THE PLAYERS - The Bluest Eye BOBBI BAKER Ms. Baker has been seen Off Broadway as Miss Handsome in Mother Divine (New York Fringe Festival). Her television credits include "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Guiding Light," "One Tree Hill," "Dawson's Creek." She received an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School and a B.A. in Theatre Arts, Western Carolina University. Ms. Baker was the first drama student in Juilliard's history to be honored with Scholastic Distinction. MICHE BRADEN Ms. Braden appeared at Hartford Stage in Mahalia - A Gospel Musical and The Devil's Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (Connecticut Critics Circle Award nomination). Other theatre credits include Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, Hot Snow, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and The People's Temple as performer and music director and arranger. She also performed in HATS: The Red Hat Society Musical, originating the role of Duchess DeLovely, and Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman. Ms. Braden is the founder and former lead singer of "Straight Ahead" women's jazz band. She is featured on James Carter's release "Gardenia's For Lady Day" and performed with him in 2007 at Carnegie Hall. She was also a featured artist at Trenton, New Jersey's first Women in Jazz event. She has performed with Jazz greats Milt Hinton, Lionel Hampton, Leon Thomas, Eddie Harris and Regina Carter; Michigan Jazz masters Harold McKinney, Wendall Harrison and Donald Walden; and was recently featured in the Damien Foundations Gospels 4 Life 14-concert tour throughout Belgium with director/singer Sabine Kouli in December 2007. She will be a featured singer in Ms. Kouli's Absolute Gospel Festival in Lyon, France May 2008 and featured soloist in Ohio with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra in June 2008. Ms. Braden is the artistic/musical director and founder of The Performance Art Chorale (The PAC); vice president, artist, and musical director of PMP Records & Enterprise promoting her CD, Diva Out of Bounds - Ms. Miche; and Minister of Music for the Unity Fellowship Church of New Brunswick, pastored by Elder Kevin E. Taylor. Visit her web site at www.michebraden.com LEON ADDISON BROWN Mr. Brown appeared on Broadway in On The Waterfront, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, and Prelude To A Kiss. His Off-Broadway credits include Two Trains Running, The Alexander Plays (Signature Theatre); The Lights, (Lincoln Center); As You Like It (Theatre For A New Audience.) He has done regional work in The Exonerated (Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Best Ensemble - Hartford Theaterworks); Master Harold . . . and the Boys (Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Actor - Westport Country Playhouse); The Death of the Last Blackman (Yale Rep); Bus Stop (Williamstown Theatre Festival); A Visit to a Small Planet (Berkshire Theatre Festival); The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The O'Neill Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Rep., Missouri Rep., Arizona Rep., Arena Stage, The People's Light And Theatre Co., The Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Rep., Indiana Rep., The State Theatre, Humana Festival. Mr. Brown's film and TV credits include The Whirly Girl (directed by Jim Wilson), Campbell Scott's Hamlet, Music Of The Heart, The Associate, Trueblood; Paper Cranes, Mandela Was Late; "Law & Order", "Law & Order: SVU," "The Jury." He received a BFA from the North Carolina School of the Arts. ELLIS FOSTER Mr. Foster has appeared in regional theatre in The Piano Lesson (New American Theatre); Good Black (E.T.A. Theatre - Jeff Award, Supporting Actor); Cry the Beloved Country, A Christmas Carol, Let Me Live (Jeff Award, Supporting Actor), Unjustifiable Acts, I Am a Man, Spunk (Jeff Award, Actor in a Revue) all at the Goodman Theatre; and I Am a Man (Arena Stage.) His film and television work includes You're Going to Prison, Quake, Bahama Hustle, Hoodlum, Poker House, and "Early Edition." Mr. Foster went to Wayne State University. ONI FAIDA LAMPLEY Ms. Lampley made Broadway appearances in Mule Bone, Two Trains Running, The Ride Down Mount Morgan. Her Off-Broadway credits include Mud River, Stone, Police