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.
Ruth Moe, Producer
Ruth Moe’s recent work includes: “Food for the Gods” at The Clarice Smith at UMD 2023, “HUMAN” at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta 2024, and “HUMAN” at the Chelsea Factory 2024. October 2023 Producer Ancram Opera House “You Don’t Know the Lonely One” written and performed by Dael Orlandesmith, David Cale, Matthew Dean Marsh, and directed by Robert Falls. Executive Producer Lumberyard Performing Arts Center. Previously, producer for the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre Program. Director of Production for the Westport Country Playhouse. Production Management for the Wooster Group, Mabou Mines, Shakespeare and Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Classic Stage Company, Under the Radar Festival, Colorado World Theatre Festival, The Jerash Festival in Amman Jordan, Berkshire Public Theatre, New York Theatre of the Deaf, East Coast Arts, Hudson Theatre NY, The Court Theatre.
Jordyne Bouza, Company Manager
Jordyne Bouza is a 2022 graduate of Kean University, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre and minor in Communications. For her final Kean Stage show as a student, she was the Production Stage Manager of Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea by Cherríe Moraga. After graduating, she worked on Vanguard Theatre Company’s production of Rent as an Assistant Stage Manager. Following a great run of Rent, she returned to Kean working on Premiere Stages’ Scab as Assistant Stage Manager. She ended the 2022 season returning to Vanguard Theatre Company’s production of The Spitfire Grill as their Assistant Stage Manager. Soon after, Kean University called upon Jordyne to be the Production Stage Manager for their production of Animal Farm, where she met the guest director, Nehprii Amenii, starting their partnership! As the pattern continues, Kean University called upon Jordyne once again to Stage Manage their 2023 Graduation Commencement. Jordyne continues on to Stage Manage, Daisy Jones and The Six at 54 Below, Food For The Gods at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Art Center, The Actors at Theatre Row, EVERYBODY at The New School, and recently Nehprii Amenii’s process sharing of HUMAN at the Chelsea Factoy. Jordyne enjoys working with Nehprii and Khunum Productions!
Phaedra Michelle Scott, Studio Assistant
Phaedra M. Scott is a dramaturg and producer based in New York City. Phaedra serves as a member of the Beehive Dramaturgy Studio (NYC) and Dramaturg of New Harmony Project. Her credits include work at Audible Theater, American Ballet Theater, MCC Theater, the New Victory, Playwrights Realm, Huntington Theater Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Playwright’s Center. She has been an arts and culture journalist for wbur, Boston’s NPR station, and a content developer at the USS Constitution Museum. She is a crocheter, obscure history fan, and horror enthusiast. www.phaedrascott.com
April Tillies, Company Assistant
April Tillies has recently returned to work on HUMAN for the redevelopment stage after being a part of the workshop production in Asheville last year. In addition to performing, April has served as assistant stage manager at La Mama Theatre showing of Food For The Gods and, as hair and wig associate and supervisor for the Classical Theater of Harlem, The Public Theater, and NYU Skirball.
Artistic Collaborators
Chigui ‘Amparo’ Santiago, has worked as a principle dancer with Contemporary and African based dance companies like Chuck Davis, Fred Benjamin, and others. Chigui has been trained in many different forms of dance techniques, from Ballet to African, participated in workshops all over the world, and worked with many performing artists. Chigui is a teaching artist who combines her love of Dance and Yoga to share with all of her students whenever possible. Her mission is to impart life lessons about self-control, discipline and respect that can enhance the overall well-being of students and help them achieve their highest potential. She began her dance training at the Repertory Dance Company of New York, and quickly advanced to principal dancer with several esteemed institutions such as the Chuck Davis Dance Theatre, Forces of Nature, Mafata, and the Fred Benjamin Contemporary Dance Company. Ms. Santiago is trained various dance styles, from Ballet to African Dance, Modern, Latin, Hip-Hop, and Jazz.
Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby, dynamic duo music team have a career that encompasses songwriting, composition, arranging, production, and music education. They work with versatility in many genres of music as Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Folk, Pop and Contemporary Pop/RnB/Hiphop hybrids in the recording industry internationally, in theater, film, and TV. Redbone & Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for The Public Theater revival “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuff” by Ntozake Shange. The revival transferred to Broadway in 2022 and premiered at The Booth Theater garnering 7 Tony award nominations. Represented by Leah Hamos at Gersh.
Angela M. Fludd, is an alumni of Parsons School for Design/The New School. Her artistic moniker and brand, The Empress of Style, is dedicated to empowering creatives to design sustainable kingdoms. As a designer, stylist, and wardrobe supervisor, her mission is to tap into the rhythm in you. She is former designer/stylist for Lincoln Center Jazz, personal stylist for Winton Marsaylis, Assistant Designer for Broadway’s “Eclipsed” and dresser for Disney’s “Aladdin.”
Joshua Langman, is a theatrical lighting, sound, and projection designer based in New York. He is the author of Standby: An Approach to Theatrical Design, a groundbreaking philosophy of design for the stage (Southern Illinois University Press, 2022). Joshua has designed for Summer Shorts (59E59), Ensemble Studio Theatre, La MaMa ETC, the Castillo Theatre, Teátrica, Brooklyn Gypsies, The 52nd Street Project, the Jim Henson Foundation, singer-songwriter Cidny Bullens, Between the Seas, Planet Connections, The Center on West Park, West of 10th, Worry Noise Dirt Heat, and more. He has been a guest designer at Fordham University, Sarah Lawrence College, and other institutions. Joshua has a specialty in design for devised work, puppetry, 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.
