Cast & Crew: Production Biographies

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson (Playwright) received her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University, and most recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Spelman College for her work in television, film and theater. Kathleen was a founding member of the Mark Taper Forum's Blacksmyth's workshop. Her recent plays, Five Mojo Secrets and Venice, have been developed in the workshop. Venice premiered at The Crossroads Theater and was also produced at Lincoln Center in Juilliard's 2000-2001 repertory season. Her play Mothers, commissioned by Bill Cosby, was presented in the Mark Taper Forum's New Work Festival. Mothers was the recipient of a W. Alton Jones Foundation Grant. Kathleen has numerous television and film credits. She has written for Little House on The Prairie, The Cosby Show, Any Day Now, Touched by An Angel, among many others. Her Studios USA film, The Color of Courage, was about her grandparents' landmark Supreme Court housing case which abolished restrictive housing covenants throughout the country. She has won two NAACP Image Awards during her career and has received numerous nominations. Kathleen was the Executive Producer on the Showtime television series Soul Food. Currently, she is Executive Producer of the new ABC Family drama series, Lincoln Heights, which debuted in January 2007. She is busy at work on her newest play, The Irresistible Death Club, as well as enjoying life as a recent transplant to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Ricardo Khan (Director) is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Crossroads Theatre Company in NJ. Under his direction, Crossroads won the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, making it one of the nation's most acclaimed African-American theater companies in history. Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Rutgers University in 1997 and having served from 1999 to 2000 as the President of Theatre CommunicationsGroup in New York, Mr. Khan is now in residence at the Lincoln Center Institute of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City as a writer/director, and a visiting professor in theatre at UMKC. Of the nearly 50 professional productions he has directed, Ricardo conceived and directed the award-winning Black Eagles, about the famed Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, for the Manhattan Theatre Club, Crossroads, and Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. He also directed West Memphis Mojo at the Negro Ensemble Company in New York; Late Great Ladies of Blues and Jazz at the world famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem; and the world premiere of The Darker Face of the Earth, by former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove, for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Crossroads, and the Kennedy Center. Other directing projects have included Trevor Rhone's Two Can Play, Mandela! at the Windybrow in South Africa, Color Me Dark for the Kennedy Center, and Yo Soy Latina! Most recently, Ricardo served as Associate Director of Hot Feet on Broadway in 2006, is the co-writer and director of Fly at Lincoln Center, and is the founder/director of a new multi-national writers' collective called The World Theatre Lab, involving nearly 30 international writers and based in Johannesburg, London and New York.

Jenniffer DeSimone (Assistant Stage Manager) is a 1st-year M.F.A. stage management student from Brooklyn, New York. In New York City, she has stage managed numerous productions at theaters such as Second Stage, The Flea, the Here Arts Center, Horse Trade, the Manhattan Theatre Source and St. Mark's. She has also stage managed at The Cider Mill Playhouse and Tri-Cities Opera regionally, as well as at Penn State, Brooklyn College and Binghamton University. This summer, she will be returning to Lincoln Center, where she served as a production assistant for both the New York Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic.

Rocco D'Santi (Lighting Designer) was the lighting designer for the 2007 season of the Actors Theatre Kansas City where he designed Private Lives, Dinner With Friends, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Rocco was also the designer for the Actors Theatre production of Krapp's Last Tape, Bed Among the Lentils, and Her Big Chance which opened the new Off Center Theatre at Crown Center. Some of his recent projects include The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Le Boh?me; The 2007 Fall Dance Concert for the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company; The Ocean Dance Festival in Hollywood, Florida; Twelfth Night; the world premiere of The Secret Lives Of Losers; Cloud 9; and the world premiere of the modern dance piece Trains. Rocco was the associate designer for the world premier of Rightnextto Me at the Unicorn Theatre.

Nadine Grant (Costume Designer) is completing her second year at UMKC. Previous designs include Boesman and Lena for UMKC, and The Man Who Turned into a Stick, and Romeo and Juliet II at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Nadine would like to give special thanks to her co-designer Lacy, Ricardo, Ken, her parents, and the costume shop for all their tireless work.

Lacy Hansen (Costume Designer) from Alton, IA is getting her M.F.A. in costume design as well as her M.A. in musical theater. This summer she designed and constructed costumes for Seussical the Musical at the Lewis and Clark Theater in South Dakota as well as played the role of Mrs. Mayor. Previous shows that she has acted in include Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Sr. Amnesia's County Western Nunsense Jamboree, Movie Game, and Smoke on the Mountain.

