American Prophet at Arena Stage

Carolyn Agan

Regional credits include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Parade, Freedom's Song, Hello! Dolly, 1776, Liberty Smith, A Christmas Carol (Ford's Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Olney Theatre Center); Two Gents: A Rock Opera (Shakespeare Theatre); Pinkalicious! (Adventure Theatre MTC); Ragtime (Craig Noel Award - Lead Actress), South Pacific (San Diego Musical Theatre); Wild Goose Dreams, Home of the Brave (La Jolla Playhouse); The Phantom Tollbooth (Kennedy Center TYA); 1776, Man of La Mancha, Bold Girls, The Hostage (Keegan Theatre). She is a teaching artist and acting coach having worked with Levine Music, Shakespeare Theatre, Smithsonian Associates, La Jolla Playhouse and The Old Globe. Carolyn is also the lead singer for local pop/rock cover band, Vertigo Red.

Erica Aubrey

Erica is honored to be making her Arena Stage debut. She played Mrs. Newton in Amazing Grace (Chicago out-of town) and Off-Broadway she has been seen in Far From Heaven (Playwrights Horizons) and Music in the Air (City Center Encores!). Some regional credits include roles at New York Stage and Film, Ogunquit Playhouse, Gateway Playhouse, Flat Rock Playhouse and Theatre Aspen. Her TV credits include Jessica Jones and the Late Show with David Letterman. An accomplished studio singer, her voice is in Disney theme parks, on video games and on recordings for Music Theatre International. She holds an MA in musical theatre from NYU Steinhardt, and is a professor in the musical theatre BFA program at Belmont University.

Kurt Boehm

Kurt last appeared at Arena Stage as Enoch Snow in Carousel. Regional credits include Born for This (Arena Stage, Alliance Theatre, Broad Stage, ArtsEmerson). Previous Arena credits include Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and She Loves Me. Additional D.C. credits include Daddy Long Legs, Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor (Monumental Theatre Company); Assassins, Billy Elliott, West Side Story, Cabaret, Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Signature Theatre); South Pacific, A Chorus Line, Godspell, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Producers (Olney Theatre Center); Little Shop of Horrors (Ford's Theatre); Chicago, The Full Monty, (Keegan Theatre). He holds a B.M. from Catholic University.

Zoë Bryant

Zoë is excited to be making her Arena Stage debut after graduating from Howard University's Musical Theatre program in 2022. She last appeared as Minnie in Howard University's production of Flying West. This is Zoë's first professional show and she is excited to begin her journey. She hopes to return next season so she can keep chasing her dreams.

Cicily Daniels

Cicily is thrilled to be making her Arena Stage debut, particularly since she originally hails from Potomac, Maryland. She appeared most recently on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Once on This Island. Her other Broadway credits include Disney's The Little Mermaid (original cast), All Shook Up and Rent. She has performed throughout the country on the National Tours of A Night with Janis Joplin, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and Caroline, or Change. Her film and television credits include Dear Edward, Mozart in the Jungle, Ugly Betty and Across the Universe. Cicily has appeared in commercials, and recorded voice-overs for companies including Ford Fusion, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Covergirl. Cicily is a graduate of Yale University. She would like to thank her agents, and her family for their amazing support.

Kristolyn Lloyd

Grammy and Emmy Award Winning Actress. Her Acting credits include Broadway; Dear Evan Hansen. Off Broadway; The Confederates, Paradise Blue, The Liquid Plain (The Signature Theatre), FairyCakes (The Greenwich House Theatre), Little Women (Primary Stages), Blue Ridge (Atlantic), Hamlet (The Public Theatre), Invisible Thread, Dear Evan Hansen (Second Stage Theatre), Heathers The Musical (New World Stages), Cabin In The Sky (Encores City Center), Selected Regional; Paradise Blue (Williamstown), Witness Uganda (A.R.T.), Hairspray, Rent (Hollywood Bowl). TV includes: “Random Acts of Flyness” (HBO), Elementary, Madam Secretary, Kevin Can Wait (CBS), “ER” (NBC) and “Lie to Me.”@kristolynlloyd Instagram and Twitter

Christopher B. Portley

Christopher last appeared at Cleveland Play House as Haemon in Antigone. Christopher recently received his MFA degree from the Case Western Reserve University/ Cleveland Play House Acting Program. Last summer he made his Chautauqua Theater Company debut playing De'Andre in Dominique Morisseau's Blood at the Root directed by Stori Ayers, and Zanni and Flavio in Commedia Dell'Arte directed by Andrew Borba. Other theatre credits include Light It Up! (Cleveland Play House); Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) (African American Repertory Theater); The Tempest and Measure for Measure (Shakespeare Academy at Stratford); and Memphis (Music Theatre of Denton). Christopher's film credits include Sing Canary, Sing.

