HUMAN

Nehprii Amenii (Director/Playwright/Artistic Director) is an artist, writer, director and educator. Amenii has created and worked with The Clarice Performing Arts Center, The Chelsea Factory, Penumbra Theatre Company, The Flea, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Iati Theatre, La Mama Experimental Theatre, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, The Holland Festival, Virginia Stage Company, and Asheville Creative Arts. and Cirque Du Soleil. She has enjoyed 10 years of teaching and staging puppet performances for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation, before now serving as their creative consultant. In 2010, she received a grant from Downtown Brooklyn Partnership to create an interactive exhibit and Community Arts Center based on her children’s book Memories of the Little Elephant. In 2011, she was sponsored by the International Rotary Club to create a storytelling exhibit in South East India. In 2013, she was honored with the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for playwriting, for her play Food for the Gods. Most recently, she was invited as a US delegate for the 2015 Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape Town South Africa. In addition to her theatrical work, Amenii has been teaching for 18 years and currently uses multimedia arts and storytelling to teach English to young immigrants within New York public schools. She holds a BA in creative communications and an interdisciplinary degree in creative writing, studio arts, and mass communications from the University of Minnesota. She holds an MFA in theater production from Sarah Lawrence College.

Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby’s dynamic duo music team has a career that encompasses songwriting, composition, arranging, production, and music education. They work with versatility in many genres of music as jazz, rhythm and blues, folk, pop, and contemporary pop/RnB/hiphop hybrids in the recording industry internationally, in theater, film, and TV. Redbone & Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for The Public Theater revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuff by Ntozake Shange. The revival transferred to Broadway in 2022 and premiered at The Booth Theater garnering seven Tony Award nominations. Represented by Leah Hamos at Gersh.

Amparo “Chigui” Santiago is a highly accomplished dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, and movement educator with decades of experience. She has served as a principal dancer with renowned contemporary and African-based dance companies, including those led by Chuck Davis, Forces of Nature, Fred Benjamin, and others. It has been a blessing to work with Nehprii Amenii for many years; this journey has been marked by deep respect, creativity, and continuous inspiration.

Marie Yokoyama (she/her) is a Japanese lighting and set designer based in NY. Her recent credits include Stuck Elevator *(Opera Grand Rapids); *Madama Butterfly (Co-pro Arizona Opera, Vancouver Opera, and Grand Rapids Opera); La Bohème (Arizona Opera); Imaginary Invalid (Moliere in the Park); Waitress *(ZACH Theatre); *Twelfth Night and Kim’s Convenience at (TheatreSquared); Conscience and Searching for Mr. Moon (Portland Stage); Dangerous Days (Miami New Drama); Cyrano de Bergerac (KC Rep); Madama Butterfly (Co-pro Virginia Opera, Florentine Opera, & Kentucky Opera); Rinaldo (Minnesota Opera); note to a friend (Tokyo Bunkakaikan); Mystery of Irma Vep (St. Louis Rep); Testmatch (American Conservatory Theater San Francisco); Tiny Beautiful Things (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Do You Feel Anger (Vineyard Theatre); and Pillowtalk (Kyoung’s Pacific Beats). Upcoming project: Ariodante (Minnesota Opera).

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is an award-winning designer specializing in lighting and projection for theater, dance, opera, musicals, art installations, immersive experiences, and digital productions. She aims to create visual environments organically integrated into the production’s landscape and language. The New York Times called her designs “clever” and “inventive.“ Her work has been showcased in US cities and internationally in Havana, Prague, Lima, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Graz, Shanghai, Paris, and Bloemfontein. She is also a generative artist who devises interdisciplinary and collaborative productions that integrate puppetry and technology.

Yew is an arts professor with NYU Tisch Drama. 2026 United States Artists Fellows. 2022 Obie for Sustained Achievement in Lighting Design. She is a NEA/TCG career development program recipient and has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC Fellowship, Artist Trust’s GAP program, Queens Council on the Arts’ Queens Arts Fund, the Puppeteers of America Rose Endowment Fund, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Instagram: @jeanette_yew | jeanetteyew.com

Joshua Langman is an award-winning author, educator, theatrical designer, typographer, and scholar of design. He is the author of Standby: An Approach to Theatrical Design, a unique practical philosophy of design for the stage. Langman has designed lighting, sound, and projections for the New Victory, the Center for Puppetry Arts, Summer Shorts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Castillo Theatre, Teátrica, Brooklyn Gypsies, the 52nd Street Project, the Jim Henson Foundation, singer-songwriter Cidny Bullens, and dozens of other companies and venues in New York City and across the country. His design work has been featured in the La MaMa ETC Puppet Festival, the Center at West Park Object Movement Festival, and Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Langman has lectured and facilitated workshops on design at Carnegie Hall and has spoken at the Drama Book Shop and the Players. He teaches theatrical design at Ball State University. www.jltheatricaldesign.com

Angela M. Fludd is an alumni of Parsons School for Design/The New School. Her artistic moniker and brand, The Empress of Style, is dedicated to empowering creatives to design sustainable kingdoms. As a designer, stylist, and wardrobe supervisor, her mission is to tap into the rhythm in you. She is former designer/stylist for Lincoln Center Jazz, personal stylist for Winton Marsalis, assistant designer for Broadway’s Eclipsed, and dresser for Disney’s Aladdin.

