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Blue Artist Bios LOU BELLAMY LOU BELLAMY
(Director) is the founder
and artistic director of
Penumbra. 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. Recent directing credits include
Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre
in New York, Jitney at Kansas City
Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre
Company, and Penumbra's production of
Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie
Theater. Other recent Penumbra credits
include The Piano Lesson and REDSHIRTS.CHARLES RANDOLPH-WRIGHT CHARLES
RANDOLPH-WRIGHT
(Playwright
& Lyricist) is a writer,
director, and producer
for theatre, television,
and film. He is a native
of New York, South
Carolina, and a graduate
of Duke University.
He studied acting with the Royal Shakespeare
Company in London and dance with the Alvin
Ailey School in New York. Charles is an associate
artist at Arena Stage and was awarded a
grant from the NEA for their production of
Blue. Awards include NAACP Image,
Backstage Garland, Dean Goodman Choice,
Bay Area Critics, Drama-logue, LA Weekly
Theatre, Robbie, Helen Hayes, Ovation,
Audelco, Creative Spirit Award from the New
Professional Theatre, and the S.C. Medal of
Honor in the Arts. Future stage productions
include Skindiver, a rock cyber musical with
Nona Hendryx based on her acclaimed album
of the same title, A Waiter, a new play with the
Campo Santo Theatre in San Francisco, and
Deadlines, a new musical with Kirsten Childs. NONA HENDRYX NONA HENDRYX (Composer & Lyricist)
rose to fame as part of Patti LaBelle & The
Bluebelles. She was inducted into The Rhythm
& Blues Foundations’ Hall of Fame in l999.
Her solo career spans a variety of musical genres
including heavy metal (Nona 1977), funk
(Female Trouble), and New Age (SkinDiver).
Her top ten hits include “Bustin’ Out,” “Keep
It Confidential,” “Transformation,” “Why
Sould I Cry?,” “I Sweat” (Goin’ Thru the
Motions), and “Winds of Change.” She has
collaborated with Arthur Baker, Prince, Peter
Gabriel, Dan Hartman and The Talking Heads.
In addition to writing all of the original music
for Blue and co-writing all the lyrics, she has
also collaborated with playwright Charles
Randolph-Wright on the motion picture On the
One. Nona is a Grammy Nominee for “Rock
This House” (featuring Keith Richards of The
Rolling Stones on guitar) and an Emmy
Nominee for her collaboration with Jason Miles
on the composition “Children of the World”
recorded by Sounds of Blackness for “People,” a
Disney animated children’s special. SANFORD MOORE SANFORD
MOORE (Musical Director) has been
the musical director for
several productions at
Penumbra Theatre
including Black Nativity:
Twenty Years of Holiday
Cheer!, Get Ready, Blue,
Black Nativity–A Homecoming, and
Ain't Misbehavin'. Select musical direction
credits also include Crowns, Dream on
Monkey Mountain, Triumph of Love, and
As You Like It at the Guthrie Theater, and
Two Queens, One Castle at Mixed Blood
Theatre. Sanford is an adjunct professor
at the University of Minnesota School of
Music and Minister of Music for Fellowship
Missionary Baptist Church.HARRY WATERS, JR. HARRY WATERS, JR.
(Assistant Director) is on
faculty at Macalester
College in the Theater
and Dance Department.
He obtained his MFA in
Directing in 2003 at
UW-Madison. As an
actor, he has created roles
at Arizona Theater
Blue 19
The Artists
Company, American Conservatory Theater,
Berkeley Repertory Theater, TheaterWorks, San
Jose Repertory, and The Mark Taper Forum.
Most notably, he created the role of Belize in the
world premiere of Angels in America at the Eureka
Theater prior to Broadway and national acclaim.
Harry also appeared in Bill of (W)Rights at Mixed
Blood Theater. On film, he’s appeared in Back to
the Future as Marvin Berry singing “Earth
Angel,” for which he received a Gold Record.
