Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous at Gil Cates Theater

Denise Burse is delighted to make her Geffen Playhouse debut. Her most recent theatre credit was as “Aunt Ester” in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean (Long Wharf Theatre). Ms. Burse is considered somewhat of a Wilsonian Warrior, with five of the ten-play canon to her credits: Gem of the Ocean, The Piano Lesson, Fences, Seven Guitars, and Radio Golf. Broadway: An American Daughter (and later at Long Wharf Theatre). Off-Broadway: Daphne (LCT3); The Underlying Chris (Second Stage Theater); The Old Settler and Dot (Billie Holiday Theatre); Film & TV: The Home (Miramax); Becky 2: The Wrath of Becky (indie); Emmy–winning episode “San Junipero” of Black Mirror; Doc (Fox); Manifest; New Amsterdam; Greenleaf; House of Payne; reruns of all the Law & Order series. Awards: Theatre World Award, AUDELCO Awards. Nominations: Gregory, Suzi Bass, AUDELCO.

Olivia Washington was most recently seen Off-Broadway in Alice Childress' Wine in the Wilderness where she was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama Desk Award for her performance, and in Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play opposite Kit Harington on the West End. Previously, Olivia starred as "Flora" in Boots Riley's Amazon series, I'm a Virgo, for which she was nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award. She has also appeared in Abi Damaris Corbin’s feature Breaking, alongside John Boyega, which premiered at Sundance and won the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Other theater credits include: Familiar, directed by Edward Torres, at The Old Globe in San Diego; The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in The Park production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theater, directed by Kenny Leon; and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Taming of the Shrew, directed by Barbara Gaines. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Deborah Joy Winans is an actor and singer best known for her role as “Charity Greenleaf” on the award-winning drama Greenleaf, produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN. She is also featured on the series’ soundtrack across all seasons, including the Top 20 Billboard Gospel single “The Master’s Calling,” and debut single “Changed” from season 3 with Grammy Award–winning artist Patti LaBelle. Born and raised in Detroit, Deborah Joy’s first regional theatre run came when she portrayed “CeCe Winans” in Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, and BroadStage. She holds an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts and a B.F.A. from Wayne State University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Two-time Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee. Off-Broadway: “Daddy”; Hamlet (as “Queen Gertrude”); War (revival); The Substance of Fire (as “Marge Hackett”); The Witch of Edmonton (Obie Award winner); In the Blood (Obie Award winner); Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (as “Undine”); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (as “Grusha”); Twelfth Night (as “Maria”); Stunning; Sorrows and Rejoicings. Regional: The Garden (as “Casandra”); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as “Titania”); The Taming of the Shrew (as “Katherine”); The Good Person of Szechwan. Broadway: Ain’t Misbehavin’ (original cast); Hair (revival). Film: Glass, Unbreakable, The Crucible, Eye for an Eye, Sunshine State. TV: Pose (series regular), Secret Invasion (series regular); recurring roles: Ann Rice’s Mayfair Witches, In Treatment, Prodigal Son, Sneaky Pete; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, ER; guest star: All Rise, The Leftovers, The Blacklist. Playwright: The Garden, Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life, The Night Watcher, Flight. Nominations: Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award. Member of The Actors Studio.

Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer who serves as the city’s first Poet Laureate. Currently Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Alliance Theatre, she has premiered eight plays there, including Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, What I Learned in Paris, and The Nacirema Society. The first of her eight novels, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was a New York Times bestseller. Her praise poem, “We Speak Your Names,” commissioned by Oprah Winfrey in 2005 and written in collaboration with her husband, Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., is performed across the country regularly by those who accepted Cleage’s invitation to “use it, adapt it, pass it on.” Her ten-year performance collaboration with Burnett is the subject of the award-winning documentary Live at Club Zebra directed by Matthew and David Adeboye. Cleage’s newest play, Flying Fish & Folding Money, will have its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in 2028. Ms. Cleage is represented by Ron Gwiazda, Stewart Talent Agency. Ms. Cleage is represented by Ron Gwiazda, Stewart Talent Agency.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson is a three-time Tony Award–nominated stage and screen actress, director, and producer. She recently starred on Broadway in Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Purpose, for which she received Tony, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations, while honored with Black Women on Broadway’s 2025 Audra McDonald Legacy Award. Her previous Broadway credits include A Raisin in the Sun (Tony and Drama League nomination), To Kill a Mockingbird (Lilly Award), and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, plus Shakespeare in the Park’s The Taming of the Shrew, for colored girls…, and August Wilson’s Century Cycle, among many. As a theater creative, she made history as the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway with the Tony–nominated 2022 revival of The Piano Lesson and co-produced the 2023 revival of Purlie Victorious (Tony nomination). For her decades-long dedication to the theater, she was honored with the NAACP Theater Award’s 2016 Trailblazer Award. LaTanya serves as a Vice Chair of The American Theatre Wing. Her television credits include Show Me A Hero (NAACP Image Award nomination), Grey’s Anatomy, Luke Cage  Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Lumet’s 100 Centre Street, and the films  Freedomland, Losing Isaiah, The Fighting Temptations, U.S. Marshals, Mother and Child, Diamond, and You Hurt My Feelings. She also executive produced Apple TV’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, EPIX’s Enslaved, and the upcoming Paramount+ series Frisco King. She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she and her husband recently opened the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center. In recognition of her career achievements, support of the arts, and her relentless civic engagement, she has been named a 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood distinguished honoree.

