The Great Privation

Yetunde Felix-Ukwu (Mother) makes her Woolly Mammoth debut. Selected acting credits include Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep); Nollywood Dreams (Round House Theatre); A Christmas Carol (TheatreSquared); Babel (Unicorn Theatre); and School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Kansas City Repertory Theatre). As a Dialect Coach selected credits include Sinners by Ryan Coogler (Warner Bros.), Time Bandits (Apple TV+), and Metamorphoses (Folger Shakespeare Library). More information can be found on all social media platforms @yetundelive and at www.yetundelive.com.

Victoria Omoregie* (CHARITY) she/her is excited to join the cast of The Great Privation for her Woolly Mammoth Theatre debut! Her selected credits include: “Paige” in BUST (The Goodman Theatre & The Alliance Theatre), “Opal” in FAT HAM (The Alliance Theatre), “Nell Shaw” in JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN, “Opal” in FAT HAM (The Huntington Theatre), “Faith” in acts of faith (American Stage), “Keisha” (Elliot Norton Award Nominated) in FAIRVIEW (SpeakEasy Stage Company), “Antipholus of Ephesus/Adriana” in The Bomb-Itty of Errors, “Perdita” in The Winter’s Tale (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), “MEDEA” in LORENA: A Tabloid Epic (Boston Playwrights Theatre). She holds a BFA in Acting from Boston University School of Theatre. Victoria forever thanks God and honors her mother (her real life Wonder Woman), father (her fuel that keeps her going), and loved ones for their unending encouragement. Find her on social media @victoriaosaku

Marc is thrilled to be making his Woolly Mammoth debut! Recent Theatre Credits: “Topdog|Underdog”, “An Octoroon”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Gloria” (Gamm Theatre), “The Play That Goes Wrong” and “Peter and the Starcatcher” (Lyric Stage), “We Are Proud to Present…” and “Leftovers” (Company One Theatre), “Brawler” (Kitchen Theatre Company), “Airness” (Actors Theatre of Louisville), “When January Feels Like Summer” (Central Square Theatre), “Milk Like Sugar” (Huntington Theatre Company), “The Flick” (Gloucester Stage) TV/Film: Castle Rock, Twelve (Dir. Joel Schumacher) Other:Marc has a B.F.A. from Emerson College. He is a recipient of the Isabel Sanford Scholarship and Emerson College’s Acting Area Award. www.marcalexanderpierre.com

Zack Powell [he/him] Is thrilled to make his WOOLLY MAMMOTH debut! He is a Resident Company Member at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore and a DC Theatre Artist. Select credits include: EVERYMAN THEATRE: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Mystery of Irma Vep, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Lion in Winter, Sense and Sensibility, THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE CO.: Red Velvet, Dunsinane; THE KENNEDY CENTER: Silvain, Shear Madness (600+ performances); ALABAMA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; THE CLEVELAND PLAYHOUSE: Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Robin Hood); WASHINGTON STAGE GUILD: Arms and the Man, REPSTAGE: E2 (Edward II); ROUND HOUSE THEATRE: The Legend of Georgia McBride (Georgia McBride); THEATER J: The Last Night of Ballyhoo; THE FOLGER THEATRE A Midsummer Night’s Dream; as well as three seasons at UTAH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, two seasons at ILLINOIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL and one at the AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER [FILM]: Tapawingo; The Call. [EDUCATION]: MFA in Acting from Illinois State University, BFA in Acting from Wichita State University.
Follow my adventures on Instagram: @zackpowellthezactor

Nia Akilah Robinson (she/her) is a playwright and actor who reps Harlem with all her might. Productions: Co-Pro: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC) & Company One Theatre (Boston, Massachusetts), NextStop Theatre (Herdon, VA), Urbanite Theatre (Sarasota, FL), Soho Rep U.S. Off Broadway Premiere (2025 New York Times Critics Pick- Extended Twice!), Theatre503 (London, UK), and The Hearth (New York, NY). The Great Privation has been recently published and made for purchase by Concord Theatricals UK & Push Party (The Hearth, NYC), which had a Sponsored Performance by the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation and brought together The Birthing Place, Maroon Theatre Project, Exodus Transitional Community, and Hour Children community members to a night of conversation post show about “artivisim” and Calls to Action.

