ABOUT THE ARTIST
Carolyn Ratteray is an emmy-nominated actor, director,
and writer based in the Los Angeles area.
CAROLYN RATTERAY (Playwright, Actor) is an emmy-nominated actor, director and writer based in the Los Angeles area. She has appeared in off-broadway and regional theaters as well as in TV/Film and voice over. Credits include appearances at The Mark Taper Forum, The Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Boston Court Theatre, A Noise Within, Antaeus Theatre, Echo Theatre Company, The Garry Marshall Theatre. Regional theatres include The Old Globe, The Pearl Theatre Company and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. In addition to performing, Carolyn has directed By The Way Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage, In Love and Warcraft by Madhuri Shekar andMidsummer Night’s Dream as well as staged readings throughout the Los Angeles area. She has studied theatrical clown with Philip Gaulier, Chris Bayes, David Bridel, and Angela De Castro. Some film/tv credits include Snowfall, Lincoln Lawyer, Grey's Anatomy, Riley Parra, Seasons of Love, Castle, NCIS, All My Children, Chemistry, The Young and the Restless, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Education/Training: M.F.A., The Old Globe/University of San Diego; B.F.A., New York University. She is a Resident Artist at A Noise Within Theatre, a member of Antaeus Theatre and Ammo Theatre Company and she is a professor at Pomona College.
CAMELLA COOPILTON (Production Stage Manager) has worked in the theater and education industry for over 15 years. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and Antioch University, Seattle. Shows like Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage at Center Theatre Group, SHE by Marlow Wyatt at Antaeus Theatre Company, King James by Rajiv Joseph at CTG, Two Trains Running by August Wilson with Sophina Brown at The Matrix, and Brain Problems by Malcolm Barrett with Ammunition Theatre Company at The Pico are a few shows she has production stage-managed or assistant stage-managed. She is also the Co-founder of Black Stage Everything, a networking and education platform for BIPOC theater practitioners and was the Co-Artistic Director of Ammunition Theatre Company for 2 years.
EDWARD E. HAYNES, JR. (Scenic Designer) Trained as a classical Theatrical Set Designer, Ed has over 30 years of design expertise. Ed's work includes academic, regional, Off-Broadway, and international theatrical designs. He also works in theater consulting, network television design, experiential marketing design, tradeshow design, and boutique retail design. He holds an MFA in Scenic & Lighting Design from UConn & a BFA in Theater Design and Production from USC.
KEVIN WILLIAMS (Properties Designer) An L.A. native, Kevin has spent over two decades working as a designer, fabricator, and consultant for clients such as Walt Disney Imagineering, HUB Network, Red 5 Studios and Twentieth Century Fox, among many others. Notably, he worked as the resident Production Designer for the interactive theater company, Delusion-Lies Within(2014), His Crimson Queen (2016), the Lies Within VR series (2017), The Blue Blade (2018), and most recently, Reaper’s Remorse(2021). Kevin is the Prop Department Supervisor for UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television, works as a freelance designer and lives in Orange County with his incredible family. Proud S.P.A.M. member.
WENDELL CARMICHAEL (Costume Designer) Theater credits: Yellowman; Clue; Macbeth; A Winter’s Tale; Sweeney Todd; Waiting for Godot; New Works; Salvage; Ragtime; Scraps; The Mountaintop; Our Town; The Wizard of Oz; WINK; Fool for Love; In the Heights;Happy Ending; American Saga:Gunshot Medley; Jews, Christians and Screwing Stalin; Vol.1: A Post Racial America; Violet; Her Portmanteau; Native Son; A Walk in the Woods; Cabaret; West Side Story; Romeo and Julie; Othello; Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief; The Crucible; An Octoroon; Br’er Coton; Ball Yards; Waiting for the Parade; The Good War; Greenwood 1964. 2018 Stage Raw winner–Costume Design, three-time L.A. Ovation Award nominee, 2017 Orange County’s Best Costume Designs, 2015 NAACP Theatre Award winner. Member of Local 768, the Theatrical Wardrobe Union/LAOpera.