Black Rebirth Collective (BRC) is a non-profit collective dedicated to empowering Black women in leadership within the theatre arts. Founded by visionary artist and leader Kimberly Hébert, BRC amplifies Black voices and creates equitable opportunities through curated programs and community initiatives. We foster a supportive space for Black artists, advocate for systemic change, and promote cultural sustainability. BRC is living out its mission to reshape narratives and inspire transformative leadership. Our work has been recognized through numerous successful readings and performances, co-productions with award-winning Los Angeles theatres, and grants from The Black Seed and the California Arts Council.

Designed "Master Harold"...and the Boys and Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas at Geffen Playhouse. He designed LaTanya Richardson Jackson's production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson on Broadway. 35 Broadway designs include the Tony Award–winning sets for New York, New York and Act One, and the Tony–nominated sets for The Scottsboro Boys, POTUS, Thérèse Raquin, and Flying Over Sunset. He has designed for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and designed around the world in England, Russia, China, Australia, and Japan. He received a 2007 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. Author: Transforming Space Over Time, about Broadway set design. Founder of Obie–winning The 1/52 Project which has provided over half a million dollars in grants to early career designers.

Emilio is a six-time Tony Award–nominated costume designer. Some of his Broadway credits include Sweeney Todd, A Beautiful Noise, Ain’t No Mo’, 1776, Good Night, Oscar, Motown: The Musical, On Your Feet!, Trouble in Mind, Porgy and Bess, and Topdog/Underdog. His most recent projects Jesus Christ Superstar starring Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert, Masquerade, and Chez Joey. He has designed the Radio City Music Hall Spring Spectacular and ChristmasSpectacular. He received a 2025 Emmy Award nomination for Descendants: The Rise of Red. He has collaborated with Usher, Mariah Carey, Diana Ross, and Gloria Estefan, and has appeared on TV’s Project Runway. As the former Chair of the American Theatre Wing, Emilio continues to champion access and representation in the arts. @esosafashion

Recent designs at the Geffen include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, The Mountaintop, Man of God, and Power of Sail. Broadway credits include Camelot (Tony nomination), Yellow Face, Uncle Vanya, and Suffs (National Tour). Other New York design credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, Performance Space 122, and Kitchen Theatre Company. Regional designs for Mark Taper Forum, Williamstown Theater Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Contemporary Theater, Goodman Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Arena Stage, Dallas Theater Center, and the Alley Theater. His awards include the Obie for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design, the Lucile Lortel Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Angstrom Award for Career Achievement in Lighting Design, the Ovation Award, and multiple Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. He is a professor and the Head of Lighting Design at University of California, Los Angeles. www.lapchichu.com

Jeff is an award-winning sound designer, foley artist, and actor. Credits include: The Cake at Geffen Playhouse; The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at the Mark Taper Forum; Inherit the Wind at Pasadena Playhouse; One of the Good Ones at The Old Globe; In the Upper Room at Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Elsewhere: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Play House, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC), Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, A Noise Within, Antaeus Theatre Company, Circle X Theatre Co., The Echo Theater Company, Rogue Machine Theatre, IAMA Theatre Company. Jeff can be seen at L.A. Theatre Works where he regularly performs live sound effects. Online: www.jeffthomasgardner.net

