AUGUST WILSON (PLAYWRIGHT) (April 27, 1945-October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwrighting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street – The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero. 

DELICIA TURNER SONNENBERG (DIRECTOR) (she/her) is making her Two River debut. She is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, which she helmed for twelve acclaimed seasons receiving the Des McAnuff New Visions Award for “Risk Taking Leadership and Body of Work,” as well as the Don Braunagel Award for “Outstanding Work by a Small Theater” from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. In addition to MOXIE, Delicia has directed plays for The Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego REP, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Utah Shakespeare and Round House Theatre among others. Some honors include: the Van Lier Directing Fellowship (Second Stage Theatre, New York), New York Drama League’s Directors Program, as well as Theatre Communication Group’s New Generations Program. Recent credits include Selma Burke (World Premiere), Theatre Calgary; Appropriate, South Coast Repertory; Coming up: Derecho (World Premiere), La Jolla Playhouse. 

LAWRENCE E. MOTEN III (SCENIC DESIGNER) (he/him/his) Broadway: Chicken & Biscuits (Circle In The Square); What The Constitution Means to Me (Broadway & Tour Associate). NYC: The White Chip (MCC); Covenant (Roundabout); Patience (2ST Uptown); STEW & Stargazers (Page 73). Regional: Black Cypress Bayou (Geffen); Bulrusher (McCarter & Berkeley Rep); Faust (Wolf Trap Opera); The Brothers Size, Proof & Once Upon A Bridge (American Players) ;Twelfth Night, Trouble In Mind, King James (Old Globe); Blues For An Alabama Sky (McCarter & Guthrie); Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily (Alley Theatre); Appropriate & The Little Foxes (South Coast Rep); Christmas in Connecticut (Goodspeed Musicals); This Little Light of Mine (Santa Fe Opera); Requiem (INSeries Opera); The Last Supper (SOPAC); Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare); How I Learned What I Learned and Native Son (Playmakers Rep); it’s not a trip, it’s a journey and We Declare You A Terrorist… (Round House); Gem of The Ocean (Portland Center Stage); The West End (Cincinnati Playhouse); Hype Man (ART & Company One); Gloria (ACT); Hi, Are You Single? (Woolly Mammoth); House of Joy (CalShakes); The Royale (Capital Rep); Behind The Sheet (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Member: USA 829 & Wingspace Theatrical Design. www.motendesigns.com; IG: @motendesigns 

NICOLE JESCINTH SMITH (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a costume designer based out of New York and Miami. Ms. Smith has her M.F.A. from the University of Tennessee in Theatrical Costume Design and a BFA from the University of Miami with a minor in Art History. Upon moving back to New York, Nicky began working at the Metropolitan Opera House as the Costume Shop Supervisor of Men’s Chorus, Ballet, Supernumeraries and Children’s wardrobe. After leaving the Met, Ms. Smith went on to be the Associate Costume Designer on Venus in Fur, which won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play. Seeking more television, fashion and production work, Nicole went on to other projects such as working in the costume and wardrobe department of “The Tonight Show”, an assistant stylist for Brooks Brothers and wardrobe styling commercials, promo and a tv series with companies such as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, NBC. All of which lead to the position of In House Senior Fashion Stylist with VH1’s New York offices. Ms. Smith left VHI to become the Assistant Costume Designer on “The Americans” for Season 4-6. Recent design credits include Assistant Costume Designer on “Bull” (CBS), “Pose” Season 2 (FX) for which Ms. Smith received a 2020 EMMY Nomination in the category of Outstanding Period Costumes. Using the success of her Emmy nomination, Ms. Smith moved from assistant to lead in 2021. Her credits include “Kindred” (pilot/FX) episode, “Ramy” Season 3 (a24) and “Up Here” (Disney). With her success in MOPIC, Ms Smith found herself missing her first love, theatre. She worked on a stellar production of Trouble in Mind in 2022 at The Old Globe and is attached to 2:22 A Ghost Story which is slated for a Broadway run this fall. Ms. Smith currently resides in Queens NY and where she continues pushing for inclusivity and sustainability by supporting BIPOC, LGBT+ and women lead vendors and brands. Nicole is the founder of the grassroots initiative R.O.C.K. (Raising Our Collective Knowledge) that seeks to educate and prepare BIPOC youth as they seek to entire the fashion and costume design work force. 