Select television credits include What a Country!
and Adventures in Wonderland. Most recently,
Harry appeared in The Falls at the Guthrie
Theatre and directed Proof at Macalester College.RONALD ALOIS SCHULTZ 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.MAY MAHALA 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.SANDY ADELL SANDY ADELL
(Tillie Clark) is a native
of Detroit. She lives in
Madison, Wisconsin,
where she is a professor
of literature in the
Department of Afro-
American Studies. In
1999 she fell in love
with theater and has
been pursuing acting ever since. She recently
performed as Weedy in the Illinois Theatre
Center’s production of The Sty of the Blind Pig,
and as Professor Willard in the Madison
Repertory Theatre’s production of Our Town.KEITH BOLDEN KEITH BOLDEN
(Samuel Clark, III)
received his M.F.A. in
Acting from the
University of Illinois
and a B.A. in Theatre
Arts from California
State University, Fresno.
Acting credits include
A Raisin in the Sun at
Hartford Stage, Owed to My First Love at
Premiere Stages, Picking Up the Baby in the
New York International Fringe Festival, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream in The Shakespeare
Festival of St. Louis, Civil War for
TheatreWorks/USA, and Ragtime at CentreStage
in Pennsylvania. Film credits include More Than
a Woman and The Coldest Winter.CHRISTIANA CLARK CHRISTIANA
CLARK
(LaTonya Dinkins) is
originally from
Chicago. She trained at
the American Academy
of Dramatic Arts in
Hollywood, California.
She is the recipient of
the Ameriprise Ivey
Award for Emerging Artist of 2006. She has
recently been onstage in the Twin Cities in
Lutefisk Champ & Other Frozen Holiday Tales at
the History Theatre, Wait Until Dark at Paul
Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, Minnesota, and
Constant Star at Park Square Theatre.BLAINE CRAWFORD BLAINE CRAWFORD
(Reuben Clark/Youth &
Blue Jr.) began his
acting career at age
nine. His acting debut
was in Home on the
Mornin’ Train with
Youth Performance
Company. Other
acting credits include
Aladdin with Stages Theater Company, March
to Freedom with Youth Performance Company,
and The Jungle Book at Blake School.SHAWN HAMILTON SHAWN
HAMILTON
(Vernon Saunders)
has been seen at
Penumbra in Blue,
Stage Directions, Seven
Guitars, and Black
Nativity. Other local
theatres he has
worked with include
Mixed Blood, Guthrie Theater, Illusion
Theater, Children’s Theater, The Jungle,
15 Head, Pioneer Place, Ten Thousand
Things, and Thirst. He has also worked
regionally with Trinity Rep, Yale Rep,
and Dallas Theatre Center. He can be
seen next in Ten Thousand Things’
Richard the III and The Children’s
Theatre production of Bud Not Buddy,
directed by Marion McClinton.NAMIR SMALLWOOD NAMIR
SMALLWOOD
(Rueben Clark/Adult)
is a Newark, New
Jersey native. He is a
recent graduate of the
University of
Minnesota/Guthrie
Theatre BFA Actor
Training Program.
He was last seen at Penumbra in On the Open
Road. Namir has appeared on stage
throughout the Twin Cities including the
Playwrights’ Center, Pillsbury Theatre, and
the Children’s Theatre Company.DENNIS W. SPEARS DENNIS W.
SPEARS
(Wining Boy) most
recently performed in
Penumbra Theatre’s Black
Nativity: Twenty Years of
Holiday Cheer! Other
Penumbra credits include
Ain’t Misbehavin’, Black
Nativity–A Homecoming, Blue and Get Ready.