Geffen Playhouse: Extraordinary Chambers, The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona, The Ants. Broadway: The Outsiders, Real Women Have Curves, Redwood, The Old Man & The Pool, Summer, 1976. Off-Broadway/New York: SUMO, The Harder They Come, Eve's Song (The Public Theater); A Knock on the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop); Everything Rises (BAM); Magdalene (Prototype Festival). New music/opera: The Monkey King (San Francisco Opera), L’Orfeo (Santa Fe Opera), Sweet Land (The Industry), The Anonymous Lover (LA Opera). Awards: Tony Awards, Princess Grace Award, Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood Award from Center Theatre Group, Helen Hayes Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Distinguished Achievement Award, among others. www.hananow.com

George Robert Fuller has spent more than half of his life gallivanting around the world through toxic clouds of hairspray while beautifying behind the scenes of some of the industry’s most iconic people. He does this all in the name of making them “GEorgeous” (not to be confused with gorgeous). His clientele represents legends across the globe, including multi-award-winning artists Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, the late Natalie Cole, Olivia Newton-John, Stephanie Mills, and Anita Baker. George’s versatility has also allowed him to work with leading executives Linda Johnson Rice (Johnson Publishing Company), Juanita Jordan (Juanita Vanoy Jordan Enterprises), Mellody Hobson (Ariel Investments), Cathy Hughes (Urban One), to name a few; and Hollywood royalty—LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Pauletta Pearson Washington, and Tyler Perry. His body of work can be found gracing pages of countless magazines, on television, in films, and even at red carpet events. His expertise led him to secure several national covers of our former First Couple, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Kelly M. Jenrette is humbled to be working at Geffen Playhouse alongside LaTanya Richardson Jackson as the Associate Director. She is a proud founding member of Black Rebirth Collective, serving as the collective’s Artistic Associate and Playwright in Residence. BRC’s Founder, the late Kimberly Hébert, brought Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeousto Geffen Playhouse, and we couldn’t be happier to bring this production to life. Limited Credits: Theatre—Lines in the Dust (Support Black Theatre and Collaborative Artists Bloc); TV—The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu, Emmy nomination), American Blue (HBO Max), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), All American: Homecoming (The CW); Film—Uncorked and All Day and a Night (Netflix).

Sam Allen is a freelance stage manager, director, and producer currently based in Los Angeles. Off-Broadway: The Brothers Size (The Shed), Billy Budd (RCI Theatricals). Regional: Table 17, Furlough’s Paradise, Noises Off, The Brothers Size (Geffen Playhouse); La Cage aux Folles (Pasadena Playhouse); Fences, Hell Yeah!, Fat Ham, King James, Pleasant, The Merry Wives of Windsor, All Day (The Old Globe); Primary Trust (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Animals Out of Paper, Flowers of Hawaii (Chautauqua Theater Company). Sam is a recipient of the 2024 Charlie Blackwell Symposium Scholarship and the 2023 Cody Renard Richard Scholarship. Education: B.F.A. in Stage Management and Directing—Westminster University (2020), M.F.A. in Stage Management—University of California, Irvine (2024).

Lisa Toudic is an Equity stage manager passionate about fostering collaborative, inclusive backstage environments. Recent credits include a modern adaptation of A Doll’s House by Justin Emeka (Two River Theater), Eureka Day(Pasadena Playhouse), The Reservoir and Noises Off (Geffen Playhouse), and Corktown ’39 (Rogue Machine Theatre). Lisa holds a Master’s in Education and a B.A. in Stage Management from the University of Southern California. Originally from France, she brings a love of culture, adaptability, and attention to detail to every production. She is grateful to return to Geffen Playhouse and thanks the Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous team for their collaboration and care. Endless gratitude to her family, friends, mentors, and her cat Felix for always keeping her grounded. www.lisatoudic.com

Phyllis is an Artistic Associate and the Casting Director for Geffen Playhouse. Recent productions include: Furlough’s Paradise, Waiting for Godot, The Reservoir, The Inheritance: Part 1 & Part 2 (Artios Award), Every Brilliant Thing, The Power of Sail, Witch, and Barbecue. Before joining the Geffen, she cast for Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago where her favorites include Frank Galati’s adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath (also La Jolla Playhouse, National Theatre in London, and Broadway, where it received the Tony Award for Best Play) and the original production of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Broadway transfers include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Tony Award for Best Revival), The Song of Jacob Zulu, and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.