Brandon Okereke (Mark Miller, PawPaw, Pump Technician, Wale) is a Solution Specialist at Verizon Wireless, from Montgomery AL. He graduated from Miles College with a major in Business Administration/MGMT and a minor in literature. He is an aspiring actor who has several commercial credits and a film credit for a piece that won awards in the 48 Hour Film Festival. He attends the Nick Conti Professional Actors Studio.
Donna King (Ensemble) is a first-time Auburn Area Community Theatre participant. She is a retired educator, with thirty years of experience. She currently resides in Lee County, Alabama. Donna enjoys attending church, cooking, and spending time with her family.
Elizabeth Chenier (Florestine) is a current resident of Montgomery and works a Parks Supervisor at SkyZone. She has been a part of six theatre productions, including musicals like Young Frankenstein and Seussical the Musical. Her favorite role was portraying Luella Bennett from the play, The Diviners. She enjoys painting and hopes to continue pursuing her college education.
Ella Holmes (Yamojah, Father Joseph) is a Chambers County, Alabama native, who has been volunteering with AACT for nearly ten years. Ella is a certified teacher in Business Education, as well as a nationally certified Human Resources Management Professional. Ella enjoys baking casseroles, and going to the beach. She believes that when people always look for the positive things in life, they will find them.
Ella Howard (Erica, Babalowa Adetunji) is a native of the Black Belt ( Lowndes County, AL) currently residing in Auburn, AL. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degree of Social Work from Troy University Montgomery. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker with the Department of Veteran Affairs. She enjoys traveling, spending time at the beach, dancing, and listening to music.
Dr. Joan R. Harrell (Mrs. Guidry, Madam Tinubu) is the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Director of Inclusive Excellence in the Dean’s Office, founder of the Auburn University “Becoming the Beloved Community” Humanities Project, and public theologian. Joan is a novice community theatre actor. When asked, how does it feel to be an invited reader for Water Spirits, Joan responded, “It is an honor to become a human vessel in this transformative play written about the value and power of African American and African cultures amid loss, pain, suffering, love, and joy.”
Richard Trammell, Jr. (Stage Directions) is a graduate of Auburn University’s Theatre Department but currently works as an Education Curator at the Alabama Department of Archives. He has directed To Kill a Mockingbird and Aesop’s Fables for AACT and taught many classes and camps. He is also a founding member of the FIFTY FUND.
Zion McThomas (Denise) is a 27 year old recent graduate of Auburn University from the Department of History. Hailing from Meridian, Zion is a hip hop artist, spoken word artist, playwright and filmmaker. She is going on tour this summer across the Southeastern United States.
Playwright – Alicia Kester (she/her) is a Black, mixed-race playwright, poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker. She draws on both her Yoruba (Nigerian) and Louisiana Creole heritages as well as her queer, disabled, and first-generation identities to address themes of migration, familial constructs, tribalism, environmentalism, the physical and/or racialized body, and current events. She often explores speculative genres, infusing magical realism, absurdism, or futurism within mundane or hyper-realist contexts in her writing. She recently completed a residency with Monson Arts in Maine. In 2022 she completed a residency with 3G Theater that culminated in a staged reading of her play Water Spirits. In 2021 she completed a residency with the Cph Queer Theater Festival, where she wrote two short plays that were produced in Denmark. She is looking forward to an upcoming residency at The Hambidge Center in Georgia. Water Spirits was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference and the Garry Marshall Theater New Works Festival. She’s been published and is a former VONA scholar and a recipient of a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, among others.
Director – Abdul Khaliq Murtadha is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance at Auburn University. Over the past 30 years AK has taught theater and filmmaking in a variety of settings, including charter schools, universities, private workshops, summer camps and independent master classes. His work as an independent producer and writer has led him to collaborate with artists and entrepreneurs in varied areas including story development, marketing, and advertising. His work with different theatre companies has used techniques from Ann Bogart’s Viewpoints as well as Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed to devise productions for schools, prisons, and corporate settings based on social, health, and educational issues.