Shariffa Ali is a Kenyan-Ethiopian, New York-based director, filmmaker, and educator who believes theatre is a rehearsal for humanity. Rooted in futurity, her work transforms memory, migration, and resistance into collective possibility. Directing credits include Mies Julie, minor.ity, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Copper Children, and Mlima’s Tale. Her films Atomu and You Go Girl! premiered at Sundance. She has been an artist-in-residence at Brown University and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A Sundance New Frontier Fellow and Hermitage Major Theater Award recipient, Shariffa teaches at Princeton University and works with UNDP’s timbuktoo initiative, advancing African  innovation and becoming.

Photo by Rea Parrish.

Karishma Bhagani is a producer and dramaturg from Mombasa, Kenya. Karishma is the program director of the Bridges Fellowship Program, a training program for African producers. Select credits: Mal Aria (Premier Stages), Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night (NYC), Goddess: The Musical (Berkeley Rep and The Public Theater), produced The Manic Monologues, Theatre for One: Nairobi Edition. PhD candidate, Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, B.F.A Drama and B.A. History, NYU.
@karishmabhagani

You-Shin Chen Taiwanese-American scenic designer. You-Shin centers the human experience in the process of creating an environment. Recent credits include: How to Defend Yourself (NYTW); Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (ArsNova); Wolf Play (MCC & SohoRep); A View From the Bridge (Long Wharf); Red Velvet (STC); Walden (Theaterworks Hartford); The Ruins (Guthrie); The Witnesses (Chautauqua Theater Company); Kim’s Convenience (Westport Country Playhouse); The Dragon King’s Daughter; Finn (The Kennedy Center). Lucille Lortel Awards, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. USA 829.

Lacey Erb is a projection & media designer whose design work spans live performance, multimedia art exhibitions, and film and video animation. Selected credits: Small Mouth Sounds (Alliance Theatre), Sondheim on Love (Norfolk Chamber Music Festival), This Beautiful Future (Off-Broadway), Very Fine People, and Chasing the New White Whale (La Mama), Sondheim on Love (Norfolk Chamber Music Festival), Reflective Impulse (SXSW Interactive), and multiple shows with Norwegian Cruise Line. Lacey is a member of USA 829.

Celeste Jennings an Arkansas born, New York based playwright and costume designer. Recent designs include: Fun Home, Purpose, To Kill a Mockingbird (Huntington Theatre), The Monsters (Berkeley Rep), Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem), and Appropriate (The Old Globe). She developed her play Potliqka with The Public Theatre Spotlight Series and Rattlestick Theatre where she’s a Terrence McNally Fellow. Jennings holds an MFA in costume design from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.