Writer and Performer

BABA BRINKMAN

Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rap artist, writer, and scholar with a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature. His thesis drew parallels between the worlds of hip-hop music and literary poetry. After graduating in 2003, Baba began his career as a rap troubadour.

To date Baba has written or co-written five hip-hop theatre shows, including The Rap Canterbury Tales, The Rap Guide to Evolution, and The Rebel Cell, with MC Dizraeli. He won three awards and entertained thousands while performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the past seven years. Baba is also the founder of Lit Fuse Records, which represents Aaron Nazrul, Smoky Tiger, and Mud Sun, as well as his own music. Besides executive producing and developing new talent through his label, Baba has recorded and released seven solo albums since 2004. The Rap Guide to Evolution won the prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award in Edinburgh in 2009, and went on to tour the USA, Australia, and the UK, including two appearances at regional TED conferences and an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show on US national television. For the 2010 Fringe Baba created two new shows, a sequel to the Evolution show entitled “The Rap Guide to Human Nature” and “Rapconteur,” a new set of oral epics adapted to rap, including Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and the Finnish Kalevala.

DJ/Music Producer

Jamie Simmonds

Mr. Simmonds is a Brighton and London based producer and DJ who specializes in hip-hop, theatre, and custom projects. He engineered and co-produced the soundtrack to the award-winning Edinburgh hip-hop theatre sensation “The Rebel Cell” with Baba Brinkman and Dizraeli – from the company behind the West End smash hit “Into the Hoods”. Mr. Simmonds also performs live turntablism in the show, which toured more than a dozen UK theatres in the Autumn of 2010.

Mr. Simmonds also co-produced and performed in Baba Brinkman’s critically-acclaimed hip-hop comedy “The Rap Guide to Human Nature” at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival. His talents with musical mood and timing even caught the attention of Edinburgh theatre reviewers: “Jamie Simmonds provides an excellent backdrop to the verbal interaction by driving the narrative to such explosive conclusions. The hypnotic beats of his soundscapes provide so much more than a supporting role.” ★ ★ ★ ★ AlltheFestivals.com As a producer and engineer, Mr. Simmonds has worked with several mid-scale UK labels such as K7 and Crammed/SSR, as well as major label artists like Alison Goldfrapp and Leftfield. He currently specializes in producing and mastering independent hip-hop music and creating custom soundscapes for theatre productions. When he is not on tour, Mr. Simmonds resides in Brighton, England.

Director

Dodd Loomis

Loomis is the co-director and co-writer of the international dance sensation, The Aluminum Show (currently touring 110 US cities), the director and co-writer of the internationally award winning one woman show LUCK (currently in development as a feature film) and was the assistant director of the Broadway rock musical Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, directed by Julie Taymor and Philip William KcKinley (music by Bono and The Edge).

Loomis has directed and assistant directed at the National Theatre of France, the National Theatre of Norway, the National Theatre of Spain, and the Maly Branch Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Dodd has also served as assistant director for several shows Off-Broadway, including Mabou Mines DollHouse and Red Beads, directed by Lee Breuer.

Projection Design

Wendall K. Harrington

Broadway projection credits include The Who’s Tommy (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and American Theatre Wing Awards), Driving Miss Daisy,Grey Gardens, Amy’s View, The Civil War, The Good Body, Putting It Together, John Leguziamo’s Freak, Ragtime, The Capeman, The Will Rogers Follies, Racing Demon, Company, Having Our Say, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only, and They’re Playing Our Song.

Opera and ballet credits includes Wuthering Heights, Ghosts of Versailles, Nixon in China (Opera Theatre of St Louis); The Grapes of Wrath, Transatlantic(Minnesota Opera); A View from the Bridge(Lyric Opera of Chicago/Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera); The Turn of the Screw in Copenhagen; The Magic Flute in Florence, Orpheo ed Euridice in Vienna and Zurich; Manon Lescaut (DC Ballet); Othello (American Ballet Theatre); Anna Karenina for Alexei Ratmansky; Ballet Mecanique and Deconstructing English for Doug Varone;The Juniper Tree (American Repertory Theatre); and The Photographer (Brooklyn Academy of Music). She directed and designed the premiere of Arjuna’s Dilemna by Doug Cuomo and Snapshots, an evening of string quartets and imagery. Her concert work includes Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience for Vocal Essence, I Hear America Sing for PBS, and tours for Chris Rock, Simon and Garfunkel, John Fogarty, and The Talking Heads. She designed the player introductions for the New York Knicks, Rangers, and Liberty at Madison Square Garden. She served as design director of Esquire magazine, producer of PBS’s Words on Fire, and is a founding member of Drama Dept. She is the recipient of the 1995 OBIE Award and the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration, and heads up the Projection Design MFA program at the Yale School of Drama

Set Design

Derek Stenborg

Derek Is currently the Scenic Charge Artist of the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, Derek has designed for the Drama and Dance divisions, and also the ’08 and’10 Juilliard GALA performances.