Matthew Janszen (Composer) is a 3rd-year M.F.A. student in sound design at UMKC. Previously, Matthew has composed music for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters and Mikhail Bulgakov's Black Snow at UMKC and sound designed and composed for Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses at Purdue University. Matthew was a student of the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles where he studied composition with many film and jazz composers and has premiered works for concert band, jazz band, and orchestra. Along with his sound design studies, Matthew freelances as an arranger and composer for orchestras and production companies in the Midwest.

Mathias Langford (Assistant Stage Manager) is a M.F.A. student at UMKC. He earned his B.A. in theatre and anthropology from Kansas State University. His Kansas City credits include Singin' in the Rain, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hello Dolly, and Footloose at Kansas City Starlight. He also worked as a production assistant at Unicorn Theatre for The Lieutenant of Inishmore.  Mathias was also the assistant stage manager for Kansas City's Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Music Hall. His most recent credit includes In Spite of Thunder: The Macbeth Project at The Coterie.

Jaclyn Larson (Assistant Stage Manager) is finishing her fourth year at UMKC and completing her bachelor's degree in technical theatre with an emphasis on stage management. She has stage managed many productions at UMKC, such as American Clock, the project Meanwhile and most recently, All in the Timing. She has been production assistant for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival for Much Ado About Nothing and Henry V. She was assistant stage manager for Private Lives, and Dinner with Friends at Actors Theatre Kansas City. She would like to thank Jim Mitchell, Tom DeFeo, Dan and her parents for absolutely everything that makes her a good stage manager.

Lara Maerz (Stage Manager) is a 2nd-year M.F.A. stage manager. At UMKC, Lara has stage managed Noises Off and Boesman and Lena. Lara served as the production assistant on Kansas City Repertory Theatre's productions of Doubt and Love, Janis. This past summer, she was the production manager and head stage manager at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Prior to coming to Kansas City for grad school, Lara lived in Chicago and worked at Steppenwolf Theatre, Next Theatre, and Writer's Theatre among others. Thanks to Rick, Kathleen, Andy, Jaclyn, Jenn, Mathias, Kristy, the design and production team, and the entire cast and crew for all their hard work in giving life to this glorious play— for the very first time! Special thanks to RW for being her rock for the past two years. Her work on this show is dedicated to her Mom, who taught her to live in the spirit of Quindaro.

Andy Pierce (Dramaturg) is currently working towards a Ph.D. in theatre at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He graduated from UMKC last May with a M.A. in theatre history and criticism. Last year, Andy served as dramaturg on UMKC's production of Three Sisters.  Additionally, he wrote an article for Theatre Design & Technology's Fall 2006 issue. "Avoiding the Gallows" examined UMKC's 2006 charrette with Deborah Landis. The history of the UMKC charrette was also the topic of his thesis. During the summer, Andy works at Starlight Theatre as manager of merchandising.

EJ Reinagel (Assistant Technical Director) is very happy to work with everyone on this project.

Ashley Turner (Sound Designer) is a 2nd-year sound designer at UMKC who is thrilled to be working with such wonderful artists as Ricardo Khan and Kathleen McGee Anderson. Ashley has created sound designs for such productions as A Raisin in the Sun, The National Black Arts Festival's production of Flyin' West at the Alliance stage and Lincoln Center, and UMKC's Cloud 9 and Trojan Women. She is very happy to be apart of the graduate program at UMKC and sends her thanks to everyone involved in the production.

Stephanie Roberts (Movement Coach) hails from Seattle where she created, directed, taught and performed original theatre for many years and toured nationally with Seattle Mime Theatre and Living Voices. She teaches Mask, Commedia dell'Arte and Clown in UMKC's Professional Actor Training Program. Previously, Stephanie coached movement for productions of Boesman and Lena, Twelfth Night. and All in the Timing as well as directed the highly physical ensemble-generated play, Meanwhile, for the Undergraduate Theatre Department. She is currently creating an original folk mask performance in collaboration with Mattie Rhodes Center and Starlight Theatre. Stephanie holds a B.F.A. in acting from Cornish College of the Arts, and an M.F.A. in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre.