Tolu is thrilled to be making her Company One Theatre debut as part of the cast of A New Era! She holds a BS in Theatre Arts from MIT and recent credits include Inventing Samanta (Central Square Theatre). As a Boston-based actor, she is excited to help bring to life the stories of influential Black women in the city’s history. Tolu is forever grateful to her friends and family for the constant support & endless laughs.

Aislinn Brophy is excited to be returning to Company One after having been in Morning, Noon, and Night! Additional acting credits include Little Women (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Playing Mercury (ISLE Theater Company), A Story Beyond (Liars & Believers), and Heritage Hill Naturals (Fresh Ink Theatre). Aislinn is also the author of two queer young adult novels—Spells to Forget Us and How to Succeed in Witchcraft. aislinnbrophy.com

MaConnia is delighted to be is making her Company One Theatre debut!  New York credits include: Ensemble Studio Theatre, York Shakespeare Company.  Regional credits include: Shakespeare & Company (company member; Berkshire Theatre Award for Best Solo Performance for An Iliad), Front Porch Arts Collective, SpeakEasy Stage (Elliot Norton award, Best Ensemble), Franklin Stage, Elm Shakespeare, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, New Jersey Repertory (company member), Hanover Theatre Repertory, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Lyric Stage Company, WAM Theatre, Ancram Center for the Arts, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Chester Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance (Insurrection: Holding History, Helen Hayes nomination), Tennessee Shakespeare, African Continuum Theatre, Totem Pole Playhouse, Advice to the Players, and Folger Theatre. Film and TV credits include: Cora Eat Your Spaghetti, The Shape of Destiny (Official selection, 2018 Women in Comedy Festival), Nothing But the Truth, Ghosts of Hamilton Street, Diseasels, HBO’s The Wire. Education: Shakespeare & Company, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Alcorn State University. For my mom Dorothy D. Scott Chesser, and my friends Tina Packer and Dennis Krausnick. Instagram: @kurlymac

Frances Domond is a Haitian-American actress from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She began acting at the age of nine, making her television debut on Season 3 of PBS’s ZOOM, and later studied theatre at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hampshire College. Recent screen credits include Anthony C. Ferrante’s Water Park Shark, where she portrays Chelsea, and the upcoming CW series Disaster Strike Force, appearing in two episodes. Frances is thrilled to join the cast of A New Era and thanks you for supporting live theatre.

Aliyah is happy to be back on stage with Company One, where she made her Boston theatre debut in 2018 with Wig Out! More recently she has performed as Helen Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Umbrella Stage and was also a part of the Elliot Norton nominated production of Crowns with Moonbox Productions. She recognizes the people and blessings that have lead her to this moment and is excited to share this long awaited production this summer!

Sydney Alicia Jackson is excited to be back on stage with Company One! She is a Boston and New York-based theatre artist. Sydney’s acting credits include Dailyn in Morning, Noon, and Night (Company One), Squeak in The Color Purple (Umbrella Arts), Ensemble in Beauty & the Beast (Summer Theatre of New Canaan), Ensemble in The SpongeBob Musical (Wheelock Family Theatre), Lack in Make Way for Ducklings (Hangar Theatre), and Mom in Pete the Cat (Hangar Theatre). She is a recent graduate of Boston University, where she received her BFA in Acting with a concentration in Musical Theatre. www.sydneyaliciajackson.com @sydjackss

Patrice Jean–Baptiste is happy to make her Company One acting debut. She is also one of Company One’s Stage One Teaching Artists. Her most recent works include: Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous (Lyric Stage), The Hills of California (Huntington Theatre),The Grove (Huntington Theatre), Her Portmanteau (Central Square Theater), Trouble in Mind (Lyric Stage), King Hedley, Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus and Hamlet (Actors Shakespeare Project), Henry V (Commonwealth Shakespeare). You can look for her in The Huntington’s fall production of To Kill A Mockingbird. Her education includes a Master of Arts Degree in Theater Arts from Trinity Rep Conservatory, a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Boston University and a certificate in French civilization and language from the University of Grenoble. Patrice also had the honor of coaching Milton Academy’s speech and debate program for which she is recognized as a Two Diamond Coach by the National Forensic League. Patrice runs “SpeakWell” a public speaking coaching business. You can find her @pppppatrice and LinkedIn.

