Jaja’s African Hair Braiding

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. THEATER: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theater Club) which premiered on Broadway in 2023 and was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play; Merry Wives (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park, PBS Great Performances) which won the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation; Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater); book writer for the Broadway-bound musical Goddess (Berkeley Rep); multi-award-winning School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (MCC Theater) gone on to have over 65 regional productions and premiered in the UK in 2023. TELEVISION: Russian Doll, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix); Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu); new Star Wars series The Acolyte (Disney+). AWARDS: 2017 Tow Playwriting Fellow, Dramatists Guild’s HullWarriner Prize Award twice, Steinberg Playwright Award, Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award. Bioh is also writing the live screen film adaptation of the Broadway musical Once on This Island for Disney.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). BROADWAY: The Last Five Years (upcoming), Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Marvin’s Room. OFF BROADWAY: Jordans, What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Public Theater); Soft (MCC Theater); On Sugarland, Othello (New York Theatre Workshop); If I Forget (Roundabout Theatre Company), Vineyard Theatre, The New Group, Page 73, The Playwrights Realm, Julliard, Trinity Rep, The Drama League, and others. INTERNATIONAL: The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida Theatre); Sundance. REGIONAL: The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre Company); An Illiad (Long Wharf Theatre); Canyon (IAMA Theatre Company); World-premiere of Jump (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Trinity Repertory Company. ORIGINAL WORKS: Semblance, Definition, Macbeth in Stride. EDUCATION: MFA in acting, Brown University; BA, Northwestern University. AWARDS: Obie, Lilly, Tony Nomination for direction, writing, and music, two-times New York Times Critic’s Pick, LA Times Critics Choice, Elliott Norton for Outstanding Musical Performance, Susan Stroman Directing, Herb Alpert, Jerome Fellowship. White is an Artistic Associate (Roundabout Theatre Company), an Associate Artistic Director (Shakespeare Theatre Company), and former staff writer on Boot’s Riley’s I’m a Virgo

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: The Notebook. BROADWAY: set design for Stereophonic, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, The Notebook, Kimberly Akimbo, Funny Girl, The Minutes, Diana, Torch Song, The Humans; costume design for An Enemy of the People, A Doll’s House Part 2, Other Desert Cities, The Vibrator Play, Xanadu; set and costume design for Sondheim’s last musical Here We Are (The Shed); SpongeBob Musical, Fun Home, Choir Boy, Amélie, The Last Ship. NEW YORK: Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage, The Public. REGIONAL: American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Guthrie, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago. INTERNATIONAL: National Theatre, Young Vic, The Hampstead (UK), Berlin Staatsoper, Theater Basel. AWARDS: Tony, Drama Desk, Hewes, and Obie awards.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. SELECT BROADWAY: Othello, Our Town, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony Award Winner); Hell’s Kitchen, Appropriate, Topdog/ Underdog, Slave Play. OPERA: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Metropolitan Opera). SELECT OFF BROADWAY: ; Merry Wives (The Public); Buena Vista Social Club, Days of Wine and Roses (Atlantic Theater Company). SELECT REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage. TELEVISION: Netflix, Comedy Central. AWARDS: TDF/Kitty Leech Young Master Award, Obie, multiple Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, Audelco, and Joseph Jefferson Awards.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Stereophonic, The Cottage, KPOP, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, Slave Play. NEW YORK: The Public, Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, MCC Theater, Signature Theatre Company, Guggenheim. REGIONAL: Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, CalShakes, Guthrie, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. AWARDS: multiple nominations for Tony, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Henry Hewes Awards; recipient of an Obie Award and Suzi Bass Award.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Home, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony Award nomination), for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (Tony Award nomination), Topdog/Underdog, Pass Over, Clyde’s. OFF BROADWAY: New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater. AWARDS: multiple Obie, Audelco, and Henry Hewes Design Awards, recognized by ASCAP and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Ellington is currently a Lecturer in Sound Design at the David Geffen School of Design at Yale University.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. BROADWAY: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theatre Club). OFF BROADWAY: Space Dogs (MCC Theater); Travels (Ars Nova); A Bright New Boise, The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre); Semblance (New York Theatre Workshop); amongst others. AWARDS: 2024 Tony Award nominee for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominee for Outstanding Video/Projection Design for Space Dogs; HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design for Vámonos!. stefaniabulbarella.com 

