Fela! CAST AND CREATIVE
“A star-making performance [by] the hypnotic Sahr Ngaujah.”
Eric Grode, The New York Sun
SAHR NGAUJAH (Fela Anikulapo Kuti). Sahr’s career spans work with F. Hendrioks, D. Hamilton and T. Habeger (Atlanta, GA) to G. Timmers (Rotterdam) and F. Richter (Berlin). He is the Theatre Director of Rotterdam’s Lef Act Festival and a collaborator with MC (Amsterdam). A graduate of Dasarts, his most recent creation is Conversations with Ice. Recent films include The Signal and Blood Done Sign My Name.
“Abena Koomson is arresting as Fela's mother.”
Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News
ABENA KOOMSON (Funmilayo) is a performer, educator and graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. She is managing director of Actors Stock Company and founding member of Saheli, an a cappella women’s trio where she performs and composes. Abena is thrilled to be a part of this project, and dedicates her performance to her grandmothers.
“As Sandra, the personification of sexy femininity, Sparlha Swa sings and moves to perfection and dazzlingly looks the part.” John Simon
SPARLHA SWA (Sandra). Singer and composer Sparlha Swa has toured to Canada, Europe and Japan, headlining at the Blue Note Jazz Cafe, Joe’s Pub and BAM. She has a label released in Japan and two independent film scores and is working on her fourth album. Born in Jamaica, a Stanford graduate. www.sparlhaswa.com
“The eight proud beauties in tribal Victoria's Secret threaten to burn
a hole in the stage.” David Rooney, Variety
ANNE "VICTOIRE" ANDRE (Ensemble) is a health educator, model, singer, performing artist and mom. Her Haitian roots have allowed her to embrace the music, dancers and customs of various cultures. She gives special thanks and praises to the spiritual guides assigned to her journey this life. I am so grateful to be in the presence of such beauty and excellence every day.
COREY BAKER (Ensemble)is the Co-Artistic director of Ballet Noir. He was a principal dancer with Philadanco and has performed with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre and Ballet X. As a choreographer he’s presented at the Montreal Fringe Festival, The Toronto Street Festival, The Riverside Church’s Now Dance Festival and Philadelphia International Records, among others. He will be setting a new piece at Nashville Ballet this fall. “Thank You God for giving me the vision and strength to embark on this journey.”
CALVIN BOOKER (Ensemble). A Brooklyn native, Booker has been performing since the age of 4. He was a member of The Young Hoofers, a tap dance group directed by Traci Mann, at age 8. A graduate of LaGuardia High School of the Arts, Calvin is a member of Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn. He would like to thank all who are instrumental in his artistic and spiritual development.
LAUREN DE VEAUX (Ensemble). “Thank you!” Balafon West African DanceEnsemble, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Asase Yaa African American Dance Theatre, Purelements. Special Thanks to Mama Kadiatou Conte, Anna and Barry VanCura, Nathan Trice, Ronald K. Brown and George Faison. Eternal love to my family, friends and husband for your support. www.ladeveaux.com
NICOLE CHANTAL DE WEEVER (Ensemble). Native of St. Maarten, Nederlands Antillies and graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Nicole has worked with choreographers Jamel Gaines, George Faison, Abdel Salaam, Rob Ashford and Joey McKneely. She has performed with Prophecy’s Dance Works, Forces of Nature, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn and is a featured dancer in the Library of Congress documentary on the Katherine Dunham technique. She was recently a part of the world tour of West Side Story and is extremely honored and blessed to be apart of this.
RUJEKO DUMBUTSHENA (Ensemble) is from the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe. Since leaving in 1994, she has performed at prestigious institutions throughout the world: The Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York and the Sydney Opera House. Rujeko is currently on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.
AIMEE GRAHAM (Ensemble)was born in Central African Republic and grew up in Paris where she performed with Steffie Session and Laura Scozzi. She moved to New York City in 2001 where she studied African dance with Abdel Salaam. Aimee gives many thanks to the ancestors for guiding her way from Bangui to Off-Broadway!