Regine Vital is a storyteller, theatre artist, educator and current Associate Producer at Actor’s Shakespeare Project. Most recently, she was seen onstage in ASP’s productions of As You Like It (Celia) and Seven Guitars (Louise). As an actor, director, dramaturg, teaching artist, and coach, she has worked with several theatre companies, programs, and schools. She teaches performance studies, composition, literature, and public speaking at Boston area universities; text and performance to high school students; and has taught continuing adult education classes in literature. A hometown girl from Somerville, MA, she is the previous Manager of Curriculum and Instruction at The Huntington. Regional credits: The Huntington, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, American Repertory Theatre, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, ArtsEmerson, Company One, SpeakEasy Stage, Central Square Theatre. Fringe/Local: Fresh Ink Theatre, Boston University School of Theatre, Moonbox Productions, Plays In Place, Flat Earth Theatre, HUB Theatre of Boston, Open Theatre Project, Concord Players, Birch Tree Productions, Green Door Labs. NYC/Podcasts/Film: The Huntington, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Broadway Podcast Network, The Penumbra Podcast, Revolutionary Spaces. Education: BA, Boston University; MA, University of Massachusetts, Boston; MA candidate, King’s College London/Shakespeare’s Globe. “Merde, folks! 😉”

Miranda Austen ADEkoje is making her Company One Theatre debut as a playwright. Recent credits include The Come Up (BTM 2021), In any Face (Lyric Stage Walking Plays), Keyp-ing (New Rep Showstopper Series), Virtual Attendance (Huntington Theatre Dream Boston Audio play series), Shelter of Last Resort (Front Porch Arts Collective Summer reading series, The Huntington Theatre Breaking Ground Reading Series, Company One XX PlayLab), 36 Days (Apollinaire Theatre New Play Night reading, Bob Jolly Fellowship Reading Series, Emerson College Student Workshop), The Strongest Shape (Paines Plough Future Perfect Finalist), Reply Please, Requests and Sugar Moth. 

Summer L. Williams is an award-winning director and Co-Founder/Associate Artistic Director of Company One Theatre in Boston. Her most recent directing credits include last summer’s C1 show at the Strand, The Meeting Tree; Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at SpeakEasy Stage Company; August Wilson’s King Hedley II at Actors’ Shakespeare Project (2024 Elliot Norton Award Nominated); How We Got On by Idris Goodwin at Emerson Stage; The Boy Who Kissed The Sky by Idris Goodwin at Company One Theatre; Jump by Charly Evon Simpson at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, MD;  can i touch it?, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Francisca Da Silveira at Company One Theatre; sandblasted by Charly Evon Simpson with Vineyard Theatre and WP Theater, Off-Broadway. Local/Regional credits: The Arboretum Experience at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T); Daddy Issues at Salt Lake City Acting Company New Play Sounding Series; the Digital World Premiere of Downtown Crossing at Company One Theatre; Wolf Play at Company One Theatre; School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play at SpeakEasy Stage Company; Miss You Like Hell with Company One Theatre and OBERON at American Repertory Theater; the World Premiere of Leftovers at Company One Theatre; Wig Out! with Company One and OBERON at A.R.T.; Smart People at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY and Geva Theater in Rochester, NY; Barbecue at Lyric Stage Company of Boston—Winner of the 2018 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director; R evolt. She Said. Revolt Again. at Company One Theatre; Bootycandy at SpeakEasy Stage Company; An Octoroon and Colossal with Company One Theatre—Winner of the 2016 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for both productions. Intimate Apparel at Lyric Stage Company of Boston; Shiv as a part of The Displaced Hindu Gods Trilogy; Shelter of Last Resort by Miranda Austen ADEkoje as a part of XX PlayLab 2014; the New England Premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud To Present A Presentation About The Herero Of Namibia, Formerly Known As Southwest Africa From The German Sudwestafrika Between The Years 1884-1915; Idris Goodwin’s How We Got On; Lynn Nottage’s By The Way, Meet Vera Stark at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston; The Brothers Size and Marcus; Or The Secret Of Sweet as part of The Brother/Sister Plays (2012 Elliot Norton Award nominated for Outstanding Production and winner of the 2012 IRNE Award for Best Play); Neighbors; Grimm; The Good Negro; Voyeurs De Venus (Winner of 2009 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); The Bluest Eye (IRNE and Elliot Norton Award nominated); The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot; Spell #7 (IRNE nominated); Jesus Hopped The A Train (2004 Elliot Norton Award for Best Fringe Production); and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (IRNE nominated).

