Media Gallery:

	Pat Bowie (Mother Shaw) is making her ATC debut. She just completed a tour of Flyin’ West as Miss Leah, with True Colors Theatre Company. On Broadway she appeared as Mrs. Zulu in The Song of Jacob Zulu. She recently appeared as Miss Simpson in A Higher Place in Heaven at Barter Theatre, Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing and Lena in A Raisin in the Sun at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other theatre credits include Ruby in August Wilson’s King Hedley II, in London and Atlanta, Ma Dear in Jar the Floor for Alliance Theatre, the English premiere of A Small World at Southwark Theatre, London, The Day the Bronx Died for Tricycle Theatre and Vieux Carre at England’s Nottingham Playhouse. She created the role of Granny Root in Pecong in which she has appeared in England and the US. Her TV credits include Waking the Dead, The Man from Auntie (BBC), Spell No. 7, Disappearing Acts and for BBC Radio, One Fine Day.
	Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Man) is making his ATC debut. On Broadway he played the role of Toledo in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and receiving a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. His regional credits include the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s award-winning production of Spunk, Home by Samm-Art Williams, Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at the Alliance Theatre, Flyin’ West, Hamlet and Miss Evers’ Boys at Indiana Repertory Theatre, and other productions of Flyin’ West at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Long Wharf Theatre. He performed in the American premiere of Elmina’s Kitchen at Center Stage in Baltimore and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Good Boys directed by Jon Jory. At Oregon Shakespeare Festival he appeared in Poet Laureate Rita Dove’s Darker Face of the Earth. He played in five films by director Spike Lee including Clockers, Get on the Bus and He Got Game. Mr. Byrd most recently played a principal role in the Academy Award-winning motion picture Ray directed by Taylor Hackford, HBO’s critically acclaimed production of Lackawanna Blues, and the independent films MacArthur Park and Never Get Outta the Boat.
	Crystal Fox (Yolanda) is making her ATC debut. Off-Broadway she played Marie in Everbody’s Ruby at The Public Theater. Her many regional theatre credits include Sophie Washington in Flyin’ West (True Colors Theatre Company), Adrianna in Comedy of Errors, Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra, Berniece in The Piano Lesson (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Ida B. Wells in Constant Star (Merrimack Repertory Theatre) Varya in The Cherry Orchard (Round House Theatre) Ruby in Seven Guitars, LaLa in The Colored Museum, and Woman #2 in From the Mississippi Delta (Alliance Theatre), Ronette in Little Shop of Horrors, Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Theatrical Outfit, and Woman in Red in For Colored Girls… at Portland Center Stage, for which she received a Drammy Award for Best Actress. Her TV and film credits include Driving Miss Daisy, When We Were Colored, Separate But Equal, Mama Floras’ Family, Old Settler, The Sopranos, Law & Order and In the Heat of the Night.
	McKenzie Frye (Understudy) is a Detroit native and Howard University graduate whose credits include Damn Yankees (Lucille Lortel Theatre), ABK for Life (Columbia University), Dreamgirls (Arkansas Repertory Theatre), Black Footnotes (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Diss Diss Diss Dat (New Federal Theatre), Damn Yankees (St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre), for which she received a Woodie Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Harriet’s Return starring Debbie Allen (The Kennedy Center), Donald Byrd’s Harlem Nutcracker and the film My Brother.
	Angela Karol Grovey (Wanda) is thrilled to be getting her “crown” back onstage, having enjoyed a run of Crowns playing Mabel at Arena Stage, Geva Theatre and Studio Arena Theatre. Her many regional credits include Abyssinia (Mavis) Goodspeed Opera House and North Shore Music Theatre, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Snout/Wall) Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Showboat (Ethel) Marriot Lincolnshire, Kiss Me Kate (Hattie) Drury Lane, Oakbrook, Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Granny) Apple Tree Theatre, Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal) Theatre at the Center. She is a very native Texan and a 2002 graduate of Roosevelt University’s Theatre Conservatory in Chicago.
