LOU BELLAMY (Director) 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. Recent directing credits of Wilson's plays include the staged reading of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Kennedy Center, The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre in New York and Jitney at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company. Other recent directing credits at Penumbra include REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, Zooman and the Sign and Black Nativity - A Homecoming.

DOMINIC TAYLOR (Associate Artistic Director) has been a practicing theatre artist for the past 20 years, recently relocating from New York to Saint Paul. He has directed a variety of theatre projects and musicals including the new opera Fresh Faust at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the cantata The Negro Burial Ground at The Kitchen in New York City. He has worked with Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Crossroads Theater, Rites and Reasons Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, and Ensemble Studio Theatre among others. He holds both a Bachelors and a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University. He has been appointed Assistant Professor in Directing at the University of Minnesota.

DANA YEATON (Playwright) is the recipient of the “New Voice in American Theatre” award from the William Inge Theatre Festival. His short play Helen At Risk won the Heideman Award from the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and his full-length drama Mad River Rising received the Moss Hart Award. For ten years he was playwright-in-residence at Vermont Stage Company, which produced his original plays JUMP CUT, Mad River Rising and The Big Random. They also premiered his adaptation of Midwives, Chris Bohjalian’s New York Times best-selling novel. Midwives has been produced in North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and, most recently, at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD. He was founding director of Vermont Young Playwrights Project, and of the Addison Repertory Theatre, a full-day, vocational theatre program for high school students. Dana lives with his wife, Frankie, in Vermont and teaches at Middlebury College.

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.

JAMES T. ALFRED (Dante Green) is proud to make his Penumbra debut. His most recent appearances include the Kansas City Repertory Theatre/ Arizona Theatre Company co-production of August Wilson’s Jitney, directed by Lou Bellamy; Romeo and Juliet, and Three Sisters at the American Repertory Theatre. Film and television credits include the critically acclaimed independent film One Week, and Twentieth Century Fox’s smash hit television drama Prison Break. James is a graduate of the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.

JAMES CRAVEN (Solly Two Kings) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. Recent Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, produced in collaboration with Trinity Repertory Theatre. He also recently performed at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund. He used this grant to research Native American culture and the experiences of the Buffalo Soldiers ca. 1880, in the greater Southwestern United States. This research provided invaluable knowledge that James applied to the creation of his role of Craig Robe in Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers.

KIMBERLY GILBERT (Tori) hails from Washington, D.C., and this performance marks her Twin Cities debut. In D.C., she has performed in Nutshell in the Capital Fringe Festival, Cardenio Found with Taffety Punk Theatre Company, and Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She received the 2007 Helen Hayes Lead Actress Nomination for her role as “Brenda-Marie” in Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. Kimberly is a company member with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She is also a company member with Taffety Punk Theatre Company. She received an MFA at the Academy For Classical Acting with the Shakespeare Theatre Company at George Washington University.

CEDRIC MAYS (Citizen Barlow) recently performed in Penumbra's production of REDSHIRTS. Other credits include starring in Blue/Orange as Christopher, directed by Jeremy Skidmore, and Insurrection: Holding History as T.J., directed by Timothy Douglas, both at Theater Alliance in Washington, D.C.

WILL SALLEE (Dale Mayo) is making his Penumbra Theatre Company debut in REDSHIRTS. A graduate from Hamline University in St. Paul, he performed in several main stage productions there including The Duchess of Malfi, Into the Woods, and Until Someone Wakes Up.

KIMBERLY SCHRAF (Dr. Audrey Yantz) welcomes this opportunity to collaborate with Penumbra Theatre and take in St. Paul at the same time. At home, in Washington, D.C., she has been a proud member of that vibrant theatre community for over twenty years. Her most recent productions have been Going to St. Ives at Everyman Theatre, Baltimore; A Prayer for Owen Meany at Round House Theatre, Bethesda; and productions of Frozen and Crestfall at The Studio Theatre. In addition, she has worked at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Television appearances include Homicide: Life on the Streets. She narrates books on tape and is a graduate of St. John’s College, Annapolis.

REGINA MARIE WILLIAMS (Dr. Charlene Bigelow) most recently performed in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at The Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner. She has performed at the Guthrie in The Falls, The People’s Temple, She Loves Me, Oedipus, Crowns and Yellowman, a Guthrie/Mixed Blood Theater co-production, directed by Marion McClinton. Productions at Mixed Blood include Two Queens One Castle and The Dance on Widow’s Row. As a company member of Penumbra Theatre, she has been seen in Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Love Song for Ms Lydia, Louie and Ophelia and more. Her performance as Dinah in Penumbra’s Dinah Was prompted her to record “Regina is…the songs of Dinah Washington,” produced by Sanford Moore of Moore by Four. Her most recent CD, “Feel the Spirit,” was co-produced with Gary Hines of the Grammy Award-winning Sounds of Blackness of which she is a former member. Regina is a McKnight Theater Artist of the Year 2006-2007.

