Tea-YA

Hey college students, theatre artists, and educators, I’m looking at you! 

Grab your favorite cup of tea and join us for “Tea-YA,” a talk show series by Purple Crayon Players in which our PLAYground Producer and collaborators interview leading TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) professionals far and wide. Hear from these brilliant industry professionals about their work, missions, and dreams for TYA and the world. Let’s empower our young people and future together. We hope you enjoy and learn with us. <3

[***Content warning for mature language and themes. This series is especially aimed toward young adults, college-age students, and adults interested in creating meaningful theatre/educational content for young people.***]

Watch our fourth episode of Tea-YA, where Gabriela Furtado Coutinho interviews Sandra Marquez and Isaac Gomez!

Sandra Marquez is an award winning Chicago-based actor, director and educator who is a trailblazer in the American Theater landscape and pioneer for Latinx artists. She is a longtime ensemble member at Teatro Vista where she served as the Associate Artistic Director alongside Artistic Director Edward Torres from 1998-2006. In 2016, Ms. Marquez made history at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the first Latinx artist to be invited into its storied ensemble.

In 2013, she played Victoria in The Motherfu**er with the Hat by Stephen Adly Giurgis and directed by Anna D. Shapiro, a historical production marking the first time an all Latinx cast, which featured Jimmy Smits and John Ortiz, was seen on the Steppenwolf stage. In 2018, Ms. Marquez made history again directing La Ruta by Isaac Gomez, with the first all Latina cast at Steppenwolf. Most recently, she directed the critically acclaimed and sold out world premiere of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter at Steppenwolf and co-directed the audio version of the play with fellow ensemble member Audrey Francis.

She is a recipient of a Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Beatrice in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at Teatro Vista. Acting Jeff Award nominations include: Best Actress in a Leading Role for 26 Miles by Quiara Alegria Hudes and Living Out by Lisa Loomer. Acting credits include: A Doll’s House Part 2, The Roommate, The Doppelgänger, The Motherfu**er with the Hat (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Electricidad, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Mariela in the Desert (Goodman Theatre); Massacre, The Sins of Sor Juana, 26 Miles, Another Part of the House (Teatro Vista); Clytemnestra in Iphigenia in Aulis, Agamemnon, and Electra (Court Theatre); Mojada & Anna in the Tropics (Victory Gardens Theatre); Breakfast Lunch and Dinner at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Mala Hierba at Second Stage Theatre in New York.

Selected Film/TV credits: many national commercials, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, Boss & Timer.

Ms. Marquez is a recipient of the Sor Juana Award, given by the National Museum of Mexican Art, for her contribution to the Arts and Latinx Community and the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring. Ms. Marquez is a member of the Northwestern University theater faculty where she enjoys teaching and mentoring young theater artists.

Isaac Gomez is a Chicago-based playwright, dramaturg and educator. His plays include La Ruta (developed at Primary Stages, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, and Pivot Arts); Wally World (Sideshow Theater Company Commission); PerKup Elkhorn (developed at Northlight Theatre and Chicago Dramatists); The Way She Spoke: A docu-mythologia (WP: Greenhouse Theater Center, 2016); The Displaced (WP: Haven Theatre, 2018); Throwaway Kids (Cunningham Commission for Youth Theatre -- The Theatre School at DePaul University); The Soul of the World (Actors Theatre of Louisville Acting Apprentice New Play Commission). He is a recipient of the Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award at Primary Stages, a member of the 2017-18 Goodman Theatre’s Playwrights Unit, the Co-Creative Director at the Alliance of Latinx Theatre, a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, an Artistic Associate with Victory Gardens Theater, Ensemble Member with Teatro Vista, Artistic Associate with Pivot Arts, Artistic Curator for Theater on the Lake 2017/2018, a steering committee member of the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) and an artistic community member at The Hypocrites in Chicago. He is a Professional Lecturer at The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Watch our third episode of Tea-YA, where Arella Flur interviews Sam Hamashima, Ashley Laverty, Aaron Davidson, Benjamin Lapean, Emily Zhang, Bennett Petersen, and Madeline Oberle!

"Shoyu Tell" - written by Sam Hamashima and directed by Emily Zhang

Sam Hamashima (them+) is an artist based in unceded Lenape Land known as New York City. In addition to holding space for the Lenape, Hamashima would also like to hold space for the Tuscarora whose Lands nurtured them and their artistic voice. Hamashima’s work has been produced and/or developed by John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Queer Theater, Lyric Stage of Boston, and Seattle Public Theater among others. Hamashima passionately wields theater and writing for empowerment, change, and healing. Works include American Spies and Other Homegrown Fables (Hub Theater – 2019), and Shoyu Tell (Lexington Children’s Theatre – World Premiere 2021) Produced and/or developed by John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Queer Theater, Lyric Stage of Boston, and Seattle Public Theater. Awards include the Emerald Prize, the Roy W. Cowden Fellowship, the Dennis McIntyre Prize, Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwrights’ Workshop, and Hopwood Award in Drama at the University of Michigan. BFA in Musical Theatre, University of Michigan. samhamashima.com.

