy Central, and FOX. Ayite earned her MFA at the Yale School of Drama and has received an Obie, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff awards. @dedeayitedesign

ALLEN LEE HUGHES

Lighting Designer

ALLEN LEE HUGHES (Lighting Designer) returns for his 71st design at Arena Stage. Arena audiences will remember his work on The Price. Washington audiences will also remember his lighting for the August Wilson Twentieth Century plays at the Kennedy Center. Broadway credits include A Soldier’s Play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Clybourne Park, Having Our Say, Mule Bone, Once on This Island, K2, Strange Interlude, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Quilters. He’s received the 1997 Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, two Washington Helen Hayes Awards and four Tony nominations. His work has been seen at major theaters throughout the country, including Seattle Rep, New York Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theater, Goodman and Lincoln Center Theater. Allen teaches at New York University and is very proud to have the Arena Stage fellows program named in his honor.

BROKEN CHORD

Sound Design and Original Music

BROKEN CHORD (Sound Design and Original Music) Arena Stage credits include Kleptocracy and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Broadway credits are The Parisian Woman, and Eclipsed. Off-Broadway credits include Toni Stone at Roundabout Theatre Company; The Lying Lesson at the Atlantic; OZET at Incubator Arts; Bull in a China Shop at LCT3; Party People at The Public. Selected regional credits are Angels in America at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Enemy of the People at the Guthrie Theatre; Ruined at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Top Girls at the Huntington Theatre; UniSon at OSF; Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Film credits include Fall to Rise. www.brokenchord.us

COOKIE JORDAN

Hair and Wig Design

is an Obie Award–winning designer whose Broadway credits include Slave Play, Choir Boy, The Cher Show, Once on This Island, Sunday in the Park with George, In Transit, Eclipsed, Side Show, After Midnight, A View from the Bridge, South Pacific, and Fela! Off-Broadway credits include Ain’t No Mo’, Fairview, Toni Stone, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, The Secret Life of Bees, Boesman and Lena, Our Lady of 121st Street, In the Blood, Daddy, Hercules, and Fabulation, or the Re- Education of Undine. Jordan’s television work on NBC’s The Wiz Live! earned an Emmy nomination for makeup design. 

JAY STATEN

Associate Choreographer

JAY STATEN (Associate Choreographer) is a multi-talented choreographer and community activist whose dance company for African American youth has serviced more than 200 children and secured over $3.2 million in college scholarships. The Washington, D.C. native is proud to be making his associate choreographer debut for Toni Stone (Arena Stage). His credits include After Midnight (Soloist, Broadway), Shuffle Along (Workshops, Off-Broadway), Cabin in the Sky (New York City Center), and New York Spring Spectacular (Radio City Music Hall). His film and TV credits include Smash (NBC), A Capitol Fourth (PBS), and Amici (Canale 5/Italy). His dance company affiliations include Camille A. Brown and Dancers and Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco). Jay is a proud member of AEA, AGMA, and IADB. JayStaten.com

RICKEY TRIPP

Associate Choreographer

Dance Educator and Certified Zena Rommett Floor-Barre Technique Mentor/Instructor. Director/Choreographer: The Temptations Tribute, Sun Valley. Choreographer- Theatre: A Wonderful World-World Premiere, Miami New Drama; In the Heights, Dallas Theatre Center; Dreamgirls, DTC. (Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Award for Best Choreography). TV/Film: A Thousand and One, Focus Feature/Universal Pictures; ENCORE!, Disney. Assoc. Choreographer: Choir Boy, MTC Premiere-Broadway (TONY Nominee); Once on this Island (2018 TONY Award for Best Musical Revival); Jesus Christ Superstar Live, NBC (2018 EMMY for Outstanding Variety Special Live); Bella (Playwrights Horizon); Smash. Broadway: Hamilton, Motown, In the Heights (OBC); Off-Broadway: In the Heights Drama Desk Award. T.V./Film: In the Heights, Warner Bros. Pictures. Faculty, Broadway Dance Center, NYC.

JANET FOSTER, CSA

Casting Director

has been casting for over 33 years. The last eight years have been at American Conservatory Theater and has included working with directors Pam MacKinnon, Carey Perloff, Mark Lamos, Frank Galati, Mark Rucker, Sam Pinkleton, Tamilla Woodard, Annie Kaufmann, Loretta Greco and many more. Ms. Foster’s career prior to A.C.T. was in New York City. It started as anassistant to the late Stanley Soble and continued with nine and a half years at Playwrights Horizons, first as Daniel Swee’s assistant and then as casting director. After leaving Playwrights Horizons, she spent the rest of her time in New York as a freelance casting director. She has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, film, TV and more regional theaters than you can shake a stick at. Film/TV and radio credits include Tracy Takes On New York, The Deal, The Day That Lehman Died (Peabody, Sony and Wincott Award winner), T is for Tom (Tom Stoppard radio plays for WNYC & WQXR). Podcasts include Life/After, a GE Theater podcast, Passenger List (Webby Award) featuring Kelly Marie Tran and Patti LuPone and STEELHEADS for the BBC. Ms. Foster has an MFA from UNC-Chapel Hill.

VICTOR VAZQUEZ, C.S.A.

Casting

VICTOR VAZQUEZ, CSA (Casting) is a casting director in New York City. He is the founder of XCasting (xcastingnyc.com) and sits on the national board of the Casting Society of America.