On moving to New York City in 1992, Derek co-founded the theatre company TELEOTHEATRE. Other theatre design credits include: New York Theatre Ballet’s production of “Mother Goose” and assisting UK designer, Tim Hatley on the Broadway productions of “Spamalot” and “Shrek the Musical”. Derek has worked as an art director and scenic artist in film & TV, including: “Sesame Street”, “Crank Yankers”, Tommy Hilfiger’s “The Cut”, “The Late Show with David Letterman” and Tim Burton’s academy award winning, “Sleepy Hollow”. Recently Derek assisted Basil Twist on the set design of “UnTramway Nomme Desir,” for the Comedie-Francaise in Paris, directed by Lee Breuer. Before joining Juilliard in 2003, Derek worked at SPAETH DESIGN, designing and painting animated dioramas for many NYC department stores. This led to collaborating as an illustrator with Michael Allen on MACY’s one-of-a kind, award winning, pop-up book windows in 2005. Derek is pleased to continue his working relationship with Dovetail productions on “The Rap Guide To Evolution.”

Lighting Design

Jason Boyd

Jason has toured the world with many Theatrical and Musical acts.

He has designed extensively for Lee Breuer of Mabou Mines including shows such as The Gospel at Colonus, all productions since 1995, Lulu Noire 96', Prelude to a Death in Venice (Harvey's Version), Choraphorae, as well as Mabou Mines' Red Horse Animation and Putanna Mocsha. Other clients include, Nami Yamamoto, Natalie Merchant, Powderfinger, John Mayer, John Zorn, Liz Phair, John Paul Jones, Natalie Cole, Blues Traveler, Anne Bogart, Gale Gates et.al., The Tigerlillies , Cynthia Hopkins, Fode Bangoura and Mikel Rouse. For more info visit please www.jasonboydlighting.com and www.jasonboydart.com.

Sound Design

Ken Travis

Broadway Designs: Memphis, The ThreePenny Opera, Barefoot in the Park, Steel Magnolias.

Numerous regional theaters and companies including: The NYSF PublicTheater, 5th Avenue Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, LA CTG, Seattle Rep, Guthrie Theater, Dallas Theater Center, McCarter Theater, Playwrights Horizons, The New Group, CSC, Signature Theater NYC, SoHo Rep,Vineyard Theater, The Civilians, Mabou Mines, and festivals across Europe and the USA.

Producer

Sharon Levy

Sharon Levy is the president of Dovetail Productions, created in 1997 to develop and produce theater, music and film www.dovetail-productions.com.

Most recently she produced Mabou Mines DollHouse on tour which, since it’s sold-out run at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York in 2003, has toured worldwide, was filmed for Arte French television and will be presented at the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2011. Also Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s The Gospel at Colonus which has continued to tour in the US and internationally since it appeared on Broadway in 1987, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival, The Ordway, The Herodion in Athens, the Vienna Festival and at Harlem’s Apollo Theater; and Bagdad Café – The Musical based on the Percy Adlon film which had its world premiere in Barcelona in 2004 and subsequently toured Germany and France. Ms Levy produced The Works, a 12-hour music marathon featuring chamber, jazz, electronic, and art songs produced for Meet The Composer; the jazz opera Lulu Noire for the Spoleto Festival USA and The American Music Theater Festival; and the Tribute to King Oliver concert for the 1996 Olympics. She was also manager to trumpeter Jon Faddis and his sextet, presenting the legacy of Dizzy Gillespie. Levy has worked with the British Theatre of the Deaf, with Australian director Nigel Triffit (Tap Dogs), for Robert Altman’s HBO series Tanner ’88 and at the Alliance Theatre and the Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta where, as Producing Director throughout the 1980’s, she produced more than 40 plays and musicals. Levy has a degree in theater from the Flinders University of South Australia. She has twice received awards from The National Endowment for the Arts.