JAMES CRAVEN (ABE) is a long-time Penumbra Theatre company member. Select credits at Penumbra include Fences, The Piano Lesson, Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie Theater, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers and REDSHIRTS, co-produced with Round House Theatre. He also performed at Kansas City Repertory Theater and Arizona Theater Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund and was awarded a 2007 McKnight Fellowship.

TERRY HEMPLEMAN (Rutherford Selig) has appeared at Penumbra in Joe Turner's Come and Gone and at the Guthrie in His Girl Friday and Lake Hollywood. Recent acting credits include Huck Finn, Anon(ymous) and Amber Waves at The Children's Theatre Company; Last of the Boys, Same Time Next Year, Orange Flower Water and Fool for Love at The Jungle Theater; Cyrano, Carousel and The Ballad of the Sad Café with Ten Thousand Things; Frozen, Of Mice and Men and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Park Square Theatre; and Dinner With Friends at Eye of the Storm. His film work includes Factotum, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Mallrats and the PBS film A Psychic Mom. Terry was awarded Best Actor in the Twin Cities by City Pages in 2003.

MARVETTE KNIGHT (Aunt Ester) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. She is also a fulltime member of The Children's Theatre Company. She has performed with the Guthrie Theater, Park Square and Mixed Blood. As a choreographer, she has worked with these same theaters as well as the La Jolla Playhouse, History Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, the Sounds of Blackness, Youth Movement Company, Steppingstone Theatre and Stages Theatre. Marvette choreographs and teaches dance for several schools throughout the area and The Children's Theatre Company's Theatre Arts Training program. In an international spectacle titled Chatouranga, Marvette choreographed a cast of over 1,500 dancers and singers for the production in Fribourg, Switzerland. Select awards include the Critics Circle Kudos Award and the Katherine Dunham Award.

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.

T. MYCHAEL RAMBO (CO-CONCEIVER & SON) is a Penumbra company member. Select Penumbra credits include Gem of the Ocean, The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Ain't Misbehavin' and several productions of Black Nativity. He has performed locally with the Guthrie Theater, Illusion Theater, Minnesota Opera, Ordway Music Theatre, and Mixed Blood Theatre. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra and throughout Canada, Europe, Africa and Brazil. Television credits include Endeavor, I Led Two Lives and the HBO mini-series Laurel Avenue. Film credits include Mighty Ducks, Crossing the Bridge, Grumpy Old Men, The Cure, Equinox, Wooly Boys and Justice. Recent honors include singing the National Anthem for President Obama during his recent Twin Cities visit, and receiving a 2008 regional Emmy Award.

ABDUL SALAAM EL RAZZAC (HENRY) is a founding member of Penumbra Theatre. He has also performed at the Willamstown Theatre Festival, Los Angeles Theater Center, A.C.T., Long Wharf, Mark Taper, the Guthrie Theater, South Coast Rep, Trinity Rep, Tiffany Theater, The Nate Holden Theater, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Kansas City Rep and Arizona Theater Company. He has directed at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Zephyr, L.A.T.C. and Glaxa Theaters, as well as staged readings for the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre and the Mark Taper's Mentor Reading Series. Awards include the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award and the L.A. Drama Critics Award for performance, and the Los Angeles Dramalog Award for best director and the N.A.A.C.P. Image Award best director nomination. Select film and television credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Pretty Woman, Glory, Malcolm X, Terminator II, Frasier and Conversations with God.

AUSTENE VAN (MAME WILKS) recently performed in Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean, staged at the Guthrie Theater. Other select Penumbra credits include performances in Zooman and the Sign, Dinah Was, The Trial of One Short Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise & Safreeta Mae and Blues for an Alabama Sky, and she directed Black Nativity-Hear Again the Christmas Story! and Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer! She has performed at Children's Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center, Pantages and the Saint Louis Repertory Theatre. Television credits include Vernie and The Shakedown. Musical endeavors include writing and co-producing her own album.

LOU BELLAMY (DIRECTOR & PRODUCER) is the founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre. Under his leadership, Penumbra has produced 23 world premieres, including August Wilson's first professional production, and is proud to have produced more of Mr. Wilson's plays than any theater in the world. Mr. Bellamy is an OBIE Award-winning director, an accomplished actor, and sought-after scholar. He has been a member of the University of Minnesota's faculty for 32 years and is currently appointed to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.  Recent directing credits include Black Pearl Sings!, Radio Golf, Fences and The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, A Raisin in the Sun and Gem of the Ocean, Penumbra productions staged at the Guthrie, Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre in New York, Jitney at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company, and the staged reading of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Kennedy Center.

