SALLY & TOM DIGITAL PROGRAM

SALLY & TOM

BY SUZAN-LORI

PARKS

DIRECTED BY TIMOTHY DOUGLAS

FROM ROUND HOUSE LEADERSHIP

Welcome to Round House Theatre for the final production of our extraordinary 2025–2026 season, the regional premiere of Sally & Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Timothy Douglas.

This production marks our third play by the phenomenal Suzan-Lori Parks, one of the most vital voices in American theatre, following Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II & III) and Topdog/Underdog. Her work consistently challenges us to confront our history with honesty, rigor, and humanity, and with Sally & Tom, she turns her lasersharp focus on one of the most enduring contradictions at the heart of our nation’s founding, the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, it feels especially urgent to grapple with the story of Jefferson and Hemings. The author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal" while enslaving hundreds of people. Among them was Hemings, with whom he had a long relationship that began when he was 41 and she was 14. Their story resists simple conclusions and continues to reverberate today.

Rather than attempting to resolve these contradictions, Parks takes a distinctly theatrical approach. She places a contemporary theatre company at the center of the story, dramatizing the act of trying to tell this history. The play moves between past and present, examining not only Jefferson and Hemings, but also the artists grappling with how to represent them. In doing so, Sally & Tom becomes a work about storytelling, art, commerce, race, relationships, and the ways our history continues to shape our present.

We are thrilled to welcome back director Timothy Douglas, whose productions have been among the most powerful and memorable in Round House history. He is joined by a remarkable group of artists, including a number of Round House favorites. We’re particularly excited to have three former Artist Members of our Board of Trustees (Timothy, Ro Boddie, and Kimberly Gilbert) working on this show together. It is a true homecoming of extraordinary talent!

This production closes a season that has been one of the most successful in our history, with The Inheritance, Rules for Living, and Nothing Up My Sleeve becoming the second, third, and fourth highest-grossing productions we have ever produced. We are deeply grateful to all of you for making this season so meaningful. We hope you will consider making a gift today to help sustain this momentum and make possible the ambitious work, artist support, education programs, and free community events that define Round House.

Looking ahead, we invite you to join us for our 50th Anniversary Season in 2026–2027. Alongside five mainstage productions, the season will include a world premiere for our teen performance company, four new play workshops, and more than 50 free events, from readings and classes to community celebrations. It promises to be a landmark year! If you haven’t already done so, we hope you’ll considering subscribing and joining us for everything we have to offer.

Thank you for being here, and for continuing to engage with work that challenges, inspires, and brings us together.

RYAN RILETTE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

ED ZAKRESKI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Round House Theatre extends its deep gratitude to our generous sponsors of Sally & Tom

The 2025–2026 Season is sponsored by Linda J. Ravdin & Don Shapero and David & Sherry Smith

“We are delighted to welcome Timothy Douglas back to Round House for this exciting and timely play by Suzan-Lori Parks, a play that calls for bold direction and a cast and crew that are equally up to the task. Sally & Tom could not be in better hands as it deals with sensitive, uniquely American issues that reverberate to this day. Round House again reminds us why supporting theatre matters.”

Susan Gilbert and Ronald Schechter

“We believe theatre is one of the last places where empathy can be practiced in real time—where history, humanity, and imagination meet.

Sally & Tom asks us to look more closely at stories that complicate and connect us. Supporting this work is our way of investing in a more compassionate world, one audience at a time.”

The GPS Fund

“We are thrilled to support the regional premiere of Sally & Tom. SuzanLori Parks' intellectually probing, yet humorous, interrogation of the many contradictions layered within American history is just in time for the 250th anniversary of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. Who gets to tell the history? In the words of Suzan-Lori Parks, ‘A Black play is of the people, by the people, and for the people.’”

Rafael Hernandez Mayoral and Laura Roulet

“We’ve been proud to support Round House for many years, and it continues to surprise us with work that challenges what we think we know. Sally & Tom feels like exactly the kind of piece that invites us to reconsider our assumptions while still delighting us with theatrical invention. We’re eager to see how this ‘play within a play’ unfolds—it sounds both thought-provoking and wonderfully entertaining.”

Judy and Leo Zickler

To become a sponsor for an upcoming Round House Theatre production, please contact Michael Barret Jones, Director of Development, at 240.670.8795 or MJones@RoundHouseTheatre.org.

CREATIVE TEAM

ROUND HOUSE THEATRE

RYAN RILETTE , Artistic Director, and ED ZAKRESKI, Executive Director PRESENT

CAST

Mike/Tom ........................ JOSIAH BANIA*

Luce/Sally ........................ RENEA S. BROWN *

Ginger/Patsy ...................... KIMBERLY GILBERT*

Geoff/Cooper ..................... COLIN SPHAR*

Kwame/James .................... RO BODDIE*

Maggie/Mary ..................... NICOLE RUTHMARIE

By SUZAN-LORI PARKS

Directed by TIMOTHY DOUGLAS

Scenic Designer ................... TONY CISEK

Costume Designer ................. DANIELLE PRESTON

& TOM May 27 – June 28, 2026

Scout/Polly ....................... CHARLOTTE KIM

Devon/Nathan ..................... JAMAR JONES*

UNDERSTUDIES

Ginger/Patsy and Scout/Polly ........ JANINE BAUMGARDNER

Luce/Sally and Maggie/Mary ......... RAKELL FOYE

Geoff/Cooper ..................... JOHN GEOFFRION

Kwame/James and Devon/Nathan .... TYLER “T” LANG

Mike/Tom ........................ COLIN SPHAR*

Lighting Designer JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW

Composer and Sound Designer ....... MATTHEW M. NIELSON

Projections Designer ............... DELANEY BRAY

Hair and Wig Designer .............. L A SHAWN MELTON

Choreographer .................... DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI

Intimacy and Fight Choreographer .... SIERRA YOUNG

Dramaturg ........................ NAYSAN MOJGANI

Casting Director ................... SARAH COONEY

Assistant Director. .

JASMINE BHAGROO

Stage Manager CHE WERNSMAN*

SALLY & TOM RUNS APPROXIMATELY TWO HOURS AND 45 MINUTES WITH ONE INTERMISSION.

Originally Developed and New York Premiere Production by The Public Theatre Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Patrick Willingham, Executive Director

Sally & Tom is sponsored by Susan Gilbert & Ronald Schechter, The GPS Fund,

and Judy & Leo Zickler.

The 2025-2026 Season is sponsored by Linda J. Ravdin & Don

and

Hernandez

& Laura

*As indicated, Actors and Stage Managers appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designer of this production are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE.

Founded in 1913, Equity is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions, and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks

The Director and Choreographer are members of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Production Manager.

Assistant

Assistant

Scenic

Props

Light

Sound

Drapers/Stitchers

Props Artisan

CAST

JOSIAH BANIA (Mike/Tom) is thrilled to return to Round House for this production, having previously performed here in Ironbound. Select credits include The Oresteia at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Ironbound at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Geffen Playhouse; Archduke at Mark Taper Forum; Fingersmith at American Repertory Theatre; and The Way of the World at Dorset Theater Festival. TV Credits include New Amsterdam, The Good Wife, The Mysteries of Laura, and Leverage. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

RO BODDIE (Kwame/James) is thrilled to be returning to Round House. Previous Round House credits include Topdog/Underdog The Mountaintop Radio Golf, The Tempest, A Boy and His Soul, and Master Harold…and the Boys. DC credits include The World to Come at Woolly Mammoth; The American Five at Ford's Theatre; Paradise Blue, Pipeline, Three Sisters No Sisters, and Dirt at Studio Theatre; Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Tempestuous Elements at Arena Stage; and The Agitators at Mosaic Theater Company. Off-Broadway credits include Socrates at The Public and Seize The King at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Select TV credits include Godfather of Harlem, Run the World, and The Good Wife. Ro is a proud alum of UNCSA '09. On social media @roboddieart

RENEA S. BROWN (Luce/Sally) is excited to return to Round House Theatre! Previous Round House credits include Moxie in Sojourners, Camae in The Mountaintop Dede in Nollywood Dreams and Assistant Director on The Tempest. DC credits include Metamorphoses and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Folger Theatre; Covenant and Furlough’s Paradise at Theatre Alliance; The American Five at Ford’s Theatre; Tempestuous Elements and Change Agent at Arena Stage; The Tempest and Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Love Factually at the Kennedy Center; Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth at Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre; and Macbeth and Cymbeline at Theatre Prometheus. TV/Film: Godfather of Harlem (MGM+), Law and Order (NBC), Water in a Broken Glass, and Beauty's Keeper (Amazon). MFA: Academy of Classical Acting. Instagram/TikTok: @Therealdarklady

KIMBERLY GILBERT (Ginger/Patsy) last appeared at Round House Theatre in What the Constitution Means to Me and Jennifer Who Is Leaving. Other Round House credits include Oslo, The Book of Will, Angels in America, Uncle Vanya, The Lyons, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Recent credits include Appropriate at Olney Theatre Center, Cyrano at Taffety Punk, Marjorie Prime at Prologue, POTUS at The Arden in Philly, and A Christmas Carol at Ford’s. Kimberly has been in the DC Theatreverse since the year 2000, where she has been fortunate enough to play on the stage of Round House, as well as Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre, Theater J, Forum, Mosaic Theater Company, Source, Metro Stage, Spooky Action, Prologue, and, most often, Woolly Mammoth and Taffety Punk Theatres, both of which she is a proud Company Member. Kimberly is a graduate of STC Academy.

JAMAR JONES (Devon/Nathan) is returning to Round House Theatre after last being seen in The Inheritance, Parts One and Two. DC credits include Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt… at Woolly Mammoth. Regional credits include Blues for an Alabama Sky at Seattle Rep; Fat Ham, Much Ado about Nothing, Emma, The Legend of Georgia McBride A Wrinkle in Time, Hamlet and The Skin of Our Teeth at PlayMakers Repertory Company; Black Like Me at Chautauqua Theater Company; Toni Stone at Playhouse on Park; Fires in the Mirror (2022 RTCC Award- Best Lead Performance/Play) and Passing Strange at Firehouse Theater; An Octoroon (2019 RTCC Award- Best Actor/Play) and Topdog/Underdog at TheatreLab; and Fences at Virginia Rep. Television includes Law & Order. MFA: UNC at Chapel Hill. jamarjonesofficial.com.

CHARLOTTE KIM (Scout/Polly) is thrilled to be back at Round House after making her debut in the reading of Marble Rooftop earlier this year. Other DC credits include Young Americans at 1st Stage; The Figs and Klecksography at Rorschach Theatre; and Cake Eaters with The Welders. Other regional credits include The Wolves at Southampton Cultural Center. Charlotte is also a member of The Moon Girls, a creative trio performing their original irreverent comedies around the DMV. BA: George Washington University. Instagram: @charred.latte

NICOLE RUTHMARIE (Maggie/Mary) is thrilled to return to Round House Theatre! Round House credits include A Jumping-Off Point (Understudy). Other DC-area credits include Bell Wringer (Capital Fringe Best Musical Winner), Use All Available Doors, and The H Twins with Pinky Swear Productions; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies, and School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play at NextStop Theatre Company; Heartland and Unprotected with Pipeline Playwrights; Oleanna at Perisphere Theater; Cracking Zeus and Can’t Complain, I’ve Seen It All at Spooky Action; A Comedy of Errors with PG Shakespeare in the Parks; and The Trojan Women Project, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V with Brave Spirits Theatre. Instagram: @nicoleruthmarie. www.nicoleruthmarie.com (She/Her)

UNDERSTUDIES

JANINE BAUMGARDNER (Scout/Polly and Ginger/Patsy Understudy) is excited to join the company of Sally & Tom! Favorite DC credits include The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience with Netflix/Shondaland/Fever; Twelfth Night (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble), Romeo and Juliet, and many other productions at Synetic Theater; Fiddler on the Roof at Olney Theatre Center; Astro Boy and the God of Comics (Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Ensemble and Production) and Monstress at Flying V Theatre; Jardín salvaje (Native Gardens) at GALA Hispanic Theatre; Squeakers and Mr. Gumdrop at Arts on the Horizon; and The Rite of Spring at Pointless Theatre Co. BFA: George Mason University School of Dance. Instagram: @janinebaumgardner