"Where Our Stuff Goes" - written by Ashley Laverty and directed by Bennett Petersen

Ashley Laverty is a theatre maker originally from Worcester, Massachusetts. She is the founding Artistic Director of Kerfuffle, a theatre and dance company devoted to creating performances with and for children under 6 year olds. With Kerfuffle, she has developed and directed Nested, The Caterpillar's Footprint, and Goose and Gert, a co-production with The Rose Theater in Omaha, NE. She is a teaching artist and has 10 years of teaching artist experience, specializing in drama in the early childhood classroom. In Chicago, Ashley is proud to be a teaching artist with Lifeline Theatre, Paramount School of the Arts, The Stage School, and a children’s yoga instructor with Mission Propelle. Additionally, Ashley is a director, playwright and actor, and has performed and had her work produced nationally at the Omaha Theater Company at The Rose, Brelby Theatre, National Theatre for Children, VEE Corporation, Roxy Regional Theatre, Vital Theatre Company and Storyland. Ashley was proud to be an Artist Fellow at the Union for Contemporary Art in 2018, and the 2019 Ann Shaw Fellow with TYA/USA. She holds an M.F.A in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Musical Theatre from Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts. For more information, visit www.ashleylaverty.com.

"Watercolors" - written by Aaron Davidson/Benjamin Lapean and directed by Madeline Oberle

Aaron M. Davidson. Denver born and Chicago based, Aaron is a musician/actor/teaching artist/composer. As a musician Aaron is the co-founder of the Jazz duo Treble on the L, and was the resident musician of Room 13 in Chicago for over a year, specializing in the music of the prohibition. He has played with pop bands including with Paul Koudouris at Sundance Festival, toured with the Latshaw Pops Orchestra, spent three years as a member of the Chicago based The Four C-Notes: Recreating the music of Frankie Valli, as well as currently serves as a musician/singer for the Chicago Cabaret Project. He is an AEA actor who has worked at theaters including: The Denver Center, The Arvada Center, The Royal George, The Mercury Theater, Little Theater on the Square, and West Virginia Public Theater. He has spent this past year during Covid enjoying the wonder and occasional technical headache of life as a virtual piano teacher! Theater for young audiences holds a special place and passion in Aaron’s heart as he has performed in dozens of TYA productions as an actor over the years, including three seasons with Northbrook Theater for Young Audiences, and seven seasons with chicago based American Eagle Productions, a touring children’s repertory theater company. He is truly grateful for PCP, their commitment towards developing new work TYA.. Training: Point Park University, BA Theater.

Benjamin Lapean is originally from Massachusetts, where he grew up in the small town of Colrain. Since moving to Chicago, Benjamin has studied and performed improv (iO Theater), co-wrote and performed in Bellboys, Bears and Baggage (Redmoon Theater), played a principal character in two seasons of a web-series (Tenants), and served as an ensemble member with One Year Chekhov, performing in various iterations of Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull, Ivanov, and Uncle Vanya. Benjamin received a B.A. in English and Theater from Westfield State University.

Watch our second episode of Tea-YA, where Gabriela Furtado Coutinho interviews Michael J. Bobbitt and Gloria Bond Clunie!

Michael J. Bobbitt has dedicated his professional career to arts leadership. He is a director, choreographer, and playwright. On February 1, 2021 he joined Mass Cultural Council as Executive Director, becoming the highest ranking cultural official in Massachusetts. Since March 2019 he has served as the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA; immediately prior he held the same position at the Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland for twelve years. While in Maryland Bobbitt led the organization to be a respected theatre/training company in the DC region, as well as a nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences. He led a merger with Musical Theater Center, increased the organizational budget and audience, commissioned new works by noted playwrights, transferred two shows to Off-Broadway, built an academy, and earned dozens of Helen Hayes Award Nominations, garnering eight wins. Bobbitt gained extensive experience in non-profit arts management by training at Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management, The National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, and Cornell University’s Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program. He has served as an Associate Professor of Theatre at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and volunteered on numerous non-profit boards, including Non-Profit Village, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Leadership Montgomery, Weissberg Foundation, Watertown Public Art Commission, and ArtsBoston. Bobbitt has directed/choreographed at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Center Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and the Washington National Opera. His national and international credits include the NY Musical Theatre Festival, Mel Tillis 2001, La Jolla Playhouse, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Jefferson Performing Arts Center, and the Olympics. As a writer his work was chosen for the NYC International Fringe Festival and The New York and Musical Theatre Festival. He has plays published by Concord Theatricals/Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals, Broadway Publishing and Plays for Young Audiences. Bobbitt has received the Excel Leadership Award (Center for Nonprofit Advancement), the Emerging Leader Award (County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities), and Person of the Year Award (Maryland Theatre Guide).