Christopher Michael Richardson

Christopher is an actor, director, and teaching artist in the Washington, D.C. area, and he is excited to be making his Arena Stage debut! His most recent theater credits include Our Town (Shakespeare Theatre Company) and the pre-Broadway run of A Strange Loop (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). Christopher is the creator/composer of Everyday Magic (Arts on the Horizon), and some of his other favorite D.C. credits include Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (The Musical) (John F. Kennedy Center TYA), Matilda (Olney Theatre Center), The Book of Will (Round House Theatre) and his Helen Hayes-nominated performance in The Wiz (Ford's Theatre). He holds a B.A. in English and Theatre from The College of William & Mary. www.cmrich.me

Chris Roberts

Chris is a Grammy-nominated, multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter from Nashville, TN. He was in the original Broadway cast and National Touring company of The Civil War. His songs have been recorded by artists like H.E.R., Ashley Mcbride, Matt Stell, Ashley Campbell and others, and used for film and TV in spots like the Super Bowl, Assasin's Creed, Fox Baseball, Nashville, Reign, Call of Duty, 12 Strong, Audi and others. Chris was a founding member of the band One Flew South. Signed to Decca/Universal, the band released its album Last of the Good Guys in 2008 to much critical acclaim and played Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and the Newport Folk Festival with Jimmy Buffet. As a solo artist, Chris has released an album of bluegrass songs called Mountain Standard Time and a pop/folk album, The Way West. His writing for the theater includes a musical commissioned by the Smithsonian for their D-Day Museum in New Orleans called The Boat that Won the War. Love to Wendy, Emily and Abby and thanks for letting me spend the summer in D.C. with this wonderful show!

Brendon Schaefer

Brendon is proudly making his Arena debut! His most recent jaunt across the boards was as Fox in P. Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical (Imagination Stage). Other D.C. credits include Fame (GALA), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Twelfth Night (STC), Plays From the Front Lines (Theater J). Before making D.C. home, Brendon spent some time with the National Tours of Pippin (King Charles), The Wedding Singer (Glen Gulia) and All Shook Up. Internationally, Hear Our Song played the Black Ship Festival in Japan, and Norwegian Cruise Line's The Illusionarium showed him the wonders of Central and South America. He thanks his parents for being so supportive of his artistic quest. Go Further!

Thomas Adrian Simpson

Thomas Is ecstatic to be back inside a theater and at Arena Stage, where he first performed more than 30 years ago. Favorite Arena appearances include collaborations with Molly Smith: Whitney in Anything Goes, Pickering in My Fair Lady, Roy in A Light in the Piazza; and Tazewell Thompson: Lindner in A Raisin in the Sun and Lincoln in Mary T. & Lizzy K.. Favorite regional credits include: El Gallo in The Fantasticks with Infinity Theatre, Caiaphas in Jesus Chris Superstar at Signature Theatre and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd at Olney Theatre Center. Tom can be seen in season 4 of Netflix's House of Cards and is a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Cornelius Smith Jr.

Proud native of Detroit, MI, Cornelius is delighted/grateful to be making his debut at Arena Stage. After completing his MFA at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and one of the last classes hand-picked by Zelda Fichandler, Cornelius booked a contracted role on All My Children which landed him a nomination for a Daytime Emmy and an NAACP Image Award. Other TV credits include Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, God Friended Me, SelfMade, Forever, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Manhunt: Deadly Games. Cornelius can next be seen leading opposite Vera Farmiga in Apple TV+'s limited series Five Days at Memorial from Carlton Cuse and John Ridley and ABC Signature. Big ups to my loving/supportive wife Stephanie. This one is for Legend!

Correy West

Correy is a native of Dallas, Texas and attended Northwestern State University. His credits include: Broadway: Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre), Nice Work If You Can Get It (Imperial Theatre), South Pacific (Lincoln Center); National Tours: Love Never Dies (1st National - US Premiere), Anything Goes (1st National), 42nd Street, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Chicago/Toronto); NY Theatre: The Ballad of Johnny and June (Workshop - Des McANuff), The Right Girl (Workshop - Susan Stroman), Show Boat (NY Philharmonic/Live from Lincoln Center), Lunch (NYMF), An Evening with Jason Robert Brown (The Cooper Union); Regional: Oliver (Virginia Stage Company), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Arkansas Rep Theatre), Smokey Joe's Cafe (Capital Rep Theatre), Shrek (NSMT).

