A surprise proposal gift puts the future of Genesis and Rashad's relationship at risk when they are forced to confront a devastating secret from the past. The Light is a 70-minute, real-time rollercoaster ride of laughter, romance, and despair that uncovers how the power of radical love can be a healing beacon of light.
Directed by Jeannine Gaskin | Notre Dame Performing Arts Center | Performed May 26th-June 11, 2023
The Light is a Stunning Finale
to the Ensemble Theatre’s season. -Cleveland Scene
MEET THE CAST
Nicole Sumlin* (Genesis) Nicole Sumlin is an actor, singer, director, writer, producer and arts educator. 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), Project Tiresias (Zu), How to Be a Winner (Judge Jill Joyce), and ReB+VoDkA+ Me (Columbiner). Regional performances include: Stew (Lillian), Life Sucks (Ella), and A Civil War Christmas (Elizabeth Keckley) at Dobama Theatre; Breakout Session (or Frogorse) (Jessica), Rastus and Hattie (Needra), Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Jenny/Bart), and Lines in the Dust (Denitra) at Cleveland Public Theatre; A Raisin in the Sun (Ruth) at Ensemble Theatre; Treasure Island (Long John Silver) at Ohio Shakespeare Festival; Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Brenda), The Frogs (Pluto),The Music Man (Marian Paroo), Memphis (Felicia), and Sondheim on Sondheim at Cain Park; Children of Eden (Eve/Mama Noah) at French Creek Theatre; Caroline or Change (The Washing Machine) at Tantrum Theater; Minton’s Place (Jennifer/Ensemble) at Cleveland Play House; Bourbon at the Border at The Maltz Museum (May); Songs for the Asking at Playhouse Square (Vocalist & Co-Creator); and Violet (Lula) at Lakeland Civic Theatre. Her cabaret show, Sing It All, debuted at The Bop Stop. She and her husband Eugene created Beauty for Ashes, a project celebrating several multiple 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 member of the Actor’s Equity Association.
Ananias J. Dixon* (Rashad) is the Lead Production Teaching Artist at Playhouse Square, Co-founder of THE 1% Acting Studio, producer/directing mentor/ teaching artist at the Cleveland School of The Arts and has been a member of George Street Playhouse’s educational touring company. Theater credits include: Two Trains Running, Sweat (Pittsburgh Public theatre) Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby, The Effect, An Octoroon, Kill Move Paradises (Dobama Theatre); Detroit 67, Julius X (Karamu House); The Claxson Family, How to End Poverty in 90 min, Rastus and Hattie (Cleveland Public Theater); 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.
*Member of Actors Equity Association, The Union of Actors and Stage managers in the United States
MEET THE CREW
Jeannine Gaskin (Director) (she/her) is excited to be back at Ensemble Theatre! Last Spring, she directed India Burton's short play "Trade Flowers for Salt" for the In Our Own Words - Our Stories Our Voices Series. Her most recent directing credit was "Insurrection: Holding History" by Robert O'Hara at Convergence-Continuum. Other directing credits include “Devised Blues: Uncut & Funky” at Baldwin - Wallace University and co-directed “Until the Flood” by Dael Orlandersmith at Malone University with Craig Joseph & Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” with Sarah May also at Ensemble Theatre.
Becca Moseley (Production Stage Manager) (she/her) is excited to be opening another show at Ensemble's new home, Notre Dame College! In addition to serving as Ensemble's General Manager, she has served as the Resident Production Stage Manager/Assistant stage manager for many Ensemble shows, including both parts of Angels in America, A Raisin in the Sun, 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 many more. She co-directed Run, Kingsbury, Run and 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.
Julia Fisher (Intimacy Director) (she/her) is an intimacy director, playwright, actor, and director, and her work has been seen in professional theatres throughout Northeast Ohio. She is a Teaching Artist and Curriculum Developer with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, where she is in the final stages of certification, and she has trained with Theatrical Intimacy Education, Movement and Combat Education, Cleveland Play House, and the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. She is the Resident Intimacy Director at Rubber City Theatre, as well as a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. www.juliachristinefisher.com
Harold Crawford (Costumes) started working in the film industry in 1970 at Universal Studios working on tv shows and movies Alias Smith and Jones, The Incredible Hulk, Quincy M.E., and The Hindenburg. In 2005 he moved to Cleveland with his wife. He has worked creating costumes for Karamu House Theatre’s The Wiz, Dream Girls, Gods Trombone, and Caroline or Change. He has also worked on Near West Theatre’s Sweeney Todd, and for Chagrin Little Theatre’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. This is his first costume design for Ensemble.
Ian Hinz (Set & Lighting Design) (he/him) is a graduate of Ohio University. Ian has worked professionally as a producer, award winning director, Light, Set, & Projection designer, director of operations and theater educator for over twenty years in Ohio and New York. He is co-founder of the Ensemble Stage-Wrights’ workshop, two-time winner of the Cleveland Critics’ Circle Best Director award and served as Artistic Director and Operations Manager for the city of Cleveland Heights’ historic Cain Park Amphitheater. He has worked in operations for The Ohio State University Jerome Schottenstein Center and the Cleveland State University Department of Music as a stage production specialist. He has produced off-off-broadway at the Gene Frankel Theater and worked in business development in the tech startup industry in New York City. He is currently the Executive Director for Raise the Roof for the Arts, in charge of program creation and scheduling and major capital renovations to The Historic Sidney Theatre in Sidney, OH.