TALU GREEN (Drummer, Mover). As a child, Brooklyn native Talu Green visited a variety of countries in Africa where he experienced firsthand the music of traditional African instruments. Talu made his stage debut when he was barely 8 in Dance Africa at BAM where he performed with his mother’s percussion ensemble, Visions in Peace, the name he continues to use for his own percussion ensemble.
KARMA MAYET JOHNSON (Female Principal Understudy, Swing) is grateful to have recently worked with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Meshell Ndegeocello, Burnt Sugar, Toshi Reagon and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. She is composer/director of Indigo, A Blues Opera—the staging of her novel, Nothin’ in All This World. Karma is honored to join Mr. Jones and this superb cast.
“The superb ensemble is shape-shiftingly led by the inexhaustible
Ismael Kouyate and Calvin C. Booker.” John Simon
ISMAEL KOUYATÉ (Ensemble) was born into a family of Maninka musicians and praise-singers in Guinea, West Africa, from whom he began learning at a young age. He trained with Conakry’s Ballet Communale de Matam, and later danced and sang for Guinea’s national company Les Ballets Africains. Ismael now lives and teaches in New York City.
MAIA MCKINNEY (Ensemble). Originally from Detroit, Maia received a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan. Since moving to NYC in 2003 she briefly understudied with Urban Bush Women and was a featured performer with Forces of Nature Dance Theatre.
MARCUS PHILLIPS (Swing) is a recent graduate of California Institute of the Arts with a B.F.A. in Dance, and is very pleased to be a part of such wonderful artistry and creation. Marcus is profoundly moved and grateful for the Presence he finds in every rehearsal and every person he is working with.
DANIEL SOTO (Ensemble) began studying at Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn under the guidance of Jamel Ganies, Laki Worreral, Kevin Joseph and Shirley Black Brown Coward. After attending Purchase College Dance Conservatory, he went on to perform in various international projects, such as the Spoleto Festival, Essence Awards, Acapulco Film Festival and many more.
JILL VALLERY (Ensemble) is a performing/teaching artist, model and choreographer based in New York City. She received a Certificate in Dance from The Ailey School and worked with various artist/companies including Tsidii LeLoka of The Lion King, Prophecy Dance, Opus Dance Theatre of Harlem and recording artists Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.
IRIS WILSON (Ensemble) is a Dance Educator at P.S/I.S 268Q. She holds a Master’s degree in Dance Education from NYU and is the founder of the dance studio It’s Dance. Iris has performed nationally and internationally with companies such as Opus Dance Theater, Ka Nu Dance, Dinizulu African Dancers and Drummers, Bousso African Dance Company and Haiti Dansco. She is proud to be joining the Fela! family Off-Broadway after appearing in the original workshop. Iris thanks the creator for all blessings. Ashe.
JON GOLDMAN (Production Stage Manager). Off-Broadway: Betrayed, Secret Order, Such Good Friends, Journey to the West, Transatlantic Liaison. New York: A Christmas Carol, The Ticket, Never Tell, Havana Bourgeois. Regional & touring selections: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Crowns; ALittle Night Music; Bat Boy the Musical; Jane Eyre the Musical. Other theatre credits include American Stage Festival, Ordway Music Theatre and TheatreWorks Palo Alto.
HILARY AUSTIN (Assistant Stage Manager). Off-Broadway: My Life As a Fairy Tale, Miss Julie, Blueprint. New York: The Apostle Project, Canticle, Blind Mouth Singing, Hair, Rocket to the Moon, Working, All Good Things,The Winter’s Tale, Hip Hop Theater Festival. Regional: Raven Odyssey (Perseverance Theater, Juneau AK). Resident Stage Manager and Company Manager Theater Mitu. Death of a Salesman. Upcoming: Fences, American Buffalo.
"Jones has made musical theater into something urgent and eloquent.”
Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News
BILL T. JONES (Conceiver / Director / Choreographer / Book Writer) is the recipient of a 2007 Tony® Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Harlem Renaissance Award; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Mr. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, which is currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary. He has created more than 100 works for his company.
JIM LEWIS (Conceiver / Book Writer / Additional Lyrics) Broadway credits include Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Tony®, Drama Desk Nominations), Dangerous Games (with Graciela Daniele), Tango Apaisionado. Dance/Opera: Paul Dresher’s The Tyrant; Ballet Hispanico’s Nightclub; Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles (BAM); PastFORWARD (Mikhail Baryshnikov, BAM). Translations: Ionesco’s The Chairs; Ibsen’s Lady From The Sea. Dramaturge: House Arrest (Anna Deavere Smith); Dream On Monkey Mountain (Bill T. Jones); Art Spiegelman’s Drawn To Death; Dido And Aeneas (Spoleto); Bill T. Jones 20th Anniversary Still/Here (BAM). He is currently working on This Beautiful City with The Civilians, touring nationally with an NYC premiere set for January 2009 at The Vineyard.
ANTIBALAS (Arrangements / Musicians) Credited with introducing Afrobeat to a new generation, this Brooklyn-based collective has released four critically-acclaimed albums since forming in 1998, and can been heard on numerous Afrobeat compilations. Antibalas has performed more than 700 concerts around the world including appearances at the Coachella, Newport and the Montreux Festivals.
AARON JOHNSON (Musical Director) Antibalas’s trombonist/conductor since 2000, Aaron studied music at The New School and as since become an in-demand trombonist and arranger, having recorded and performed with such artists as the Wu-Tang Clan, Mary J. Blige, Femi Kuti, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Angelique Kidjo and TV on the radio. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.
NIEGEL SMITH (Associate Director) is a freelance theatre director and is the Artistic Leadership Associate at The Public Theater. As co-Artistic Director of Permiso, Niegel has co-conceived and staged four mass rituals in public settings. He has assisted directors Jo Bonney, James Lapine, Kristin Marting, Richard Nelson and George C. Wolfe. For his work, he has received grants and fellowships from Theatre Communications Group, the Van Lier Fund, the Tucker Foundation and Dartmouth College.
MAIJA GARCIA (Associate Choreographer) is director of OrganicMagnetics, generating movement in live theater, and urban folklore in creative pedagogy. Garcia's choreographic works have been commissioned by Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Dance New Amsterdam, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, The Melting Pot NYC, and Danza Contemporanea Narciso Medina in Havana, Cuba. A performing artist with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company since 2004, Maija raises both fists in gratitude, Ase!
“The spectacular Romanian designer Marina Draghici has created cheekily effective scenery and unsparingly lush costumes.” John Simon
MARINA DRAGHICI (Set & Costume Design) Obie winner Marina Draghici has collaborated with Bill T. Jones on Dream on MonkeyMountain(Guthrie Theater) and 24 Images Secondes (Lyons Opera). Her work has been seen at the Paris National Opera, Zurich Opera, Grand Theatre de Bordeaux, Opera de Nice, NYCO, Edinburgh Festival, National Theater of Prague, Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center, among others around the world. Film/TV: The Grey Zone, Heights, Dexter, Twelve and Holding, S.O.P.,Rage,Push. Marina was born in Bucharest, Romania and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
ROBERT WIERZEL (Lighting Design) has collaborated with Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company for over 23 years. Broadway: David Copperfield’s Dreams and Nightmares. Off-Broadway: New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons. Regional theatres: Chicago Shakespeare, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum. Productions with opera companies in Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Washington, Chicago and New York.
ROBERT KAPLOWITZ (Sound Design) received an Obie for Sustained Excellence in the 2006–07 season. Has designed for NYTW, The Public, MTC, P.S.122, Second Stage, Primary Stages, Roundabout, Signature, Soho Rep, The Vineyard, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Sundance and many more. As much as he loves his work, he loves Kittson and Niall even more.
