50th Anniversary Season 2024-2025

Playwright

Paige Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist who is critically acclaimed as a performer, director, choreographer and playwright. Paige is most notably known for her effective fusion of theatre, hip-hop, dance and education. She has nearly twenty years of experience in arts administration, arts education, creating new works, producing and performing. Paige has been named a “classroom hero” by The Huffington Post, a “Citizen Artist Fellow” with the Kennedy Center, and one of “Six Theatre Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. With her company B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, Paige creates and tours original multicultural and multigenerational work. www.paigehernandez.com

Director

Danielle A. Drakes (she/her) Directing credits: La Salpetriere (Taffety Punk Theatre); The Wilting Point (Keegan Theatre); Ghost/Writer, Kill Move Paradise, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Rep Stage Theatre); Lysistrata (Theatre at Monmouth); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Players, Olney Theatre Center); Havana Hop (PlayhouseSquare); Dance of Mirrors (The Theatre Offensive); Afro-Caribbean Mixfest Short Plays (Atlantic Theatre Company); Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (Theatre Alliance); Paige in Full, Lyme Park, and Deep Belly Beautiful (theHegira Theatre). Ms. Drakes is an assistant professor of theatre arts at Towson University and a member of AEA and SDC.

Playwright

Matt Opatrny (he/him) is a theater, television, and podcast writer whose work celebrates differences and elevates kindness, thoughtfulness, and emotional literacy. He wrote eight episodes of DreamWorks’ “Not Quite Narwhal” (Netflix) and is head writer of “Daisy Bees” (YouTube). His plays have performed primarily in New York City and on international tours (with Teatri Oda of Kosovo), and have received multiple New York Innovative Theatre Awards and First Prize at the Secondo Theatre Festival (Switzerland). Matt is visually impaired, was a 2022 RespectAbility Lab fellow, and owes much of who he is to the sea turtles of Costa Rica.

Director & Associate Artistic Director (SCT)

Johamy Morales (she/her) is a 20 year veteran of Theatre for Young Audiences and is dedicated to producing new works, community engagement and social justice through the arts. Johamy currently serves as a Board Member for Red Eagle Soaring. She has served on SCT’s Artistic Advisory Circle, Reimagine: New Plays by BIPOC in TYA advisor, and as a Trustee for Theatre Communication Group (TCG) where she advised on the Rising Leaders of Color program and TCG’s Education Conference for four consecutive years. Prior to working with SCT, Johamy served as the Education Director for Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado and directed the Comparative Arts Department and the Junior Musical Theatre Program at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. Johamy is an alumnus of the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage and the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, where she studied Contemporary & Classical works. Johamy holds an MFA in acting from The Ohio State University, with a specialization in devising new works, and a BA in Theatre from San Diego State University.

Eric Coble (he/him) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His scripts have been produced on Broadway (Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated The Velocity of Autumn), Off-Broadway (Bright Ideas), in all fifty states of the U.S., and on several continents. His plays for young audiences include award-winning adaptations of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Gathering Blue, Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, The Storm In The Barn, and have been produced throughout the U.S. and internationally including in Disney World (Jedi Training: Trial of the Temple), as well as The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Habima Theatre (Israel), and Pentacion Productions (Spain). Thirty-three of his scripts have been published, and his awards include three AATE Distinguished Play Awards, the Chorpenning Playwriting Award for Body of Work, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award.   

Director

Matt Bassett (he/him) is thrilled to make his SCT debut and is always happy to work with his favorite collaborator in art and life. Matt’s work as a director and playwright has been seen throughout the Washington, DC area and recognized with multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations, as well as at theatres in Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Some of Matt’s favorite work has been with his wife, Tia. For children and families specifically, they have helped to create 12 original shows between them, and have been part of another 40+ professional productions. In 2013, they welcomed their son to the world, and since then, have joyfully crafted theatre for their son's age, from short nonverbal shows when Charlie was a baby and toddler, to previewing this very show to Charlie's 4th grade class. Matt serves as Theatre Department Chair for Metropolitan School of the Arts in Northern Virginia and has been on the faculties of multiple universities and theatres in the DC area since 2010. Training: MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Matt lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his family.

Performer

Tia Shearer Bassett (she/her) is an actor/creator/producer who specializes in solo shows, children’s theatre, and playful theatre for grownups. She has been a grateful member of Only Make Believe - performing interactive theatre for children in hospitals, care facilities and special education programs - since 2017. She also performs self-produced work like a poetic Zoom show featuring her son’s toys. Acting credits include: The Kennedy Center TYA (two national tours of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, as well as a DC area tour of Idris Goodwin’s From the Mouths of Monsters), Nashville Children’s Theatre, The Second City, Imagination Stage, Baltimore Center Stage. She is a devising company member of Happy Theater, co-creator of a web-series starring her leopard gecko: “Eugene Cheese Gets It Wrong,” proud producer of The From-Home Fest, lucky wife to her favorite director, and an ADHD mom to an amazing ADHD/Autistic kid.

Playwright

Gloria Bond Clunie is an award-winning playwright, educator, and director. She is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s Regional Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green, and Shoes premiered and the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Other TYA works by this Northwestern University graduate (B.A. Theater, MFA-Directing) include Last Stop on Market Street, My Wonderful Birthday Suit, Giraffes Can't Dance - The Musical, and Dream, Quickie! Dream! Currently, she is excited to be in the midst of commissions for Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Nashville Children’s Theater and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

Playwright & Director

Jacole Kitchen (she/her) is a wildly passionate arts advocate with a unique array of experience as a director, producer, educator, consultant, casting director, and arts administrator. She is currently the Director of Arts Engagement and In-House Casting at La Jolla Playhouse. Select directing credits include Suburban Black Girl and Manny and the Wise Queens (La Jolla Playhouse DNA New Works Series), Jin vs the Beach, Pick Me Last and Light Years Away (La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour), Cardboard Piano (Diversionary Theatre), An Iliad (New Village Arts), and more. jacolekitchen.com/

Playwright & Director

Moses Goods (he/him) Originally from the island of Maui and now based in Honolulu, Moses Goods is one of Hawaii’s most prominent theatre artists. He has traveled nationally and internationally, performing his original work to a wide range of audiences. As a playwright Moses has written thirteen full length plays and dozens of short theatrical storytelling pieces most of which are strongly rooted in Native Hawaiian culture. He has acted in over a dozen productions for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and written book and lyrics for several for HTY productions including DUKE, The Royal School and Paniolo.

Artistic Director (Honolulu Theatre for Youth)

Eric Johnson (he/him), is the Artistic Director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth, proudly leading an ensemble of professional theatrical artists creating new work celebrating the diverse cultures and dynamic stories of Hawaii. His work has toured nationally and internationally winning numerous awards and recognition including a Helen Hayes Award for Anime Momotaro, three EMMY awards for the the company's television show, "The HIWay" and a Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. As a freelance director Johnson’s credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Center Theatre Group, Childsplay, Imagination Stage and the Kennedy Center New Visions/New Voices Festival. He is a proud alumnus of the TCG/NEA Early Career Directors Program and the Princess Grace Fellowship.