Michael Ewusi Aboagye earned his Bachelor of Arts in music education from the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, and is currently pursuing a Master of music in vocal performance at the University of Mississippi, where he studies under Dr. Jos Milton. A lyric tenor, Aboagye has captivated audiences with his expressive voice, compelling stage presence, and thoughtful musical interpretation. In Ghana, he is a member of the acclaimed Harmonious Chorale, a multiple-award-winning ensemble recognized as one of the country’s premier choral groups, where he also serves on the technical team. He portrayed the role of Ayeyi Yaw in George Mensah Essilfie’s Songs of Akotam, a villager who courageously rescues a princess from the vicious beast that terrorizes his community. Aboagye currently serves as a graduate assistant for the University of Mississippi Opera Theatre, where he most recently performed the role of Monsieur Vogelsang in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor. He is also the music director of the Ghana Lucien Memorial United Methodist Church of Long Island.

Dan Jones is a designer, playwright, builder, performer, dramaturg, and visual artist based in Queens, NY. 2020 New Victory LabWorks artist with The Halloween Tree, his new theatrical adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novella. He has worked in puppetry (including design contribution, fabrication, or performance) with theaters including A.R.T., Shakespeare Theatre Company, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Mabou Mines, and the Public Theater, as well as on several Broadway productions. Frequent teaching artist with Minneapolis’s Adventures in Cardboard. Upcoming work includes a new play, a project for Nick Jr., and more. Thrilled to work with Nehprii Amenii and ACA! insta: @dandemoniumjones

Jon Riddleberger is an NYC-based puppeteer, filmmaker, director, and teacher who has worked internationally in film, television and theater. He puppeteered the horses in the North American and Japanese tours of War Horse. Other select theater credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Off‑Broadway), Dead Puppet Society’s Laser Beak Man at the Sydney Opera House, Fly Away (Derek Fordjour/Nick Lehane), and El Niño at The Metropolitan Opera. His film and television work includes Clifford the Big Red Dog, BBC’s Moon and Me, Apple TV+’s Hello Tomorrow!, and FX’s Dying for Sex. Select directing credits include The Memory Trade (Director/Handmade Puppet Dreams), demons. (Director of Puppetry), FRNKNSTN (Co‑conceiver/Director), the short film Emmanuelle, David Yurman ad campaign (Shadow Puppet Coach), and friend. (Co‑creator/Director). Riddleberger is a member of Official Puppet Business and tours internationally with the company’s shows Bill’s 44th and Parched. He is the recipient of a Jim Henson Foundation grant and is in pre‑production on short film Pauline Retrograde. This fall he will appear in Lincoln in the Bardo at The Metropolitan Opera. Riddleberger teaches puppetry as an adjunct at NYU Tisch. More at www.jonriddleberger.com and @jahbiggins on Instagram.

Max Van is in pursuit of being a jack-of-all-trades, master of side quests. He works in theater and events as projection/sound designer. Credits include Jesa (The Public Theater), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Lincoln Center Theater), Left On Tenth (Broadway), Mano A Mano (La Mama), Road Kills (Good Apples Collective), and Zoetrope (Caborca). You may find him being shushed for laughing too loudly in the room. His side quests include participating as an Apple Corp member of the Good Apples Collective and working as an associate production coordinator for the annual synthetic-biology iGEM Grand Jamboree. Visit him at maxvan.work.

Phaedra Michelle Scott is a dramaturg and producer based in New York City. Phaedra serves as a member of the Beehive Dramaturgy Studio (NYC) and Dramaturg of New Harmony Project. Her credits include work at Audible Theater, American Ballet Theater, MCC Theater, the New Victory, Playwrights Realm, Huntington Theater Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Playwright’s Center. She has been an arts and culture journalist for wbur, Boston’s NPR station, and a content developer at the USS Constitution Museum. She is a crocheter, obscure history fan, and horror enthusiast. www.phaedrascott.com

Jordyne Bouza is a stage manager based in New York City. Recent credits include assistant stage manager for Violet at Manhattan School of Music, Daisy Jones & The Six at 54 Below, Food for the Gods at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, The Actors at Theatre Row, EVERYBODY at The New School, and Nehprii Amenii’s process sharing of HUMAN at Chelsea Factory.

Bouza has worked with organizations including Vanguard Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, Kean University, 54 Below, and Khunum Productions. Her collaboration with director Nehprii Amenii began during Kean University’s production of Animal Farm and has grown into a lasting creative partnership through several years of development work with Khunum Productions. Bouza looks forward to continuing that collaboration as HUMAN moves toward its New York City premiere at The Shed.

Ruth Moe’s recent work includes Food for the Gods at The Clarice Smith at UMD in 2023, HUMAN at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta in 2024, and HUMAN at the Chelsea Factory in 2024. October 2023 Producer Ancram Opera House You Don’t Know the Lonely One written and performed by Dael Orlandesmith, David Cale, Matthew Dean Marsh, and directed by Robert Falls. Executive Producer Lumberyard Performing Arts Center. Previously, producer for the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre Program. Director of Production for the Westport Country Playhouse. Production Management for the Wooster Group, Mabou Mines, Shakespeare and Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Classic Stage Company, Under the Radar Festival, Colorado World Theatre Festival, The Jerash Festival in Amman Jordan, Berkshire Public Theatre, New York Theatre of the Deaf, East Coast Arts, Hudson Theatre NY, The Court Theatre.