Curtis Wiley

Curtis is overjoyed to be making his Arena Stage debut in American Prophet under the direction of Charles Randolph-Wright, and is thrilled to be creatively reunited with Marcus Hummon, TUT (New York Musical Festival). He made his Broadway debut in the Original Broadway Company of Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. Other NYC credits: The Total Bent (Public Theater). Rothschild & Sons (York Theatre Co.); Straight Faced Lies (FringeNYC); Pageant: The Musical (Off-B'way Revival); The Great Society (York Shakespeare Co.); King Lear (Exit, Pursued by a Bear). Other musical credits: Diner: The Musical; Jersey Boys; The Lion King. Curtis is an alum of Sundance Institute Theatre Program, Wig Out! (Tarell Alvin McCraney).

Kanysha Williams

Kanysha is so excited to be spending her summer at Arena Stage! A Washington, D.C. area native, Kanysha's most recent credits include Drumfolk (Arena Stage), A.D. 16 (Olney Theatre Center), Acoustic Rooster's Barnyard Boogie (The Kennedy Center), Always...Patsy Cline (Creative Cauldron) and Sister Act (Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre). Kanysha is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and George Mason University. Offstage, Kanysha is a voice and piano instructor, and a recording artist. Be on the lookout for her debut single, "ALIVE", coming to streaming platforms this summer! To God Be The Glory!

Charles Randolph-Wright

Charles Randolph-Wright is thrilled that American Prophet will be his 12th production at Arena. His other directing credits include Trouble in Mind (Broadway), Motown the Musical (Broadway, London and tour), Porgy and Bess (75th anniversary tour), Guys and Dolls (the 50th anniversary National Tour), They’re Playing Our Song (in Brasil in Portuguese) and the Broadway-bound musical, Born for This (co-written with Bebe Winans). Charles also directed and co-wrote The Diva Is Dismissed (starring Jenifer Lewis) and Just Between Friends (Bea Arthur on Broadway). For TV, Charles’ directing credits include Greenleaf, Katy Keene, Step Up Highwater, Lincoln Heights and Live at Lincoln Center. He directed the award-winning film Preaching to the Choir, the European Freestyle campaign for Nike and produced and wrote the series Linc’s. Charles is the executive producer of the film Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back (Grand Jury Prize at the NY Doc Film Festival). www.Randolph-Wright.com

Marcus Hummon

Marcus Hummon is a Grammy winner and inductee to the Nashville Songwriter Association International's Hall of Fame. Hummon has enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter, recording artist, composer, playwright and author. His songs have been recorded in many genres, including pop, R&B, gospel and most notably in country music, where he has written some of the genre’s most iconic songs. Hummon has written six musicals and an opera. Three of his musicals, Warrior, The Piper and the musical-dance-hybrid Tut were featured Off-Broadway. Hummon has received seven BMI Awards, and five BMI #1 Awards for Rascal Flatts’ Bless the Broken Road. He has published two books Anytime, Anywhere and The Passion. Hummon is a native of Washington, D.C., and is thrilled to work at Arena Stage.

Lorna Ventura

Lorna is honored to be back at Arena Stage working alongside the skilled talent of Charles Randolph-Wright. They premiered the Guys and Dolls National Tour here, where Lorna was the Associate Choreographer, Agatha and a Hot Box Girl. Lorna is a director/choreographer, with a long list of credits, from Broadway to film and television. Lorna’s theater career includes work on the Original Broadway productions of Wicked, Grease, All Shook Up, Harlem Song and Nice Work If You Can Get It — as an Original Cast Member and/or Associate Choreographer. Most recent work includes The Life at Encores with Billy Porter, a new telenovela musical with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Karen Zacarías. Love to my family, my constant inspiration. www.lornaventura.com

Joseph Joubert

Arnulfo Maldonado

Arnulfo is a recent Tony nominee for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for A Strange Loop. D.C. credits include: A Strange Loop, Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth), Everybody (Shakespeare), Pipeline (Studio). Broadway: Trouble in Mind (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Shhhh (Atlantic); one in two (The New Group); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls... (MCC); Sugar in Our Wounds [Lucille Lortel Award] (MTC); A Strange Loop [Special Citation Obie], Selling Kabul, Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); To My Girls (Second Stage); A Case for the Existence of God, Fires in the Mirror (Signature). Regional: Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, CTG, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth. International Tour: The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir. 2020 Obie Sustained Excellence in Set Design, Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, Henry Hewes Design Award nominee. arnulfomaldonado.com

Dede Ayite

Rui Rita

Selected Broadway: Velocity of Autumn, Trip to Bountiful, Present Laughter, Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April. Off-Broadway premieres: A Sherlock Carol (New World Stages), Paradise Blue (Signature), Horton Foote's Old Friends & Orphans' Home Cycle (Hewes Award, Signature), Happiest Song Plays Last (Second Stage), Just Jim Dale (Roundabout), Nightingale, Moonlight and Magnolias (Manhattan Theatre Club), Carpetbagger's Children, Far East (Lincoln Center Theater), Dinner with Friends (Variety Arts Center). Off-Broadway revivals: The Piano Lesson (Signature), Talley's Folly (Roundabout) Engaged (Obie Award, TFANA). Recent regional credits include Alley, CenterStage, Center Theatre Group, Dallas Theater Center, Ford’s, Guthrie, Huntington, Oregon Shakespeare, Old Globe. www.designbyrui.com

