BOYS GO TO Jupiter - BIOS
Author
Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her second won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and The Bridge Book Award and was a finalist for The Aspen Prize, The Story Prize, and The LA Times Book prize for fiction. She is the 2021 winner of The New Literary Project Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and a 2011 National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her stories have appeared in magazines including The Paris Review, A Public Space, American Short Fiction, Callaloo, The Sewanee Review, and Phoebe, and have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2008, 2010, 2017, and 2018, and in New Stories From The South.
She received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop, previously taught creative writing at American University in Washington DC and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and currently teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
Director
Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe is an accomplished actor, director, writer, working in the Bay Area for almost 40 years. The founding artistic director of the award-winning ensemble Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (BACCE), she has directed and produced 10 critically acclaimed productions for the company. She is a former acting and directing member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. She has directed at Trinity Rep, Capitol Rep, Southern Rep, Carpetbag Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, WaterTower Theatre, Curious Theater, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, and the Lorraine Hansberry, receiving accolades from Dallas’ Rabin Awards and Backstage’s Dean Goodman Award for Excellence. Edris has appeared as an actor in productions throughout California, and in Nigeria. She was a core member of Rhodessa Jones’ Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women. Her plays, Adventures of A Black Girl In Search of Academic Clarity and Inclusion and There are Women Waiting are published in the anthologies, solo/black/woman, and Black Medea. She holds an MFA in Theater from the University of Iowa, and is a member of the Goddard College faculty.
Cast
Tre’Vonne Bell (Aaron, Ensemble) is an Oakland based actor who is thrilled to make his Z space debut after understudying for the Berkeley Reparatory theatre’s production of Wintertime. His most recent acting credits include: Exit Strategy (Aurora Theatre company), Kill, Move, Paradise (Shotgun Players), and American Prom (Colorado springs Theatre Works). Thanks, as always, to his family, friends, and mentors for their endless support and inspiration.
Ciera Eis (Claire) (she/her) is a director and producer. Most recent acting credits include: Babes in Ho-lland (Shotgun Players), Visible From Four States (Magic Theatre), Where the Boys Are (FaultLine Theatre), The Daughters (Playwrights Foundation), and Taylor Mac: A 24-Hour Decade (Pomegranate Arts). She is the Co-Artistic Director of FaultLine Theater, Associate Artistic Director of Custom Made, alumni of UC Santa Cruz and SDC Observer. www.cieraeis.com
Evan Held (Robert, Ensemble) - After graduating from the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts (PCPA), Evan has been acting across the bay area. He's involved in the education department of San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and he's very much excited to be acting again at Word for Word after the long break.
Joel Mullennix (Father, Ensemble) has performed in many Bay Area theatres, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and Europe. He is the recipient of multiple Bay Area Theatre Critcs and Dramalogue Awards and nominations. Joel is also a director, and has directed and/or acted in many Word for Word productions including: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Stroudt; Stories by Tobias Wolff; The Blues I’m Playing, by Langston Hughes; Stories by Alice Munro; Which is More Than I Can Say about Some People, by Lorrie Moore; and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones.
Aidaa Peerzada’s (Carmen, Mrs. Hall, Ensemble) previous performance credits include Marin Theatre, SFBATCO, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare, Utah Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, American Players Theatre, Quantum Theatre, the HBO series Girls and the web series Blank My Life. She is a graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts and Carnegie Mellon University. @mixed.millennial
Brennan Pickman-Thoon (Jackson, Ensemble) is thrilled to make his Word for Word debut! Recent credits: Mother of the Maid (Marin Theater Company), The Gentleman Caller (NCTC), Timon of Athens (Cutting Ball Theater), Hamlet (Marin Shakespeare Company), Metamorphoses and The Good Book (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, u/s). When not performing, Brennan is a teaching artist with SFArtsED and a faculty member with the A.C.T. Young Conservatory. Winner of the 2019 SFBATCC Award for Actor in a Principal Role. Member AEA. For more, please visit brennanpickmanthoon.com.
Ije Success (Angela, Ensemble) is graduating from UC Berkeley with a BA in Theater and is delighted to be at Word for Word. She was recently in sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn) at Oakland Theater Project where she was nominated by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Circle for her performance.
Courtney Walsh (Puppy, Ensemble) - International (selected): Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cardiff, Athens, Corfu, Sydney, Auckland. Bay Area (selected): San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theater Company, The Marsh, Cutting Ball, We Players, 3Girls. TBA Awards: Acting, Directing, Ensemble, Production. Training: Yale University. Courtney is a mother of four, equestrienne, and former lawyer for abused children. courtneywalsh.net