RAKELL FOYE (Luce/Sally and Maggie/Mary Understudy) is excited to make her Round House debut! Recent credits include: Galatea at Theatre Prometheus, Chicken and Biscuits at NextStop Theatre Company, Honey Bee Baby at Rapid Lemons Productions, and Macbeth at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. BA: Bowie State University, Acting/Directing

JOHN GEOFFRION (Geoff/Cooper Understudy) is delighted to make his Round House Theatre debut. DC credits include Arabian Nights and Good Woman of Setzuan at Constellation Theatre; Cherry Orchard, Edward III, and Kafka's Dick at WSC/Avant Bard; Sink the Belgrano!, Guilt, and War of the Worlds at Scena Theatre; and The African Company Presents Richard III at Howard University. Regional credits include Our Town at Everyman Theatre; Amadeus at New Rep; I Capture the Castle at Greater Boston Stage; Gross Indecency (Best Actor, IRNE & BWW Boston) and Arcadia at Bad Habit; Art, Loot, and Three Days of Rain at Hub Theatre Boston; Our Town at Peterborough Players; and Stones In His Pockets and Candida at Acadia Rep. MFA: Catholic University. johngeoffrion.com

COLIN SPHAR (Geoff/Cooper) is making his Round House Theatre debut with Sally & Tom. Colin lives in Chicago where he appeared in the U.S. premiere of Posh at Steep Theatre as well as the world premiere of Luna Gale at Goodman Theatre and its west coast premiere at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Other regional theatre includes We Are Proud to Present… at Theater Emory; Dial M for Murder at Theatre Squared; The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley at Capital Stage; Romeo and Juliet at Southwest Shakespeare; and work with Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Teatro Vista, Red Orchid, TimeLine, Primary Stages, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. TV credits include Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med. Colin trained at The Theatre School at DePaul University.

TYLER “T” LANG ( Kwame/James and Devon/Nathan Understudy) is thrilled to make his Round House Theatre debut. T is a Chicago-born actor, playwright, producer, and singer currently based in the DMV and studying at Howard University. He has worked with La MaMa ETC, VOCA, Cara Mia Theatre Co., Kitchen Dog Theater, Shakespeare Dallas, Junior Players, Echo Theatre, and Soul Rep Theatre. Most recently, his original play Changes played Off-Broadway in NYC with Howard and CUA collaborators. He was also the first Howard playwright selected for La MaMa’s International Umbria in Spoleto, Italy, and will soon appear on HBO Max’s Evil Lives Here. Instagram: @Eazyt2002

COLIN SPHAR (Mike/Tom Understudy) See bio for Geoff/Cooper

CREATIVE TEAM

SUZAN-LORI PARKS (Playwright) is a multi-award-winning American writer and musician. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog which recently enjoyed its 20th anniversary Broadway revival and won the 2023 Tony Award. Other notable plays include Sally & Tom (2024), Plays for the Plague (Drama Desk Best Music, 2023), and Father Comes Home from the Wars (2014). Parks’s first marathon writing “diary play” 365 Days/365 Plays—in which she wrote a play a day for an entire year—was produced at more than 700 theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, her novel Getting Mother’s Body is published by Random House. She also writes extensively for the screen—most recently, as the showrunner/executive producer/head writer for the television show Genius: Aretha. She is an alumna of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College where she studied creative writing with James Baldwin, who encouraged Parks to begin writing for the theatre. In her spare time, Parks also writes songs and fronts her band SLP & The Joyful Noise.

TIMOTHY DOUGLAS (Director) returns "home" to Round House, where he has staged the U.S. premiere of Nine Night, as well as Gem of the Ocean, Father Comes Home From the Wars, Two Trains Running Permanent Collection, A Lesson Before Dying and performed the role of Teacher in Small Mouth Sounds. DC-area credits include As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III at Folger Theatre; The Color Purple (Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical), Where the Mountains Meets the Sea, and Spunk at Signature Theatre; Nina Simone: Four Women, Disgraced, and King Hadley II at Arena Stage; Fences at Ford's Theatre; Long Way Down at The Kennedy Center; Proof at Olney Theatre Center; and projects at Studio Theatre, Theatre Alliance, and Woolly Mammoth. Regional and international credits include productions for 24 Hour Plays/Broadway, Berkeley Rep, Boston Lyric Opera, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Classic Stage Company, Denver Center, Downstage (New Zealand), Great Theatre of China, Guthrie, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mark Taper Forum, McCarter, National Theatret (Norway), New Orleans Opera, NIDA (Australia), Red Bull, South Coast Rep, Sundance Theatre Institute/ MENA (Morocco), Yale Rep, and many others. MFA: Yale School of Drama. timothydouglas.org

TONY CISEK (Scenic Designer) Previous Round House credits include Ink, The Great Leap, Gem of the Ocean, Father Comes Home From the Wars, Stage Kiss, NSFW, Two Trains Running, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Trip to Bountiful, and the premiere of columbinus. Recent DC and regional credits include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone with Indiana Rep and Syracuse Stage; In Clay at Signature Theatre; The Hot Wing King with Denver Center Theatre Company; Kiss of the Spider Woman with GALA Theatre; and Primary Trust with Cincinnati Playhouse and McCarter Theatre. Tony has also collaborated with Roundabout Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Goodman Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Rep, Pioneer Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Guthrie Theatre, among others. tonycisek.com

DANIELLE PRESTON (Costume Designer) is a Washington, DC-based costume designer working in theatre. Recent designs include projects at Round House Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, Olney Theatre Center, Barrington Stage Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Signature Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Berkshire Theater Group, and Theater J. Danielle holds a M.F.A. in Costume Design from the University of North Carolina School of the

Arts. Danielle received the 2022 OPERA America Tobin Director-Designer Prize, the 2015 Kenan Costume Fellow for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and the 2013 A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute Fellowship in Costume Design.

JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW (Lighting Designer) is making her Round House Theatre debut. Broadway Credits include Kimberly Akimbo and The Thanksgiving Play. Off-Broadway credits include The Connector at MCC Theater, Wine in the Wilderness at Classic Stage Company, Chinese Republicans at Roundabout Theatre Company, Richard II at Red Bull Theater, Oratorio for Living Things at Signature Theatre NYC, cullud wattah at The Public, The Nosebleed at Lincoln Center Theater, and Gloria: A Life at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Regional credits include A Wrinkle in Time at Arena Stage; Macbeth in Stride, King Lear, and Merry Wives at The Shakespeare Theatre Company; Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard at Ford’s Theatre; Wizard of OZ at Children’s Theatre Company; The Reservoir at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theatre, and the Geffen Playhouse; and The Odyssey at American Repertory Theater. Jeanette is a 2026 USA Fellow, and has received an Obie for Sustained Achievement in Design, a Henry Hewes Lighting Design Award, and a LIT Design Award. MFA: California Institute of the Arts. Jeanetteyew.com (She/Her)

MATTHEW M. NIELSON (Composer and Sound Designer) returns to Round House Theatre for Sally & Tom after designing for many Round House productions including Ink, Homebound, Spring Awakening, The Legend of Georgia McBride, The Book of Will, Two Trains Running Around the World in 80 Days, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. DC-area credits include Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Theatre Alliance, CATF, and The Smithsonian. Off-Broadway credits include The Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, and 59e59. Regional credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Denver Performing Arts Center, Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Barrington Stage Company. Film/ TV credits include Those Who Wait, The Hero Effect, Elbow Grease, From Hell to Here, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Delivery.com. Matthew has won five Helen Hayes Awards and several regional theatre and film festival awards. matthewnielson.com

DELANEY BRAY (Projections Designer) is a sound and projections designer/engineer, happily lending both skill sets to this production. Previous work at Round House includes Rules for Living and What the Constitution Means to Me (designer) The Mountaintop and Radio Golf (associate designer); A Hanukkah Carol, Or Gelt Trip! The Musical Next to Normal; The Tempest (front of house mixer); and Quixote Nuevo (A2). Additional credits include Cinderella: A Salsa Fairytale at Imagination Stage; Hurricane Diane at Avant Bard; Beastgirl and Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie and Spells of the Sea at The Kennedy Center; as well as audio engineering credits at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Constellation Theatre Company, and Studio Theatre.

L A SHAWN MELTON (Hair and Wig Designer) previously designed wigs for Round House’s production of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Other DC area credits include Little Miss Perfect (Wig Design), Senior Class (Wig Design), and Comedy of Tenors at Olney Theatre Center; Julius X (Wig Design) and The Winter’s Tale (Wig Design) at Folger Theatre; The Great Privation (Wig Design) and The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (Wig Design) at Woolly Mammoth; Play On! (Wig Design) at Signature Theatre; Mother Play (Wig Design) and Paradise Blue (Wig Design) at Studio Theatre; Fremont Ave. (Wig Design), Death on the Nile (Hair and Wig Design), The Other Americans (Hair Design), and Tempestuous Elements (Wig Design) at Arena Stage; On Your Feet! (Wig Design) at GALA Hispanic Theatre; and The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 (Wig Design) at The Kennedy Center. Film/TV credits include Lioness (Hairstylist), White House Plumber (Hairstylist), Rustin (Hairstylist), and Fellow Travelers (Hairstylist). BA in Art: The University of the District of Columbia.

DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI (Choreographer) is excited to be back working with Timothy Douglas at Round House, where she previously did intimacy choreography for It's Not A Trip It's A Journey. Other DMV credits include The Color Purple, Where The Mountain Meets the Sea, and Spunk at Signature Theatre; This Bitter Earth Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (Helen Hayes Award Winner for Best New Play) and Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (Helen Hayes nomination) at Theater Alliance; and Nina Simone: Four Women (Helen Hayes nomination) at Arena Stage. Her New York credits include Shape at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her other regional credits include The Color Purple at Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Portland Center Stage, and Where The Mountain Meets The Sea at Cincinnati Playhouse.

SIERRA YOUNG (Intimacy and Fight Choreographer) is a Helen Hayes-nominated violence and intimacy director in the DC/Baltimore area. Sierra is the resident violence and intimacy director for Baltimore Center Stage and Mosaic Theater Company. She is an active member of the SAFD, IDC, and SDC. Recent DC credits include The Age of Innocence, JaJa’s African Hair Braiding, and POTUS at Arena Stage; Or, Dracula, and Head Over Heels at Constellation Theatre; Twelfth Night at Folger Theater; The Minutes, Everything Is Wonderful, Hand to God, and Sweat at Keegan Theatre; Frankenstein and King Lear at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Purlie Victorious, Jonah, Paradise Blue, The Scenarios, and The Colored Museum at Studio Theatre; West Side Story and Porgy and Bess at Washington National Opera. Instagram: @sierrayoungfights Website: www.sierrayoung.org

NAYSAN MOJGANI (Dramaturg) is the Artistic & Dramaturgical Advisor at Round House, serving as a member of the artistic team and guiding the new work program. As a theatre scholar, director, and dramaturg, Naysan has worked on new and classic work with theatres around the country, including Arena Stage (where he served as Literary Manager), La Jolla Playhouse, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Theatre Squared, and Signature Theatre, and has taught at UC San Diego, George Mason University, and Loyola University New Orleans. Naysan holds a PhD in Theatre & Drama from UC San Diego, and a BA from Carleton College.

SARAH COONEY (Casting Director) is Round House Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director of Casting and Artist Management. In the DC area, Sarah has cast for The Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage series, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and Rep Stage. As a Casting Director with NYC’s Binder Casting, Sarah cast for The Lion King Broadway and National Touring productions and the Encores! series at New York City Center. Other Regional casting credits include Barrington Stage, Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks Hartford, Seattle Rep, Drury Lane Theatre, Weston Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, ACT of Connecticut, and others. Film and TV casting credits include Crashing (HBO) The Big Sick (Apatow Productions), Kevin Can Wait (CBS), and Clipped (HGTV). Sarah taught at West Virginia University, and is a New York University alum.

