A Fine Madness

Justin Weaks (they/he) WOOLLY MAMMOTH: Company Member – There’s Always the Hudson, Describe the Night, BLKS, and Gloria. DC AREA: Arena Stage: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches; The Kennedy Center: Long Way Down, The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963, Bud, Not Buddy; Studio Theatre: Curve of Departure, Pipeline; Round House Theatre: Gem of the Ocean; Theater Alliance: Word Becomes Flesh, Still Life With Rocket and Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; Mosaic Theater Co: One In Two; Theater J: The Christians. OFF-BROADWAY: The New Group: i need space. REGIONAL: Barrington Stage Company and TheaterWorks Hartford: Primary Trust; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: A Christmas Carol; Shakespeare & Company: The Venetian Twins. EDUCATION: B.A. in Theater. AWARDS: Justin holds five Helen Hayes Awards for his work on Washington Stages. @keithweaks

Raymond O. Caldwell (Director) is an award-winning director (2023 SDCF Zelda Fichandler Award recipient), writer, producer, and educator. He is the artistic director of The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. Recent Theatre credits include Poetry for the People and Fly me to the Sun at The Fountain Theatre, Paradise Blue at Studio Theatre, Fat Ham at American Stage, Look Both Ways at the Kennedy Center, Romeo & Juliet at Folger Shakespeare Library, Skeleton Crew at The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, Passing Strange at Signature Theatre, One in Two at Mosaic Theater, Nollywood Dreams at Round House Theatre. Raymond was the former artistic director of Theater Alliance. Prior to artistic leadership, he was a faculty member and resident director at Howard University. He also served for 6 seasons as the Community Engagement Partnership Manager at Arena Stage. MFA, Acting/New Play Development: The Ohio State University; BFA, Acting: University of Florida. www.raymondocaldwell.com 

Tony Thomas (Choreographer) is an award-winning director, choreographer, and interior architect. His creative methodology places a strong emphasis on intricate movement, innovative staging, and the physical development of characters. Tony’s expressive style and pedagogy delivers innovation to acting, singing, and dance; enforcing focus, fluidity, and precision. Currently running Off-Broadway, his most recent work can be seen in Mexodus, for which he was recently nominated as Outstanding Choreographer by The Lucille Lortel Awards. He holds multiple nominations for the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for productions such as Word Becomes Flesh at Theatre Alliance; Fat Ham, The Colored Museum, and P.Y.G. at Studio Theatre; as well as his recent award for Outstanding Choreography in a Play for Metamorphoses at the Folger Theatre. Other credits include Arena Stage, Mosaic Theatre of DC, Berkeley Rep, Solas Nua New Irish Arts, Imagination Stage, Constellation Theatre, and many others.

Otis Cortez Ramsey-Zöe (Dramaturg) he/him/love is a care worker, dramaturg, and director. He has developed new works at such institutions as Chautauqua Theater Company, South Coast Rep, Playwrights Center, Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Sundance Institute. He has held posts in Dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Carnegie Mellon University, Theatre at Northeastern University, Women’s Studies at University of Maryland, and Theatre Arts at Howard University. He was Literary Manager at Arena Stage and Baltimore Center Stage, Associate Artistic Director at banished? productions, and Future Classics Program Coordinator at The Classical Theatre of Harlem. 

Matthew M Nielson (Sound Designer/Original Music) OFF-BROADWAY: Where Words Once Were, Shakespeare’s Villains, Lackawanna Blues. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Shane, Cincinnati Playhouse: A Christmas Carol, Portland Center Stage Astoria, Parts I & II, Denver Theatre Center: Anna Karenina, Actors Theatre of Louisville: Dracula. DC AREA: Arena Stage: Nina Simone: Four Women, Studio Theatre: Paradise Blue, The Colored Museum, Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Romeo & Juliet, Signature Theatre: King of the Yees, Round House Theatre: A Prayer For Owen Meany [Helen Hayes Award], We Declare You a Terrorist, Theater Alliance: The Wonderful World Of Dissocia [Helen Hayes Award], Mnemonic [Helen Hayes Award], firework. FILM/TV: The Adam Project, Netflix, Discovery, AppleTV+, Disney, SyFy, HBO, PBS, Epix Drive-In, OWN. OTHER: composer for The Last Wide Open, a new musical by Audrey Cefaly, founder of Sound Lab Studios, Curious Music Company, Third Rail Audio. EDUCATION: Berklee College of Music. WEB: matthewnielson.com 
 

Orilonise C.D. Yarborough or Ori (Altar Designer), is a public historian, memory and cultural worker, and ancestral storyteller whose work focuses on oral histories, heritage sites and creative activations of museums and archives. Her work uses creative and engaging methods to co-create historical narratives with the public through projects and place based histories. She has worked with institutions such as the John Hope Franklin Center for African and African American History and Culture, the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, Columbia University’s Department of Oral History, the National Humanities Center, the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Previously, Ori curated the altar for Black Joy Disco, hosted by Black in Space at Woolly Mammoth Theater. Ori is excited to lend her skills to A Fine Madness as the curator of the altar experience for this production. 

Jazzy Davis (they/she) is a local theatre artist, administrator, and collaborator. Select credits: Romantic Fools (New York Deaf Theatre), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (BLUEBARN Theatre), Ain’t No Mo’ (Baltimore Center Stage), Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (The Public Theater), MONSTRESS (Flying V), The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (WMTC).  

Eli Golding is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, and technician. He has been making art and working in theatre for over 15 years, and holds a BFA in Theater Design and Technology from Syracuse University. As a designer and director, his work has been featured in Syracuse, Rochester, New York City, D.C., and Baltimore. Select credits include It’s A Motherf**king Pleasure (Assoc. Lighting Design and LX Supervisor, WMTC), Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather? and Side Effects May Include… (Lead Electrician, CATF), The Pocket Park Kids (Scenic Design, NYCCT), and Head Over Heels (Lighting Design, SU Drama).