Cast Set For SheNYC Arts' FORT HUACHUCA and BLOODSHOT

SheNYC Arts has announced complete casting for the two plays running in rep, September 23 to October 14, by Festival alumni writers at A.R.T/NY Mezzanine Theatre(502 West 53 Street). Fort Huachuca will open on Thursday, September 28th and Bloodshot on Friday, September 29th.

The fall shows, running in rep (alternating performances), are FORT HUACHUCA  by Ailema Sousa and directed by Ani Marderosian and BLOODSHOT  by Elinor T Vanderburg and directed by Nigel Semaj. The two shows will transport audiences from the world of a WWII Army Base to a nightmarish, alternate-universe New York City. 

The cast for Fort Huachuca is Ailema Sousa (also the playwright); Chris Yim; Kofi Asanti; Brittany Shonka; Katelyn E. Appiah-Kubi; Yaisa; Luz Ozuna; and Kiyonna Carr.

The cast for Bloodshot is Fedly Daniel; Ben Holbrook; Nijah Dent; Jordan Mosley; Cashton Tate Rehklau; Ray Johnson; Soren Stockman; and Kofi Asanti. Danielle DeMatteo, Artistic Director of She NYC Arts

“At SheNYC Arts, our Summer Theater Festival season in New York, LA, and Atlanta was a record-breaking success. Over 3,000 audience members this summer proved that theater isn't dead; audiences are simply craving theater from new voices and perspectives, “ said Artistic Director Danielle DeMatteo. “We're thrilled to be building off that success and taking our artists' work to the next level with this run. New York audiences are ready for two incredible shows by Black women, dissecting the Black American experience from World War II to the present, that were found through an open script submission process from hundreds of writers across the country.”

Universal and real, FORT HUACHUCA tackles social issues that are still relevant today: racism and sexism. It’s an inside look at survival in the army in the 1940s, when society treated women and people of color as “less than”. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Mayvee, Georgia, Elinor, Majorie, and Thelma enlist to serve their country and are sent to Fort Huachuca, an army base camp in Arizona. As Black nurses, they're in charge of treating enemy prisoners of war.  They quickly learn the rules of the camp: stay segregated from the white soldiers; in an emergency, always treat the white soldiers first; and remember that we're all on the same team, fighting for the same country.   

BLOODSHOT is a vicious psycho-caper that pits the deprived against the depraved in a pulpy, noir-inspired mystery. Unreliably narrated, this deeply dark and acerbically funny mystery follows two detectives navigating a world that is being torn apart by a mysterious plague -- one causes chronic sleeplessness and spontaneous death. It's set in a city that feels like ours, but something feels off. Or is that just the insomnia kicking in? BLOODSHOT will also feature an original score written and performed by the band The Mombs. 

The design team features Nora Marlow Smith (Sets); Elinor T Vanderburg (Costumes); and Marcella Barbeau (Lighting). 

AILEMA SOUSA (Playwright, Fort Huachuca) is an Angolan-born British actress and writer. She graduated from the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2016 and was the winner of “The Most Promising Playwright” Award at the Los Angeles Fringe Festival (2018). She was later commissioned to write her second play Morongo by the Inkwell Theatre Company. As an actor, she was in The Crown on Netflix.

ANI MARDEROSIAN (Director, Fort Huachuca) is an award-winning artist, and she has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry. She holds a B.A. degree in Theatre (Directing and Education emphasis) from CSU Fullerton and an M.A. in Theatre Education from the University of Northern Colorado. Most recent acting roles include: Maria (West Side Story), Fantine (Les Miserables), Anahit (Warrior Queen), and Olivia (Twelfth Night). Most recent directing credits include: Wonder of the World, Witness for the Prosecution, The First and the Last (Encore Award), and The Baltimore Waltz. Ani is currently a full-time actor for Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre as well as a voiceover artist for KCRW. 

ELINOR T VANDERBURG (Playwright, Bloodshot) is a Black-American writer, performer and voice artist born in Washington, DC. She writers plays for and about misfits, creating troubled, chimerical landscapes to call her audiences to real-world r/evolutionary action. Elinor is a Co-Creative Director of Fresh Ground Pepper, a writer-in-residence with Exquisite Corpse Co. & The Shelter. She lives and works in Bushwick Brooklyn.

NIGEL SEMAJ. (Director, Bloodshot) is a director, movement director, choreographer, and educator from Washington, D.C. Notable directing credits include: Ntozake Shange’s Spell No. 7, Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, as well as new works such as Black Hollow, by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, and “wolfchildren runslowly through a Bruegel landscape,” 1558 by Ruth Tang. Their 2015 production of For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf won them awards in Excellence of Direction, Excellence in Ensemble Work, and Excellence in Costume Design. Their adaptation work includes a five-female adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus entitled 10,000 Moor, “For Hylas,” a queer retelling of the Hercules myth, and Call Me By Any Other Name…Just As Sweet: a queer deconstruction of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Nigel worked as Movement Director/Fight Director of Heartbeat Opera Company’s adaptation of Beethoven’s Fidelio by Marcus Scott which became a New York Times Critic’s Pick. They are currently working on a classical adaptation play cycle existing within the world of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. 

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