He has also performed in Ain’t Misbehavin’ at
Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Crowns at the
Guthrie Theater and Smokey Joe’s Café at Hey
City Theater. An accomplished jazz vocalist,
Dennis made his splash with the jazz vocal
ensemble Moore By Four. Minnesota Jazz
Music Awards named him Best Male Jazz
Vocalist. He has performed in jazz festivals
nationally and internationally with such
legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn,
Joe Williams, Carmen McCrae and Dee Dee
Bridgewater. Solo recordings include “I Hear
It,” “Why Try to Change Me Now,” and his
first national release, “Evening Candlelight.”AUSTENE VAN AUSTENE VAN
(Black Mary/
Choreography) is a Penumbra Theatre
company member. She was the director
for this season's Black Nativity: Twenty
Years of Holiday Cheer! and co-director for
Black Nativity - A Homecoming in 2006.
Recently, she directed and choreographed
Blues in the Night at the Ordway Center.
Select credits at Penumbra include Get
Ready, Blue, Ain't Misbehavin', Zooman and
the Sign, Dinah Was, Blues for an Alabama
Sky, Seven Guitars, The Last Minstrel Show
and Lost in the Stars, and Penumbra's co-production with the Guthrie
of The Darker Face of the Earth. She has also performed at The
Children’s Theatre, Pantages, Mixed Blood and the Saint Louis Black
Repertory Theatre. Television credits include Happiness, Vernie and
The Shake Down. Musical recordings include Van Album, Gift of Love
and Kef.ERIKA K. DIXON-GOSS ERIKA K.
DIXON-GOSS
(American Sign
Language Interpreter) has
been the ASL Interpreter
for Penumbra Theatre for
ten years. Erika has had the
pleasure of interpreting
works by the late August
Wilson such as Seven Guitars and King
Hedley II. Most recently, she interpreted
Alter Boyz at the Pantages Theatre. Erika
also interprets for Theatre de la Jeune Lune,
Hopkins Stages Theater, Plymouth
Playhouse, and Anoka’s Main Street Stage.MARK DOUGHERTY 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.MARTIN GWINUP MARTIN GWINUP
(Sound Designer) is an
associate professor in the
Theatre Arts and Dance
Department at the
University of Minnesota.
He teaches audio and video technology,
design and production. He has also
worked in the Twin Cities area as a freelance
sound/video designer and technician
for 18 years. Martin has worked for the
Frank Theatre, History Theatre,
Children's Theatre, Cricket Theatre and
Eye of the Storm. Recent design credits at
Penumbra include REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Blue, Black Nativity - A
Celebration of Family, A Celebration for the
Soul…Testify!, and Grandchildren of the
Buffalo Soldiers.CHAD VAN KEKERIX CHAD VAN
KEKERIX
(Set Design) is a
freelance designer and
scenic artist who has
crafted over 80 productions
in the Twin
Cities. Recent designs
include Love, Janis for
the Ordway Center for
the Performing Arts, The Mousetrap for Theatre
in the Round and Marat Sade. He is the
designer and artist of the quilt murals on the
Penumbra Theatre walls. He also created the
lobby of Penumbra Theatre Company and cocreated
the lobby of Theatre in the Round. In
addition, he has worked with Ordway Center,
Actor’s Theatre of Minnesota, Northwestern
College, Youth Performance Company, and
The Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle.DEIDREA WHITLOCK DEIDREA
WHITLOCK
(Costume Design) received her B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. She has designed costumes for several Penumbra
Theatre productions including the 1986 production of Ain't Misbehavin’, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Tracers, Black Nativity, A
Raisin in the Sun, Fences, Charlie Parker’s Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show,
African American Company Presents Richard III, Waiting in Vain, and Talking Bones. Other design projects
include T. Mychael Rambo’s “A Christmas With Love,” Laurie Carlos’ Marion’s Terrible Times of Joy, and AGAPE
Praise & Worship Dance Ensemble. She has also worked with the Guthrie
Theater, History Theatre, Illusion Theater, Walker
Art Center, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul Public schools. In addition, she designs couture and ready to
wear fashions for various artists and clients. |
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