TREY BRAZEAL (Lighting Designer, Lady Day) is happy to be working alongside PSF on this show. Some of his credits include: Much Ado About Nothing, Fences (The Olney Theatre Center); The Last 5 Years (Third Avenue Playworks); Moulin Rouge! The Musical US tour (2nd Ass’t, Nederlander Theatre); Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster tour (Manual Cinema); This Wide Night (Shattered Globe Theatre and Interrobang Theatre Project); Little Shop of Horrors, My Way: A Frank Sinatra Tribute Musical (Metropolis Performing Arts Center).
CHARLIE CALVERT (Set Designer, Lady Day) is excited to be working at PSF for the first time! Other recent credits: Comedy of Tenors, Dial M for Murder and Fickle: A Fancy French Farce (Olney Theatre Center); Blithe Spirit, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Henry VIII, The Learned Ladies, Comedy of Errors (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); The Crucible, Moonlight for the Misbegotten (The Warehouse Theatre). Broadway: assistant set designer for In My Life and One Mo’ Time. Off-Broadway: assistant set designer for Well (Public Theater) and Wintertime (Second Stage Theater). Charlie, a member of USA829, received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and serves on the faculty at University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.
LARRY D. FOWLER, JR. (Sound Designer, Lady Day) Philadelphia: Death of A Driver (Interact Theater); A Hit Dog Will Holler (Azuka Theater); The Light (Theatre Exile); All My Mothers Dream In Spanish (Azuka Theater). Regional: Fences (PSF); Blues for an Alabama Sky (PlayMakers Rep); By The Queen (Trinity Rep); History of Theater (A Contemporary Theatre). Awards: 3-Time Barrymore Award Nominee. Upcoming: Galilee (Azuka Theater); Chicken and Biscuits (Bristol Riverside Theater); Last Night and the Night Before (Steppenwolf); Zooman and the Sign (Theater In The X); Child Support (Camden Repertory). Associate Adjunct Professor at University of the Arts.
CASEY WILLIAM GALLAGHER (Managing Director) has worked at PSF for 25 seasons. Over the years he was the assistant house manager, box office manager, company manager, assistant producer, and director of development. Since 2004, in his role as general manager and later managing director, he has served as the administrative leader of the Festival, working very closely with the box office, business, development, marketing and production departments. Casey is excited to now serve as co-leader of the Festival with Artistic Director Jason King Jones. Beyond PSF, Casey has also been treasurer for the Shakespeare Theatre Association, director of audience services for The People’s Light & Theatre Company, a board member for Civic Theatre of Allentown, a peer panelist for the New Jersey Council on the Arts and a judge for the Greater Philadelphia Barrymore Awards for excellence in theatre. Casey thanks the year-round staff who works to make PSF happen each year and the summer staff who bring the theatre to life onstage.
DANNY HOLGATE (Musical Arrangements, Lady Day) With a career spanning almost 50 years, Holgate is well known as the music orchestrator and arranger of an all-black revival cast of Guys and Dolls. He also worked as musical director and arranger on Bubbling Brown Sugar and Eubie! Additionally, Holgate was the music arranger on the 2007 off-Broadway production of Three Mo’ Tenors. Holgate’s other credits include: dance arranger and conductor for Odyssey starring Yul Brynner, Jerry Butler, Alexis Smith, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, It’s So Nice to be Civilized (Associate Producer, Orchestrator), Daddy Goodness (Music Arrangements), Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (Music Arrangements), Rainbow Jones (Musical Director, Orchestrator), and Storyville (Orchestrater, Arranger).
JASON KING JONES (Artistic Director) is excited for his first season at PSF. Prior to moving to the Lehigh Valley with this family, Jason spent ten years at Maryland’s Olney Theatre Center, where he served as Senior Associate Artistic Director and Artistic Director of National Players, America’s longest-running touring theatre company. At Olney, Jason directed over twenty productions, mentored over 200 early-career theatre makers, and established various in-school and summer educational programs. As a freelance director, Jason has worked across the US, including the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Jason is an Acting Company alumnus, a proud member of the PSF Board, and a member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association’s IDEAA Committee, and Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Nonprofit & Business Partners Council. Jason holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Missouri State and an MFA in Directing from Boston University.