	Erika LaVonn (Velma) last seen at ATC in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, is happy to make her return in Crowns. This year she appeared in Two Trains Running at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and you may have even seen her running from aliens in Stephen Spielberg’s The War of the Worlds. After performing in Chicago, Australia and Broadway productions of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s The Song of Jacob Zulu with Lady-smith Black Mambazo, she decided to stay in New York and made Broadway her home for over 3-1/2 years in Disney’s The Lion King. Off-Broadway credits include Portraits at Union Square Theatre and Another Story at UBU Repertory Theater. Regional performances include Metamorphoses at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Hartford Stage, Jitney at Denver Center Theatre Company, Flyin’ West at Crossroads Theatre Company and The Kennedy Center, as well as the title role of Nomathemba at The Shubert Theatre. Film and television work includes The Final Patient, Law & Order:SVU, The Pretender, One Life to Live, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, and New York Undercover. .
	Julia Lema (Mabel) a native New Yorker, is very excited to return to ATC, where she was seen in Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Swinging on a Star. She directed a production of Ain’t Misbehavin’ starring Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and was assistant to Arthur Faria with The Pointer Sisters’ production of the same show. Ms. Lema was nominated for a Corbin Patrick (Pat) Award for Best Performer in a Musical for Ain’t Misbehavin’, at the Starlight Music Theatre in Indianapolis. She directed and choreographed Five Guys Named Moe at Stage West in Springfield, Mass. Her many other performance credits include Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Play On!, Dreamgirls, Blues in the Night, Thunder Knocking on the Door, A Brief History of White Music, Beehive, Sweet & Hot in Harlem, Leader of the Pack, Little Ham and The Sweet Spot.
	April Nixon (Jeanette) is honored to be a part of this production of Crowns. Her Broadway roles include Tommy (Acid Queen), Cats (Tantomile), and Smokey Joe’s Café. She was on the national tours of The Wiz (with Stephanie Mills), Fosse, and Damn Yankees (as Lola opposite Jerry Lewis), a role she recreated at The Adelphi Theatre in London, and for which she received an Olivier Award Nomination. She has been privileged to work with the New York City Opera in Candide, La Rondine and Cinderella with Eartha Kitt. She has also appeared in City Center’s Encore series in Purlie with Blair Underwood, Golden Boy with Alfonzo Rebiero and The Pajama Game. Ms. Nixon appeared in the off-Broadway show Lone Star Love, which is slated for a run on Broadway in the spring of 2007. Her film and TV credits include Man on the Moon with Jim Carrey, Malcom X with Denzel Washington, The Wire, The Dave Chapelle Show and recently on Law & Order: SVU which will air Feb.7, 2006.
	Q. Smith (Understudy) was recently seen as Corine in Abyssinia at the Goodspeed Opera House. Favorite roles include Effie in Dreamgirls, The Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Nell in Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Nehebka/Aida understudy in Aida at North Shore Music Theatre, and Mabel Washington in the off-Broadway production of Fame: The Musical (original cast album). She has toured with Smokey Joe’s Café, starring Gladys Knight and Rita Coolidge, throughout Europe with the Black Gospel Singers and in Central America with The Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber. Her goal is to build a school of the arts integrated with the juvenile system and finish her book Queens of the Theatre.
	Mahmoud Khan (Assistant Musical Director/Keyboards) is a musician, arranger, composer, producer, teacher, engineer, and writer. This past holiday he joined Congo Square Theater Company at The Goodman Theatre in their presentation of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity: A Gospel Song Play, directed by Mike Malone. He has played with many artists and organizations including Micah Stampley, Mavis Staples, United Airlines, The Barrett Sisters, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Wooten Choral Ensemble, Eta Creative Art’s, The Lewis Singers, Wayne Baker Brooks, Kim Rutherford, The United Way Singers, Sue Conway and the Victory Singers (European tour), Chicago Public Schools, Nannette Frank, Albertina Walker, Inez Andrews and Bobby Jones Gospel. Mr. Khan received his training from Beverly Music Center, Roosevelt University and Beth Eden Baptist Church. He is currently working on two musical children’s books.