Her work has been seen and developed with Steppenwolf Theatre, The Hearth, The New Group, Theatre503 (UK), The Ground Floor: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Conference, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Waterwell, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Urbanite, and New Georges. She has been a MacDowell Fellow, Travis Bogard Eugene O’Neill Foundation Fellow, and a writer for PEN America and EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (short play). Nia has had residencies at NYSAF and The Pocantico Center through YoungArts. Nia’s work will be featured in the 2024 46th Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2024 The Fire This Time Festival, was featured in the 2023 SPACE JAM @ Roundabout Theatre, and the 48th Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival. She participated in the National Black Theatre Soul Series and received the 2023 Film & TV Mentorship by Mitzi Miller. She has been awarded 1st Place for the 2023 A is For Playwriting Contest, the Next Wave Initiative Lorraine Hansberry Writing Scholarship, a Miranda Family Fund Commission, and the NYSCA Grant (CCCADI). She is shortlisted for the 2023 Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award. She was a finalist for the Audible Commission, the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Blue Ink Playwriting Award, OJAI Playwrights Conference, Jane Chambers, and The Leah Ryan Fund. She is a 2024 Relentless Award Semi Finalist. She is a member or alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, I-73 at Page 73, The Orchard Project NYCGreenhouse, The Wish Collective, and TheBlackHERthePen. She is proudly represented by Alex Gold at Creative Artists Agency. Education: Yale (DGSD- MFA Playwriting Candidate) & Juilliard ‘24 (Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program). https://www.niaakilahrobinson.com

Mina Morita is a celebrated new plays director, and Woolly Mammoth’s BOLD Resident Director & Creative Producer. She recently served as the Artistic Director at Crowded Fire Theater Company for a decade. Selected work includes: Wish You Were Here (South Coast Rep); Yoga Play (Sydney & Brisbane, Australia);  English (Berkeley Rep); Vietgone (The Guthrie); Today is My Birthday (Yale Rep); Pearl’s Beauty Salon (Yale DGSD); Crazy Wisdom (Berkeley Rep); The Chinese Lady (Magic Theater); Sisters Matsumoto (Center Rep); On Grace (Anna Deavere Smith); Both Your Houses (ACT’s MFA Program); Crowded Fire; Shotgun Players; Campo Santo; Ferocious Lotus; Just Theater; Playwrights Foundation; Playwrights Center; and Bay Area Children’s Theatre.  

Sarah Chapin (she/her) fuses her technical expertise, performance training, and passion for systems and organization with an expansive can-do attitude to support artists making a more just and joyful world. She works as a stage manager, producer, production manager, educator, electrician, carpenter, and all-around technician for performance artists and arts organizations, including extensive work in contemporary dance, movement-based performance art, and Woolly Mammoth’s touring production of HaHaHaHaHaHaHa.

Meghan Raham is primarily a set designer with a strong interest in the development of new work. She was a Resident Artist at Round House Theatre 2023-2025 (Bad Books, Topdog/ Underdog, A Jumping Off Point, Radio Golf, Master Harold…and the Boys, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night Alive, Fool for Love), and has designed sets and/ or costumes for Woolly Mammoth (Dead Inside, She the People, She the People: The Resistance Continues, Pike St.), Ford’s (My Lord, What a Night; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Arena Stage (JQA), Signature (Daphne’s Dive, Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes), Folger (District Merchants, Romeo and Juliet, The Conference of the Birds), Studio (The Aliens, Red Speedo), Theatre J (Life Sucks), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, and beyond at Everyman (The Chinese Lady), Lincoln Center’s LCT3 (CLAY), Steppenwolf (You Got Older), Lookingglass (CLAY, Faedra: Queen of Haiti), The Building Stage (The Ring Cycle, The Master Builder, NOIR, Moby-Dick), Victory Gardens (A Big Blue Nail), The Hypocrites at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Frankenstein), Center Theatre Group in LA (Venice), Barrington Stage (The Chosen), and Kansas City Repertory Theatres (CLAY, The Circle Mirror Transformation, Broke-Ology, Little Shop of Horrors, Venice, Death of a Salesman), and internationally in Prague, Czech Republic (S/he is Nancy Joe). She is the recipient of a Princess Grace Theatre Honoraria and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. She also enjoys experimenting with sound and video and was the photographer and videographer for the Kim Gordon x model home single RAZZAMATAZZ (Matador Records, 2024). Meghan is a professor at American University.

Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design) is a Tony Nominated Lighting Designer who works in Theater, Opera, and Dance. His credits include Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic (Tony Nom.), Merrily we Roll Along, and Purpose. Off Broadway: The Public, Playwrights Horizons, NYTW, The Atlantic, and The Signature. Regional Theaters: Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, The Geffen, and The Huntington. Opera: The Glimmerglass Festival, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera. Dance: Staatstheater Nuremberg, The Lyon Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet of New Zealand, The Joyce, and The National Dance Company of Wales. He is the recipient of The Drama Desk and Henry Hewes awards; Union Trustee for United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE; MFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and faculty at The University of Maryland’s School for Theatre Dance and Performance Studies.

Brandee Mathies has been Studio’s Costume Shop Manager since 1994. He is a Helen Hays nominated costume designer for Nollywood Dreams at Round House Theatre & Mountain Top. He has also designed Exception to The Rules, Passover, Mother Struck, This Is Our Youth, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, Rimers of Eldritch, A Number, The Syringa Tree, and Comic Briefs for Studio Theatre, as well as Moth, Contractions, A Beautiful View, Crestfall, and Polaroid Stories for Studio 2ndStage. Other DC area credits include (Costume designed); Cullud Wattah, One in Two, Birds of North America, Satchmo at the Waldorf, Hooded for Dummies, Blood Knot, Eureka Day, Shame, Vicuna, Inhered the Windbag at Mosaic Theater (Costume Design) Pankr’ac 45 at Atlas Theatre (Costume Designer) Poetry for the people, This Girl Laugh, Black Nativity, This Bitter Earth at Theater Alliance. (Costume Design) Letters to Kamala & Dandelion Peace, Who Cares at Voices Festival Productions, (Costume Design) The House That Will Not Stand, Sonnets and Soul, Anything Goes and & Black Nativity at Howard University, (Assistant Designer) The Wiz at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Black Nativity, Costume Design Government movie (The AD-X2 Controversy).

LaShawn Melton (Hair & Wig Designer) DC AREA: Signature Theatre: Play On! (Wig Design) Olney Theatre Company: Senior Class (Wig Design), Comedy of Tenors (Wig Design); Studio Theatre: Paradise Blue (Wig Design); Arena Stage: Death on the Nile (Hair and Wig Design), The Other Americans (Hair Design), Tempestuous Elements (Wig Design), Snow Child (Hair and Makeup Design); Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale (Wig Design); Gala Theatre: On Your Feet! (Wig Design); Woolly Mammoth Theatre: The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (Wig Design); The Kennedy Center: The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 (Wig Design); Round House Theatre: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Wig Design). REGIONAL: Utah Shakespeare Festival: Raisin in the Sun, Emma the Musical, The Play that Goes Wrong (Wig Design). FILM/TV: Loiness(Hairstylist), White House Plumber (Hairstylist), Rustin(Hairstylist), Fellow Travelers (Hairstylist). EDUCATION: BA in Art, The University of the District of Columbia.

Nick “tha 1da” Hernandez (Sound Designer/Composer) has been scoring /designing soundscapes for over 25 years. The Hip-hop Children’s Trilogy (Imagination Stage) with playwright/artist Psalmayene 24, The World Premier of Long Way Down & Look Both Ways (Kennedy Center) both written by Jason Reynolds, Paige In Full & Havana Hop with sibling Paige Hernandez (B-Fly Prod). Addtl Theater credits include Metamorphoses (Folger/Shakespeare); Stomping Grounds (Seattle Opera); Topdog/Underdog & The Mountaintop (Round House Theatre); Fences (Ford’s Theater); Word Becomes Flesh (Theater Alliance). Additional credits include Hot97 FM; Netflix, The Smithsonian, Red Bull Music Academy, DC Boxing, MMA & Wrestling Commission, D.C. Public Libraries & the non-profit Words, Beats, & Life

Sonia Fernandez (she/her) is a dramaturg, administrator & producer specializing in new work. She is happiest in a new play process. Currently serving as Director of New Work at Woolly, Sonia was previously interim Artistic Director & prior to that Associate Artistic Director of Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Favorite production dramaturgy credits include unseen by Mona Mansour at OSF, the world premiere of Don’t Eat the Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González, The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh at Magic, Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis at Cal Shakes, and the world premiere of Incendiary by Dave Harris at Woolly. She is the proud mama of two awesome humans, two terriers & 47 plants.