MARY K. WINCHELL (STAGE MANAGER) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. Most recently, she stage managed Penumbra's Black Pearl Sings!, Black Nativity: A Season for Change, Radio Golf 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 and the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. She has lent her talents to Macy's Glamorama and served as production stage manager for Dorothy Hamill’s Nutcracker on Ice, Aveda's 20th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and Super Bowl xxvi Winter Magic.

MATHEW J. LeFEBVRE (COSTUME DESIGNER) has designed costumes for several Penumbra Theatre productions including Fences, REDSHIRTS, Get Ready, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, On the Open Road, Black Eagles, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Jitney, and both Scenery and Costumes for Gem of the Ocean. Off Broadway credits include costumes for Two Trains Running at Signature Theatre—Lortel winner, best revival of a play, AUDELCO nominee, best costumes—and Bach at Leipzig for New York Theatre Workshop. Mr. LeFebvre has designed costumes for the Guthrie Theater, The Acting Company, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Kansas City Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Geffen Playhouse, Mixed Blood Theatre and American Players Theatre.

MICHELLE HABECK (LIGHTING DESIGNER) has designed for Penumbra Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Baltimore's CenterStage, and Alliance Theatre, among others. She has worked as associate to Tony Award-winning designer Donald Holder on Julie Taymor's Opera Grendel; Gem of the Ocean at the Goodman Theatre and Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; and on Broadway stage plays and musicals including Movin' Out, King Hedley II and The Boy From Oz. Ms. Habeck was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for 2003-04. She is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

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.

STEPHANIE LEIN WALSETH (August Wilson Fellow) is an M.A./Ph.D. candidate in Theatre Historiography at the University of Minnesota. Previously, she served as the Managing Director of Mu Performing Arts. She has worked professionally as a theatre administrator, actor, director, dramaturg, and stage manager with several theatres including 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 the Portland Stage Company. Her writing has appeared in the Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance.

FAYE M. PRICE (Transliteration Artist) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. She originated the role of Rachel in the 1982-83 production of Zooman and the Sign, and returned to that role in the 2006 production. Other Penumbra credits include the company's inaugural production Eden in 1977, The African American Company Presents Richard III in 1987-88 and Jar the Floor in 1997-98. Recent credits include Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story, Daniel Alexander Jones' Bel Canto and Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena at Pillsbury House Theatre, where she also serves as co-artistic producing director. Other credits include The Women's Theater Project and Productions, Hudson Guild Theater, Circle In The Square, Guthrie Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mixed Blood and Eye of the Storm. A production dramaturg for more than a dozen productions at the Guthrie, Penumbra and the History Theatre, Faye was awarded the August Wilson Fellowship for Dramaturgy and Literary Criticism, and received her graduate degree from the University of Minnesota.

ELIZABETH R. MacNALLY (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be with Penumbra for the first time. She has most recently stage managed 9 Parts of Desire at the Guthrie Theater, and some of her favorite productions include Bug with Pillsbury House Theatre, Two for the Seesaw and Last of the Boys with The Jungle Theater, as well as many other productions. Elizabeth has also stage managed at Park Square Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, the History Theatre, Minnesota Shakespeare Project, Frank Theatre and New American Theatre. She has her B.F.A. from Rockford College in Rockford, Ill.

STEVEN HORSTMANN (ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER & PROPERTIES MASTER) works locally as a scenic designer, performer and musician with companies such as Open Eye Figure Theatre, Four Humors Theater and Penumbra. He is a performing member of the Seattle-based traveling vaudeville troupe The New Old Time Chautauqua. Most recently, he appeared in Mud at the Bedlam Theatre. Steven holds a degree in Theatre Arts and Architecture from the University of Minnesota.

KRISTIN T. ABHALTER (Scenic Design Assistant) has worked as a scenic artist for many Penumbra productions including The Piano Lesson, REDSHIRTS and Blue. Locally she has been designing and painting for the Interact Center, Hamline University Theatre and the Walker Art Center's Momentum Dance Series at The Southern Theatre. She has worked for a season as a design assistant at Denver Center Theatre and has an M.F.A. in scenic arts from the University of Minnesota.

KATHY MAXWELL (LIGHTING DESIGNER) was the designer for Penumbra's Black Nativity: Hear Again the Christmas Story! and the assistant lighting designer for Penumbra's A Raisin in the Sun and Gem of the Ocean. Other select design credits include Self the Remix, Cooking con Karimi, Cipher, The Island, and the international tour of Farid Mercury by Kaotic Good Productions. Kathy has a B.A. in Theater and Dance from the University of Texas-Austin and is the Master Electrician for Penumbra Theatre.