(formerly The Man from Madisonville)
A RoughCut Workshop
by William Jackson Harper*
directed by Christopher Chalk

A community untouched by the tumult of the civil rights movement is compelled into a kind of reckoning once a stranger enters their lives, forcing them to take sides and take a stand.

Featuring: Ryan Vincent Anderson, Denny Dale Bess*, Sheldon Best*, Lynnette R. Freeman*, Eden Marryshow, Nana Mensah, Chris McKinney, Maduka Steady, and Count Stovall*

Production Stage Manager: Samantha Honeycutt
Assistant Stage Manager: Rachel Winfield

William Jackson Harper* (Playwright) EST: Neglect, Big Tex, In Quietness, Stiff.  Broadway: All the Way.  Off-Broadway: A Family for All Occasions (Labyrinth); Modern Terrorism (Second Stage); The Total Bent, Titus Andronicus, Measure for Measure (The Public); Placebo, A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick (Playwrights Horizons); Ruined (MTC); Queens Boulevard, Paradise Park (Signature Theater); Microcrisis, The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi); Massacre (sing to your children) (Rattlestick); Rich Boyfriend (The New Group); The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (Vampire Cowboys); You Got Older (Page73).  Regional: All the Way (A.R.T.), Ruined (The Goodman), Hamlet (Dallas Theater Center), Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare on the Sound).  Film and TV: “The Good Place”, “Deadbeat”, “The Breaks”, “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: CI”, “The Electric Company”, “The Share”, “30 Rock”, “Unforgettable”, True Story, “High Maintenance”, “The Blacklist”, Paterson, How to Tell You’re a Douchebag.  

Christopher Chalk (Director) Chris loves being a part of such an important stage in the creation of this piece.

Ryan Vincent Anderson (Gunn)  Ryan Vincent Anderson is a native New Yorker who recently moved back from having lived in LA for several years. He studied architecture and drama at Carnegie Mellon University, and received an MFA in acting from CalArts.  Theaters: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Independent Shakespeare Company, Antaeus Theatre Company, A Noise Within, PCPA, LATheatreWorks, and others. Film: Feeding Mr. Baldwin. TV: “Scandal”, “The Young and the Restless”, “General Hospital”, “Eagleheart”.  Voiceover: World of Warcraft, Diablo III. Audiobooks: Cross The Line (the Alex Cross series) by James Patterson, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, Sing For Your Life by Daniel Bergner, and others. Recently, Ryan has performed his one man show Most Likely To at the New York New Works Theatre Festival. Visit his website for more info : www.ryanvanderson.com

Denny Dale Bess* (Ainsley/Gillette) Ensemble Studio Theatre productions: Brendan Hill’s Shitloads of Money, Christopher Sullivan’s Metrocards, Olivia Dufault’s Year of the Rooster, Joshua Conkel’s The Sluts of Sutton Drive, Amy Fox’s Where the Children Are, Ben Rosenthal’s Welcome back Buddy Combs, to name a few.  Bess is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, SAG-AFTRA, and AEA. Love to Abigail. Thanks to Will, Chris, and the cast and crew, and the staff at EST.

Sheldon Best* (Zeke Phillips) Off-Broadway: Romeo & Juliet (Public Theater: Mobile Unit); brownsville song: b-side for tray (LCT3), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Atlantic Theater), Marcus Gardley’s the box: a black comedy, Romeo N Juliet (Foundry Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classical Theater of Harlem), Freed (Penguin Rep, 59E59), and Qui Nguyen’s Six Rounds of Vengeance (Vampire Cowboys). Regional theaters include Baltimore Center Stage, Denver Center, Studio Theater of D.C., and Cleveland Play House. TV: "The Good Wife," "Unforgettable," "Person of Interest" (CBS).

Lynnette R. Freeman* (Georgia) Lynnette R. Freeman is thrilled to be working on this incredible play with this fiercely talented group of artists and her EST family.  Lynnette is a Jamaican-American actress, dancer, yogi, and teaching artist, raised in East Cleveland, OH (aka the heart of the nation).  Brown/Trinity MFA.  Member of EST, and the League of Professional Theatre Women.  Previous EST roles: Amy in Kentucky, African Woman in Waking Up.  Other roles include Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, Reheema Abu-Salaam in In a Daughter’s Eyes, Esther Mills in Intimate Apparel, and Georgianne in Tamer of Horses.  Special thanks to friends and family for always believing, encouraging, and keeping the faith.  LEAP!

