Dennis A. Allen II

Playwright | 40 on 135th

Dennis A. Allen II is a multi-hyphenate in the world of theatre. As a playwright, his play The Mud is Thicker in Mississippi won the 35th annual Off Off Broadway Samuel French Festival. He is the recipient of Atlantic Theater Company’s inaugural Launch Commission, Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writer’s Group, and National Black Theatre’s “I Am Soul” Playwright Residency. Allen is an associate producer for The New Black Fest and served as the National Playwriting Program Vice Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 1. He is an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and The New School, and is the Co-Program Director for the MFA Playwriting program at Brooklyn College. Dennis received his MFA from Brooklyn College’s Playwriting program.

Andy Lucien

Actor | Babs

Andy Lucien TV: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Blacklist (NBC), Marvel’s Daredevil (Netflix), Elementary (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS). Film: Forget Me Not, Pretty Doesn’t Hurt, Seven Lovers, Vox Lux. Theater Off-Broadway: the MTC/Clubbed Thumb/Page 73 production of Cold War Choir Practice, plus Signature Theater, MTC, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theater, and Rattlestick. Regional: Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and Studio Theater.

Nambi E. Kelley

Playwright | “Our Women & What They Think” (An Ode to Amy Jacques Garvey)

Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning actor, playwright, and television writer-producer whose work bridges history, politics, and intimate human storytelling. As an actor, she has performed regionally, internationally, and on television, including productions opposite greats such as Phylicia Rashad and Alfre Woodard, multiple productions at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with television appearances on Chicago Med, Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Justice. Recent stage credits include Goodman Theatre’s Joe Turner’s Come & Gone, Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, and off-Broadway in Jeff Sweet’s Kunstler. Kelley has written and produced for television on shows such as Peacock’s Bel-Air and Apple’s Lady in the Lake, earning a Black Reel Award nomination for the latter; additional television writing credits include Showtime’s The Chi and Fox’s Our Kind of People. Her acclaimed adaptation of Native Son received productions nationwide, including at Yale Repertory Theatre and in New York with The Acting Company, earning an AUDELCO Award for Best Production and a Drama League nomination for Best Revival. Personally selected by Toni Morrison to adapt her novel Jazz, Kelley continues to develop bold new theatrical work, including Broadway-aimed projects with Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Laurence Fishburne, and Ken Davenport. She has developed a television project with political icon Stacey Abrams, and is currently in development with Grammy Award winning rapper Nas and Oscar and MacArthur Genius Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney. Kelley is the founder of First Woman LLC, a family-centered production company creating work across theatre, film, and television. First Woman produced the internationally award-winning film adaptation of Jabari Dreams of Freedom, which also toured nationally as a play after premiering at New Victory Theater in New York City. Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

Gillian Glasco

Actor | Amy Jacques Garvey

Gillian Glasco (she/her) is a native of North Little Rock, Arkansas and received a BFA in Acting from Ithaca College. She is a company member of The Actors Center. She has performed in the world premieres of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Sally and Tom and Dominique Morisseau’s Mud Row, understudied Doubt on Broadway, and has been featured in a host of New York and regional theatrical productions. She has guest-starred and recurred on many episodic series, including Law & Order, Jessica Jones, City on a Hill, Blue Bloods, Bull, and FBI: Most Wanted. Glasco was a Terrence McNally New Works Incubator Playwriting Semi-finalist, a featured playwright for the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Playwrights’ Playground, and a featured writer for the online magazine Sunday Best, profiling trailblazing public figures, artists, educators, and business CEOs in the Black diaspora.

Nia Latriese

Playwright | A Lady Emblazoned in Gold: Henrietta Vinton Davis

Nia Latriese (she/her) is a mischievous multi-hyphenate actor, writer, and cultural organizer from Los Angeles, currently based in NYC. Nia holds a B.A. in African-American Studies & Theater from UCLA. She trained at the Yale Conservatory for Actors (2019) and the National Theater Institute (2022). She is currently developing Beautiful Chocolate Baby, a play exploring inner-child healing and the intergenerational relationships between mothers and daughters, which was featured at the 2025 Miranda Fellowship Summit. Credits: A Heated Discussion (Robey Theater), OMWAN’EKHUI: Person of Dark Skin (short film), and her directorial debut, How To Kill A First Date (short film). Awards: the Mabel P. Robinson Emerging Artist Award (2022) from North Carolina Black Repertory Theater and Miranda Family Fellow (2022). Nia is devoted to telling stories to honor her ancestors and inspire loving radical action toward liberation for Black women and the Global Majority. More at nialatriese.com.