Marie Yokoyama https://www.marieyokoyama.com/ is a Japanese set and lighting designer based in NYC. She has designed lights for Redhouse: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Spelling Bee, A Man of No Importance, Gross Indecency, Oliver and 13, Gulfshore Playhouse, FL: The Hound of the Baskerville, Public: Apple Family Series European Tour, Pacific Beats: TALA, Pillow Talk Pan Asian Rep: Film Chinois, Three Trees, Monk Parrots: Bum Phillips -All American Opera-. Regional: Yale Rep: Compulsion, Faust, Opera Theater Pittsburgh: Fantasticks, Merry Widow, and Ariadne auf Naxos.
Dan Jones is a Queens-based designer, playwright, and multidisciplinary artist. Their work in puppetry (design, fabrication, or performance) has been seen at theaters including A.R.T., Playwrights Horizons, Everyman Theatre, The Public Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and St. Ann’s Warehouse. They also specialize in creating immersive environments sculpted from cardboard and other wastestream materials. Plays include The Halloween Tree, a contemporary adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic novella, which was workshopped through New Victory LabWorks and will premiere in Minneapolis this October. IG: @dandemoniumjones
Jorge Blanco
Marina Celander is a theatre artist, singer, dancer, living and working in NYC. She studied music in Sweden, dance at London Contemporary Dance School, England, and then acting at the Gene Frankel Theatre Workshop, NYC. Marina has performed nationally and internationally. Marina received the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre’s annual Red Socks Award 2014 for her contribution to Asian American theatre. In 2016 Marina was nominated for the Innovation In Performance Award for her solo show Mermaid's Howl at the Stockholm Fringe Festival. She was then invited to the Tony award-winning theatre LaMama ETC as part of their solo festival Series Of One. Shakespeare's Sisters, another of solo show of hers, was invited to perform at the Estrogenius Festival in NYC. Tree She, part of Marina's pandemic series Hallway Jam, premiered at Estrogenius Festival 2020, and was nominated for Best Movement Artist by the Young-Howze Theatre Awards.
Abby Felder is a writer, designer, puppet artist, theatrical producer and not-for-profit arts administrator who works in NC, Off- and Off- Off Broadway in NYC, nationally and internationally. Her writing and design work have been presented in NYC at La MaMa, St. Ann’s Warehouse / Labapalooza, Incubator Arts Project, HERE, Chashama, Judson Memorial Church, Goethe Institut, and Target Margin Theatre among others. Formerly an affiliate artist with the New Victory LabWorks program, she has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied with Shirley Kaplan (co-founder of the Obie award winning children’s theater, Paper Bag Players), and puppet artist Dan Hurlin, and completed an apprenticeship with puppet artist Frantisek Watzl (of children’s theatre Divadlo Xaver) and woodcarver Vaclav Krcal in Prague, Czech Republic. She has been a teaching artist with ArtsConnection and Pioneers Go East Collective, and has developed and implemented puppet based residencies for elementary, middle and high school students at Valhalla Children’s Hospital, PS189, and The Children’s Institute, among others. Her work has received awards from New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, LMCC Process Space, Asheville Area Arts Council, NC Council on Humanities, Puffin and Puffin Foundation West, among others. She serves on the board of Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, where she formerly served as the Managing Director for nearly a decade, and is a Finance Administrator for ArtsPool, a member owned cooperative providing back-end financial resources to NYC’s non-profit arts organizations.
Joo Won Park (joowonpark.net) makes music with electronics, toys, and other sources that he can record or synthesize. He is the recipient of Knight Arts Challenge Detroit (2019) and the Kresge Arts Fellowship (2020). His music and writings are available on ICMC DVD, MIT Press, PARMA, Visceral Media, MCSD, SEAMUS, 1473, and No Remixes labels. He currently teaches Music Technology at Wayne State University.
Rakia Seaborn, Detroit, MI native, is a writer, choreographer, educator, and performer whose work has appeared at JACK, Dixon Place, La Mama E.T.C., The Tank, AUNTS, chashama, and Brooklyn Studios for Dance. Seaborn has worked with Kathy Westwater, Dianne McIntyre, Rashaun Mitchell, Jodi Melnick, and Meta-Phys Ed. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2007, earning a Bachelors of Art in Dance with a concentration in Choreography, and in 2014, she gained an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Seaborn teaches Movement for Trinity College's Experimental Performing Arts Program at La Mama, Etc. She is a 2018 Mertz Gilmore Late Stage Creative Stipend recipient. Seaborn's latest work, A RUIN had its world premiere at JACK in May of 2022.
Tom Lee, born in Korea and raised in Hawai’i, is a director, designer and puppet artist. Mr. Lee began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York with the encouragement of Ellen Stewart and later, the St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His work often explores the synthesis of manipulated figures and objects using film techniques and animation. Tom Lee creates original puppet theater pieces, performs as a professional puppeteer, designs and fabricates puppets through Chicago Puppet Studio and serves to elevate puppetry through his teaching and mentorship. Mr. Lee’s original puppet theater work includes Sounding the Resonant Path (La MaMa, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Pesta Boneka Festival Indonesia), Akutagawa (Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, US Tour), Shank’s Mare (Tours in US, Hawai’i, Japan and France) Kurokami (Asian Improv Arts Midwest), Hoplite Diary (St. Ann’s, La MaMa), Tomte (Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival), Ko’olau (La MaMa/Hawai’i tour), Eden (NY State Puppet Festival), Odysseus and Ajax (La MaMa), and The Great Zodiac Animal Race (Art Institute Chicago, Eighth Blackbird Studio, La MaMa, Detroit Institute of Arts).
Advisors
Seba Ahmad Azzahir
Cassandra Medley
Dan Hurlin
Thaddeus O. Johnson
Kamasia Nut-Amun
Tom Ross
Lake Simons
Patrica Shuford
Sandy Spieler
Justin E. Washington
James Wideman