Eden Marryshow (Beasly/Orthel) Eden Marryshow is a native of Flatbush, Brooklyn.  He was an educator for the NYC Department of Education for ten years. When one of his beloved students, Latina "Peanut" Bilbro, was shot in a drive-by shooting, he finally realized how short life is and decided to keep his promise to her and follow his dream. He hasn’t looked back since. Dream Big, Go Hard! Let's Get It! I Love You, Peanut :)

Christopher McKinney (Mims/Percy/Birch) Chris McKinney was born and raised in NYC, graduated from Juilliard, and now has 18 years experience in the business, during which time his work has been featured in many stage, film, and television productions for NBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC, HBO, MTC, TFANA, NY Theater Workshop, and The Public Theater.  His most recent credits include “High Maintenance”, “BrainDead” and “The Night Of”.

Nana Mensah (Bethany/Laverne)  Nana Mensah is a Ghanaian-American writer, director, actor, and producer.  She wrote, directed, and stars in the forthcoming film Queen of Glory. She plays the role of Sade in the popular series An African City (2015 Golden Movie Award Winner, 2016 AMVCA Nominee). She recently played Clare in the smash hit 2016 OBIE Award-winning play I'll Never Love Again (a chamber piece) by Clare Barron.

Maduka Steady (Fletcher) Maduka Steady's New York credits include Amy's View on Broadway (with Judi Dench); In Darfur at The Public Theater; Living Room in Africa at Theater Row; Mud River Stone at Playwrights Horizons; The Overwhelming at Roundabout Theater; and A Fair Country at Lincoln Center.  His regional credits include Belleville at Studio Theater, Stick Fly at Contemporary American Theater Festival; Intimate Apparel at Capital Repertory Theater; Noises Off at Studio Arena Theater; and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Utah Shakespearean Festival.  Film and television includes "Cortex","The Blacklist", "Pan Am", "All My Children", "Freedomland", "Law & Order","Sesame Street", and Lorenzo's Oil.

Count Stovall (Hearst) Count will be seen next month at Brooklyn’s Kumble Theater in Richard Wesely’s Autumn and later this winter in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at LaMama ETC, directed by Estelle Parsons.  Broadway credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire, Driving Miss Daisy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Inacent Black, and A Philadelphia Story.  Off-Broadway favorites include Proof, No Place to be Somebody, Rashomon, Last Dance for Sybil, and Shades of Brown.  Regionally: Flyin’ West, Telltale Heart, Present Laughter.  TV: “Madame Secretary”, “The Good Wife”, “Army Wives”, “NY Undercover”, “Gimme a Break”, “Law & Order”, “Kojak”, “All My Children”, “Zora is my Name”, “As the World Turns”, and “A Doctor’s Story”.  EST member and Actor’s Studio member.  

Samantha Honeycutt (Production Stage Manager) Samantha is thrilled to be back working the Ensemble Studio Theatre.  Professional experience includes Kentucky, Please Continue, Year of the Rooster, Fast Company, When January Feels like Summer, Five Times in One Night, Asking for Trouble (2014), One-Act Marathon (2015) (EST); Legally Blonde, Kiss Me Kate, Sweet Charity, Hello Dolly!, 1776, Perfect Wedding, Pump Boys and Dinettes, My Fair Lady (Cape Code Playhouse); The Unexpected Guest (Theater Breaking Through Barriers).  Samantha is a graduate of from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Rachel Winfield (Assistant Stage Manager) Rachel is thrilled to begin her New York career by working at EST! Previous credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatricum Botanicum); She Loves Me, Rent, Beauty and the Beast (Pacific Coast Rep); The Secret Garden (TheatreWorks); Hairspray (Broadway by the Bay); Merchant of Venice, Carousel, Man of La Mancha, Noises Off, Twelfth Night, and Cymbeline (Texas Shakespeare Festival). Rachel received her MFA from the University of Iowa and her BA from Santa Clara University. She has recently moved to Brooklyn and is currently living the dream.