Nikiya Mathis is a multi-hyphenate actress and wig designer. She has originated roles in world-premiere plays including Blood Quilt at Arena Stage; Off Broadway premieres including Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays, Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew, Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar; and Lynn Nottage’s NY revival of Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine. She currently recurs as N’Kiyah Franklin in Power Book III: Raising Kanan on Starz. Nikiya is the first wig designer to ever receive a special Tony Award for her design of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She is an Obie Award winner, Drama Desk Award winner, Black Women on Broadway Award winner, and Henry Hewes Award winner. Nikiya’s Broadway credits include Home, The Heart of Rock and Roll, Once Upon a One More Time, Death of a Salesman, Topdog/Underdog, and Chicken & Biscuits. Her Off Broadway credits include the current re-envisioning of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, among others. Instagram:
@our_black_tresses @nikiyamathis

Broadway: Chicken & Biscuits, Pass Over, Death of a Salesman, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Television: Black Mirror, A Black Lady Sketch Show (Artios winner), That Damn Michael Che, Bust Down, The Girls on the Bus, The Equalizer, Survival of the Thickest. Film: The Surrogate (Artios winner), We Strangers (SXSW), Cupids (Tribeca). Music video: “Fight for You” by H.E.R. Thanks Jocelyn Bioh, Whitney White, Kelly Gillespie, David Caparelliotis, and the Jaja’s African Hair Braiding family!

Kelly Gillespie, CSA has been on the casting staff at Manhattan Theatre Club for 17 seasons. Favorite MTC projects include Prayer for French Republic (Broadway and Off Broadway), Mary Jane, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, The Best We Could, Skeleton Crew, Ink, Choir Boy, and The Explorers Club. Other credits include Bite Me, Sancocho, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, What We’re Up Against, Sundown Yellow Moon, Ironbound (WP Theater); Melancholy Play, A Map of Virtue, The Zero Hour, Monstrosity (13P); Good Person of Szechwan (Foundry and Public Theater); Photograph 51 (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Exclusion, POTUS (Arena Stage); Age of Innocence, Trouble in Mind (The Old Globe); Two Sisters and a Piano (Two River Theater); and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America, Residence, Seven Guitars, 4000 Miles, Dot, The Roommate, and Eat Your Heart Out (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Gillespie also was resident casting director for several seasons for the Off Broadway companies TACT and Keen Company. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan.

Select Broadway/Off Broadway: Good Night and Good Luck (upcoming); Mary Jane; Prayer for the French Republic; Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; 2:22 A Ghost Story; Grey House; Summer, 1976; The Comeuppance; Ohio State Murders; Cost of Living; Macbeth; The Minutes; Skeleton Crew; Ink; Letters From Max; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Waverly Gallery; Boys in the Band. Select theatres: Signature NYC, Atlantic, Ars Nova, The Old Globe. TV/Film: New Amsterdam (NBC, series casting), The Boys in the Band (Netflix, original casting).

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. CHICAGO: Red Dog Theatre. BROADWAY: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Tina–The Tina Turner Musical, Grand Horizons, On the Twentieth Century. OFF BROADWAY: Dark Disabled Stories, american (tele)visions, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Hurricane Diane, Wild Goose Dreams, Jersey Boys, Pacific Overtures, Dead Poets Society, Mobile Unit’s Hamlet, Once Upon A Mattress. REGIONAL:  Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Two River, Pig Iron, Gulfshore Playhouse, The Barnstormers, Crossroads Rep. EDUCATION: Indiana State University. Lisby has also worked on numerous showcases, readings, galas, and events.

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE: Debut. NEW YORK: ASM for Bees & Honey (MCC Theater); PSM sub for El Otro Oz (Atlantic Theater Company); ASM sub for The Harder They Come, PA for Hell’s Kitchen (The Public Theater); PA for Suffs development (101 Productions); ASM for 38th Marathon of One Act Plays (Ensemble Studio Theater). REGIONAL: ASM for A Thousand Maids (Two River Theater). NATIONAL TOUR: ASM sub for & Juliet, ASM sub for Funny Girl, PA for Jagged Little Pill. Qi-Bell has participated in advocacy programs including the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship, Beyond the Stage Door (Baseline Theatricals), and the Harriet Tubman Effect.