CHE WERNSMAN (Stage Manager) is in her tenth season as Resident Stage Manager at Round House Theatre. Some of her favorite Round House Theatre credits include: The Inheritance; Bad Books; What the Constitution Means to Me; Topdog/Underdog; Ink; On the Far End; The Tempest; Nine Night; "We declare you a terrorist…"; A Boy and His Soul The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Handbagged (Off-Broadway - 59E59, Bethesda); Gem of the Ocean; Small Mouth Sounds; The Book of Will; and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Che has worked as an AEA Stage Manager in the DC/Baltimore region for over two decades, with shows at Everyman Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Folger Theatre, Imagination Stage, The National, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Theatre J, Studio, Rep Stage, Center Stage, and Olney Theatre Center. Che has a Bachelor of Science from Virginia Tech.

“ALL

MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”: THE HEMINGSJEFFERSON SCANDAL AND 230 YEARS OF DEBATE

By Naysan Mojgani | Dramaturg

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Elsewhere, he described African Americans as “inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”

Jefferson described the mixing of Black and White as a “degradation” and advocated for the deportation of freed slaves to prevent them from “staining” white blood with interbreeding.

He also fathered at least 6 children with his Black enslaved mistress, Sally Hemings, beginning when she was a teenager and he was in his 40s.

Little wonder that Suzan-Lori Parks— one of the United States’ leading artists focusing on the layers and complexities and echoes of our history—chose the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings as the topic of her newest play. This man and this relationship represent the contradictions and changes in the nation’s own relationship to and changing perspectives on race.

There was gossip in Charlottesville about Jefferson and Hemings as far back as the 1790s, but it did not truly emerge into the public discourse until 1802, when journalist James

Callender (coincidentally, the same scandalmonger responsible for exposing Alexander Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds) alleged in the Richmond Recorder that Jefferson was keeping his slave as a concubine. This exposé was part of a larger campaign against Jefferson—Callender was a former supporter who felt his loyalty had gone unrewarded, and the Federalists were eager for any ammunition to smear the new president as a hypocrite—and he treated it as nothing more than a political smear, making no public response. There were, of course, plenty of similar relationships, and the plantations of Virginia were full of mixed children (themselves born into slavery due to longstanding legal traditions establishing enslavement as matrilineally inherited); the potential scandal was not over Jefferson’s sexual use of his slave or even the fathering of children, but over the public attention thereto.

The early American establishment was deeply invested in the lines and boundaries of race and slavery. In 1790, the 1st U.S. Congress passed a Naturalization Act which established that only whites could hold citizenship. Similar laws restricted all manner of civil service, including military enlistment and mail-carrying, to the exclusive privilege of whites. Later in the 19th century, Dred Scott v.

Sandford would explicitly bar African Americans from holding citizenship, and many states adopted “one drop” laws, redefining anybody with any African ancestry at all as Black. These laws protected white political power in the early Republic, while also ensuring continued access to the capital represented by slave labor and trade. Even Jefferson himself wrote about how the forced breeding of slaves brought him annual profits of 4%.

The Hemings-Jefferson threat to this established order did not end with Jefferson’s death in 1826. Foreign critics (particularly the British) continued to reference the scandal as an example of the hypocrisy and failures of American democracy, and abolitionists used it to demonstrate the moral failings of slavery. Jefferson’s family countered by throwing his nephews Peter and Samuel Carr under the bus, claiming that one or both of them had fathered the children, tacitly acknowledging the family resemblance but protecting Jefferson’s legacy.

In 1873, Sally’s son Madison Hemings claimed in a newspaper interview that it was established fact within his family that he and his siblings were the children of Jefferson, that his parents had a long relationship, and that Jefferson had promised Sally he would free their children when they

KEY EVENTS IN THE LIVES OF SALLY HEMINGS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON

reached adulthood. Contemporary historians immediately rejected this claim, elevating the white family’s “Carr hypothesis” as the consensus record.

The recurring theme in those postCivil War denials was that Jefferson— Founding Father, great thinker, scribe of liberty—was too righteous a man to engage in such behavior. As the country turned against slavery and its obvious abuses, Jefferson’s legacy was kept out of such sordid entanglements. He was good because he would never do such a thing, and he would never do such a thing because he was good.

While the general public now viewed slavery as a bridge too far, the Reconstruction Amendments’ extension of citizenship and voting rights to the formerly enslaved was itself a threat to the white social order. The First Great Migration brought waves of new Black citizens north and west, changing the social geographies of those cities and increasing the intermingling of the races. Regressive forces responded with the political oppression of Jim Crow, the violent terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, and on the intellectual front, the rise of race science and eugenics, which reinforced the values of white supremacy and propagated the fears of miscegenation.

American artists working in every form and medium have found inspiration in the story of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Here are just a few:

• In 2002, Maya Rudolph and Robert De Niro portrayed Hemings and Jefferson on an episode of Saturday Night Live (in response to Jefferson’s flirtatious “what time do you get off work,” Hemings replies “never”)

• Thomas Bradshaw's 2017 play Thomas & Sally was met with outraged protests over its suggestion that the relationship may have been based in love (and for its flippant approach to marketing the play)

• A 2018 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery included Titus Kaphar’s Behind the Myth of Benevolence (see page 13), juxtaposing a traditional portrait of Jefferson with that of an enslaved woman, representing Hemings

1743: Thomas Jefferson is born in Virginia

1757: Thomas inherits 35 slaves from his father

1769: Thomas begins his political career in Virginia’s colonial government

1772:

1773:

1774: Thomas inherits 135 slaves from his father-inlaw, including the Hemings family

1776: Thomas drafts the Declaration of Independence, asserting that “all men are created equal”

1779: Thomas is elected Governor of Virginia

1782: Martha Jefferson dies

1783: The American Revolution ends with the Treaty of Paris

1784: Thomas is sent to France as diplomat, bringing James Hemings as his chef

1787: Sally accompanies Polly Jefferson to Paris

1789: Thomas begins a sexual relationship with the teenaged, enslaved Sally

1789: The family returns to the US

The cracks in both these pillars of white supremacy and the denials of the Jeffersonian establishment began to show in the aftermath of World War II. Eugenics and “racial purity” were fatally associated with Nazi Germany and became as distasteful to the American public as slavery had become a generation before. While racism and segregation were still alive and well, many white veterans returned from their service with newfound respect for their Black fellow servicemen. Similarly, plenty of white Americans were uncomfortable with the protests and demands of the Civil Rights Movement, but the hard-fought progress did slowly but surely transform American society. This included the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision legalizing interracial marriage.

