IN OUR OWN WORDS1

Acclaimed playwrights, national and local! Short plays that take on big themes of love, friendship, domestic abuse, and activism.
Join us for an amazing virtual evening of theatre celebrating these amazing stories and these amazing artists!
:: This production is supported in part by a generous grant from the Harry K. & Emma R. Fox Charitable Foundation ::

Lynn Nottage (Playwright, POOF!) is a playwright and a screenwriter. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. Her play Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Tony Nomination, Drama Desk Nomination) moved to Broadway after a sold-out run at The Public Theater. Other plays include Floyd’s, Mlima’s Tale , By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, Ruined (Pulitzer Prize), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone; Por’knockers, and POOF! Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, Merit and Literature Award from The Academy of Arts and Letters, Columbia University Provost Grant, Doris Duke Artist Award, The Joyce Foundation Commission Project & Grant, Madge Evans-Sidney Kingsley Award, Nelson A. RockefellerAward for Creativity, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. She is also an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.

Lisa Langford (Playwright, The Bomb) is a Cleveland-based playwright and actor. She is a member of Dobama Theatre’s Playwrights Gym. She received her B.A. in History from Harvard University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Cleveland State University. Her play Rastus and Hattie was a Joyce Award winner (w/ Cleveland Public Theatre); a Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference finalist; and a The Kilroy’s List honorable mention. The play was published by New Stage Press. Lisa’s other plays include How Blood Go, which was an August Wilson New Play Initiative reading series selection at Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre and part of Global Black Voices at the Roundhouse Theatre in London UK; The Art of Longing, a Leslie Scalapino Award finalist for Innovative Women Playwrights; and two short plays, The Bomb, published in the anthology Black Lives/Black Words, and Revolt. Ing, which was part of the I Am…Festival at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  She's received commissions from the Cleveland Playhouse, the College of Wooster and others.  A recipient of the Ohio Arts Council  Individual Excellence Award, Lisa  is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Nikkole Salter (Director, POOF!) is an award winning actress, playwright, educator and arts advocate. For her work she has received the OBIE, a, Outer Critics Circle Award, a Global Tolerance Award from the Friends of the United Nations a Selfdes-Kanin fellowship from the Theatre Hall of Fame, and most recently a Lily Award for her contributions to the betterment of the theatre field. Her writing has been produced on 3 continents in 5 countries, and been published in 12 international publications and has been featured on the WNET program "Theatre Close-Up.” She is a graduate of Howard University and NYU. www.nikkolesalter.com

Ananias J. Dixon (Director, The Bomb) is a 2021 Cleveland Public theatre premier Fellow, and is blessed to be a theater teacher and coach at the Cleveland School of The Arts, Cleveland Play House, and Playhouse Square and has also been a member of George Street Playhouse’s educational touring theatre. Theater credits include The Good Heart, The Claxson Family, How to End Poverty in 90 min, Ratus and Hattie (Cleveland Public Theater); Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby, The Effect, An Octoroon (Dobama Theatre); Detroit 67, Julius X (Karamu House); Black Angels Over Tuskegee (Actors Temple); John Henry (Cleveland Play House); The Toilet (New federal theatre). TV/film Includes “Law and Order: SVU”, “Blue Bloods”, “Person of Interest”,” Boardwalk Empire”,” Upstairs”, “NYC 22”, Antwone Fisher, Home, and Criminal Activity. Ananias was also part of Cleveland Play House’s New Ground Theatre Festival as the AD for The Nolan Williams Project as well as AD for The Royale under the direction of Robert Barry Fleming.