SHERRICE MOJGANI (LIGHTING DESIGNER) (she/her/hers) recently designed Bulrusher and Blues for an Alabama Sky (McCarter Theatre Center); The Mountaintop, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Round House Theater); Tiny Beautiful Things, The Folks at Home and The Garden (Baltimore Center Stage); The High Ground, The Heiress and Two Trains Running (Arena Stage); Spunk, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and The Scottsboro Boys (Signature Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun, Murder on the Orient Express, A Few Good Men and Sweat (Pittsburgh Public Theatre); Trouble in Mind, What You Are and Skeleton Crew (The Old Globe). Sherrice is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz and an M.F.A. in Lighting Design from UC San Diego. smojgani.com 

Fitz Patton (Sound Designer) Select Broadway: I Need That, The Rose Tattoo (Tony Nomination), Choir Boy (Tony, Drama Desk Awards), Bernhart/Hamlet, Three Tall Women, Meteor Shower, Present Laughter, The Humans (Drama Desk Award), Blackbird, The Father, An Act of God (Drama Desk Nomination), It’s Only a Play, Airline Highway, The Other Place (Lortel Nomination), Outside Mullingar, Casa Valentina. Select Off-Broadway: Dig, HEART, The Perplexed, Greater Clements, The Mother, Torch Song; Napoli Brooklyn (Outer Critics Circle Award), Yen, Prodigal Son, The Other Place (Drama Desk nomination); and When the Rain Stops Falling (Drama Desk; Lortel Awards). He is the founding editor of Chance Magazine, a serialized art book about performance and design. www.fitzpatton.com

CICI CAMPBELL (WIG, HAIR & MAKEUP DESIGNER) Theatre: Hair and wig designer for film, television and stage with over thirty years of work experience in the industry. Her entry into the theatre came from working on Bob Fosse’s musical Dancin’ as an assistant wig stylist. She developed a passion for period pieces after working on 42nd Street, Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera. She has also assisted in the wig design for the Broadway musical Hot Feet, a production featuring the music of Earth, Wind and Fire, and has collaborated with Ms. Karen Perry on the wig design for several stage productions: Breath, Boom at The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at The McCarter Theatre, and Princeton featuring Ms. Phylicia Rashad and Mr. John Amos.

KAJA DUNN (INTIMACY AND MOVEMENT) is delighted to return to Two River Theatre, she is a multi-hyphante artist, scholar and intimacy professional. Resident Intimacy and Cultural Consultant for Folger Theatre, and associate professor at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Intimacy work includes: Broadway: A Strange Loop (Assoc. Intimacy Director); Television: The Best Man, Final Chapters, Harlem, Mayor of Kingstown, The Equalizer. Two River Theatre: Wine In The Wilderness; Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse In Time To Come, Metamorphoses,  The Reading Room; Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5th Ave; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; St. Louis Rep.: Private Lives, Confederates; Penumbra Theatre: Sugar In Our Wounds;Awards: Kennedy Center American Theatre Award, Playwrights Project Excellence in Arts Education; Publications: Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction For Theatre, Theatre Symposium, HowlRound, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). This winter she will be directing Lauren Gunderson’s new world premier at the Folger Theatre and Cincinnati Rep. Her favorite role is mom to Ian, Zeke and Auggie.   

KATE CROASDALE (PRODUCTION STATE MANAGER) is delighted to return to Two River after stage managing Two Sisters and a Piano, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, The Tricky Part and All The Rage. Broadway: Sea Wall/A Life, Sunday in the Park with George, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ghost The Musical, Dead Accounts and Relatively Speaking. Off-Broadway Credits include: Stargazers (Page 73), Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm) and Mud/Drowning (Mabou Mines). Kate has also worked with: City Center Encores!, The Public Theater, NAATCO, EST, New York Stage and Film, Bay Street Theater and Kaimera Productions. She is proud to be a core teacher for the Peridance Certificate Program. 

ALEX MURPHY (ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER) (he/him/they) returns to Two River Theater after Stage Managing the world premiere of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. Previous Two River Theater credits include: Two Sisters and a Piano, Wine in the Wilderness.  Regional: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the Musical, Justice at War (Coterie Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Still Ready (Actors Theatre of Louisville), American Prophet (Arena Stage). National Tour: The Prom. Off-Broadway: The Harder They Come, Romeo and Bernadette, Two’s a Crowd. Alex was the Resident Stage Manager for Kansas City Actors Theatre in Kansas City, MO, for three seasons, working on such productions as Death and the Maiden, And Then There Were None, and Skylight. 

 Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) Two River Theater: Gem of the Ocean, A Thousand Maids, The Scarlet Letter. Select Broadway: Mary Jane, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Cost of Living, Macbeth, The Minutes, Skeleton Crew, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band, A Doll’s House Part 2, Jitney, The Glass Menagerie. Additional theater includes: MTC, The Old Globe, Atlantic Theater Company. TV/Film: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “The Boys in the Band” for Netflix (Original Casting).