Bridgett Jackson is a Dialect Coach, Accent Coach, Speech/Diction Coach and a certified Speech-Language Pathologist. She is delighted to be the dialect coach for The Great Privation. She was a professor of voice, speech and dialects at Muhlenberg College, and was a guest lecturer with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. She holds a Master of Science degree from Howard University, with a specialization in dialects and accents. Some of her film and episodic credits include I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Sony Tristar), Black Cake (Season 1, Hulu), The Equalizer (Season 1, CBS), Never Let Go (Lionsgate), The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Apple TV+), Winning Time (HBO), and Random Acts of Flyness (HBO). Some of her theater credits include Ain’t No Mo’ on Broadway, Cullud Wattah with The Public Theater in New York, NY and Cost of Living (2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner) with The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. She was the Dialect Coach with The Baker Theater at the Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance for A Raisin In The Sun. Each experience has shaped her view of the world in new and exciting ways.

Sierra Young (Intimacy & Fight Director) is a Helen Hayes nominated violence & intimacy director working in the DC/Baltimore area. Sierra is the Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Baltimore Center Stage and Mosaic Theater Company in DC. She is an active member of the SAFD, IDC, and SDC. Recent choreography credits include: The Age of Innocence, Ja Ja’s African Hair Braiding and POTUS! at Arena Stage; Twelfth Night at The Folger; Apropos of Nothing, Hand to God, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sweat at The Keegan Theater; Sister Act and Little Shop of Horrors at Ford’s Theater; Spring Awakening (Helen Hayes Nomination) at Monumental Theater Co; Cullud Wattah, Confederates, One in Two, the Till Trilogy et. al. at Mosaic Theater; Paradise Blue, The Scenarios, Downstate, and The Colored Museum at Studio Theater; Frankenstein, King Lear (Helen Hayes Nomination) and Red Velvet at The Shakespeare Theater Company; Porgy and Bess at The Washington National Opera. Website: sierrayoung.org.

Gisela Estrada is a Salvadoran passionate artist, designer and storyteller who loves to collaborate and bring a new and fresh perspective to the table. Gisela’s recent credits include Covenant (Theater Alliance, Helen Hayes Winner for Outstanding Scenic Design), Botiquín de Boleros (Gala Hispanic Theater), Faithless (Washington Stage Guild), Twelfth Night (Prince George Community College), The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company (Theater Alliance), Passing Strange (Portland Playhouse), Orlando Paladino (A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute), Saturday Night Fever, Chicago (Onstage – El Salvador), Aladdin Ballet (Macholah – El Salvador). She holds an MFA in Scenic Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. @giseestrada7

Fe Miranda (they/them/theirs) was born and raised in Washington, DC and is of PuertoRican and Ecuadorian descent. They are a stage manager, arts administrator, and musician with a passion for making art that is accessible to underrepresented groups. They believe the arts are community, and creating spaces that allow for the people within those communities to feel safe, brave, and successful is an important part of any theatre experience. As a DC native, Fe is excited to be part of creating works that reflect the diversity of the city they grew up in. Their stage management credits include Reefer Madness and In the Heights (NextStop Theatre Company), and Head Over Heels and Just Like Us (George Mason University). Fe is a graduate of George Mason University, where they received a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with a minor in Arts Management.

Jaida Gillespie they/she (Assistant Director) is a director and actor passionate about voicing tools of liberation and embracing community. They are thrilled to return to Woolly Mammoth as an assistant director. Their previous credits include The Comeuppance [Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company], Death on the Nile [Arena Stage] and Shutter Sisters [1st Stage Theatre]. Directing credits include The Pit [District Fringe Festival], A Full Table (SR) [Shakespeare Theatre Co], EMERGENCY [Howard University] and Ain’t No Mo (excerpt) [Apollo Theatre]. They hold a BFA in Acting from Howard University and studied at the British American Drama Academy.

