LOU BELLAMY (DIRECTOR & PRODUCER) is the founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre. Under his leadership, Penumbra has produced 23 world premieres, including August Wilson's first professional production, and is proud to have produced more of Mr. Wilson's plays than any theater in the world. Mr. Bellamy is an OBIE Award-winning director, an accomplished actor, and sought-after scholar. He has been a member of the University of Minnesota's faculty for 32 years and is currently appointed to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.  Recent directing credits include Black Pearl Sings!, Radio Golf, Fences and The Piano Lesson at Penumbra, A Raisin in the Sun and Gem of the Ocean, Penumbra productions staged at the Guthrie, Two Trains Running at the Signature Theatre in New York, Jitney at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company, and the staged reading of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Kennedy Center.

DOMINIC TAYLOR (ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is a director, playwright and the head of Penumbra's OKRA New Play Development Program. Most recently, Mr. Taylor directed Black Nativity: A Season for Change at Penumbra. Other select directing credits include the new opera Fresh Faust at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, The Negroes Burial Ground at the Kitchen, N.Y.C., Uppa Creek at Dixon Place, and Ride The Rhythm in the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival. He is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota where he has directed The Wiz, Night Train To Bolina and this spring will direct Execution of Justice. Mr. Taylor has worked with Crossroads Theater, Rites and Reasons Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, among others. He is an alumni member of New Dramatists and holds a Bachelor's and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Brown University.

MARY K. WINCHELL (STAGE MANAGER) is a longtime Penumbra Theatre company member. Most recently, she stage managed Penumbra's Black Pearl Sings!, Black Nativity: A Season for Change, Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean. Other Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Black Nativity: Twenty Years of Holiday Cheer!, Seven Guitars, Jitney, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II and Dinah Was. She has stage managed at the Orpheum Theatre, State Theatre, Pantages Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, Jungle Theater and the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. She has lent her talents to Macy's Glamorama and served as production stage manager for Dorothy Hamill’s Nutcracker on Ice, Aveda's 20th Anniversary Celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and Super Bowl xxvi Winter Magic.

SANFORD MOORE (MUSICAL DIRECTOR) has served as musical director for many Penumbra productions including The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Blue, Black Nativity - A Homecoming and Ain't Misbehavin'. Other select musical direction credits include Crowns, Dream on Monkey Mountain, Triumph of Love, and As You Like It at the Guthrie Theater and Two Queens, One Castle at Mixed Blood Theatre. Sanford is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music, and Minister of Music for Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

ANSA AKYEA (Understudy) was last seen on stage in Penumbra Theatre's The Piano Lesson. He has also appeared at Mixed Blood Theatre, History Theatre, Black Ensemble Theatre, Chicago Theatre Company, Frank Theatre, and many other stages around the country. He can be seen and heard on radio and television for Gillette Hospital, Goodwill Industries, Great Clips, Qwest, and on the big screen in movies such as Repetition and Zora Neale Hurston's The Gilded Six Bits. Ansa was named City Pages 2007 Best Actor.

LEREA CARTER (Grace) is making her professional acting debut with Penumbra Theatre’s production of The Piano Lesson. Lerea began acting in 2005 with a role in the University of Minnesota’s Crisis Point Theatre production Embarrassed in Rarig. She also worked with the University of Minnesota’s Xperimental Theatre Company. In 2006 she performed in the University of Minnesota’s main stage season in The Master and Margarita and The Arabian Nights.

JAMES CRAVEN (ABE) is a long-time Penumbra Theatre company member. Select credits at Penumbra include Fences, The Piano Lesson, Penumbra's production of Gem of the Ocean presented at the Guthrie Theater, Get Ready, Zooman and the Sign, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers and REDSHIRTS, co-produced with Round House Theatre. He also performed at Kansas City Repertory Theater and Arizona Theater Company in their joint production of Jitney. James is a 2005 recipient of the Spenser Cherashore Fund and was awarded a 2007 McKnight Fellowship.

NATALIA GASTON (Maretha) is making her Penumbra Theatre debut in The Piano Lesson. Natalia has appeared in numerous commercials, television shows, independent films and several stage productions. She has studied acting and voice at Professional Actors Studio and Clark Atlanta University. She also enjoys creative writing and dance. She is the 2007 recipient of the Kathryn Coram Gagnon Fellowship in Musical and Dramatic Theatre at Penumbra.

GRETA OGLESBY (GRANDMA WALKER) is a Penumbra company member. Select Penumbra credits include The Piano Lesson, Dinah Was, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, A Love Song for Miss Lydia, and several productions of Black Nativity. Most recently, she starred as Caroline in Caroline or Change at the Guthrie Theater. Greta has also worked with the Children's Theatre Company, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mixed Blood Theatre and 10,000 Things Theatre. Honors include the 2009-2010 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellowship Award, Black Theatre Alliance Award (BTAA), the Joseph Jefferson Award and BTAA for her role in Do Lord Remember Me, a BTAA nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Ester in Gem of the Ocean, and a Joseph Jefferson nomination for her portrayal of Ophelia in Dream of Ophelia.

T. MYCHAEL RAMBO (CO-CONCEIVER & SON) is a Penumbra company member. Select Penumbra credits include Gem of the Ocean, The Piano Lesson, Get Ready, Ain't Misbehavin' and several productions of Black Nativity. He has performed locally with the Guthrie Theater, Illusion Theater, Minnesota Opera, Ordway Music Theatre, and Mixed Blood Theatre. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra and throughout Canada, Europe, Africa and Brazil. Television credits include Endeavor, I Led Two Lives and the HBO mini-series Laurel Avenue. Film credits include Mighty Ducks, Crossing the Bridge, Grumpy Old Men, The Cure, Equinox, Wooly Boys and Justice. Recent honors include singing the National Anthem for President Obama during his recent Twin Cities visit, and receiving a 2008 regional Emmy Award.

