Broken Nose Theatre Announces New Company Members & Artistic Associates

As it embarks on its sixth season, Broken Nose Theatre is pleased to announce a major expansion of the company by welcoming four new Company Members and eight new Artistic Associates.

Broken Nose's new Company Members include: Echaka Agba, Rose Hamill, Martin Hanna and Johnard Washington. The company's new Artistic Associates include: Kim Boler, JD Caudill, Devon Green, Ada Grey, Robert Koon, Adam Soule, Regina Whitehead Mays and Watson Swift.

"We couldn't be happier with this incredible roster of talent joining the Broken Nose artistic family," comments Broken Nose Artistic Director Benjamin Brownson. "Collectively they have been a part if nearly every project BNT has produced over our five year history, and I can't think of a better group of collaborators to continue building on our recent success with At The Table and help us thrive as we enter the next phase of BNT's growth and institutional development. We're excited to be able to work with so many of them in our upcoming season, which we'll be announcing in the coming weeks."

These new faces join current Broken Nose Theatre Company Members Benjamin Brownson (Founding Artistic Director), Spenser Davis, Jen Poulin, Elise Spoerlein and David Weiss, and current Artistic Associates Caitlin Boylan, Samuel Brownson, Teresa Kuruvilla, Aria Szalai-Raymond and Ivy Reid. The BNT Board of Directors consists of Benjamin Brownson, Laura Burgos, and Tim Wolfe.

About the New Company Members

Echaka Agba is thrilled to be calling Broken Nose Theatre her artistic home. She was last seen in BNT's Bechdel Fest 5. Other Chicago theatre credits include: At the Table (Jeff Award - Best Ensemble, Best Supporting Actress) Broken Nose; The Crucible, Between Riverside and Crazy (Steppenwolf); Short Shakes! Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare); A Comedical Tragedy for Mister Punch, United Flight 232 (Jeff Award - Best Ensemble) The House Theatre of Chicago; Don't Go Gentle (Haven Theatre); Balm In Gilead (Griffin Theatre). She is a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf and a lover of Black Box Acting. She is represented by Grossman & Jack Talent.

Rose Hamill is a freelance stage and production manager around Chicago. She is absolutely thrilled to be a member of Broken Nose Theatre, and especially excited to be serving as Company Manager. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago's Technical Theatre program her credits there include Spring Awakening the Musical, The Tempest and Blues for an Alabama Sky. She has also worked with Windy City Playhouse (This), c*ck& Bull Theatre (Lecherous Honey) and The New Colony (PUNK).

Martin Hanna is a graduate of the Arts University Bournemouth (England), and is proud to be joining Broken Nose Theatre. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Martin has called Chicago his home for the past fifteen years. Outside of Broken Nose, a few of Martin's credits include The Hard Problem at Court Theatre; The Invisible Hand, A Christmas Carol, Dreamgirls at Milwaukee Rep; Macbeth, A Comedy of Errors, Failure: A Love Story and The Magical Mind of Billy Shakespeare at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He is eager to collaborate with his new BNT family.

Johnard Washington recently appeared in Broken Nose Theatre's At The Table. He is also a proud member of Red Tape Theatre and has most recently been seen in their production of A Hedda Gabler. Other credits: Elephant's Graveyard, The Skriker and Lear. He performed with Akvavit Theatre's Hand in Hand. Johnard also has worked very closely with Oracle Productions on two Jeff nominated productions: This House Believes the American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro and The Hairy Ape. Johnard has also worked with Steppenwolf Theatre, Red Theatre Chicago, First Floor Theatre and Od Theatre. He is excited to join the Broken Nose family!

About the New Artistic Associates

Kim Boler hails from Clinton, MS with a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi. After graduating, she earned her splinters with regional theatre for almost eight years working with such companies as Roxy Regional Theatre (TN), Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GA), Merry-go-round Playhouse (NY) and Busch Gardens Williamsburg (VA). She first worked with Broken Nose in 2016 with their production of Human Terrain and was nominated for a Jeff Award for Principal Actress in that production, and is excited to be a new Artistic Associate for this remarkable company. She is also a proud Ensemble Member of the Factory Theater as well as Bruised Orange Theatre. Other Chicago credits include Lifeline Theatre, Akvavit Theatre and Abraham Werewolf.

JD Caudill is a director, music director, Hell in a Handbag company member and Associate Marketing Director and company member at Haven Theatre, as well as a 2x New Colony Associate Company Member. BGSU Theatre and Psychology graduate. Queer. They/them. Directed for Broken Nose Theatre, The New Colony, Haven Theatre, 16th Street Theatre, Red Theatre, Arc Theatre, Hobo Junction, The Runaways Lab Theatre, New American Folk Theatre and 20% Theatre. Assistant directed for Broken Nose on At The Table, as well as at The Metropolis (Josh Sobel), 16th Street Theatre (Ann Filmer; Megan Shuchman) and The New Colony (Evan Linder; Sean Kelly).