AHANTI YOUNG (Curtis Combs) is an actor, percussionist, and spoken word artist. His professional theater experiences date back to the early 1990s, where he made his debut on the Penumbra Theatre stage in the production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Ahanti has been seen in several Penumbra productions since, including The Day The Bronx Died, Geneva Cottrell - Waiting for the Dog to Die, Jitney, Black Eagles, Darker Face of The Earth, Two Trains Running and most recently Zooman and the Sign. Other venues include Alchemy Theater, African American Heritage Ensemble (international), Ten Thousand Things Theater, The Great American History Theatre, Sirius B Artist Collective and the Guthrie Theater. More recent ventures have led Ahanti to Musical/Theatrical/ Poetic artist collective, Edupoetic Enterbrainment (EPE) and Critical Interdisciplinary Collaborative, In The Belly. Ahanti is also a freelance instructor and has several affiliations with schools, programs and community centers throughout Minnesota.

C. LANCE BROCKMAN (Scenic Design) is a professor of theatre design at the University of Minnesota where he has been on the faculty of the Department 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. Both exhibits and national tours were supported by grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities. In addition, Lance nationally provides master classes and workshops on historical painting techniques and maintains an active design career. Brockman is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology—a professional organization that represents 3500 designers and technicians from North America.

MARTIN GWINUP (Sound & Video Design) is an associate professor in the Theatre Arts and Dance Department at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. 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 the past 18 years. He has worked for companies such as the Frank Theatre, History Theatre, Children’s Theatre, Cricket Theatre, and Eye of the Storm, to name a few. Recent design credits at Penumbra include REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Blue, Black Nativity—A Celebration of Family, A Celebration for the Soul…Testify!, Rollin’  on the T.O.B.A., and Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers.

MICHELLE HABECK (Lighting Design) recently designed the lighting for The Piano Lesson and REDSHIRTS at Penumbra Theatre. Other collaborations with Lou Bellamy include A Raisin in the Sun, Two Trains Running and Jitney at Kansas City Rep. Recent national credits include Love Song at Steppenwolf Theatre, Carter's Way at Kansas City Rep, Things of Dry Hours and Elimina's Kitchen at Center Stage, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Alliance Theatre Company, and Lobby Hero at the Goodman Theatre. She has worked as associate lighting designer with Tony Award-winning designer Donald Holder on Gem of the Ocean, King Hedley II, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, among others. Michelle is a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Grant winner for 2003-2004.

MATHEW J. LEFEBVRE (Scenic and Costume Design) has designed several productions for Penumbra including 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. Set design includes Shapiro and Smith Dance, Anytown and Notes from a Séance at the Joy. He has designed the costumes for 15 productions at the Guthrie Theater including She Loves Me, Pride and Prejudice, Wintertime, Merrily We Roll Along and The School for Scandal. Other regional credits include Tartuffe, A Flea in Her Ear, Bach at Leipzig at Milwaukee Rep, Jitney, A Raisin in the Sun and Two Trains Running at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. He has also designed for Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Geffen Playhouse and American Players Theatre.

KALERE PAYTON (Assistant Costume Design) assisted Mathew J. Lefebvre, Costume Designer for Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre Company in New York and Get Ready at Penumbra. Her design credits include Uri Sands’ dance piece Happy, and The Arabian Nights both 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.

JULIANA PETERSON (Assistant Scene Design) graduated from the University of Minnesota in May 2007. Recently, she worked as scene design assistant for Sherlock’s Last Case on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat. This summer, she also directed a play in the Bedlam Theatre’s Ten-Minute Play Festival and stage managed Come and Get It at the Open Eye Figure Theatre. She works as a stage manager and backstage hand at the Ted Mann Concert Hall, and as a freelance theatre artist.

STEPHANIE LEIN WALSETH (Dramaturg) is an M.A./Ph.D. candidate in Theatre Historiography at the University of Minnesota and is pleased to be the August Wilson Fellow for Penumbra's 2007-08 season. Previously she served as the managing director of the Minneapolis-based Asian American theater and taiko company Mu Performing Arts. She has worked professionally as a theater administrator, actor, director, dramaturg and stage manager throughout the Twin Cities with companies such as Mu, Mixed Blood Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, The Playwrights' Center, Frank Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Starting Gate Productions, Theatre Unbound, Chaos Theories, CLIMB Theatre and in Maine at the Portland Stage Company. Her writing has appeared in the Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance, and she is currently serving as the co-artistic director of the University's Xperimental Theatre.

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.