LOU BELLAMY (Co-conceiver & Producer) is the founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre. He has been a member of the University of Minnesota's faculty for 31 years and is currently appointed to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance. Recent awards include the 2007 OBIE for Direction and the 2006 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award. His most recent directing credits include Fences and The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, and A Raisin in the Sun staged at Cleveland Play House, co-produced by Penumbra, Cleveland, and Arizona Theatre. This co-production will also be staged at the Guthrie Theater this season.

CHING VALDES-ARAN (Director) is also an adaptor, choreographer, and an OBIE award winning actress. She was a resident director at La Mama E.T.C. from 1989-1996. This is her second production at Penumbra Theatre. Directing credits include: Ma-Yi Theatre, Immigrant Theatre Vineyard S.P.A.C.E, Public Theater Wake-Up Festival, Ohio Theater Tweed Festival, among others. Acting leading roles include:  Lady Macbeth (Broadway) Bernarda Alba (NAATCO), Empress of China (Cincinnati Playhouse), Medea (Pan-Asian Rep), Clytemnestra (Yale Rep), Mother Courage (Ma-Yi), Philoktetes (Berlin), to name a few. Her work has been seen internationally in France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Scotland, and Southeast Asia.  Ms. Valdes-Aran was honored with a 2004 Fox Fellowship from the William & Eva Fox Foundation and the 2004 Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatist.  Other Awards include:  The Spenser Cherashore Award, Asian Cultural Council Artist Fellow, and MAP Rockefeller Grant. Upcoming T.V. and film releases include Across the Universe by Julie Taymor, Filthy Gorgeous on Showtime, and Feel by Matt Mahurin.

RONALD ALOIS SCHULTZ (Stage Manager) has been working as an actor, stage manager, production assistant, and sound board operator in the Twin Cities since 1992. A company member of Penumbra Theatre, Ron has worked on over 60 productions at Penumbra including Jitney, Stage Directions, and the 2006 production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. He has also worked on productions at Mixed Blood, Illusion, Eye of the Storm, Fitzgerald, Pantages, Frank, and Alchemy theatres. Ron was the company manager of Pillsbury House Theatre’s touring production Breaking Ice in 2003 and 2004 and was the assistant stage manager for the Carlson Honors 2005 Awards for the Carlson Company at the State Theatre. He provided technical support for Roxanne Wallace’s Evolution of a Soul Sista at Patrick’s Cabaret and designed the set for Riff Raff at Pillsbury House (2006). Ron is currently pursuing his B.A. in Social Science and his Secondary Teacher Licensure at Metropolitan State University.

ALEXIS CAMINS (Toni) is thrilled to be at Penumbra Theatre.  New York credits include: To the Colored American Soldier at Studio Tisch, Zen Junior High at HERE Arts Center, Eyes of the Heart and Antigone at National Asian American Theater Company, and Vincent in the  NY Fringe Festival.  Regional credits include: Yemaya’s Belly at Portland Stage Company, In the Darkness, Joy of Having a Body at the Guthrie Lab, The New Americans at NYSAF, Saint Joan at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.  Film/TV credits include: The Order of the Serpentine, Spike TV, short film The Concoction, and videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.  Alexis received his MFA at NYU Grad Acting.  As a playwright, two of his plays have been produced; Everything at Desipina and Co. and To the Colored American Soldier at Studio Tisch.  His play Family Lies was recently presented in Theater Mu’s New Eyes Festival.  For luvlie.

LAURA ESPING (Laura) Since moving to the Twin Cities, Laura has worked at many area theatres including At the Foot of the Mountain, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the Jungle Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, and the Guthrie Theater.  She was last seen in Far Away at Pillsbury House, playing Portia in MN Shakespeare Theatre’s Merchant of Venice, and in the Christmas Carol at the Guthrie.  She holds a BA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of Minnesota.  She is delighted to be working at Penumbra.

CASEY GRIEG(Tony) is pleased to be making his Penumbra Theatre debut.  He was most recently seen in American Sublime at Gallery Atitlan, Iphigenia for Ten Thousand Things, and Romeo and Juliet at the Guthrie Theater.  Casey has also performed at the Jungle Theater, Eye of the Storm,  Illusion Theatre, and in the world premiere of Good Boys by Jane Martin at the Guthrie Lab. He was named City Pages Best Actor in the Twin Cities 2002.

PHIL KILBOURNE (Max) is pleased to return to the Penumbra, where he was last seen in Dinah Was, as well as Black Eagles. His last show was at the Jungle Theatre, Bone Dry, and for the Jungle he has also appeared in Hapgood, Perfect Crime and The Dazzle, for which he was named Best Actor by the City Pages Best of the Twin Cities 2005.  He also appeared as Oppenheimer in The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer at Frank Theatre, and in String Fever for Playwrights Platform. For the past nine years Phil has been diligently involved with his wife’s theatre-based training company Theatre at Work, Inc. His latest project for them was directing None of Our Business for Twin Cities Public Television and Verizon Wireless. Phil has a BFA in Acting from Boston University and an MFA in Directing from The Ohio State University.