	S-Ankh Rasa (Percussion) at age 12, was the youngest student accepted to the UC Berkeley Music Department. He composed his first symphony at 15 while attending the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. At 16, he performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival as a featured soloist with Dizzy Gillespie and the Modern Jazz Quartet. In Los Angeles he worked as a studio musician, composer, arranger, and musical director with Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Debbie Allen and Fame, The Temptations Reunion Tour, Marvin Gaye, and many others. He retired from the studio music scene at the age of 26 and began studying traditional African music. This led to a US tour with one of his teachers, the world-renowned djembe drummer, Mamady Keita. In addition to drumming, he is a knowledgeable performer and historian of the kora (African harp) and composes and sings in three languages. He is the composer/conductor of JuJu Nation African Arkestra, a 20-piece African orchestra that combines Western and African instruments. Mr. Rasa is also the founder and artistic director of KUMAASI African Ensemble a traditional West African music and dance troupe.
	The Creative Team
	Regina Taylor (Playwright) received Helen Hayes and Audelco Awards for Crowns, which was first produced at the McCarter Theatre Center and Second Stage Theatre. She is an artistic associate at The Goodman Theatre, which originally produced Drowning Crow, Ms. Taylor’s adaptation of Chekov’s The Seagull (produced by Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway). Her play The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, premiered at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and opened at The Goodman Theatre in June, 2005. Ms. Taylor is resident playwright at the Alliance Theatre and is developing a play based on Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard set in Atlanta in 1962 entitled Magnolia. Other plays include Oobladee (Critics Circle Award); Watermelon Rinds (Humana Festival); Inside the Belly of the Beast (The Goodman Theatre); Urban Zulu Mambo (Signature Theatre); Escape from Paradise (Circle Repertory Theatre); A Night in Tunisia (Alabama Shakespeare Festival). Her acting credits include Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Celia in As You Like It, on Broadway, and numerous roles off-Broadway and at regional theatres. Film credits include Clockers, Losing Isaiah, Lean on Me, A Family Thing, Courage Under Fire and The Negotiator. For her role as Lilly Harper on the television series I’ll Fly Away, she won an NAACP Image Award, a Golden Globe Award, and was nominated for an Emmy.
	Andrea Frye (Director) recently completed a six-year stint at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she directed acclaimed productions of A Raisin in the Sun and Nilo Cruz’ Two Sisters and a Piano. Recently, she directed Jar the Floor for the Alliance Theatre, For Colored Girls… at Portland Center Stage (Drammy Award for Best Director), Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West for True Colors Theatre Company and The National Black Arts Festival, Home for Jomandi and Valley Song for the Alliance Theatre, for which the critics of Creative Loafing named her Best Director. She directed Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and A Raisin in the Sun at the Springer Opera House and Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel for Theatre Emory. At the St. Louis Black Repertory Company, she won two coveted Woodie Awards for direction of Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky and The Screened-in Porch. Other directing credits include acclaimed productions of The Ties That Bind, Do Lord Remember Me, The Colored Museum, Buried Child, She’ll Find Her Way Home, and Spunk for Jomandi. Acting credits at OSF include Oo Bla Dee, Pericles, Seven Guitars, Night of the Iguana, Stop Kiss, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Playboy of the West Indies and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Frye was resident artist in theatre at Dillard University in New Orleans.
	James M. Calhoun (Musical Director) has served as church organist, conductor, and coordinator of music ministries at the historic Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, the oldest African-American Baptist congregation in the Los Angeles area, for more than 21 years. He also serves as church organist at the University Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Los Angeles. For his work as musical director for productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ he was featured in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, The Santa Maria Times, The Vineyard Gazette and the Martha Vineyard Times. He has toured internationally, playing in New Zealand, Australia (where he performed at the World Expo in Brisbane), and Jamaica where he performed at the University of Kingston. He recently performed at Carnegie Hall with the Gwen Wyatt Chorale of Los Angeles and in 2006 will tour Munich, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Essen, and Vienna with the Paul Smith Singers and the Pacific Symphony. A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Calhoun is a graduate of the University of Southern California and is currently completing requirements for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance.