These changes, combined with the rise of second-wave feminism and the reevaluation of political legacies prompted by the open scandals of the Kennedy and Nixon administrations, laid the groundwork for a renewed conversation about Sally Hemings, kicked off by Fawn Brodie’s 1974 publication of the best-selling Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. Brodie analyzed Jefferson’s writings and argued that they revealed a decadeslong romantic relationship between the two. Most other scholars dismissed the claim, but the public’s attitude began to shift.

This shift was reflected in popular art, even if not yet in scholarship.

Barbara Chase-Riboud’s 1979 novel Sally Hemings was an international success. In 1995, the Merchant Ivory film Jefferson in Paris dramatized the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings, portrayed by Nick Nolte and Thandiwe Newton; while the movie flopped, that was more a function of its quality than any historical skepticism on the part of the movie-going public.

In 1997, Annette Gordon-Reed published Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. GordonReed was a practicing lawyer before establishing herself as a scholar of American legal history. The major scholarly intervention of An American Controversy was recognizing that the extant Jeffersonian histories implicitly privileged white historical records over Black ones: oral histories were dismissed, slave narratives were assumed to be lies, and white sources were taken at face value. Using her legal training in analyzing evidence, GordonReed was able to look at a wider array of sources, identify long-ignored gaps and contradictions, and corroborate the Hemings family claims. Looking at all the evidence, she concluded that it was more likely than not that Jefferson and Hemings had had a sexual relationship. She did not attempt to answer the question (which the public desperately

debated) of whether the relationship was fundamentally romantic or coercive in nature.

The following year, as the Jeffersonian establishment scrambled to defend their icon from Gordon-Reed’s work, Nature published a Y-DNA analysis comparing the modern-day descendants of Jefferson and of Eston Hemings (Sally’s youngest child). The study showed a match, establishing a shared male ancestor (and definitively letting the scapegoat Carr brothers off the hook). In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation published a report accepting the “scandal” as most likely true. Some stubborn Jeffersonian scholars established the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society to hold the line, suggesting that Jefferson’s younger brother Randolph was actually the father of Hemings’ children; theirs is, however, generally seen as a fringe position today.

With the turn of the millennium, the United States Census allowed respondents to check multiple racial categories, with nearly seven million Americans identifying as multiracial on the 2000 census; the Census Bureau estimated that approximately 75% of African Americans specifically had mixed ancestry.

In 2001, George W. Bush marked Thomas Jefferson’s 258th birthday with a gathering at the White House of Jefferson’s descendants—including those descended from Sally Hemings’ children. In the 21st Century, the debate around Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings is no longer “did they or didn’t they;” in both the scholarly and public discourse, the relationship is now a given. Instead, reflecting contemporary discussions of consent and power dynamics, the debate has shifted to how we feel about this relationship, one between a teenage girl and the powerful man who owned her. The questions—if not the answers—are obvious: how do we make sense and moral judgment of this collision of enslavement, age, race, love and power? These are the questions that drive Sally & Tom. And if our nation survives another 250 years, perhaps we will be able to answer them as easily and succinctly as we are now able to acknowledge that the man who declared our independence and fought for the fundamental freedoms of the Bill of Rights also held Sally Hemings and his children in slavery for decades.

1795:

1798:

1799:

1796:

1797:

1791:

1800:

1801:

1803: Thomas purchases Louisiana from France

1804: Thomas is reelected in a

1805:

1808:

1808: Congress bans the importation of

1809: Thomas’s presidency ends

1819: Thomas establishes the University of

1822:

1826:

1835:

In Sally and Tom, we watch the artists of Good Company stage their original play, The Pursuit of Happiness. Good Company was founded on and operates by the following credos.

Good Company Credos

• There are No Bad Ideas

• All members have a voice

• Righteous is the only Way

• Each one teach one

• Lift others as you climb

• Eyes on the prize

• Love is real and sometimes real Love is tough love

• Let your light shine

• There’s more going on than you think

• Take your eyes out of your navel and take a look around

• Respect—to look again

• Rehearsal—to hear again

• True Joy is foundational

• True Joy comes from wrestling with, not papering over, the Real-Real

• Laughter is key

• Tears are welcome

• Hate can only take you so far

• Love can take you all the way

• Hugs are encouraged

• We are what we do

• Keep working together to make the Work work

• Good company for Life

• When in doubt, Circle Up

FURTHER CONVERSATION: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR

SALLY & TOM

• Given the age difference and the inherent power imbalance between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, could there have also been love between them? Does it make a difference?

• In discussing whether or not to cut James' speech, why do Luce and Kwame feel the way they each do? Do you favor one argument over the other?

• Luce insists that her play is not a love story. What kind of story is it? And what kind of story, then, is Suzan-Lori Parks's play?

• Does Jefferson's slaveholding undermine his words that "all men are created equal?" Does either belief cancel out the other?

• Do you feel differently about Thomas Jefferson than you did before watching the play?

• How is the 200-year-old relationship at the heart of this play still relevant and worth discussing today? Why do so many people have such strong feelings about the "facts" of the relationship?

• As we approach the United States' Semiquincentennial, what positive and negative changes do you see from Sally Hemings' and Thomas Jefferson's time? What is the same?

• Your program includes a listing of Good Company's organizational credos. Do any in particular resonate for you?