Lizzy Cooper Davis, PhD, is an artist and scholar interested in how the arts can facilitate community conversation, resistance, and change. Particularly focused on Black freedom movements, she has conducted research in Cuba, Brazil, and New Orleans and is currently developing a performance and healing project with incarceration survivors in partnership with the Emerson Prison Initiative, New Beginnings Reentry Services, and Ritual4Return. Other work includes: co-editing A Field Guide to Applied Imagination, a forthcoming volume amplifying artists working for community change; 20 years supporting community engagement and cultural organizing with Urban Bush Women; a leadership role with the Embodying Antiracism Initiative at Wesleyan University; two projects at Jacob’s Pillow Dance in partnership Angela’s Pulse and Berkshire artists and activists; training with Augusto and Julian Boal and use of their Theatre of the Oppressed in an array of settings; and partnerships with Anna Deavere Smith, Liz Lerman, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, American Repertory Theater, ArtsEmerson, and Live Arts Boston. Lizzy has also performed nationally as an actor in such theaters as Second Stage, The Public Theater, The Long Wharf, Berkeley Rep, and American Repertory Theater and with such directors as Liesl Tommy, Anne Bogart, and Mary Zimmerman. She is on the Advisory Council for the Emerson Prison Initiative and HowlRound Theatre Commons and the National Advisory Boards for Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. Lizzy is an Associate Professor at Emerson College where she runs the graduate and undergraduate programs in Theatre Education and Applied Theatre.

Kailey Bennett is a Cherokee Nation citizen/ ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ and Boston-based Production Manager, Stage Manager, and Properties Designer. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kailey graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine where she studied Visual Arts and Oceanography. Since moving to Boston, she has worked with numerous Boston area theatre and opera companies including Company One, Moonbox Productions, Lyric Stage Company, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Boston Baroque, and Wheelock Family Theatre. This is her second show with Company One. When Kailey is not in rehearsals, she paints in her Brookline art studio, spends time with her deaf-blind cat Hedwig, and runs marathons around the world.

Rose Figueroa is a stage manager and arts administrator passionate about developing and supporting new work. She currently serves as Director of Operations for the National New Play Network (NNPN), where she supports collaboration and innovation across the national new play field. Rose is also pursuing a Master of Science in Arts and Cultural Management at Boston University with a concentration in Organizational Leadership. Rose previously served as Theatre Lab’s Resident Stage Manager, where her credits include Refuge, Last Night in Inwood, Rooted, What’s Best for the Children, and The Impossible Task of Today. At Maltz Jupiter Theatre, she worked as Assistant Stage Manager on productions including Steel Magnolias, Mamma Mia!, West Side Story, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, Chicago, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Additional credits include Beautiful Star (Triad Stage), readings of The Cucuy Will Find You (San Diego Rep) and Manning (La Jolla Playhouse), and Urbanite Theatre’s 2024 Modern Works Festival. Rose is a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association and serves on the steering committee of the Latinx Theatre Commons. In 2023, she was honored with a Remy Award for Outstanding Behind-the-Scenes Contributions. She is thrilled to make her Company One debut and extends heartfelt thanks to her friends, family, and mentors for their continued encouragement and support.

Lily Barnes is a freelance stage manager currently based in Salem, MA and is grateful to be making their Company One debut! Some previous stage management credits include Not Sightly (MIT Theatre Arts), Antigonick (MIT Theatre Arts), Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Penguin Rep Theatre), Something Rotten!, Blood Wedding, The Thing They Love, and Orlando (Salem State University). She is a Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center Stage Management Fellow (2023) and a BFA graduate of Salem State University. Outside of theatre, Lily can be found trying to keep their sourdough starter alive or taking a walk to the ocean. She is a proud Puerto Rican and a Pisces sun.

Sydney is thrilled to be making her Company One debut! She is a current rising senior at Emerson College with a major in Stage and Production Management. They’d like to thank Mom, Nia, Elijah, her friends, and Deb for supporting her through this process. Select professional credits include Kevin Kling: Unraveled (Stage Management Intern). Select educational credits include Barbecue (upcoming; Stage Manager), Sweet Charity (Assistant Stage Manager), Confederates (1st Assistant Stage Manager), POTUS: or, Behind Every…Alive (Assistant Stage Manager), How We Got On (Production Assistant).

