Meet the Artists: The Spotlight Reading Series

MALKIA STAMPLEY (Director) was born and raised in Milwaukee, where she attended Marquette University for Theater Arts. She joined Goodman Theatre as BOLD Artistic Producer October 2021 after serving as founding Artistic Producer for the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival for two seasons. Directing credits include: Boulevard of Bold Dreams (Timeline Theatre); Stew (Shattered Globe Theatre); Shakesfest: A Community Cabaret (Chicago Shakespeare, Night Out in the Parks); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Farmer’s Alley Theatre); The Gift of the Magi (American Players Theatre); Black Nativity (Black Arts MKE, three years); Stew (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre); Nunsense (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Five Guys Named Moe (Skylight Music Theatre); Antarctica, WI (First Stage); In:fluence/spiration (University of Wisconsin-Madison) with workshops and readings at American Players Theatre, Northern Sky, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, #ENOUGH, and Texas State University Black and Latino Playwright Celebration. Learn more.

BLAKE HAMILTON CURRIE is incredibly excited to be returning to Court Theatre and to be joining the cast of To Be Young, Gifted and Black. His Chicago credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Court Theatre); Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Who’s Afraid of Deepak Chopra? (Story Theatre); Topdog/Underdog and Do You Feel Anger? (The Theatre School of DePaul). His regional credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare and Company); Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and As You Like It (Tennessee Shakespeare Company); and Buried Deep (Endstation Theatre).

DANIELLE DAVIS‘s Chicago credits include: Antigone (Court Theatre); Corduroy, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Dream, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Clyde’s, The Music Man (Goodman Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Holiday Inn (Jeff Nomination-Performer in a Supporting Role) at Drury Lane Theatre; BLKS (Steppenwolf Theatre); Fun Home (Victory Gardens). She has worked with Theo Ubique, Rivendell Theatre, Definition Theatre, among others. New York credits: How To Catch Creation (Geva Theatre Center). Television credits include The Chi, Shameless, Chicago P.D., Empire, Sense8, and Easy. Davis is represented by Stewart Talent-Chicago.

SEAN JAMES WILLIAM PARRIS is a Chicago based actor, writer, and teacher. Some of his Chicago credits include: Space Age (FST, a two-man show created with real-life intimate partner Ricardo Gamoboa); The Wizards (APO Culturala Center, Concrete Content); The Magic Play (Goodman Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Court Theatre) The Drunken City, Animal Farm, Compass (Steppenwolf Garage); Curve of Departure, The Whipping Man (Northlight Theatre); Seascape (Remy Bumppo); Pornography (Steep Theatre). Regional credits: The Magic Play (The Armory and Syracuse Stage). T.V. credits include: Chicago P.D., The Chi, Work In Progress, and Brujos. Film credits include: Christmas Again. Sean received his MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University and is a graduate of Black Box Acting Academy in Chicago. He is represented by Paonessa Talent. Learn more.

SHARIBA RIVERS is honored to participate in the Spotlight Reading Series again. She was in the 2023 Spotlight Reading Series as Sister Son/ji. Recent credits: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Goodman Theatre), Notes from the Field (TimeLine Theatre), The Nacirema Society (Goodman Theatre), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), and Trouble in Mind (TimeLine Theatre). TV credits include The Chi, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Empire, and Chicago P.D. Film credits include Smoking Gun!, Okie, and Fitting Descriptions. Shariba is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA and is represented by Gray Talent Group. www.sharibatheactor.com.

MATTY ROBINSON is excited to make his Court Theatre debut. Other credits include: Toni Stone, Cephianne’s Reflection [New Stages Festival], What I Learned In Paris [Pearl Cleage Festival] (Goodman Theatre); Is God Is (A Red Orchid Theatre); The Ugly One, The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey (Trap Door Theatre); Back in the Day (Urban Theater Company); I & You, The African Company Presents Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew (Oak Park Festival Theatre). Other Credits include: South Side, PIMPROV (Home Grown, Internationally Known), various stand-up shows, and online sketches. Follow the journey @Mattydor11.

JASMINE CHERI RUSH‘s Chicago credits include: STEW (Shattered Globe Theatre). Regional: As You Like It and Twelfth Night (St. Louis Shakespeare Festival), School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play (Cincinnati Playhouse), King Lear (Shakespeare & Company). Artistic Homes: The Exodus Ensemble and Shattered Globe Theatre. Education: BFA in Acting, The Theatre School at DePaul University. Jazzy is represented by Gray Talent Group. Social Media: @jazzycheri.

MORGAN E. STEVENSON is a versatile connoisseur of music. Her theatre journey is marked by significant contributions to acclaimed productions where she’s served as music director, conductor, and keyboardist. Chicago credits include FANNIE: The Life and Music of Fannie Lou Hamer (Goodman Theatre); Marie & Rosetta (Northlight Theatre). Regional/other credits include FANNIE: The Life and Music of Fannie Lou Hamer (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, City Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Indiana Repertory Theatre); Passing Strange (Theatrical Outfit); Fela! (Lambert-Smith Media); Little Shop of Horrors (Indiana Repertory Theatre). For more on Morgan’s musical projects, culinary explorations, and more, visit https://linktr.ee/morganemusicnow.

BIMBOLA AKINBOLA is an artist, performer, and educator currently based in Chicago. Working at the intersection of theory, performance, and visual art, her scholarly and artistic work is concerned with the complicated and nagging nature of belonging, queerness, and the concept of family. Incorporating a variety of practices from painting, to weaving, to durational movement, her work explores mark-making and performance as modes of organization, remembrance, and repair. Bimbola has shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Compound Yellow, Center on Halsted, The Riverside Arts Center and Roman Susan, and has collaborated on creative projects with universities across the country. She is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.

zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal is a Chicago-based visual artist, independent curator, and arts administrator. Her work engages a more nuanced understanding of selfhood and Black femme existentialism to navigate the intricacies of belonging and aliveness across time, location, and space, engaging both the universal and the specific. Her practice has been presented in various forms at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, NADA, the Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Pompidou, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, DePaul University, EXPO Chicago, and Harvard Graduate School of Design, to name a few. She has curated exhibitions at the Chicago Art Department, Blanc Gallery, and the Washington Park Arts Incubator at the University of Chicago. She was a 2021 Artist in Residence at Arts and Public Life at University of Chicago, a 2021 Artist in Residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, and a 2022 3Arts Gary & Denise Gardner Fund Awardee. She is currently an Albertine Foundation Awardee (2023-24). Her work is represented in both private and public collections, including the Block Museum at Northwestern University and Eskenazi Museum of Art. Learn more.

A.J. McCLENON is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Washington, DC, who lives and works in Chicago. A.J. is a fellowship recipient at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Masters in Fine Arts (2014), a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland College Park, and also studied at The New School. A.J. has performed and shown work in spaces like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Filmmakers, LA Film Forum, Echo Park Film Center, Danspace Project, Woman Made Gallery, Longwood Art Gallery, Roman Susan Gallery, Links Hall, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, and Hyde Park Art Center. Alongside artistic experiences, A.J. is passionate about teaching, youth rights, and community collaborations and is currently the co-founder of Film School. This touring film series features Black films that have remained in obscurity. Learn more.