Devon Green is finishing up her senior year at Columbia College Chicago, earning her BA in Theatre Design. She is passionate about props design and loved being able to work on Human Terrain and At The Table with Broken Nose. Other productions include Light Up The Sky (Citadel Theater), Bonnie & Clyde (Kokandy Productions), King Liz (Windy City Playhouse), Dance For Beginners (Piven Theatre), The Snare (Jackalope Theatre) Bugsy Malone Jr. (Rotolo Middle School), The Feast (Red Theatre) and The Portrait (The Neapolitans). Her passion for props extends even further to her prop rental company Green Prop Rental which launches in November of 2018.

Ada Grey is so excited to join the Broken Nose Theatre family as an artistic associate. She is an actor and theater critic in Chicago. She began writing reviews of plays at age four at adagrey.blogspot.com. She's gotten to interview some really cool people on her blog and has been interviewed on television, radio and featured in Chicago Reader's 2016 people issue. Theater credits include Our Town (Redtwist), The Haven Place (A Red Orchid Youth), Scarcity (Redtwist, Broadway World Chicago Nomination Best Actress), The Awake (First Floor), Bechdel Fest 3 (Broken Nose), The Hammer Trinity (The House), To Kill a Mockingbird (Oak Park Festival Theatre), Jane Eyre (Lifeline), Men Should Weep (Griffin, Jeff Award Best Production), and 6 Characters in Search of an Author (The Hypocrites). She loves acting in webseries (Under Covers, Jacketman, Funny) and on television in Shrink (Seeso), Sirens (USA) and Chicago Fire (NBC). Ada is represented by Paonessa Talent.

Robert Koon is a Chicago playwright and actor. Recent credits include Seminar for Spartan Theatre Company, The Woman in Black for WildClaw Theatre, Chagrin Falls for The Agency Theatre Collective (Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination, Supporting Actor), The Taming of the Shrew at Oak Park Festival Theatre and Human Terrain for Broken Nose Theatre. Robert is a Resident Playwright alumnus at Chicago Dramatists, where his plays Homecoming 1972 and St. Colm's Inch were produced; and he is an Associate Artist at 16th Street Theatre, which produced his play Menorca. He is a former Playwright Resident at the William Inge Center for the Arts, and teaches regularly for The Playwright's Studio at Chicago Dramatists. His work includes the Jeff-nominated Odin's Horse and Vintage Red and the Dust of the Road (Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work). Robert is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Regina Whitehead Mays (RjW) is elated to part of the Broken Nose team. RjW graduated from Columbia College Chicago and is represented by the amazing Stewart Talent Agency. She has worked with several theatres in Chicago including ETA Good Black (nominated for a BTAA award), FJT, Halcyon, Profiles, Broken Nose, Interrobang and others. She was part of the inaugural Bechdel Fest and performed in the second and third one as well. Last summer, she portrayed Mama Beas in Polarity Theatre's Dionysos Cup winning play Leavings. She performed her first solo performance to a sold out house at Three Cat Productions The Fat Black Sanctified Girl, and will be seen next in Eden in Silence and her next Solo performance this winter at Three Cat. RjW was the face of Trident 2014.

Adam Soule is thrilled to be joining the team of Broken Nose Theatre as an Artistic Associate. Adam has worked with BNT since their inaugural production of My First Time, then again in From White Plains, and most recently in the award winning production of At the Table. Active in the Chicago theatre scene since 2008, Adam is extremely happy to have this great city as his artistic home.

Watson Swift holds a MPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BA in Mass Communication from Wayne State University. He also graduated from Second City's Improv Conservatory, Acting and Writing programs and Annoyance Theatre's Advanced Improv program. Watson's credits include The Dictionary Project Vol. IV (Broken Nose Theatre), At Mister Kelly's (Jeff Recommended), Death in a Beulah Box (Three Cat Productions), Among the Quick and the Dead (Prologue Theatre), Scenes from an Execution (Runcible Theatre), Stoop Time (You and Me Productions), Freedom Summer, Civil Rights Art Project and Out Loud (eta Creative Arts Foundation - nominated Best Actor by African American Arts Alliance and Best Ensemble by Black Theatre Alliance), Leg Up (Revolution Theatre), EL Stories XII (Waltzing Mechanics) and A Long Walk for Water (City Lit Theatre). He has also appeared in the film shorts The Woman Who Loved Weirdo Goon and Six Hour Pass.

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