Showcase Creative Team
Rhonda PASSION Hansome
Director
Rhonda PASSION Hansome is a critically acclaimed director, actor and comedian. She has directed over thirty-five productions including: Saviour? (Dwyer Cultural Center), Another Man’s Poison (Peter Jay Sharp Theater 42nd St.), Antigone Asata Shakur (Times Sq. Arts Center), T’was The Night Before Kwanzaa (Black Spectrum and Billie Holiday Theaters), Real Black Men Don’t Sit Crosslegged On The Floor (New Federal Theater, Best Ensemble AUDELCO Award) and Melba Moore’s Sweet Songs of the Soul (New Federal Theater, Best Solo Performer AUDELCO Award). As an actor, Rhonda has appeared on numerous TV shows including Louie, Saturday Night Live, Caroline’s Comedy Hour, Stand-Up Spotlight, Arsenio Hall, Evening at the Improv, Showtime at the Apollo and The Joan Rivers Show. She is an Outstanding Comedian Backstage Bistro Award winner and has opened for the likes of Anita Baker, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Mason and The Pointer Sisters. She's held membership at the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Women’s Project Directors Forum and the Workshop Theater Company, and was Artistic Director of the NJPAC Young Writers Workshop for five years.
Jaye Austin Williams
Dramaturge
Dr. Jaye Austin Williams is Assistant Professor and Interim Chair (’22-’23) of the Department of Critical Black Studies at Bucknell University. A critically acclaimed actor, director, playwright and consultant for thirty years, she now specializes in the (often fraught) melding of drama, cinema, performance, queer and feminist theories with a critical analysis of the conditions that persist in plaguing Black “life,” in what cultural historian and theorist Saidiya Hartman calls “the afterlife of slavery.” Dr. Williams’ research and teaching focus on the structural and global implications of antiblackness, its emanation from the collective unconscious, and its myriad performances, both subtle and overt, within global modernity. She is the author of numerous publications, and is currently completing a monograph entitled, Staging (Within) Antiblack Violence: Toward a Radical Black Dramaturgy.
Domani Productions
Producers
Domani Productions was formed by wife and husband team Hannah Beck and Sean Hoagland. Since 2018, Domani has produced thought-provoking work for the stage and screen and collaborated with Emmy, Helen Hayes, Audelco and Obie winning writers and directors. Beck and Hoagland have several projects in development, including a new film by Risa Mickenberg (Egg).