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.

SANFORD MOORE (Musical Director) Recent musical direction credits at Penumbra include The Piano Lesson, 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.

AUSTENE VAN (Director & Ensemble Choreographer) directs Penumbra's Black Nativity for the second year. She recently performed in Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean, staged at the Guthrie. Other select Penumbra credits include Blue, Dinah Was, The Trial, and Blues for an Alabama Sky. She has also performed at The Children's Theatre, Mixed Blood, Guthrie Theater, Pantages, and The Saint Louis Repertory Theatre. Television credits include Vernie and The Shakedown. Musical endeavors include singing on tour with Karyn White, and writing and co-producing her own album.

MARY K. WINCHELL (Stage Manager) is in her 22nd season with Penumbra. Most recently, she stage managed Penumbra's Fences and Gem of the Ocean. Other Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer!, Seven Guitars, Jitney, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II, and Dinah Was. She has stage managed at the Orpheum Theatre, State Theatre, Pantages Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Macy's Glamorama, Dorothy Hamill's Nutcracker on Ice, Aveda's 20th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and Super Bowl XXVI Winter Magic.

ED JENKINS (Directing Intern) is the Dramatic Arts Director at Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, Minnesota where he directs, coordinates, and performs drama ministry presentations for church services. In February he performed an original one-man show depicting the historic journey of African Americans and his mother’s life at Faith Covenant Church and Burnsville area schools. November 2006 he developed and led a performance arts mission team to Hong Kong which performed original movement theatre and music presentations to over 3,000 people. Ed received a BFA in Acting from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1998 and a MS in Recreation Management from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2001.

LUCAS BELLAMY (J.R.) is excited to return to Penumbra Theatre Company’s stage after a fourteen year hiatus. He was last seen at Penumbra in 1993 in Rebecca Rice’s Waiting in Vain.

JAMECIA BENNETT (Ensemble) is a manager, singer, songwriter and producer who has sung background for superstars like Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, Patti Labelle, and Lionel Richie. She is an original member of the Grammy award-winning group Sounds of Blackness, and is a featured soloist on the hit by James Grier & Co, “Don’t Give Up.” Jamecia has also performed in several Tyler Perry shows including, “I Know I’ve Been Changed,” “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” and “Madea’s Family Reunion.” She has two sons, Shakur and Jamez, and one daughter, American Idol’s Paris “Princess P” Bennett. Jamecia and her family own Community Fitness Today, a non-profit organization that assists AIDS patients and raises awareness of this disease.

BENNY S. CANNON (Corbierre Johnson) is a Penumbra Company member. Select Penumbra credits include On the Open Road, Black Nativity, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, A Love Song for Miss Lydia, Riff’s and Pill Hill. Other Minnesota theater credits include Oedipus at the Guthrie Theater, The Wild Party at the Fitzgerald, The Meeting at the Great American History Theatre, Jus’for a While at the Illusion Theater and many others. Regional Theater credits include, I am a Man at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Homebound at The Milwaukee Rep, The Piano Lesson at the Portland Rep and Boseman and Lena at the Saint Louis Black Repertory Company. Television and film credits include Suddenly Susan, The Wayan Brothers, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Crossing the Bridge and many others.

JAMES CRAVEN (Gabriel) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. He was most recently seen in Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie. Other recent Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign, and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers. He performed recently at Kansas City Rep Theater and Arizona Theatre Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund and was awarded a 2007 McKnight Fellowship.

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.

T. MYCHAEL RAMBO (Co-conceiver & Ensemble) returns for his 17th year in Black Nativity. Other recent Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean. T. Mychael has performed with the Guthrie, Illusion, Minnesota Opera, The Ordway, Mixed Blood, Park Square and Hey City. He has performed at Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra, throughout the United States and Canada as well as Europe, Africa and Brazil. Television and film credits include HBO's Laurel Avenue, Endeavor, She Led Two Lives, Mighty Ducks, Crossing the Bridge, Grumpy Old Men, The Cure, Equinox, Wooly Boys and Justice. T. Mychael is the recipient of a 2008 Emmy Award for a regional KTCA documentary/community programming series, Minnesota Minute.

DENNIS W. SPEARS (Ensemble) recently performed in Penumbra's The Piano Lesson. Other Penumbra credits include Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer!, 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. Dennis is a member of Moore By Four and has been named by Minnesota Jazz Music Awards as Best Male Jazz Vocalist. He has performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, 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."

J.D. STEELE (Roscoe “Reds” Walker) is perhaps most well known as a member and songwriter of the world renowned group, The Steeles. He developed his skills as an arranger and songwriter at the age of 16, and went on to arrange for movies such as Corrina Corrina, Blankman, and Hoop Dreams. He was also nominated for an Emmy for the PBS version of Gospel at Colonus. J.D. developed the choral group, Shangilia, in Nairobi, and the group made its debut in Nairobi in January of 2005. J.D. has been commissioned on ten original musicals, most recently by the History Theatre in St. Paul, and Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. He has performed and recorded with Prince, Donald Fagen, on Broadway and around the world. He is a recipient of the 2003 Bush Composer Fellowship.

C. LANCE BROCKMAN (Scenic Designer) is a professor of theatre design at the University of Minnesota where he has been on the faculty of the Dept. of Theatre Arts and Dance for 34 years. His research interest is in the historic methods of scenic art used to create illusionary background for opera houses, vaudeville, circuses, and fraternal initiations. His efforts led to the discovery and subsequent exhibits titled: The Twin City Scenic Collection: Popular Entertainment 1895-1929 and Theatre of the Fraternity: Staging the Ritual Space of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry 1896-1929. In addition, Lance provides master classes and workshops nationwide on historical painting techniques, and maintains an active design career.

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 (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 Fences, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Blue, Black Nativity - A Celebration of Family, A Celebration for the Soul…Testify!, and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers.

MATHEW J. LEFEBVRE (Costume Designer) most recently designed costumes and set for Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie. Penumbra credits include Get Ready, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, On the Open Road, Black Eagles, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Jitney. Off-Broadway designs include Two Trains Running at Signature Theatre and Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop. Costume design credits at the Guthrie include She Loves Me, Pride and Prejudice, Wintertime, Merrily We Roll Along, and School for Scandal. He has also designed for Milwaukee Rep, Kansas City Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Geffen Playhouse, and American Players Theatre.

KALERE A. PAYTON (Assistant Costume Designer) assisted Mathew J. LeFebvre, costume designer, for Get Ready and REDSHIRTS at Penumbra, and Two Trains Running at Signature Theatre Company in New York. Her design credits include The Wiz and Uri Sands’ dance piece Happy for the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. She is working towards a Master of Fine Arts Costume Design/Technology, to be completed in the spring of 2009.

ERIKA K. DIXON GOSS (American Sign Language Interpreter) has been the ASL Interpreter for Penumbra Theater for 11 years. Erika has had the pleasure of interpreting works by the late August Wilson including Seven Guitars and King Hedley II, The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean. Erika also interprets for Hopkin's Stages Theater, Plymouth Playhouse, Anoka's Main Street Stage, and The State and Pantages Theatres.