Dan Moses Schreier

Broadway: Flying Over Sunset, Trouble in Mind, A Soldier’s Play, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, The Iceman Cometh, Falsettos, American Psycho, Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, Gentleman’s Guide, Gypsy (Patti LuPone), Sondheim on Sondheim, John Doyle’s production of Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Topdog/Underdog, Into the Woods, Noise/Funk, others. Compositions for Broadway include: The Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino), Julius Caesar (Denzel Washington), The Glass Menagerie (Jessica Lange), The Tempest (Patrick Stewart). Upcoming Projects: Soundscape for a new work for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Duncan Sheik’s A Secret Life of Bees, Barry Manilow’s Harmony. Awards: 5 Tony Award nominations, 5 Drama Desk Awards, Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. Fellow of MacDowell.

Paul Byssainthe, Jr.

Paul recently completed a run as Associate Music Director/Conductor for the world premiere of Grace at Ford’s Theatre. He is the Choral Director & Organist at Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park. An active organist in the Atlantic region, Paul has performed solo concerts at the Franciscan Monastery and at St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC). He collaborates with The Washington Chorus for their annual Candlelight Christmas Concerts at the Kennedy Center. Paul was a Quarterfinalist in the 2019 St. Albans International Organ Competition in England and a Finalist in the 2018 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance. Paul is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance at Peabody, where he holds the Dean’s Fellowship.

Jocelyn Clarke

Jocelyn is senior dramaturg at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He was Theatre Advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland for ten years. As a dramaturg, Clarke has worked with writers such as Katori Hall, Taylor Mac, Lydia Diamond, Abhishek Majumdar, Eduardo Machado, Charles Randolph Wright, Lisa Kron, Craig Lucas, Carl Hancock Rux, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Tanya Saracho and Karen Zacarias. He was a script editor on several Irish films, including Young Offenders, and was executive story editor on all three seasons of the BBC/RTE TV series Young Offenders. He is a writer on the second season of P-Valley, Katori Hall’s acclaimed TV series for Starz. His new adaptation of Elizabeth Swados’ musical The Beautiful Lady, will be directed by Anne Bogart at La Mama Theatre in New York in May 2022.

Otis Ramsey-Zoe

Tara Rubin Casting CSA

Joseph Pinzon

Rachael Danielle Albert

Rachael is eager and excited to return to Arena Stage. Credits include: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Junk, Native Gardens, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The City of Conversation. Regional credits include: A Wind in the Door, She A Gem and Bright Star (Kennedy Center); Fairview, Describe the Night and Botticelli in the Fire (Woolly Mammoth); The Wolves (Studio Theater); Seize the King, Up Here, Ether Dome and Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse); The Odd Couple, Sylvia, Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). During quarantine, Rachael entered the brave new world of digital theatre, as the livestream stage manager for Amir Nizar Zuabi’s new play This Is Who I Am, produced by Woolly Mammoth and PlayCo, in partnership with The Guthrie, A.R.T. and OSF. Founding member: Ubuntu Theater Project (Oakland, CA). Adjunct Faculty: Shenandoah University. MFA: University of California, San Diego. BFA: University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.

Marne Anderson

Marne is thrilled to be working on American Prophet after last working with Charles Randolph-Wright on Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. Other Arena Stage highlights include August Wilson’s Seven Guitars,Disney’s Newsies, Jubilee, Indecent, Dave, Two Trains Running, The Great Society, A Raisin in the Sun, Moby Dick, All the Way, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, Metamorphoses, Arabian Nights. Additional D.C. credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Folger Theatre); Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2 (Round House); and The Arsonists, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Woolly Mammoth). She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Alex Murphy

Alex is coming to Arena directly from Actors Theatre of Louisville where he stage managed their production of Still Ready. Previously, he worked as a stage management apprentice for Macbeth on Broadway. Alex was the ASM on the Off-Broadway productions of Romeo & Bernadette and Two’s a Crowd. Recently, Alex was the ASM on the first national tour of The Prom. Other productions include An Iliad and How I Learned What I Learned (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Songs for a New World (Canadian Music Theatre Project), Unwritten Law (Two River Theatre), Token (Theatre Aspen). Alex was the Resident Stage Manager for Kansas City Actors Theatre in Kansas City, MO, working on such productions as Death and the Maiden, And Then There Were None and Skylight.