Nicole Sumlin* (Co-Producer/Loureen, POOF!) is an actor, singer, director, writer, producer and arts educator. She currently serves as Education Director at Cleveland Public Theatre, leading several acclaimed, transformative arts programs throughout Cleveland and surrounding areas. In her career as an educator, she has worked as Vocal Music Director for choral ensembles, Musical Director and Assistant Director for theatre productions, and ELA educator for thirteen years in Wheaton, IL, Mansfield, Ohio, and South Euclid, Ohio. In 2014, she was named Educator of the Year by the Ohio PTA Board’s 11th District. In 2016, she shifted her focus to teaching and clinician work with area choruses and theatre ensembles (including the Dazzle Awards at Playhouse Square, Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s All-City Musical, and Shining Star CLE) while continuing to perform in Cleveland and New York City. Before joining CPT, she served as Academy and Curriculum Manager at Cleveland Play House, managing its Theatre Academy, Summer Academy, as well as crafting and implementing professional development and audience engagement programs. She has been trained in anti-racist work and strives to promote equity in education and performing arts circles. In 2019, she was awarded Best Actress in a Musical by the Cleveland Critics Circle for her performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grille at Beck Center for the Performing Arts. New York City performances include: Medusa (Medusa), Zu (Project Tiresias), Judge Jill Joyce (How to Be a Winner), and Columbiner (ReB+ VoDkA+Me). Regional performances include: Breakout Session (or Frogorse) at Cleveland Public Theatre (Jessica Moore); Rastus and Hattie, also at CPT (Needra); A Raisin in the Sun at Ensemble Theatre (Ruth Younger); Treasure Island at Ohio Shakespeare Festival (Long John Silver), Memphis at Cain Park (Felicia); Children of Eden at French Creek Theatre (Eve/Mama Noah); The Music Man at Cain Park (Marian Paroo); Caroline or Change at Tantrum Theater (The Washing Machine); Minton’s Place at Cleveland Play House (Jennifer/Ensemble); Lines in the Dust at CPT (Denitra Morgan); Bourbon at the Border at The Maltz Museum (May); Songs for the Asking at Playhouse Square (Vocalist/Co-Creator); Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play at CPT (Jenny/Bart); Violet at Lakeland Civic Theatre (Lula Buffington); and A Civil War Christmas at Dobama Theatre (Elizabeth Keckley). Her cabaret show, Sing It All, debuted at The Bop Stop in 2018. She and her husband Eugene created Beauty for Ashes, a project celebrating several generations of their families, debuted at CPT’s Station Hope in 2016 and was remounted at Station Hope 2020. She has also been seen at The Fine Arts Association, Orchard Arts Project, Near West Theatre, Mercury Theatre Company, MOCA-CLE, Nighttown, and Severance Hall. She is a graduate of Wheaton College (IL), and received her vocal training at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. *She is a proud AEA member.

Nina Domingue* (Florence, POOF!) is a New Orleans native who is currently based in Cleveland. She is a part of Cleveland Public Theater’s Premier Fellowship Cohort for the 2020-2021 season. Her solo show The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Miss Joan Southgate has been included on The Kilroy’s List 2020. She was a Barbara Smith Playwright in Residence at Twelve Literary Arts and the Nord Family Foundation Playwriting Fellow and Catapult Artist at Cleveland Public Theatre during the 2019-2020 theatrical season. Her solo show Ya Mama! (dir: Nathan Henry) launched its tour at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and a run at Cleveland Public Theatre this past fall. Credits include: Paradise Blue (Justin Emeka, Karamu House), Revolt, She Said. Revolt, Again (Sarah E. Wansley, Dobama), Medea At 6 (Ensemble Theatre), It Hasn’t Always Been This Way by Ntozake Shange (Off-Broadway, Diane McIntyre). Critics say that Nina is “...a young Anna Deavere Smith” and watching her is “like a master class in acting."

Sierra Davis (Tinka, The Bomb) is thrilled to be joining the Ensemble Theatre and performing in this very special project. She is currently pursuing a career in film, building her portfolio and doing freelance work in video. As an actor, in the past she starred in a number of school plays, portraying characters like The Ghost Of Christmas Present and Mrs.Fezziwig (A Christmas Story), and Lula (Dutchman) as a student at the Cleveland School of the Arts . She has also worked on her fair share of directorial projects, directing four plays and several short films.

Anthony (he/X) (Ezra, The Bomb) is a black actor, writer, and Cleveland native, who is currently pursuing his MFA in Acting at the Yale School of Drama. Some credits include: Is God Is, Ain't No Dead Thing, Where Pathways Meet (Yale Cabaret), In the Blood, Neighbors (Convergence-Continuum), Marat/Sade, Tree of Oedipus (CSU Theatre), Buried Child (Stocker Arts Center). X’s play Van Sonata was workshopped for Test Flight at Cleveland Public Theatre this spring. He thanks Lisa, Ananias, and Sierra for this journey. Peace - X

Becca Moseley (Stage Manager) Becca is excited to be back (virtually!) for another Ensemble production. She has served as the Resident Production Stage Manager/Assistant stage manager for many Ensemble shows, including both parts of Angels in America, Radio Golf, The Penelopiad, Intimate Apparel, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, the Iceman Cometh, Knock Me A Kiss, Anna Christie, Thurgood, Death of a Salesman, and Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. She co-directed Run, Kingsbury, Run and recently Assistant Directed East of Eden. She was onstage in past seasons at Ensemble as a chorus leader/puppeteer in Around the World in 80 Days, Pea in Jerusalem, the Childlike Empress/company in The Never Ending Story, The Phantom Tollbooth (Princess Rhyme/Ensemble,) and as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Other favorite credits not at Ensemble include Rosalind (As You Like It), Fabiana Cunningham (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), Dorine (Tartuffe), Maggie (A Chorus Line), and Ophelia (The Horatio Project). She thanks Ian and Celeste for building and nurturing a theatre that provides a constant supply of great scripts and people to bring them to life, her family for their love and support, and her husband Kyle for always believing in the magic.