DENNIS W. SPEARS (WANDERER) is a Penumbra Theatre Company member and has performed in The Piano Lesson, Blue, and Get Ready. This spring, Dennis embarked on a tour in Crowns, a co-production of Indiana Repertory Theatre and Syracuse Stage. No stranger to jazz, Spears has performed nationally and internationally and is an original vocalist with Moore by Four. He has three solo recordings to his credit. As Creative Artistic Director for the Capri Theater, Dennis produces a very exciting Legends music series.

ASHFORD THOMAS (Lymon) is making his Penumbra debut. Most recently, Ashford was seen in The Meeting at the History Theatre where he portrayed the role of Rashad. As a performing apprentice at the Children’s Theatre Company, Ashford has also appeared in Antigone, Tale of a West Texas Marsupial Girl, and The Lost Boys of Sudan. He also performed in the 2007 Minneapolis Fringe Festival where he played the role of AKA in Same Difference. Ashford is a 2006 graduate of Howard University.

MALO ADAMS (Sound Design) has designed several Penumbra productions including The Piano Lesson, Zooman and the Sign, Sex Diary of an Infidel, Dinah Was, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and King Hedley II. Other design credits include Mighty Real, A Slow Ride on the Big Muddy and Straight as a Line at the Hennepin Center for Performing Arts. In addition to design work, Malo is the creative force behind the critically acclaimed group Tribe of Millions. Malo has also played with Me'Shell Ndegeocello, The Black Crowes, Soul Asylum, Chaka Khan, and has worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. He has also scored films including Street Guns and The Visionary, and commercials for Target Market, Target, Marshall Field's, Mervyn's, African American Adoption Agency and Dunwoody Institute.

KENNETH F. EVANS (Scenic Designer) has designed several shows for Penumbra including; King Hedley II, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney, Blues For An Alabama Sky, Pill Hill, Playboy of The West Indies, Songhai, Raisin, Riffs, Black Eagles, Dinah Was, The Piano Lesson, Soul Alley and the one-man tour of Malcolm X. Lighting design credits include 'night Mother, The Foreigner, Kuni-leml, A Chorus Line and Painting Churches at the Birmingham Theatre (a Nederlander organization) in Detroit and off-Broadway revivals of Les Blancs and Streamers. Ken earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota and his M.F.A. degree at Wayne State University. His current lighting designs can be seen locally on the radio for A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.

MICHELLE HABECK (LIGHTING DESIGNER) has designed for Penumbra Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Baltimore's CenterStage, and Alliance Theatre, among others. She has worked as associate to Tony Award-winning designer Donald Holder on Julie Taymor's Opera Grendel; Gem of the Ocean at the Goodman Theatre and Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; and on Broadway stage plays and musicals including Movin' Out, King Hedley II and The Boy From Oz. Ms. Habeck was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for 2003-04. She is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

EDWARD SUMMERS (Costume Design) is a past winner of the AACT/Fest Award for Excellence in Costume Design. Penumbra Theatre credits include Seven Guitars, Black Nativity–A New Rendition of a Timeless Tradition, The Day the Bronx Died and Canned Goods.

STEVEN HORSTMANN (ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER & PROPERTIES MASTER) works locally as a scenic designer, performer and musician with companies such as Open Eye Figure Theatre, Four Humors Theater and Penumbra. He is a performing member of the Seattle-based traveling vaudeville troupe The New Old Time Chautauqua. Most recently, he appeared in Mud at the Bedlam Theatre. Steven holds a degree in Theatre Arts and Architecture from the University of Minnesota.

AARON CHVATAL (Assistant Costume Design) is a senior theatre major at Hamline University. His recent work includes designing costumes for The Cherry Orchard, directed by Zaraawar Mistry, Fefu and her Friends, directed by Jeff Turner, and Words Words Words, directed by Barbe Marshall.

STEPHANIE LEIN WALSETH (August Wilson Fellow) is an M.A./Ph.D. candidate in Theatre Historiography at the University of Minnesota. Previously, she served as the Managing Director of Mu Performing Arts. She has worked professionally as a theatre administrator, actor, director, dramaturg, and stage manager with several theatres including Mu, Mixed Blood Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, The Playwrights' Center, Frank Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Starting Gate Productions, Theatre Unbound, Chaos Theories, CLIMB Theatre, and the Portland Stage Company. Her writing has appeared in the Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance.

RICK JACOBSON (Audio Describer) has been describing theatre for 13 years and provides description for blind patrons at over 25 theatres in the Twin Cities. Recent shows include Fences, Spamalot, The Rocky Horror Show, and Les Misérables. He is the audio description coordinator for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. He describes the annual Flint Hills Children's Festival. Rick can be heard on Nickelodeon and PBS stations across the country. In 2006, he received an Access Arts Award from VSA Arts Minnesota. He also describes for blind and low-vision passengers on cruise ships, most recently in Mexico.

ERIKA K. DIXON GOSS (American Sign Language Interpreter) has been the ASL Interpreter for Penumbra Theater for 11 years. Erika has had the pleasure of interpreting works by the late August Wilson including Seven Guitars and King Hedley II, The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean. Erika also interprets for Hopkin's Stages Theater, Plymouth Playhouse, Anoka's Main Street Stage, and The State and Pantages Theatres.