ELISA GUTHERTZ

Stage Manager

ELISA GUTHERTZ (Stage Manager) has been a San Francisco Bay Area stage manager for over 27 years. She stage managed Toni Stone at American Conservatory Theater. Some of her recent A.C.T. include, Testmatch, Rhinoceros, Seascape and Sweat. She has stage-managed A Thousand Splendid Suns at A.C.T., The Old Globe, and Theatre Calgary. She has also worked on many shows for Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Other credits: The Good Body with Eve Ensler at the Booth Theater on Broadway. Big Love at Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theater and Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Vagina Monologues with Eve Ensler at Alcazar Theatre.

KURT HALL

Assistant Stage Manager

KURT HALL (Assistant Stage Manager)'s Arena Stage credits include Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It!, Mother Road, Ken Ludwig’s  Dear Jack, Dear Louise,  Right to be Forgotten,  Jubilee,  Indecent,  The Great Society,  The Pajama Game,  Smart People,  Carousel,  Born for This,  All the Way,  Sweat,  The Blood Quilt,  Smokey Joe’s Café,  Mother Courage and Her Children starring Kathleen Turner,  Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life,  Good People,  Red Hot Patriot starring Kathleen Turner,  The Normal Heart,  Red,  Ruined,  every tongue confess starring Phylicia Rashad, Duke Ellington’s  Sophisticated Ladies,  Looped starring Valerie Harper,  Next to Normal starring Alice Ripley,  Awake and Sing! and The Goat. He has additional regional credits at the Kennedy Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage and Signature Theatre. Thanks to his family for all their support.

ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY

Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO

Founded in 1965, New York’s not-for-profit Roundabout Theatre Company celebrates the power of theater by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. Roundabout produces a mix of revivals and world premieres on and off Broadway, winning eight Best Revival Tony Awards and debuting such new playwrights as Stephen Karam, Lindsey Ferrentino, Steven Levenson, Ming Peiffer, and Jireh Breon Holder. Its educational initiatives impact 15,000 students and over 1,000 teachers annually.

roundabouttheatre.org

AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER

is an essential gathering place that brings artists and communities together to inspire and provoke. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon and Executive Director Jennifer Bielstein, A.C.T.’s mission is to engage the spirit of the San Francisco Bay Area, activate stories that resonate, promote a diversity of voices and points of view, and empower theater makers and audiences to celebrate liveness. A.C.T. values inclusion, transformational learning, participation and rigorous fun. A.C.T. is a Tony Award-winning nonprofit theater serving almost 200,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area annually through theater, training, education and community programs.

SAMANTHA BARRIE

Commissioning Producer

Prior to commissioning and developing Toni Stone, Samantha was the casting director for The Old Globe and worked in the artistic departments of The Public Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company. In addition to producing, she designs educationally focused tours around the world for some of the country’s most prestigious media outlets and non-profit institutions. She feels immense pride that because of this project her son Isaac knows Toni Stone’s story.

MARTHA ACKMANN

Author of the Original Book

is a journalist and author who writes about women who have changed America. Her books include The Mercury 13, Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone and These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. A Guggenheim fellow and Radcliffe Institutes cholar in nonfiction, her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the Paris Review. She is a frequent commentator for New England Public Radio.

www.marthaackmann.com

MOLLY SMITH

Artistic Director

has served as Artistic Director since 1998. Her more than 30 directing credits at Arena Stage include large-scale musicals like Disney’s Newsies, Anything Goes, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Cabaret, South Pacific; new plays like Sovereignty, The Originalist, Camp David, Legacy of Light, The Women of Brewster Place, How I Learned to Drive; and classics like Mother Courage and Her Children, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Great WhiteHope and All My Sons. Her directorial work has also been seen Off-Broadway at 59E59 in New York, Portland Center Stage, Canada’s Shaw Festival, The Court Theatre, The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, Montreal’s Centaur Theatre and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979–1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 40 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including Dear Evan Hansen; Next to Normal; Passion Play, a cycle; and How I Learned to Drive. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists through its artistic programming. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University. In 2018, she was honored as Person of the Year by the National Theatre Conference and inducted into the Washington DC Hall of Fame.

EDGAR DOBIE

Executive Producer & President of the Corporation

Born in Vernon, British Columbia, a village next to the Rocky Mountains (three years after Arena had its first performance in 1950), I am one of five brothers raised by my Dad Edgar, a mechanic and small businessman, and Mom Connie, a telephone operator and union organizer. I am the only Dobie to make a career in theater. Luckily for me, drama was an arts elective I was offered at the tender age of 12 so I hung up my hockey skates and joined the drama class, led by teacher Paddy Malcolm and her fledgling Powerhouse Community Theater after school. By the time I graduated from high school, we volunteers had built ourselves a 200-seat, fully equipped theater on its own piece of land in the center of town and found a sold-out audience for the full season of plays we had on offer. That experience taught me so many lessons about the power of theater to foster collaboration and share meaningful stories, as well as the public values that attach themselves to building a safe place where everyone is welcome. All those lessons served me well as a managing leader and producer both sides of the border and both sides of the commercial and non-profit theater divide. Arriving here in Southwest with my good wife Tracy and our daughter Greta Lee in 2009 makes me feel like I am well-equipped to do a good job for you all.