Tina Fabrique

Actor | Henrietta Vinton Davis

Tina Fabrique Broadway, NY, and National Tour credits include How To Succeed…, The Gospel at Colonus, The Wiz, Ragtime, Dessa Rose, Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, and pray (Lucille Lortel Award). Regional: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mary Seacole, and The Glass Menagerie. She led the national tour of Ella as Ella Fitzgerald. TV: The Equalizer, New Amsterdam, and Blue Bloods. She sings the Reading Rainbow theme. Audible: Six Sermons. Film: The Boys in the Band.

Rudy Bamenga

Playwright | When They Come Knockin’

Rudy Bamenga is a French-born, NYC-based artist of Congolese descent. Having spent the first decade of his life in Paris and the next two growing up in NYC, he has come across many questions about the intricacies and intersectionalities of identity, a recurring theme in his work. Rudy hosted a reading of his religious dramedy Cardinal Confession through National Black Theatre’s Keep Soul Alive Micro Development Series and developed his pandemic-era serio-comedy Last Call at Libby’s through Liberation Theater Company’s Writing Residency Program, which was then selected to receive a staged reading at Houston’s inaugural Fade to Black Arts Festival in June 2025. He recently developed a political satire, The Satire of Oneism, for The People’s Theatre Playwrights Unit. He served as a writing assistant to Dominique Morisseau on her revival of Sunset Baby at Signature Theatre, and as a writing associate to Angelica Chéri on the upcoming Broadway production of Wanted: The Musical. He grew up not seeing stories that resembled his, and he wants to change that — for his younger self and for the generations to come. www.rudy-writes.com

Charles Everett

Actor | Claude McKay

Charles Everett is a New York-based actor who has appeared in stage, film, and television. Credits include The Beauty, The Equalizer, Fleishman Is in Trouble, Only Murders in the Building, A Doll’s House at Theatre for the New City, and the Broadway National Tour of A Soldier’s Play. charleseverett.com

Jes Washington

Playwright | The First Lady of {Negro} Empowerment: Elizabeth Hendrickson (“Fuck Landlords”)

Jes Washington is a New York actress, writer, and singer born in Memphis, TN. Off-Broadway: Predictor, Coping Mechanism, White Woman, Black Boy, North Carolina, Danny & the Deep Blue Sea. Theater: Who Will Sing for Lena (an international one-woman show), Clybourne Park, Paradise Blue. Workshops: Deep Azure (director N’Sangou Njikam, creative consultant Phylicia Rashad); Caucasian Chalk Circle (director Awoye Timpo); American Rot (director Estelle Parsons); Black Is Beauty (director Kareem Lucas); and The Great White Hope (director Steve Broadnax III). Film: A Wall Apart. Television: HBO’s The Gilded Age, CBS’s The Equalizer, Half the History: Belinda Royale Story. Voiceover: Greater Boston, What’s the Frequency? Series: The Board. Awards include Best Lead Actress, People’s Choice, and Best Production; she is a winner of the AACT National Festival (2019 and 2021) and the 2021 Mondial du Théâtre in France. Acting MFA in NYC. Lifetime member of the Actors Studio.

Akyiaa Wilson

Actor | Elizabeth Hendrickson

Akyiaa Wilson is a Brooklyn native passionate about the development of new work, which she has pursued at Ars Nova, The Lark, Clubbed Thumb, Primary Stages, Drama League, The Kitchen, New Dramatists, New Georges, and off- and off-off-Broadway. A member artist at Ensemble Studio Theatre and former Bat at The Flea, she was seen recently as Madame President in the uncompromising The Cotillion (TMT/New Georges) and as Izzy in the world premiere of Ellen McLaughlin’s Kissing the Floor (OYL). Favorite roles include Clytemnestra in These Seven Sicknesses (NY premiere), Jocasta in Wrecks, Olga in Three Sisters, and Ensemble in the RSC’s Julius Caesar at BAM. B.F.A., Syracuse University. (Akyiaa-Wilson.com)

Langston Darby

Actor | Stage Directions

Mississippi born, Langston Darby resides in NYC and works on stage, camera, and voiceover. Most recently, he wrote and performed original solo character sketches as a mainstage performer with UCB NY. If you have any little ones and a Hatch device, you may recognize him as the voice of Moon. Past work includes Off-Broadway (HERE Arts), audiobook narration (Penguin Random House Audio), and voicing characters in scenes with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (Warner Bros. Animation). To learn more, check out www.langstondarby.com. Insta: @langstonhdarby. Training: Atlantic Acting School, University of Southern Mississippi.