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

RYAN RILETTE (Artistic Director) is in his fourteenth season as Artistic Director of Round House Theatre. During his tenure, he has produced seven of the 10 highest grossing seasons and 18 of the top 20 highest grossing productions in the theatre’s history. His productions have received 99 Helen Hayes Awards nominations and 36 Helen Hayes Awards. Ryan created the theatre’s Equal Play commissioning program, Resident Artist program, Fair Play pay scale for artists, and Free Play ticketing program. For Round House, he has directed Rules for Living Bad Books (world premiere), The Seafarer “We declare you a terrorist...” (world premiere), Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up, Homebound The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Oslo Small Mouth Sounds, “Master Harold”...and the Boys, The Book of Will, Angels in America: Perestroika, The Night Alive, Fool for Love, This, and How to Write a New Book for the Bible. He has also acted in Round House's productions of Ink and Uncle Vanya. Prior to joining Round House, Ryan served as Producing Director of Marin Theatre Company, Producing Artistic Director of Southern Rep Theatre, and co-founder and Artistic Director of Rude Mechanicals Theatre Company. He is the former Board President of the National New Play Network, and formerly served on the boards of theatreWashington and Maryland Citizens for the Arts.

ED ZAKRESK I (Executive Director) is in his tenth season leading Round House Theatre, overseeing management, finance, marketing, and fundraising. Under his leadership, Round House doubled earned income and increased contributed income by 150%, growing the annual operating budget from $4 million to $10 million, and the theatre has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” by Bethesda Magazine multiple times. Over more than 30 years as a DC arts executive leader and fundraiser, Ed has raised more than $150 million. At Round House, he led the $14 million Full Circle Capital Campaign and theatre renovation, and produced the 12 highest-grossing productions in the company’s history. Before joining Round House in 2016, Ed spent 12 years as Chief Development Officer at Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he completed the $75 million capital campaign for Sidney Harman Hall and produced the $3 million opening gala—called “the most buzzed-about gala” by Washington Life. He also doubled the annual fund and built STC’s Annual Gala and Will on the Hill into two of BizBash’s Top 10 Washington events. From 1998–2005, he held increasingly senior roles at the Kennedy Center, culminating as Director of Individual Campaigns, leading a 22-member team that raised $11+ million annually. At the Kennedy Center, he significantly expanded engagement and fundraising of the Center’s auxiliary boards and led unique experiential arts meetings across the United States and in Beijing, Budapest, Copenhagen, London, Paris, Prague, and St. Petersburg. Ed holds a degree in arts management from American University and is a frequent presenter on nonprofit arts management and fundraising.

THEATRE FOR EVERYONE HOUSE RULES

At Round House, “Theatre For Everyone” isn’t just a statement. It’s our mission and an organizational value. It means that everyone— patrons, artists, staff, students, trustees, and volunteers—is invited to fully participate and deserves to be treated with respect. This is our promise to you…and we ask you to join us in upholding these values and expectations in all of your interactions with Round House.

For more information, please visit the House Rules page on our website.

ROUND HOUSE THEATRE

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In our ongoing efforts to learn more and strengthen our relationships with members of our local community, and to work towards dismantling the harmful effects of white supremacy and colonization, Round House acknowledges that our theatre, administrative offices, education center, and production shop are located on unceded land cared for by native tribes including the Piscataway peoples. We pay our respects to the Piscataway community and their elders both past and present, as well as future generations.

We pledge to do the work necessary to build relationships with sovereign tribal nations, to ensure that Round House becomes a more inclusive space, and to never cease ongoing learning.

We gratefully acknowledge the following donors who support the work of Round House Theatre through Annual Fund and Gala contributions. These gifts help Round House continue to be a theatre for everyone and enrich our community through bold, outstanding theatrical and educational experiences that inspire empathy and demand conversation.

To learn more about the ways to support Round House, donor benefits, or to make a gift, visit RoundHouseTheatre.org/Donate or call the Development Department at 240.641.5352.

List is current as of April 23, 2026

Artist Housing at Round House Theatre is provided by major contributions from the Melissa Blake Rowny Fund for Artistic Development and the State of Maryland.

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE

Diamond Circle

Cathy S. Bernard

The Roy Cockrum Foundation

Heidi and Mitch Dupler

Gilbert and Rona Eisner

Jay and Robin Hammer

Bonnie and Alan Hammerschlag

Manfred M. Hein* and Florence H. Hein*

State of Maryland

Montgomery County Government

Linda J. Ravdin and Don Shapero

Judy and Leo Zickler

Platinum Circle

THE SHARE FUND

Nan Beckley

Michael Beriss and Jean Carlson

Judy Duberrier

Clare Evans

John and Rachel King

Janice McCall

Maureen and Michael McMurphy and the Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation

Sherman Fairchild Foundation

David and Sherry Smith

Gold Circle

Association for Death Education and Counseling

Walter A. Bloedorn Foundation

Ellen and Jon Bortz

James Burks and Bette Pappas

Lynn and Bill Choquette

Pam and Richard Feinstein

The GPS Fund

Susan and Timothy Gibson

Susan Gilbert and Ron Schechter

Michael and Ilana Heintz

Paul Henderson

Rafael Hernandez and Laura Roulet-Hernandez

Daniel Kaplan and Kay Richman

Rick Kasten

INNER CIRCLE

Sustainers

Larry

Simone

Susan

Edward

Laurie and Walter Minerbi

Daniel G. Mintz and Ellen Elow-Mintz

Mike and Mary Morse

Joseph Mullinix

William W. Mullins and Pat Petrick

John Murphy

Tony Nam

Julie Nemecek and Andrew Snyder

Samantha Nolan and Randall Speck

Sam Olchyk

Nicholas Olcott and Tim Westmoreland Fred

or Development@RoundHouseTheatre.org.

