“Theatre has everything to do with everybody.”

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, HORTICULTURE PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP

Abigail “Abby” Cady is a new play and production dramaturg in the Baltimore/DC region and the Director of Sisters Freehold’s Horticulture Playwrights workshop. She has served as production dramaturg at many Baltimore theaters including Single Carrot Theatre, Iron Crow Theatre, Cohesion Theatre, and Interrobang Theatre Company. Abby currently serves as the Associate Director of Institutional Communications at Arena Stage. She was previously an Education Apprentice at Everyman Theatre and she has interned in the literary departments of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh. She holds a Master’s Degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Miami University of Ohio.

CO-FOUNDER & CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

When she’s not watching Seinfeld or solving puzzles, Makeima Freeland is either reading to wise up or writing her life away through poetry, written prayers, nonfiction monologues about her life, and personal planning. She is passionate about her writing and other forms of creative expression, including directing. That is why theatre, the synthesis of all art forms, suits her well. Makeima loves directing and performing whenever she can. Her favorite acting role is William Barfeé in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, performed at Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she attended before embarking on her journey as Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Sisters Freehold. As a national minority who could have fallen through the cracks of the theatre industry herself, thanks to opportunity gaps and systemic gate-keeping, Makeima was able to prove herself in the industry early on, positioning her into the executive role she is in today where she uses her platform to open the gates for other artists systematically locked out of the theatre industry because as she often loves to say, “Theatre has everything to do with everybody.”

Directing: 10x10x10 (Fells Point Corner Theatre), The Sleepover (Sisters Freehold), Herding Cats (Baltimore Playwrights Festival), & Curtain Up, Scenes from New Plays (Baltimore Playwrights Festival). Assistant directing: Us/Them (Sisters Freehold) Hamlet, presented in Original Shakespeare Pronunciation (Baltimore Shakespeare Factory). Rhetoric coach: As You Like It (Notre Dame of Maryland University) & The Merry Wives of Windsor (Baltimore Shakespeare Factory). Favorite past roles include William Barfée in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Notre Dame of Maryland University), Agatha in The Moors (Notre Dame of Maryland University), Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (a co-production of Notre Dame of Maryland University & Baltimore Shakespeare Factory), Lisa in Sanctity (Baltimore Playwrights Festival), & Lucy in The Devil Within (Downtown Cultural Arts Center). Makeima is a board Member-At-Large for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and a member of the National Theatre Honor Society. Stay tuned for more! ישו הוא מלך

CO-FOUNDER & CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Ann Turiano loves the following, in no particular order: theatre, dogs, Baltimore, quality pens, the feeling of a free weekend stretching out before you full of potential and plenty of time for naps. She prefers theatremaker because it’s shorter than actor/director/dramaturg/administrator/teaching artist/occasional playwright. For Sisters Freehold: The Sleepover (co-director), The Day We Killed J.W.B. (By the way he was a terrible actor) (director, coming Fall 2024). Directing elsewhere: Mankind, The Zero Hour (Iron Crow Theatre); Alice in Wonderland, As You Like It, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Decision Height, and The Rover (NDMU Drama); The Sea Voyage (BSF); kid simple: a radio play in the flesh (Loyola University Maryland); Jerusalem, The Quickening (FPCT). Favorite past roles include Mina Crandon in the world premiere of Hand Through the Veil (An Die Musik), Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1 (BSF), and Betty 2 in Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties (Iron Crow Theatre). Ann is a proud resident artist at Iron Crow and a member of Actors Equity Association. BA: Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University, MA: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

annturiano.com

ARTIST

Sha-Nel Henderson (she/her) is an Indianapolis, Indiana (Naptown) native that intertwines her passion for community, performance and advocacy. Her fascination with the art of communication, social change and performance has led her to Towson University. She enjoys creating and performing vignettes that challenge and introduce conversations that can lead to social change. Her work does not revolve around concepts of prestigious theatre, but it involves utilizing the art form in nontraditional ways, allowing for storytelling to unconventionally connect people. As the curator of the Black Theatre Block Party, she believes in creating innovative spaces for people to experience storytelling that speak to them personally and artistically.

WRITER

DJ Hills (they/them) is a cross-genre writer for the page, stage, and screen. Their play TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG was shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series. Other plays have been developed and/or produced most recently at Carnegie Mellon University (Adult Things), Single Carrot Theatre (we broke up.), The Kennedy Center (Juniper Jones & the Rocket She Built), and University of California Los Angeles (A Driving Play). DJ's short plays …in daylight and big and small were part of Theater Masters TAKE TEN 2022 and 2023, respectively, and subsequently published by Concord Theatricals. Fellowships and residencies include the Kratz Fellowship for Creative Writing, the Horticulture Playwriting Fellowship, and the Substratum writing residency. DJ has been a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwriting Conference and they have been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, for poetry and fiction.

Actor and Teaching Artist

Bethany Mayo (she/her/hers) is an actor and teaching artist from Des Moines, IA. She has come to Norfolk by way of Kansas City, Pensacola, and Baltimore. Her favorite acting credits include Elise in The Miser/Classic Theater of Maryland, The Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Fells Point Corner Theater, and The Narrator in Virginia Stage Company’s touring production of Every Brilliant Thing. She holds a BA in Musical Theater from William Woods University and a MA in Theater Education from The Catholic University of America. She is a founding member of the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. She is a Teaching Artist at Governor's School for the Arts and a part of the theater faculty at Old Dominion University. She has a passion for theater history and dramatic literature. When not teaching or acting, she learns new hobbies. Her newest hobby? Learning how to do agitate for change using her newest title- United States of America Mrs. Mid Atlantic. The title is part of my practice to take the space I've earned, apologize less, and encourage others to do the same.

ARTIST

Liz Miller is a second-generation fine artist. She creates hair sculptures, sculptural paintings, wearable art, performance art pieces, and film. Her films capture community members and herself performing while adorned with hair sculptures for meaningful transformative movement rituals. The concepts embodied in her work are social justice themes centered around the black experience in America; utilizing both history and Afro-futurism simultaneously balanced within. She considers her work to be a part of a broader black liberation strategy employing black joy and serious play. Her work has been exhibited at various noteworthy institutions including the Delaware Contemporary Museum and the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, CA., and internationally (throughout Canada, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, England, Liberia (West Africa), and India). B. A. in Art and Design from Towson University and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been a teaching artist for the last twenty years and currently is an art teacher for a Title 1 school in Baltimore, MD. Guest Lecturer for colleges, including Maryland Insititute College of Art, Johns Hopkins, and Loyola University Maryland.

ACTOR, WRITER, MUSICIAN

Shaquille Stewart (playwright & director) has been active in the DC theatre scene since 2014, is an active company member at 4615 Theatre Company, and has spent a decade nurturing his deep love for the artform. A native of Wheaton, MD, he’s lived in DC, MD, Virginia, and Baltimore, all in the last five years, but no matter where he finds himself, calls this city his true home. At his core a deviser, Shaq believes that devised theatre is the future of the artform because of its multifaceted collaborative nature that paints a wider picture than one person can alone.Recent stage credits include: Mlima’s Tale, (Various) 1st Stage(upcoming) Tempered-4615 Theatre Company(self), Macbeth, (Banquo)PG Shakespeare in the Park, Do You Feel Anger?(Howie), Theatre Alliance, Museum 2040(Sebastien), 4615 Theatre Company, as well as Othello, (Othello) and Alice in Wonderland(Alice #3) all with National Players Tour 69.

Not pictured:

Liz Galuardi

Alec Lawson

Rohaizad Suaidi

Gavin Witt