Chaelon Costello is delighted to have the opportunity to be working on such a special play. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Chae is currently pursuing her MFA in Acting at The New School for Drama. Recent New York credits include Devotees in the Garden of Love and a workshop of Origin Story. Other credits: The Shadow Box, The Laramie Project, Camp Comedy, and Hot-N-Throbbing. Much love to Garlia for writing this play to begin with and allowing me to be a part of it, the members of 320, and NSD 2010, to J for everyday, my parents for being such a blessing. Thank you! I hope you enjoy this very human story that is so deserving of being told.
Garlia Cornelia Jones is currently working on her Masters of Fine Arts in Playwriting at the New School for Drama. Previous Masters work was in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN. Garlia’s Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University, is in Theatre and Drama & English. Garlia’s journey with theatre and the performing arts began as a child as she comes from a musical family in Detroit, MI. Garlia has also played the flute since she was twelve and stuttered since she was five.
In 2003, Garlia founded Black Curtain as an undergraduate at Indiana University. Black Curtain began a new theatrical experience for Ms. Jones as she began to mix the theatrical with the social and political. Black Curtain, still apart of Indiana University Bloomington, is devoted to performing about the Black experience in America. Besides their focus on Black theatre, poetry open mics became a way for Garlia to introduce the Indiana University and Bloomingon Communities to a variety of different poets, including: Jamaal “Versiz” May, Aricka “Epiphany” Foreman and LaShaun “Phoenix” Moore. Black Curtain and Garlia won awards from the Commission on Multicultural Understanding (COMU) and Diversity Education for some of their work that specifically dealt with cross-cultural communication. Garlia and Black Curtain were also heavily involved with the Bloomington community and HIV/AIDS. “RedVolution was born from this partnership in October 2006. This was an HIV/AIDS Benefit, co-hosted by former MTV VJ, Quddus. Their HIV/AIDS work also gave Black Curtain numerous opportunities to perform in front of the Bloomington Mayor and in front of MC Lyte during the Spring of 2007 in Indianapolis, IN.
Credits include: A Raisin in the Sun (Director - Black Curtain), Can You Hear Me Now (Creator, Director - Black Curtain) The Day I Found Out I was Black (Black Curtain), Against the Grain (John Waldron Arts Center, Black Curtain).
In her role as MY Entertainment’s SVP of Account Services, Pat Jones, combines marketing expertise with creativity and production experience to create unique experiences for her clients. Miss Jones works closely with the Carat clients liaising between clients, branding and production. Recently named Chair of the AAAA (4As) Branded Entertainment Committee, Ms. Jones has overseen television series involving sponsors such as Schick, Jenny Craig, Stolichnaya and Reebok. Previously she has held numerous positions in marketing as well as live event and television production. Her television production credits include Reebok Entertainment’s Framed on IFC (executive producer) Autorox on Spike TV (co-executive producer), USO Comedy Tour on Comedy Central (talent producer),Tease on Oxygen (producer) and Stolichnaya presents Be Real on LOGO (executive producer). Additionally, while with General Motors EventWorks, she developed and managed the 1999 Hard Rock RockFest project (an MTV special presented by Oldsmobile Alero) and at the XIX Winter Olympic Games in Park City, Utah, she produced live musical performances on the GM Olympic Stage and the live closed-circuit television show Bud Greenspan’s 10 Best Winter Olympians of all Time.
Ms. Jones has worked in producing large-scale international events such as the 1994 World Cup Soccer, as well as managed creative projects and live shows/events for companies such as Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, McDonalds, Disney, CART racing and Formula One. Ms. Jones was the coordinating producer of the Dodge Durango introductory press show at the 1997 North American International Auto Show as well as stage managed the 1996 Dodge Minivan press conference that “Leap Frogged” for the international press. She produced and managed the conception and installation of the General Motors exhibit at Disneyland Innoventions, part of the inauguration of Disney’s Tomorrowland. Ms. Jones has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Ms Jones spent her formative years in the North of England where she attended Windermere, St. Anne’s boarding school, a member of the Round Square Conference of schools, where she was deputy head girl and head of her house.
Ira-Sharay Kip is an MFA directing student at the New School for Drama. Born and raised in Amersterdam the Netherlands, she decided to move to NY in ’05. She is part of the Hip Hop Theater Festival family in Ny and directed the 365 days/365 plays in ’07 produced by the HHTF. In ’06 she founded her Theatre Company “The Pancake Gallery” with her sisters Tamara Bahia and Ayra Kip. She has directed plays from Suzan-Lori Parks, including TopDog Underdog. Ms. Kip has also directed Agamemnon, Richard III, La case de Bernarda Alba, King Lear and most recently Jesus Hopped the A Train. Ms. Kip has also worked as a drama teacher for many years. She is looking forward to an exciting career both in NY and Amsterdam.
“Exercise your brain”
KiRa Randolph's film career has always gravitated toward nonfiction filmmaking. In 2005, she made "The Ladybug and the Swans," a film about subjected time, was accepted into the PDX film festival in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Ithaca College in 2007 and moved to New York City where she spent the rest of the year working for Morgan Spurlock on his latest feature, "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden." Currently, KiRa works for www.podcastGO.com where she producers, directs, and edits various short videos. In her spare time, she thrives on long boarding, cooking breakfast for dinner and working on projects that are socially significant.
Chaelon Costello
as
ABIA
Garlia Cornelia Jones
PLAYWRIGHT
Pat Jones
PRODUCER
for the Documentary
KiRa Randolph
FILMMAKER
Ira-Sharay Kip
DIRECTOR
of the play
by Mateo
Ayo Cummings
as
EDEN