ANDREW SCHMEDAKE (Lighting Designer) Andrew is an award-winning lighting designer and technical director for theater and other live events, both in-person and virtual. Recent credits include collaborations with Disney+, Warner Media, Netflix, Amazon and CNN through Little Cinema Digital, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, Gabriel Iglesias, AfterHours Theatre Company, and Antaeus Theatre Company. Awards: Three-time LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award recipient. LA Drama Critics Circle Award. NAACP Theatre Award. Education: Carnegie Mellon University. Online: Schmedakelightingdesign.com
JEFF GARDNER (Sound Designer) is an LADCC, Stage Raw, and Ovation award-winning audio producer, sound designer and foley artist based in Los Angeles. He was recently awarded the Ovation Award in Best Sound Design for his work on August Wilson’s TWO TRAINS RUNNING produced by Sophina Brown, as well as Broadway World LA’s Sound Design of the Decade for NATIVE SON with Antaeus Theatre Company. Select credits include: INHERIT THE WIND at Pasadena Playhouse, starring Alfred Molina; THE SOUND INSIDE at Pasadena Playhouse, starring Amy Brenneman; TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Gregg Daniel; THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE at the Mark Taper Forum, starring Cecily Strong; BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Phylicia Rashad; IN THE UPPER ROOM at Denver Center for the Performing Arts; LES BLANCS at Rogue Machine Theatre (Stage Raw Award- Original Music, NAACP, Ovation Nomination- Sound Design); TREVOR at Circle X Theatre (Ovation Award- Best Production, 2015), starring Laurie Metcalf. He has designed and performed throughout the country including The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC), Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Boston Court Pasadena, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Pasadena Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Jeff can also be seen at L.A. Theatre Works where he regularly performs live sound effects. Proud member of USA 829.
JOHN BALLINGER (Composer) John is an award-winning musician, composer, and musical director based in Los Angeles. For theatre he has composed, created sound design, and played in pits and/or musically directed for over 100 productions on both coasts. Venues include The Geffen, South Coast Rep, Theatre@BostonCourt, Ford Theatre, Signature Theatre/The New Group (NY). As a multi-instrumentalist/singer he has toured, performed, or recorded with Moira Smiley, Rufus Wainwright, Van Dyke Parks, Eric Whitacre, O-LanJones, and the L.A. Master Chorale. Clients served as a commercial composer include MTV, VH1, ABC, CBS, NBC, Universal Cartoons, Badlands Features, and Comedy Central. At CalArts John studied 20th Century and electronic music composition with Mel Powell, Leonard Stein, and Rand Steiger. Recent film work includes the score and songs for the feature film 3 Days With Dad, staring Brian Denehy, Tom Arnold, and Leslie Ann Warren, and playing guitar, clarinet, and percussion on the score to Sean Penn’s latest feature Flag Day. John is both a graduate of and professor at Cal State Los Angeles.
EMILIE PASCALE BECK (Dramaturg) has directed world premiere productions of How the Light Gets In (2020 Steinberg/ATCA Award for Best Play) and Cassiopeia (Ovation Awards) and the west coast premiere of Shiv at Boston Court. Elsewhere: Miss Keller Has No Second Book, Block Nine (LA Weekly Awards), and Because They Have No Words (Jeff Award), among others. As playwright: Number of People, Sovereign Body, And Let the Skies Fall, and Trace. As Dramaturg: The Children, Heavier Than, Alcestis, RII, Everything You Touch, The House in Scarsdale, and Everything That Never Happened. Her writing has been published in Colorado Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Waxwing, Howlround, and LA Stage.
INDIRA TYLER (Choreographer) Originally from Cleveland, OH, Indira trained at the Martha Graham school, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and studied Katherine Dunham technique. Indira is a graduate of Dance Education, Cultural Studies and Literature. She has earned her BA and Master Degrees from UCLA and Philadelphia University of the Arts. Her credits include Antaeus Theatre: Native Son, The Abuelas, Azusa Pacific Theatre: As it is on Heaven, USC Dramatic Arts: Mocking Bird. Elsewhere her credits include: The Women of Brewster Place, In The Heights, Once on This Island, The Music Man, Anything Goes, Little Shop of Horrors, Hair Spray, Monte Python’s Spamalot, Beauty and the Beast, The Wiz, The Adams Family, Shrek the Musical, Footloose, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Sweet Charity, Pippin, Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Poppins, Evita, Ain’t MisBehavin’, Dreamgirls, and Fame.
MICHELLE MATLOCK (Clown Consultant) Michelle is absolutely thrilled to be a part of this production! Michelle has been a part of the entertainment industry for over 30 years and was the first African American person to create a main clown character for Cirque du Soleil. Michelle toured with Cirque’s big top show OVO for close to 10 years. Currently, Michelle is a Creative Coach, Producer, an Adjunct Faculty at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater(CA) and Founder of Circle Up Productions, alive entertainment and performance art education company based in Tacoma, Washington. Online: MichelleNicoleMatlock.com