In Kind Donors

DIRECTORY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jay Hammer, Chair

Selco, Vice Chair

Jawando, Assistant

Grizzard, Treasurer

Heintz, Assistant

Boddie

deSibour

Cleary

S. Dupler

Linda Ravdin, Chair

Laura Forman, Vice Chair

Michael Beriss

Cathy S. Bernard

Doug Bibby

Elaine Binder

Donald Boardman

Mitch S. Dupler

Bunny Dwin

Hantman

Mary Kathryn Nagle

Ndidi Obichere

Meka Parker Ryan Rilette* KenYatta Rogers Ruchi Sharma

Michael Steele Bill Tompkins Nina Weisbroth

Zakreski*

Zickler

McMurphy George Montague

EMERITUS TRUSTEES COUNCIL STAFF

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

Artistic Director: Ryan Rilette

Executive Director: Ed Zakreski

ADMINISTRATION

General Manager: Tim Conley

Facilities Manager: Liz Sena

Associate General Manager: Carter Rice

Artistic & Executive Associate: Amy Benson*

ARTISTIC

Associate Artistic Director— Casting & Artist

Sarah Cooney

Maboud Ebrahimzadeh

Ann Gilbert

Susan D. Gilbert

Bonnie Hammerschlag

Reba Immergut

Peter Jablow

Bruce Lane

Susan F. McGee

Sasha Olinick

David Smith

Rochelle S. Steinberg

Patti Sowalsky

Riley K. Temple

Kathy Wenger

Mier Wolf

Judy Zickler

Artistic & Dramaturgical Advisor: Naysan Mojgani

DEVELOPMENT

Director of Development: Michael Barret Jones

Associate Director of Development: Katelyn Maurer

Associate Director of Development for Operations & Analysis: Patrick Joy

Development Associate: Natalie Cumming*

EDUCATION

Director of Education: Danisha Crosby*

Education Program Manager: Emily Lettau

Lead Teaching Artists: Ian Anthony Coleman Kelsey Hall

Faculty: Sean Baldwin

Bard Mercedes Blankenship

Atiah Can Ozturk

Lila Cooper Kevin Corbett

Fabiolla Da Silva

Anna DiGiovanni

Amanda Dullin-Jones

Abby Dunbar

Carrie Edick

Raine Ensign

Jordan Essex

Jada Francis

Dominique Fuller

Rose Hahn

Caitlyn Hooper

Darren Jenkins-Johnston

Claire Jones

Emma Lou Joy

JJ Kaczynski

Casey Kaleba

Darcy Kaufman

Victoria Keith

Kit Krull

Peter Leibold

Laura Loy

Olivia Luzquinos

Mary Rose Madan

Kiyana McManus

Mark Mumm

Benjamin Pallansch

Erin Pipes

Kelsey Powell

Daniel Schorr

Vish Shukla

Dani Stoller

Elle Sullivan

Doug Ullman

Che Wernsman

Charlie Williams

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Director of Marketing & Communications:

Hannah Grove-DeJarnett

Associate Director of Sales & Audience Services:

Brian Andrade

Associate Director of Marketing & Communications: Megan Behm

Audience Services Manager: Mason Catharini*

Public Relations & Partnerships

Manager: Amy Killion

Graphic Designer: Kent Kondo

Patron Experience and Rentals

Manager: Julie Pesak

Food & Beverage Manager:

Jenna Buzard

Bar/Café Staff: Mercedes Blankenship

John Crawford

Jess Rampulla MaryGrace Ruebens

Box Office Associates & House

Aberger

Nessa Amherst

Mercedes Blankenship

Rachel Borczuch Erin Cleary

Alexus Crockett Autumn Delahoussaye Laura DeMarco

Marquita Dill

Carrie Edick

Allison Farrall

Jae Gee

Kennedi Hendrix

Bailey Howard

Bella Lerch

Nicolas Lopez

Olivia Luzquinos

Artemis Montague

Tamisha Ottley

Dylan Parham

Denisse Peñaflor

Sam Powers

Lauren Queen

Jessica Rampulla

DeDe Smith

Lacey Talero

Charlotte Van Schaack

Sam Weiser

PRODUCTION

Production Manager: Sydney Garick

Assistant Production Manager/ Company Manager:

Chassi Slappy

Technical Director: Matt Saxton

Costume Shop Manager:

Alison Samantha Johnson

Assistant Technical Director:

Jose Abraham

Scenic Charge:

Jenny Cockerham

Props Supervisor:

Michael McKowen

Sound & Projections

Supervisor: Delaney Bray*

Lighting Supervisor: Steven Burrall

Lead Carpenter: Dylan Rutemiller

Resident Stage Manager: Che Wernsman

EQUAL PLAY COMMISSIONED PLAYWRIGHTS

Mainstage Commissions:

Margot Bordelon & Jiehae Park

Inda Craig-Galván

Lauren Gunderson

Naomi Iizuka

James Ijames

Mary Kathryn Nagle

The TEAM

Mfoniso Udofia

Teen Performance Company

Commissions:

Agyeiwaa Asante

Fin Davis

Morgan Gould

Caleen Sinette Jennings

Stefani Kuo

Diana Metzger

Megan McCafferty

Naysan Mojgani

Dani Stoller

*Member of the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Staff Workgroup

MISSION

Round House is a theatre for everyone. We enrich our community through bold, outstanding theatrical and educational experiences that inspire empathy and demand conversation.

Read more at RoundHouseTheatre.org/MissionValues

OUR VALUES

Round House Theatre is one of the leading professional theatres in the Washington, DC, area, producing a season of new plays, modern classics, and musicals for more than 50,000 patrons each year at our 350-seat theatre in Bethesda. Round House has been nominated for more than 256 Helen Hayes Awards and has won more than 60. Round House’s lifelong learning and education programs serve more than 5,000 students each year at its Education Center in Silver Spring and in schools throughout Montgomery County. Cornerstone programs include Free Play, which provides free tickets to teens and college students; the year-round Teen Performance Company, which culminates in the student-produced Sarah Metzger Memorial Play; Summer Camp for students in grades K-12; and a full slate of classes for adults and youth. •   THEATRE FOR EVERYONE •   ARTISTIC AMBITION

COMMUNITY

EMPATHY

INTEGRITY

WILSON’S

CHINESE REPUBLICANS

By Alex Lin

January 27 – February 21, 2027

REGIONAL PREMIERE

Directed by Lili-Anne Brown

September 9 – October 11, 2026

Co-produced with Olney Theatre Center

BABY SHOWER KATIE

By Beth Hyland

Directed by Jessica Fisch

April 14 – May 9, 2027

WORLD PREMIERE

2026-2027 50TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON CULT OF  LOVE  MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM AUGUST

By Leslye Headland

Directed by Ryan Rilette

November 18 – December 27, 2026

REGIONAL PREMIERE

Part of The Bonnie Hammerschlag National Capital New Play Festival

Written and Directed by Sean Daniels

June 2 – July 3, 2027

REGIONAL PREMIERE