Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. On Broadway, Lynn’s plays include MJ the Musical (Tony nomination), Clyde’s (Tony nomination), an opera adaptation of her play Intimate Apparel (commissioned by and performed at the Met/Lincoln Center Theater), and Sweat (Pulitzer Prize; Obie Award). Her other work includes the musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees at Atlantic Theater Company; Mlima’s Tale at The Public Theater; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Drama Desk Nomination) at Second Stage and Signature Theatre Company; Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award) at Manhattan Theatre Club and the Goodman Theatre; Intimate Apparel (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play) at Baltimore Center Stage and Roundabout Theatre Company; and Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (Obie Award) at Playwrights Horizons and Signature Theatre Company, as well as Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por’knockers; and POOF! She was a writer and producer on the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It (directed by Spike Lee) and a consulting producer on the third season of Dickinson (Apple TV+). Her many awards include a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a William Inge Theater Festival Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award, and she was an honoree at the inaugural Black Women on Broadway award ceremony. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, and an Associate Professor of Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts. 

(As of June 2022) 
 

Candis C. Jones is a New York-based theater director and former Washingtonian. Her selected credits include Cullud Wattah and Shadow/Land at The Public Theater, School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Detroit ’67 at Signature Theatre, Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays at Williamstown Theatre Festival, 53% Of at the Alliance Theatre, Bitch at Page 73 Productions, Everybody at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The House of the Negro Insane at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Pipeline at Detroit Public Theatre, The Wolves at American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Brother Rabbit at the New Black Fest, Name Calling at The Kennedy Center Page to Stage, morning in America at Primary Stages, and TEMBO! at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. She recently served as the Associate Director of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. Candis’s fellowships and awards include Women’s Project Theater Lab, Drama League Director's Fellowship, and the 2016 Lilly Award. She is an alumna of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and New York University. candiscjones.com.

(As of October 2022)

Dee Dee Batteast’s (she/her) recent regional credits include A Christmas Carol and Ohio State Murders at the Goodman Theatre; and Detroit ‘67 at the Clarence Brown Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Farmers Alley Theatre, and Indiana Repertory Theatre. Television credits include Chicago Fire, The Shinning Girls, and Chicago Med. She is currently adjunct acting faculty for Ball State University’s BFA program, where she teaches courses in beginning acting, auditioning, and one-person shows. She is also a proud alumni of Ball State (2007). In addition to acting, Dee Dee is a writer: her self-produced one-woman show No AIDS, No Maids enjoyed a successful run at the Capital Fringe Festival, where it received the Capital Fringe Honors for Favorite Show of Fringe and Favorite Solo Performance. Dee Dee received her MFA in acting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she spent three years as a company member of PlayMakers Repertory Company.

(As of February 2023)

Kashayna Johnson (she/her) is an actress, writer, and artist educator who is making her Studio Theatre debut. Her theater credits include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at Round House Theatre; Junk at Arena Stage; She A Gem at The Kennedy Center; for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf at Theater Alliance; and Romeo and Juliet at Prince George’s Shakespeare in the Parks. She can also be seen in season two of the Epix series Godfather of Harlem. Kashayna is a two-time Helen Hayes nominee who has trained with The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts (DC), British American Dramatic Academy (England), and most recently with Lena Waithe’s production company Hillman Grad (LA), as a Class of 2022 Acting Mentee through their Mentorship Lab. On social media @ShayLa_vie (Instagram). 

(As of February 2023)

Quinn M. Johnson is a DC-based actor and artist. His theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Our Town, and The Merchant of Venice at the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC); Red at Theatre Artists Studio; The Glass Menagerie at Fountain Hills Theater; Mother Courage and Her Children, The Changeling, and The Bacchae at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and Hedda Gabbler at The Academy at STC. Quinn is an alum of RADA and The Academy at STC. On social media @q.m.johnson (Instagram) quinnMjohnson.com. 

(As of February 2023)

Brandon Ocasio is an actor and creator based out of Queens, New York, who is making his theatrical debut in Clyde’s at Studio. Brandon can be seen on television in episodes of Blue Bloods, New Amsterdam, and Lioness. Brandon can also be seen in a national television commercial for Navy Federal Credit Union. On social media @brandonocasio (Instagram and Facebook). 

(As of February 2023)

Lamont Thompson is making his Studio Theatre debut. Lamont currently resides in San Francisco but began his acting career in Atlanta with Jomandi Production Inc. He has worked in theatres all around the country including Cal Shakes, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, First Stage (Milwaukee), and The Robey Theatre Company. His most recent work was playing Memphis in Two Trains Running at The Marin Theatre Company. Lamont has also spent two decades working in television. Television credits include The Resident, The Upshaws, The Lincoln Lawyer, Miracle Workers, 68 Whiskey, Snowfall, and NCIS: Los Angeles. He is an alumni of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. His performance is dedicated to all those who aren’t “scared to make the hard choices” and to Miss Nadia, who inspires him every day to put happiness at the center of his choices.

(As of February 2023)