	Mercedes Ellington (Choreographer) returns to ATC where she was the choreographer for Play On!, which then went on to Broadway. Other Broadway credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Harry Chapin’s The Night That Made America Famous, The Grand Tour and No, No, Nanette. Off-Broadway credits include Juba, Bring in the Morning, George Wein’s Black Broadway and Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues. Regional theatre credits include work at The Old Globe, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Pasadena Playhouse, Repertoty Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis MUNY, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Goodman Theatre, The Helen Hayes Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, The Lucille Lortel Theatre and Lincoln Center. This “Composer of Dances and Situations” has also choreographed, directed and produced musical tributes and events here and abroad as well as appearing in several music and dance-related documentaries. She is a proud member of SSDC, AEA, AFTRA, SAG, ASCAP, SGA and NY Local 802 and an active member of Career Transition for Dancers, The Friars Club, The Martha Hill Foundation and the Society of Singers – East Coast.
	Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (Scenic Designer) recently designed the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s opera Margaret Garnier. Her Broadway credits include Any Given Day, On Borrowed Time, Lucifer’s Child starring Julie Harris, American Buffalo with Al Pacino, Da, Requiem For a Heavyweight, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Solomon’s Child, Arsenic and Old Lace, Steaming and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her designs for Circle in the Square include Spokesong, Heartbreak House and Present Laughter. Off-Broadway, she has worked for New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Second Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons and Roundabout Theatre Company, among others. Her stage adaptation (with music by Michael Koerner) of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was produced by the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis and her original musical Livin’ in the Garden (music by Melanie Hammet) premiered at the Alliance Theatre in 1997. She has taught at Princeton and Columbia Universities and has been associate professor of design at Colgate University since 1995.
	Reggie Ray (Costume Designer) has designed costumes for Debbie Allen, Keith Alan Baker, Michael Bobbit, Tim Bond, Andrea Frye, Mike Malone, Regina Taylor, Joy Zinoman and many others. He has designed for Arena Stage, Everyman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Vineyard Playhouse, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, National Black Theatre Festival and Woolly Mammoth. He has received seven Woodie King Awards for Outstanding Costume Design for The Colored Museum, Blues in the Night, Urban Transition/Loose Blossoms, Screened-in Porch and The Wiz, and was nominated for four Helen Hayes Awards for Most Outstanding Costumes, receiving one for Spunk. He received Cleveland Critic’s Awards for Most Outstanding Costumes for The Taming of the Shrew and The Wiz. Mr. Ray currently serves as resident costume designer for the St. Louis Black Repertory Company and as resident designer and instructor of costume design and make-up for Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts.
	Dawn Chiang (Lighting Designer) designed the lighting for ATC’s productions of Blues for an Alabama Sky and Oh Coward! She was resident lighting designer for New York City Opera, where her designs included Anna Bolena, Fanciulla del West and A Little Night Music. On Broadway, she designed Zoot Suit and Tango Pasion (co-designed with Richard Pilbrow). Off Broadway, she has designed for Manhattan Theatre Club and Roundabout Theatre Company. Her regional theatre credits include the Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Alley Theatre and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She was the creator, designer, performer for a lighting performance piece for the Whitney Museum of American Art, deLights: Art on 5 Outlets. Ms. Chiang has earned two DramaLogue Awards, a Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Nomination for Light Comedies (Ahamanson Theatre) and an American Theatre Wing Award nomination for A Man For All Seasons (Roundabout Theatre Company).
	Brian Jerome Peterson (Resident Sound Designer) celebrates his 20th season and 48th sound design for ATC, where he has designed, among others, Bad Dates, Macbeth, Permanent Collection, The Pirates of Penzance, The Immigrant, The Underpants, A Streetcar Named Desire, Oh Coward!, Over the Moon, Copenhagen, The Drawer Boy, Dirty Blonde, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Much Ado About Nothing, Fully Committed, Proof, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, The Mystery of Irma Vep (for which he won an ariZoni Award), Loot, The Road to Mecca, and the world premieres of Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, Minor Demons, and The Holy Terror. His designs have been heard in many theatres including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Mirada Theater, Virginia Stage Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Northlight Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre. Mr. Peterson has produced for several music groups, including Cuerpos Sin Sombra, The Trade, Eye Pennies, and The Hillwilliams.