Aysha Zackria is a queer Pakistani-American dramatist, writer, and musician who recently graduated with a BFA in Dramaturgy from CarnegieMellonUniversity.She amplifies opportunities for societal growth through creation. Asyha was one of two Literary Fellows at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center during their 2024 Summer programming. She was the dramaturg for several Carnegie Mellon productions, includingYou on the Moors Now. She received the KennedyCenter American College Theater Festival Region 2 Student Dramaturgy Award and was named aNational Dramaturgy Fellow for her work on the production. She has written plays that examine social issues, includingPillow Fortress,Proximity, andNatural Law, which she produced at CMU. Her playwriting accolades include a commission by Horizon Theatre Company, an excerpt reading at CityTheatre, and a national One Earth Award from Scholastic Arts and Writing. She has served as Script Editor at Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts. In the last five years at this non-profit, she encouraged high school students to make their voices heard by devising works of musical theatre. In 2019, she won the Miami Herald’s Silver Knight Award in English and Literature for her work as a tutor and advocate for improving access to literature in carceral facilities. Aysha is also an accomplished bassist with a background in music theory. She has played bass in fourteen musicals and on an album, Cosmic Caravan by Fox. On campus, she was the Co-Chair of the Library Student Advisory Council, Secretary of the ThriftyMellon, and Representative for the upperclassmen dramaturgs. She received the Michael Gifford Award and was named one of forty senior Andrew Carnegie Society Scholars for her outstanding engagement and academics

Luke Hartwood he/him (Props Supervisor) is a queer and disabled Asian American multimedia designer and artist working on unceded Nacotchtank land “Washington, DC”. He specializes in designing original props, puppets, graphics, and videos. Recent credits include fire work at Theater Alliance; Dodi and Diana and cullud wattah at Mosaic Theater Company; Hand to God and #Charlottesville at The Keegan Theatre; Finn, Through the Sunken Lands, and The Dragon King’s Daughter at The Kennedy Center; Is God Is at Constellation Theatre Company; Problems Between Sisters at Studio Theatre; Off the Page at Arts on the Horizon; Las Hermanas Palacios, Baño de Luna, and Kumanana! at GALA Hispanic Theater; The Mountaintop at Round House Theatre; The Chosen at 1st Stage; and Angel Number Nine at Rorschach Theatre. @lukehartwood. lukehartwood.com.

Yaritza Pacheco is excited to return to Woolly! Previous sets she has painted include: My Mama and the Full Scale Invasion, Public Obscenities, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes, Second City’s Dance like Black People Are Watching, and Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt. Yaritza is a multidisciplinary artist in sound and set design. Her talent is recognized with Best Set Design (Helen) Award for her work on tick, tick…BOOM! at Monumental Theatre Company. @yesterdayspresent

Samba Pathak is a proud Nepali American arts administrator, marketer, producer, and award-winning stage manager based in the DMV. DC AREA: Jesus Christ Superstar (Stage Manager, Workhouse Arts Center), The Last Martyr (Touring Stage Manager, Imagination Stage), A Christmas Carol (Stage Manager, Chesapeake Shakespeare Co), Frozen (PA, Olney Theatre Center), In the Heights (Sub ASM, NextStop Theatre). REGIONAL: Little Shop of Horrors (ASM), The Play That Goes Wrong (Stage Manager), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (PSM). UPCOMING: Orlando (Stage Manager, Georgetown University), St. John’s The Baptist (Production Manager, IN Series), Appropriate (ASM, Olney Theatre Center), Carla Hall: Please Underestimate Me (ASM, Olney Theatre Center). EDUCATION: MA Arts Management and BA Theatre, George Mason University. Samba is the Administration and Operations Director at Theater Alliance, where he is actively working on their production season. Special thanks to my friends and family for supporting my artistic journey. Onto the next theatrical endeavor! Enjoy the show!! @SambaPathak | SambaPathak.com