Team Members – Page 11 – Victory Gardens

Caitlin McCarthy

CAITLIN MCCARTHY (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary theatre and film artist who works in prop, costume, and production design. Victory Gardens: Queen of The Night, and In Every Generation. Other Chicago credits include: prop design for LACED (About Face Theatre Company); The Last Pair of Earlies, A Doll’s House (Raven Theatre); Blues in the Night, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Sophisticated Ladies (Porchlight Music Theater); A Recipe for Disaster, Every Brilliant Thing, The Recommendation (Windy City Playhouse); costume and prop design for The Gulf (About Face Theatre). Film: production design for The Care and Keeping of You; production and costume design for Trading Hearts with Victor Shaw. Upcoming: The Luckiest (Raven Theatre) production and costume design for short CLAMBAKE; costume design for short The Last Stand of Bobby Coe (Santa Fe Film Festival), Production Design and producing for horror short AGORA. Caitlin is the Director of Production at First Floor Theater. www.caitlinmccarthy.net, www.agorashortfilm.com

Bo Frazier

BO FRAZIER (they/them) is a highly visual and compositionally driven director/producer/choreographer interested in new work that tells traditionally excluded narratives in extremely imaginative ways. In Chicago, they have worked with Sideshow Theatre Company, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Filament Theatre and Mudlark Theatre. This fall, they will be directing Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tanahill with First Floor Theatre! Previously based in NYC and London, Bo has worked with companies such as The National Theatre (UK), Birmingham Rep (UK), Greenwich Theatre (UK), Signature Theatre (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), Rutgers University (NJ), Theatre167 (NYC), Heartbeat Opera (NYC), Indiana Repertory Theatre (IN), Theatre Cedar Rapids (IA), Riverside Theatre (IA) and London Theatre Workshop Off-West End (UK) which they co-founded. Favorite Directing & Choreography projects include: Hit the Wall by Ike Holter, Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, Love & Information by Caryl Churchill, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens as well as new play productions by Dakota Parobek, Courtney Meaker, Leigh M Marshall, and KT Peterson. MEMBER: SDC, Ring of Keys. TRAINING: University of Iowa (MFA), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (MA), Millikin University (BA) and SITI Company. www.bofrazier.com

Ada A.

Ada A. is an early-career playwright who graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A in anthropology. Her ten-minute play “United Separatism” had a professional reading at the 2020 Fade to Black Festival, and her one-act play The Reverend Dr. Paul(i) Murray had its world premiere at Valiant Theatre through its New Works Festival January 2020. Her new play, Good Years, was a 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival semi-finalist. She is currently a National Young Playwright in Residence at Echo Theater in Los Angeles.

Rhiana Yazzie

Rhiana Yazzie is a 2021 Lanford Wilson and 2020 Steinberg Award winning playwright, a director, a filmmaker, and the Artistic Director of New Native Theatre, which she started in 2009 as a response to the lack of connection and professional opportunities between Twin Cities theaters and the Native community. She is a 2018 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and was recognized with a 2017 Sally Ordway Award for Vision and has been a Playwrights’ Center fellow (McKnight 2016/17 & Jerome 2006 & 2010). A Navajo Nation citizen, she’s seen her plays on stages from Alaska to Mexico including in Carnegie Hall’s collaboration with American Indian Community House & Eagle Project. She has a new co-commissioned play in the works with Long Wharf Theatre and Rattlestick Theater and is currently developing her newest play Nancy, a Native bio-perspective on Nancy Reagan, a sequel to Queen Cleopatre and Princess Pocahontas, which was commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater for the American Revolutions cycle. Her first feature film, A Winter Love, (writer/director/producer/actor) will premiere at festivals in 2021/22.

Victoria Deiorio

Trey Brazeal

G Clausen

G CLAUSEN (he/him) makes his Victory Gardens debut. His theatrical credits include Playmakers Repertory: Native Son, Skeleton Crew. Studio Theatre: PYG or The Misedumacation of Dorian Belle. Children’s Theatre of Charlotte: My Wonderful Birthday Suit, The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats. Triad Stage: The 39 Steps, Member of the Wedding, Dirty Blonde, Fences, Don Juan, The Mystery of Irma Vep, And Then There Were None, A Christmas Carol and Two Wolves and a Lamb. Cape Fear Regional Theatre: Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. Pyramid Theatre Company: Too Heavy for Your Pocket, How I Learned What I Learned, Intimate Apparel, A Raisin in the Sun, and Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies. Riverside Theatre: Sonnets for an Old Century, How I Learned What I Learned. BS in History from Iowa State University/Minor in African American Studies. MFA in Sound Design from UNCSA. He is currently faculty at UN

Sim Carpenter

SIMEAN “SIM” CARPENTER (He/Him) makes his Victory
Gardens Theater debut. Other Chicago credits include: The Last Pair of Earlies (Raven
Theatre); Hoodoo Love (Raven Theatre); Hannah & Martin (Shattered Globe Theatre);
When Harry Met Rehab (Pemberley Productions); Middle Passage (Lifeline Theatre,
Jeff Nominated). Regional Theatre credits include: The Folks at Home (Baltimore
Center Stage). Other design credits include: Xavier Omar: Moments Spent Loving You
Tour. Sim is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University. www.simcarpenter.com

Rueben D. Echoles

Sydney Lynne

SYDNEY LYNNE (she/her) makes her Victory Gardens Theater Debut. Pump Boys and Dinettes (Porchlight Music Theatre); The Last Pair of Earlies (Raven Theatre); The Snowqueen (The House Theatre); Hoodoo Love (Jeff Nomination – Raven Theater); Sheepdog (Shattered Globe); Day of Absence (Congo Square Theater); How to Catch Creation (Geva Theater Center). 2020 3Arts Award in Theatre. Sydney Lynne is a graduate of Northwestern University. www.sydneylynnedesign.com