SAM L. LANDMAN (Martin) has been actively involved in the Minnesota theater scene since he moved here four years ago.  This is his first time on the Penumbra stage and he is proud to have made it here.  His most recent productions include A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline for Troupe America, a repertory version of Hamlet / Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead for Theatre Pro Rata and An Empty Plate At the Café Du Grande Boeuf for Girl Friday.  He was also in Fire Ball at the History Theater, which made it into Dominic Papatola’s Best Plays of the Year list for Pioneer Press.  Ironically, Sam played the critic-killer, Bart, in this past year’s Fringe show, Bring Me the Head of Dominic Papatola for Pig’s Eye.  His next role will be in Guys On Ice: The Wisconsin Ice-Fishing Musical for Troupe America at Grand Casino.

CAROLYN POOL (Jean) is very pleased to be making her Penumbra Theatre debut. She is a Minneapolis based actor whose work has been seen all over the country.  Recent work includes Dorothy in That's Mr. Benchley to You, Mrs. Parker for Joking Apart Theater, Eddi in Bone Dry and Claudia in Honour at the Jungle Theater, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (an AEA Showcase) Catherine in Proof at Park Square, Zanovia in Mercy of a Storm at Florida Stage and the Illusion Theater, Carol in Craig Wright's adaptation of Main Street at the Great American History Theater, and on occasional Mondays, she can be seen in Thirst at Joe's Garage.  Carolyn also stars as Valerie in the short film A Specialist in His Field which has been an audience favorite at film festivals across the United States.

SARAH BELLAMY (Education Director) is Penumbra Theatre's Education Director. A playwright and educator, she holds a B.A. in creative writing and post-colonial theory from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters degree in Caribbean history and the trans-Atlantic Slave trade from the University of Chicago. She is currently working toward her doctorate in cultural studies and critical discourse at the University of Minnesota.

MAY MAHALA (Dramaturge) is a PhD candidate in Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota. Her writing has appeared in The Blue Earth Review, California Quarterly, Colere, NYU’s Women and Performance Journal, Theatre Journal, and Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics. She has worked with The Illusion Theatre, New World Theatre, The Pillsbury House Theatre, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, Theatre Unbound, and Works/Plays. Her fellowships and awards include The August Wilson Fellowship at Penumbra Theatre, two Many Voices residencies from the Playwrights’ Center, and first place in Garrison Keillor’s Festival of Romantic Writing.

LOY ARCENAS (Scene Design) Broadway credits include: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Once on this Island, Prelude to a Kiss, High Society, The Glass Menagerie, The Night of the Iguana. Regional credits include set design for American Conservatory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre. Directing credits include Warren Leight's No Foreigners Beyond This Point,The Romance of Magno Rubio (Obie Award), Flipzoids, Middlefinger, Watcher. Mr. Arcenas has received several awards which include an Obie Award for sustained excellence of Set Design, LA Critics Circle Award, and the Jeff Award. He's from the Philippines.

CZERTON LIM(Associate Scene Design) is completing his MFA degree in scene design at University of Washington School of Drama.  He recently assisted Loy Arcenas in No Foreigners Beyond This Point for Ma-Yi Theatre Company and assisted designers for Seattle Opera and Utah Shakespearean Festival.  Past design credits include Mother Courage and Her Children (thesis project), Execution of Justice, Macbeth, and Panophobia for UW School of Drama, an African-American production of The Glass Menagerie for Ethnic Cultural Theatre, and Boom Town for Essential Theatre.  Mr. Lim received the 2004 Marvin Sims Design Fellowship for The KCACTF Summer Intensives with Ming Cho Lee at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

MARK DOUGHERTY (Light Design) has been the lighting designer for Penumbra Theatre's Black Nativity for the past three years. He is currently the Master Studio Technician at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

ALEXANDRA GOULD (Costume Design) This is Alexandra's second design for Penumbra, and she is extremely excited to be back. She moved to the Twin Cities straight after grad school, and for the past four years Alexandra has been working as a costume designer both in Minnesota and Wisconsin. For two and a half seasons she ran the costume department for St. Croix Festival Theater, where she also designed the shows. Black Nativity in 2005 was Alexandra's first design for Penumbra. She has also designed for companies such as Theater Unbound, The Paul Bunyan Playhouse, and Gustavus Adolphus College.

MALO ADAMS (Sound Design) has designed several Penumbra productions including The Piano Lesson, Zooman and the Sign, Sex Diary of an Infidel, Dinah Was, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and King Hedley II. Other design credits include Mighty Real, A Slow Ride on the Big Muddy and Straight as a Line at the Hennepin Center for Performing Arts. In addition to design work, Malo is the creative force behind the critically acclaimed group Tribe of Millions. Malo has also played with Me’Shell Ndegeocello, The Black Crowes, Soul Asylum, Chaka Khan, and has worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. He has also scored films including Street Guns and The Visionary, and commercials for Target Market, Target, Marshall Field's, Mervyn's, African American Adoption Agency and Dunwoody Institute.

For 28 years, Penumbra Theatre Company has added an important dimension of cultural and artistic experience to the state of Minnesota, the mid-west region and the American theater scene. In 1976, under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Lou Bellamy, Penumbra addressed issues of racial tension and misrepresentation between visibly separate black and white Americas. Today Penumbra is widely regarded as a pioneer of cross-cultural dialogue. Penumbra’s artistically excellent and thought-provoking work is presented from an African American perspective to assist in the development of a more pluralistic and culturally diverse future by using art to criticize, problem solve and teach.