Boys (Playwrights Horizons); Zooman and the Sign (Second Stage); The Destiny of Me (Circle Rep); and Boesman and Lena (MTC). Regional theatre credits include False Admissions (Hartford Stage); The Dark Kalamazoo (Woolly Mammoth - Helen Hayes Award nomination.); Biblical Pieces, Peter Sellers, dir. (Netherlands Opera); Old Globe, San Diego: All's Well; and Misanthrope (Center Stage). Ms. Lampley had worked in film and TV, including Stay, Lonestar, First Do No Harm, three of the four "Law and Orders", "Third Watch," "The Sopranos," and "Oz." Ms. Lampley is an alumna of The Acting Company, and a founding member of The Actors' Center. As a playwright Ms. Lampley's works include Mixed Babies (Helen Hayes Outstanding New Play), The Dark Kalamazoo (Helen Hayes nomination), Tough Titty (Williamstown Theatre Festival). She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award; Recipient Boomerang Fund Grant; Winner of the Helen Merrill Award. Her commissions include Sons (CTC, Minn.), and Tambourine Moon (MudBone). A resident playwright at New Dramatists. JOANNA RHINEHART (NOTE: JoAnna Rhinehart replaced Oni Faida Lampley in the role of Mrs. Breedlove in this production of The Bluest Eye on April 9, 2008, at Long Wharf Theatre. Ms. Lampley was injured accidentally during a performance on April 6, and was unable to continue the run.) Ms. Rhinehart recently appeared in Playmakers Rep's production of The Bluest Eye as Mrs. Breedlove. She has also been seen in Rewriting Her Life (The 411 Space), The Sleeping Girl (Playwrights Horizon), Coming Time (Freedom Theatre), The Odyssey (St. Clements Theatre), The Trial of One Shortsighted Black Woman (New Federal Theatre), and Crumbs From The Table Of Joy In The Mississippi Delta (The Globe Theatres). She has also been seen in To Be Young, Gifted and Black (Crossroads Theatre), The Comedy of Errors (National Shakespeare Co.); The Tempest and A Midsummer's Night Dream (Westbeth Theatre). Her television work includes "Canterbury's Law," "Damages," "Law & Order:SVU," "As The World Turns," and "Hack." She also appeared in the films Free To Dance and Long Road To Nowhere. ADEPERO ODUYE Theatre credits include Count Down and Fela Kuti Project (dir/choreo: Bill T. Jones). A graduate of Cornell University, she studied acting at Black Nexxus with Susan Batson, at HB Studios with Austin Pendleton, with Bob Krakower, Karen Kohlhaas and most recently Wynn Handman. Film credits include Pariah (2008 Sundance Film Festival), On The Outs and Half Nelson. Television credits include NBC's "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." She is also a one-time Manhattan Monologue Slam Champion. She directed, produced and performed in the variety show On The Spot (NYC). Adepero Oduye hails from Brooklyn, New York by way of Nigeria. RONICA V. REDDICK Ms. Reddick recently appeared onstage as Christmas Present in the McCarter Theatre's A Christmas Carol. New York credits include The NYMF production of I See London, I See France: The Underwear Musical, The Magic of Mrs. Crowling, Volume of Smoke, In Public, Les Petites Mortes and Junta High. She has worked regionally in Pecan Tan (Kitchen Theatre) and Smokey Joe's Cafe (New Bedford Theatre Festival). Ms. Reddick is a graduate of Ithaca College and a native of Syracuse, NY. SHELLEY THOMAS Ms. Thomas worked on Broadway in Brooklyn, The Musical. Off-Broadway, she appeared in Zanna, Don't! (John Houseman Theatre - original cast recording). In New York, Ms. Thomas appeared in Three Sistahs and Go-Go Beach (New York Musical Theatre Festival); Caligula (Actors Studio). Regionally, she was in The Women of Brewster Place (co-world premiere at Alliance Theatre and Arena Stage); Carmen: A New Musical (La Jolla Playhouse); The Fantasticks (People's Light and Theatre Company); Footloose (Sacramento Music Circus and Stages of St. Louis). She has made a film appearance in Immaculate Misconception. Ms. Thomas went to Syracuse University where she received her BFA in Musical Theatre. She was also a backup singer for Vanessa Williams, touring the United States, Japan and China and a soloist in "The Beat Goes On," with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Ms.Thomas was an Irene Ryan Award Nominee at the American College Theatre Festival.
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