PETER NIGRINI (Projection Design). Broadway: Say Goodnight Gracie. Off- Broadway: No Dice (Soho Rep), The Orphan of Zhao (Lincoln Center Festival), Fragment (Classic Stage Company), Elle (The Art Party), Biro (Public Theater). Regional: Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown), Camille (Summerscape). Opera: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (New York City Opera), Frau Margot (Fort Worth Opera). Dance: Blind Date, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance. Upcoming: Romeo and Juliet (Nature Theater of Oklahoma at Salzburger Festspiele), 9 to 5: The Broadway Musical.
IRLO, Omar and Nuclear Fairy (Original Mural/Scenic Art) Three of the most intriguing Romanian street artists, all in their twenties, they are part of a new generation that radically breaks with the totalitarian past of Eastern Europe. Their murals and graffiti can be seen in all major Romanian cities, as well as in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Iraq. Their work has also been exhibited in the US: in Manhattan at the Romanian Gallery (Freedom for Lazy People, featured by Wooster Collective); in Brooklyn at Rubulad; in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, during Burning Man 2008. The artists’ participation was supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.
MUNGIOLI THEATRICALS, INC. (Casting). Currently: Francesca Zambello’s Little House on the Prairie, Pittsburgh CLO, North Shore Music Theatre. Recent TV/film: Nickelodeon, The Entertainer (E!). Disney: High School Musical, The Lion King, Aladdin; When You Wish. Broadway/ Off-Broadway: Marko the Prince, Ragtime, Fosse, Show Boat, Candide, Sunset Boulevard, Kiss of the Spider Woman. Regionally: Trinity Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Member: Casting Society of America. www.mungiolitheatricals.com.
RICHARD KORNBERG & ASSOCIATES (Press Representative) represents Hairspray, Rent, Spiegelworld, New York Theatre Workshop, Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Performance Space 122, Intar, Les Freres Corbusier, dance companies produced by The Joyce Theater, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and MOMIX. Past productions include The Little Dog Laughed, I Am My Own Wife, Death of a Salesman. Upcoming: Fences, American Buffalo.
ART MEETS COMMERCE (Advertising/ New Media Services) is a commercial producer and new media marketing advertising company. Producing credits include Almost an Evening, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Bug and Nightmare Haunted House. Clients include Vineyard Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Three Mo’Tenors, Rock of Ages, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Xanadu, Vanities-A New Musical and Pure Country.
WALK TALL GIRL PRODUCTIONS (Marketing). Founded by Marcia Pendelton in 2000, WTGP is dedicated to making the arts accessible to the widest possible audience. Current Broadway clients include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Lion King and the upcoming revival of American Buffalo.
RUTH and STEPHEN HENDEL (Co-Conceiver / Producer) Ruth’s Broadway credits include: In The Heights; Passing Strange; Legally Blonde; Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway; High Fidelity; The Lieutenant of Inishmore; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Caroline, Or Change; A Raisin in the Sun; Golda’s Balcony; Frozen; ‘Night Mother; Steel Magnolias; Barefoot in the Park; Metamorphoses. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz; Our Lady of 121st Street; The Exonerated; Red Light Winter; tick tick…Boom!. Los Angeles: As Much As You Can. Ruth Hendel is on the boards of the LAByrinth Theater, The Play Company and the Yale School of Drama Leadership Committee; She is vice-chair, and Stephen is Treasurer of the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Waterford, CT. Stephen also serves on the boards of The New Group, The Culture Project, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company and on the Board of Visitors of the Yale School of Music. Ruth and Stephen have a wonderful family and love them very much.
ROY GABAY (Producer / General Manager) Producing credits include: The Little Dog Laughed; Metamorphoses; Frozen; A View From the Bridge (Tony® Award); How I Learned to Drive (Pulitzer Prize); Wit (Pulitzer Prize); Three Tall Women (Pulitzer Prize). Upcoming: Behind the Limelight; Cassandra’s Angel.