Janie returns to C1 after designing Wolf Play and How We Got On. Recent shows include: Swept Away (Speakeasy Stage Company), Breaking the Code (Central Square Theatre), Come From Away (Springfield Majestic), Penelope and Angry Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous (Lyric Stage Company), To Kill a Mockingbird (Umbrella), Urban Nutcracker (City Ballet Boston). Credits include: The REV (NY), Willamette University (OR), Trinity Rep (RI), InterAct Theatre (PA), Southwark Playhouse (UK), Berkshire Opera Festival, CONSENSES at Mass MOCA, Reagle Music Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, New Rep, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Lynn Redgrave Theatre (NY), Weston Playhouse (VT), Gloucester Stage. 2024 recipient of Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, 8 prior design awards, adjunct faculty at Wellesley College. Founder of Prop Co-Op. USA Local 829. janiehowland.com

Nia Safarr Banks is a Costume Designer whose work include Theatre, Opera, and Film. Her theatrical designs include SMOKE (The Theater Offensive), Macbeth (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company), Fat Ham (Virginia Stage Company), and What Will Happen to All That Beauty? (Contemporary American Theatre Festival). She has been nominated for two Richmond Critic Awards and one Boston Theater Critic award for her outstanding work in Costume Design, for both An Octoroon (TheatreLAB), A Christmas Kaddish (Richmond Triangle Players), and The Glass Menagerie (Gloucester Stage). Her upcoming credits include Betrayal (Gloucester Stage).

Christopher Brusberg is a regional lighting designer based in NYC who is passionate about Opera, Dance, and New Theatrical Work, including how the intersection of design and storytelling can influence the relationships between art, the viewer, and the artist. Chris is happy to return for his seventh show with Company One. He has designed for the following companies: Opera Lafayette (DC/NYC), Annapolis Opera (Resident Designer), Tri-Cities Opera, Syracuse Opera, EMERGE125 (Resident Designer), BANDPoteir, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Arrow Rock Lyceum, The Cherry Arts Space, New Repertory Theatre, NYU Steinhardt, and Boston Conservatory. Christopher holds a MFA from the University of Maryland and is a proud member of USA829. For upcoming design work, check out: Website: www.ctblighting.com, Instagram: @ctblighting

Credits include Haunted; Morning, Noon, and Night; Downtown Crossing, Vietgone (Company One); Winter People (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Paradise Blue, The Thin Place, Stew (Gloucester Stage Company); Queens, Torch Song, The House of Ramon Iglesia (Moonbox Productions); Toni Stone, Fat Ham, Clyde’s, The Bluest Eye, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington): Trayf, Good (New Rep); Vinegar Tom, Monster, Serious Money, Pentecost (PTP/NYC), Fences (Umbrella Theatre); Simona’s Search (Hartford Stage) The Fortune Teller (Chuang Stage); A Case for the Existence of God, Potus (SpeakEasy Stage) Trouble in Mind (Lyric Stage); A Taste of Honey (Boston Center for American Performance). University: Cymbeline, Pilgrims of the Night (Suffolk University); Orlando (Brandeis University); Antipodes, Love and Information, As You Like It, Sensitive Guys (Northeastern University); Education: MFA in Sound Design (Boston University).

Jason returns to Company One after working on 1001, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, We Are Proud to Present, Wolf Play, and Morning, Noon, and Night. Recent work: Adam Theatre’s Library Lion (TD). Arlekin Players/BAC: The Orchard (PM), The Gaaga, The Dybbuk (TD). Central Square Theater: Young Nerds of Color. Lyric Stage: The Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. Reagle Music Theatre: Evita. A collaborative world builder, Jason has also designed and executed sets and lights for numerous dance, theatre and immersive gaming companies in New England, Northern California and various other places on this planet.  He has previously served for multiple years as Production Manager for ASP and Monkeyhouse and has won Norton and IRNE awards for set and prop design (Chad Deity with Company One at the Roberts) and a Norton as part of the design team (Twelfth Night with ASP at the BCA Plaza). Love to Karen Krolak, his absolute, all-time, favorite conspirator (both artistically and otherwise), along with two smaller, furrier, lady beasts often found snoozing nearby for the constant and immense support and generosity of spirit. ries.en.scene.com