BRUNO PULLUM KING (Pepi, Lady Day) This is Bruno’s second appearance playing the role of Pepi. He’s loves being known as the “sweetest pup” and is simply happy to be here!
LEVONNE LINDSAY (Costume Designer, Lady Day) PSF: Much Ado About Nothing; Arden Theatre Company: Radio Golf, Into the Woods, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Ragtime, Gem of the Ocean (2019 Barrymore Award), The Bluest Eye; Wilma Theater: Kiss, Kill, Move Paradise; Philadelphia Theatre Company: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, The Garbologists, Sweat, Simpatico Theatre: Time Is On Our Side; Virginia Stage Company: Native Gardens, The Hampton Years; Trinity Repertory Company: Gem of the Ocean. Education: BS in Fashion Design (Philadelphia University); MFA in Costume Design (University of Maryland, College Park). Allen Lee Hughes Fellow at Arena Stage 2001-2003. Academic positions held at Swarthmore College, The University of the Arts, James Madison University, and Valdosta State University.
CEDRIC D. LYLES (Jimmy P., Lady Day) is a passionate artist with many roles including administrator, arts manager, educator, and performing artist. Originally from Washington, D.C., he received musical training as a child from the Levine School of Music: a skilled pianist and musician who has served Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Everyman Theater, and Baltimore Center Stage, and other arts organizations in the D.C./Baltimore Metro area. Cedric has a B.A. in Music, a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management, and over 30 graduate credits from American, Morgan State, and Towson Universities. As a musical director and performer, he focuses on telling a story through music and encouraging actors to make musical choices that support the story. Cedric is also a composer and arranger with many successful works, including 7:32 the musical (NYMF-2012) and Delilah: a new musical (KC-Page to Stage – May 2021). He is a founding board member of ArtsCentric, Inc. and serves as the volunteer Director of Operations and Musical Supervisor. Cedric is now the Director of Artistic Studies (arts division head) at Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
EBONY PULLUM* (Billie, Lady Day) is an actress, singer and teaching artist based out of Philadelphia and New York City who reprises the role of Billie Holiday following her performances at Florida Repertory Theatre and Curio Theatre Company. Some of her recent regional credits include her Barrymore Award-winning performance as Shug Avery in The Color Purple at Theatre Horizon and Barrymore Nominated role as Connie in Red Velvet at Lantern Theatre Co. Additionally, she has performed at The Kimmel Center, Quintessence Theatre, and in New York at Robert Moss Theater and June Havoc Theatre. @ebonythestar
LANIE ROBERTSON (Book, Lady Day) writes about iconic artists and the societal issues they faced in Nasty Little Secrets, The Insanity of Mary Girard, Back County Crimes, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, which was produced on Broadway in 2014. His plays are widely produced nationally and internationally. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild, East; and the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques.
AMINA ROBINSON (Director, Lady Day) is happy to make her PA Shakespeare debut with this production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Amina’s directing work includes shows with The Arden Theatre, Passage Theatre in Trenton, Queens Theatre in New York, IAMA Theater in Los Angeles, Philadelphia Artists Collective, Azuka Theater, Theater Horizon, The Lantern, and Temple University, where she is a Professor of Acting and Musical Theater. Amina became the first Black woman to win a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical in 2019 for her work on The Color Purple at Theatre Horizon. Amina is a professional actor, and currently serves as the Artistic Director of The Centre Theater in Norristown, under the management of The Elmwood Park Zoo, where she just finished directing Dreamgirls in Concert.
ASHANI SMITH* (Stage Manager, Lady Day) (she/her) returns to her third year at PSF directly from the 1st national tour of Jagged Little Pill. PSF credits include: A Chorus Line (AEA ASM) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ASM). Other recent credits include: 1st national tour of Pretty Woman (Sub ASM), Metropolis (New Light Theater Project), and Jelly’s Last Jam (2019 National Black Theatre Festival). @ashanihadiyah.
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards.
