Company Members
Nehprii Amenii, Artistic Director and Production Designer
Head of Curriculum, Arts in Education (kids Creative Power)
Nehprii Amenii is an artist, writer, director and educator. Nehprii has created and worked with Penumbra Theatre Company, The Flea, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Iati Theatre, La Mama Experimental Theatre, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, The Holland Festival, Virginia Stage Company, and Asheville Creative Arts. and Cirque Du Soleil. She has enjoyed 10 years of teaching and staging puppet performances for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation, before now serving as their creative consultant. In 2010 she received a grant from Downtown Brooklyn Partnership to create an interactive exhibit and Community Arts Center based on her children's book "Memories of the Little Elephant." In 2011 she was sponsored by the International Rotary Club to create a story-telling exhibit in South East India. In 2013 she was honored with the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for playwriting, for her play Food for the Gods. Most recently, she was invited as a U.S delegate for the 2015 Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape Town South Africa. In additional to her theatrical work, Nehprii has been teaching for 18 years Nehprii and currently uses multi-media arts and story telling to teach English to young immigrants within New York public schools. She holds a BA in Creative Communications, an interdisciplinary degree of Creative Writing, Studio Arts, and Mass Communications from the University of Minnesota. She holds an MFA in Theatre Production from Sarah Lawrence College.
Cassandra Medley, Administrative Support
Cassandra Medley is a playwright and teacher. Her recently produced plays include: American Slavery Project(NYC), Cell (Molelo Theater, CA, and Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2011, NYC), Daughter (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2009, NYC), Noon Day Sun (Diverse City Theatre Company, NYC), and Relativity, a commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC). Ms. Medley has the received the 2004 “Going to the River Writers” Life Achievement Award, the 2002 Ensemble Studio Theatre 25th Anniversary Award for Theatre Excellence, the 2001 Theatrefest Regional Playwriting Award for Best Play, the 1995 New Professional Theatre Award, and the 1995 Marilyn Simpson Award. She was a 1989 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in Playwriting, and won the 1990 National Endowment for the Arts Playwright Award. She was the 1986 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant and received a New York State Council on the Arts Grant in 1987. She teaches playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College, has taught at New York University, and has also served as guest artist at Columbia University, the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and Seattle University. Ms. Medley worked as a staff writer for ABC Television on One Life to Live from 1995-97.
Patricia H. Shuford, Head of Development & Productions Manager
Patricia H. Shuford is a children’s book Author and an active member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) As a retired architect-educator. Her research has been published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She became an Associate Editor for the quarterly journal of Research and Design published by the AIA Research Corporation. She received her professional degree in architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Ms.Shuford has managed many multi-million dollar design projects including Battery Park City, Rockefeller Center, The Brooklyn Museum, Queens College and others. In addition to being a scholar and architect, Ms Shuford is also a passionate educator. She has spent over 13 years on the educational side of architecture with the Salvadori Center. There, she mentored teachers and wrote curricula for children in the area of math, science and technology and taught children and teachers the fundamentals of architecture. Prior to her architectural career, she taught middle school and high school mathematics in Baltimore, MD, where she also instructed at Morgan state University.
Artistic Collaborators
Martin Balmaceda, Director is an award-winning theatre director and educator based in New York City, with an MFA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College. His work focuses on directing contemporary theater through a multidisciplinary approach. Martin’s projects are hybrid theatrical productions that encourage collaboration, interpretation of the works of emerging and established theater artists, exploration of new media, and ensemble acting. Hehas worked at BAM, La MaMa, The Bushwick Starr, The New Ohio Theater, Dixon Place, and IATI Theater. He is a Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab alumnus.
Laurel Detkin, Stage Manager and Theatre Technician. Sarah Lawrence College, NY; B.A. in Liberal Arts (concentration in Theatre and Literature). She is currently a Production Manager at Underling Productions, where her shows include: Two Noble Kinsmen (SM), Measure for Measure (TD), Twelfth Night (SM). Puppet Shakespeare: Puppet Titus Andronicus (PSM). Gallery Players: Evita (PSM) Various: Revenge & Guilt by Marc Spitz (SM), Darkling/ Hip by Kim Katzberg and Nora Wolley (SM). She has worked with numerous productions/companies including Union Square Theatre The Tank, NY Neo futurist, the Public, and Sleep No More.
Angela M. Fludd (Costume Designer) is an alumni of Parsons The New School for Design. Her artistic moniker & brand, The Empress of Style, is dedicated to empowering creatives to design sustainable kingdoms. As a designer, stylist, & wardrobe supervisor, the mission is to tap into the rhythm in you.
Joshuah langmanis a theatrical lighting, sound and projection designer based in New York. He teaches theatrical design at Talent Unlimited High School and has lectured and facilitated workshops on design at Carnegie Hall and other venues. Joshua has worked as a designer with Ensemble Studio Theater, the Castillo Theatre, Teatrica, Brooklyn Gypsies, The 52ndStreet Project, the Jim Henson Foundation, Cidney Bullens, the Between the Seas festival, West of 10th, Worry Noise Dirt Heat, and more. He has a specialty in design for devised work and solo performance.
Eben Mannes, is a sound designer and Audio Engineer located in NYC. He graduated from Michigan Technological University. He currently works with Audio Works Producers Group, creating audio designs for city installations, museums and television.
Farai Maliagais an actor, composer, drummer, photographer and videographer. He studied at Colorado Institute of Art and St. Johns College, Harare. He has studied under teachers Leticia Williams, Judy “Fatu” Henderson, Yousouf Koumbasa, Mbemba Bangoura, and Ronald K. Brown. Farai is an esteemed African drummer and has worked with Chuck Davis, Reginal Yates, Heritage OP, Umoja, Balance, Opus, Royaers Ayers, Wunmi Oliya, Manchild Black, Dance Africa, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has composed for Scott Patterson, Christal Brow, and Camille A Brown, and been was on cast in the Broadway production of FELA! Farai is originally from Zimbabwe, currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Nicole M. Woo, (Visual Artist) “ I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York I am a a wife, mother, daughter, sister, hearth keeper, artist, photographer, dancer, world traveler and friend. I’m an avid reader of new age and spirituality books. I believe in unicorns. I consider chocolate a food group. Flowers make me happy. Doodles are my shorthand.I am inspired by God, Nature and Women. I am inspired by the yin-yang qualities of nature which I also see in women including myself. I study nature and women and the roles both play in our world in order to help me better understand the qualities of the soul and the essence of living.” Nicole woo is the Founder of Seed Rising, an artist creativity incubator that focuses on women’s healing, education, and cross cultural exchange.
Rourou Ye, was born and raised in China and is a female choreographer, dancer and performing artist. She seeks to deeply examine the human experience through her work and sees the process of creating art as a way to grow and more fully understand life. Rourou worked as a choreographer and dance instructor for musical productions at Shanghai Conservatory of Music from 2012-2015. After completed her MFA in Dance at Sarah Lawrence College in 2017, she relocated her career to NYC. Her current art projects besides dance include dance film, theater, performing art, experimental video and projection design. Most recently Rourou was selected as an artist in residence for Work Up 4.0 at Gibney Dance Center. Her work has been shown at Dixon Place, Gibney Dance, BAAD!, Sarah Lawrence College, Hudson River Museum, Murmur Gallery, China Dance Forward (Hong Kong), Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, Beijing Dance Festival, and Minsheng Art Museum
Advisors
Seba Ahmad Azzahir
Dan Hurlin
Thaddeus O. Johnson
Kamasia Nut-Amun
Tom Ross
Lake Simons
Patrica Shuford
Sandy Spieler
Justin E. Washington
James Wideman