Allyssa Jones has returned for another Company One summer production! A long-time collaborator, her C1 credits include The Meeting Tree (Elle Borders-Green), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Alice Burch), We Are Proud To Present a Presentation about the Herrero of Namibia… (Jackie Sibblies Drury), and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Anna Deveare Smith). Beyond the theatre stage, Allyssa recently conducted the Texas All-State Treble Chorus and the New York City High School Honors Chorus. Her upcoming season includes commissioned works for New Voices New Orleans Youth Chorus, feature performances with the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective, and her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall. A career educator and arts activist, Allyssa is the Director of Vocal Ensembles for the University of South Florida, and the founder of Rising Tide Music Press, a non-profit publishing program connecting emerging Black, Brown Indigenous and Asian composers with audiences nationwide.

Josh Glenn-Kayden is a Boston based director, the Creative Producer and Casting Director at Company One Theatre, and a co-producer of the Legion Theatre Project. Josh’s work centers around new plays that help us imagine a more equitable and just world together. Favorite directing projects include The Interrobangers by M Sloth Levine (Company One Theatre, nominated for 4 Elliot Norton Awards, including Outstanding Play); Break, Break by Erin Lerch (Legion Theatre Project & Artists’ Theatre of Boston); Muse by Sarah Wendy Burman (Wellesley College); Shrike by Erin Lerch (Fresh Ink Theatre); Wild Flowers by Tatiana Isabel Gil (Company One Better Future series); Visionary Futures: Science Fiction Theatre for Social Justice Movements (consisting of new plays by Phaedra Michelle Scott, M Sloth Levine, and Jaymes Sanchez) at UMass Amherst; Baltimore by Kirsten Greenidge (UMass Amherst); Walden by Amy Berryman (UMass Play Lab); Greater Good by Kirsten Greenidge (A.R.T. & Company One, associate director); the world premiere of This Place/Displaced (Artists’ Theater of Boston, ArtsFuse Best Stage Productions of 2018); The Lyons by Nicky Silver (Titanic Theatre); and Don’t Give Up the Ship by Laura Neill (Fresh Ink Theatre). Josh also directed and co-produced The Legion Tapes, a sci-fi podcast written by Erin Lerch. Josh has directed and developed new work for the A.R.T., Company One Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Fresh Ink Theatre, Flat Earth Theatre, Artists’ Theater of Boston, the Museum of Science, UMass Amherst, Wellesley College, and Hub Theatre, among others. Josh holds a BA in Drama from Tufts University and an MFA in Directing from UMass Amherst.

Liam is a production and stage manager from the New England area who received his BFA in stage management and design from the University of Rhode Island. Liam has previously worked across the Massachusetts and Rhode Island arts scene, and has a deep connection to the growth of underground artists in these areas. He is excited to be part of Company One and to create art in the city he was born!

Andrew March is excited to bring his full range of management and fabrication experience to his fifth Company One production, following Learning How to Read by Moonlight, The Meeting Tree, The Great Privation, and You Are Cordially Invited to the End of hte World. Prior to this, Andrew worked for three years as Assistant Technical Director for the Brown-Trinity MFA program, producing full seasons in the downtown Providence PCPC Theater. He has worked for four seasons at Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company; building sets, fabricating props, scenic painting, and serving as Production Carpenter. Credits include: La Tempestad, La Cage Aux Folles, A Christmas Carol, Sueńo, and Fairview. He also worked as Master Carpenter for the Festival Theater’s production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford.

Jo is excited to return to Company One Theatre following their work on The Meeting Tree, The Great Privation, and You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! Previous credits with Central Square Theatre include SPACE, Her Portmanteau, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Audio Engineer). With Emerson College, they served as production electrician for Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder; assistant lighting designer for How We Got On, Are You Someone to Somebody, Three Romances; sound designer for Head Over Heels, Limber: A Love Story, The Impracticality of Modern Day Mastodons, Rareworks’ Five Times in One Night, Musical Theatre Society’s Dogfight; and production sound engineer for Amour, Imogen Says Nothing, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, 16 Winters, Little Women, and The Loyals.