	Bret Torbeck (Stage Manager) is making his ATC debut.  Last fall he was production stage manager for a new musical, Miracle Brothers, by Kirsten Childs at the Vineyard Theatre in New York.  As a regular stage manager for Seattle Repertory Theatre, his favorite shows have included Restoration Comedy, The Constant Wife, Take Me Out (West Coast tour), The Time of Your Life (also at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco), Topdog/Underdog, The Triumph of Love, In Real Life, Jar the Floor and Wit.  In 2001-02, he stage managed the national tour of Proof.  Mr. Torbeck has also worked at The Old Globe, Long Wharf Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, and ACT Theatre and has managed special event projects for Microsoft, Starbucks, Apple, and the Seattle Mariners.
	Glenn Bruner (Assistant Stage Manager) is in his ninth season at ATC where he has stage managed, among many others, Bad Dates, Pride and Prejudice, The Pirates of Penzance, Copenhagen, The Fantasticks, Much Ado About Nothing, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands and the world premieres of Steven Dietz’s Rocket Man, Inventing van Gogh, and Over the Moon. A stage manager since 1985, Mr. Bruner has worked at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, The Pasadena Playhouse, Center Stage, Studio Arena Theatre, Maine’s Portland Stage Company and Casa Mañana Musicals in Fort Worth. He was the ASM for the world premiere of On the Waterfront at The Cleveland Play House, and production stage manager for the off-Broadway premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings. Mr. Bruner has also been the voice for many radio and television commercials and was an announcer for Texas Public Radio in his hometown of San Antonio.
	Bruno Ingram (Assistant Stage Manager) has stage managed Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Pride and Prejudice, Macbeth, Anna in the Tropics, Talley’s Folly and The Underpants for ATC. He has worked as a stage manager for The Cleveland Play House and Theatre for a New Audience, on a variety of productions including Company, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Touch the Names, Jerusalem, Art, Cymbeline, and Julius Caesar. Mr. Ingram has also worked at Great Lakes Theatre Festival on six productions including A Christmas Carol and Tom Hanks: Now Playing Center.
	Cheryl Hanson (Assistant to the Stage Manager) recently worked at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She spent a season with the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where she was a production management and stage management apprentice and costume dresser for Hello Dolly. She has toured the East Coast and the Midwest with Chamber Theatre Productions out of Boston, MA. Her other credits include the world premiere of Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blue, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Betty’s Summer Vacation, Therese Raquin, Lonely Planet and The Adjustment.
	Actors Theatre of Louisville (Co-producer) one of the nation’s leading theatres, prominent for its presentation of new works, has premiered over 300 new plays since 1976 in its world renowned Humana Festival of New American Plays. These premieres include three Pulitzer Prize-winners – The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley and Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies – as well as Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, John Pielmeier’s Agnes of God, William Mastrosimone’s Extremities, Jane Martin’s Keely & Du, Tony Kushner’s Slavs! and Charles L. Mee’s Big Love. Actors Theatre has been the recipient of the prestigious Margo Jones Award, the Shubert Foundation’s James N. Vaughan Memorial Award, and the 1980 Tony Award for exceptional achievement. During its season, the professional company presents a diverse array of contemporary and classical works. Crowns will play in Louisville from April 19 to May 14, 2006.
	Portland Center Stage (Co-Producer) is a resident company of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, attracting more than 90,000 theatergoers annually.  With five mainstage and two second stage productions each season, PCS produces a blend of classical, contemporary and world premiere works in addition to its annual summer playwrights festival, Just Add Water/West.  PCS has embarked upon a $32.9 million capital campaign to renovate the historic Portland Armory and create a permanent home for the company.  The new facility, which will house a 600-seat mainstage and a 200-seat black box theater, is being designed to be the first historic rehabilitation, and hopes to be the first performing arts venue, to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating. To date, more than $16.6 million has been secured for the project and efforts are underway to open the new Armory Theater in the Fall of 2006. Crowns will play in Portland from March 14 to April 9, 2006.