Gloria Bond Clunie is an award-winning playwright, director and educator. Ms. Clunie is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s Regional Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green and Shoes premiered. She is also the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre where she directed scores of productions including Ain't Misbehavin', Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Home and Raisin. Other plays include Sweet Water Taste, SMOKE, Sing, Malindy, Sing!, BLU, Buck Naked, DRIP, Patricia McKissack’s Mirandy and Brother Wind, Bankruptcy, Merry Kwanzaa, Mercy Rising and QUARK. She is published by Dramatic Publishing and in the anthologies Seven Black Plays, Reimagining A Raisin In the Sun and The Bully Plays. Her plays have been produced and workshopped in a variety of theaters including Victory Gardens Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, ETA, Alliance Theatre, Triad Stage, Her Story Theatre, Horizoan Theatre, MPAACT, Chicago Children’s Theatre, American Blues Theatre, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Penobscot Theatre and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Ms. Clunie has been recognized for her work in theater and education by the NAACP, AKA and DST Sororities, American Alliance for Theatre and Education and the Vision Keepers. Awards include a Chicago Jeff, a Children’s Theater Foundation of America Orlin Corey Medallion, a Scott McPherson, a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, Theodore Ward African-American Playwriting Prizes, New York’s New Professional Theater Award, Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Awards, NEA and Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, the Evanston Mayor’s Award for the Arts and most recently the 2018 YWCA YWomen Leadership Award. This Northwestern graduate (B.A. Theater, MFA-Directing) is honored her drama Shoes was included in the 2015 Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa; that SMOKE was featured in Chicago’s Her Story Theater Writers Series, Dayton Playhouse’s 2015 FutureFest, 2015 New Works at Playhouse On The Square in Memphis, 2016 Barter Theatre’s Appalachian Festival of Playwrights in Virginia, and a part of 2017 New Play Lab at Florida Rep. In July 2016, with the goal to explore violence in America, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre commissioned and premiered A Shot-#Love Stories inspired by Black Lives Matter. In 2014, Ms. Clunie was an Artist-In-Residence at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock New York and at 360 Xochi Quetzal Arts Residency, Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico where she completed BLU- as both a two act drama and a new musical exploring bullying. BLU was read at The Growing Stage Children’s Theater of New Jersey New Play Festival, was the featured play in the AATE Utah Playwrights In Our Schools Program and workshopped in Arizona at 2017 WRITE NOW, a TYA collaboration between Childsplay Theatre and Indiana Rep. Thanks to a grant from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, BLU- The Musical was workshopped in September 2017. Her comedy Buck Naked was featured in the inaugural 2017 Women Playwrights Initiative at Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut. In January 2018, she served as both playwright and director for My Wonderful Birthday Suit commissioned by Chicago Children’s Theatre, while her adaptation of The Last Stop on Market Street (2016 Caldecott/ 2016 Newbery/ 2016 Coretta Scott King Book Awards) premiered at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and was part of the 2020-21 seasons at both Dallas Children’s Theatre and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. She is excited her comedy Sweet Water Taste which enjoyed nightly standing ovations at Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre will be produced at Orlando Shakes in their upcoming season. Currently, she is working on the musical SKY, begun at California’s Djerassi Resident Artists Program and inspired by her love of Chicago architecture, Tall Enough - the 2019-20 DePaul University Cunningham Commission, and commissions for the adaptation of Hula-Hoopin' Queen and Giraffes Can't Dance for upcoming productions. Originally from Henderson, North Carolina, she and her husband Basil live in Evanston, Illinois and are the proud parents of daughter and theater artist Aurelia Clunie.

Watch our first episode of Tea-YA with Jose Casas, interviewed by Gabriela Furtado Coutinho!

José Casas is a playwright, director and actor, as well as an assistant professor of playwriting at the University of Michigan. He is a board member of the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America and Spinning Dot Theatre, where he is also a resident artist. Casas is also a member of AATE, the Dramatists Guild and TYA/USA. He has a B.A. in dramatic arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an M.A. in theatre arts from California State University, Los Angles (CSULA); and an MFA in playwriting from Arizona State University. His plays, which have been performed across the country, include la rosa still grows beyond the wall, all brown, all chingon, aDoBe, a million whispers all at once, and antonia: a latina hip-hop Antigone. His plays la ofrenda and somebody’s children received both the Bonderman National Playwriting for Youth Award (2005, 2009) and the AATE Distinguished Play Award (2007, 2010). His plays published by Dramatic Publishing include la ofrenda, somebody’s children, 14 and alex: a conversation about nothing, which is included in The Bully Plays. His book, also published by Dramatic Publishing and co-edited with Christina Marín, Palabras del Cielo: An Exploration of Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences showcases the work of playwrights writing Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences (LTYA) as well as the work of scholars exploring the subject.