IN THE CONTINUUM

Danai Gurira (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright and actress. As a playwright, her works include In the Continuum (OBIE Award, Outer Critics Award, Helen Hayes Award), Eclipsed (Tony Award Nomination: Best Play; NAACP Award; Helen Hayes Award: Best New Play; Connecticut Critics Circle Award: Outstanding Production of a Play), and The Convert (six Ovation Awards, Los Angeles Outer Critics Award). Familiar received its world premiere at Yale Rep in 2015 and premiered in New York at Playwrights Horizons in February of 2016. She is a recipient of the Sam Norkin Award at the 2016 Drama Desk Awards, a Whiting Award, a Hodder Fellow, and has been commissioned by Yale Rep, Center Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court. As an actor, she starred as “Afeni Shakur” in the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me, co-starred in Marvel’s blockbuster Black Panther and Avenger films as “Okoye”; and as “Michonne” on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” (NAACP Image Award nomination). Other select acting credits include the films The Visitor and Mother of George, and “Isabelle” in NYS&F’s Measure for Measure (Equity Callaway Award.) Born in the US to Zimbabwean parents and raised in Zimbabwe, she holds an MFA from Tisch, NYU and serves as an ambassador for Bono’s ONE campaign. She is also the founder of LOGpledge.org, an awareness building campaign focused on the plights of women and girls around the globe; and the co-founder of Almasi Arts, which works to give access and opportunity to the African Dramatic Artist. almasiartsalliance.org.

Nikkole Salter (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-born, OBIE Award-winning actress and writer who arrived onto the professional scene with her co-authorship and co-performance (with Danai Gurira) of the Pulitzer Prize nominated play, In the Continuum (ITC). As a dramatist, Ms. Salter has written 8 full-length plays, been commissioned for full-length work by 6 institutions, been produced on 3 continents in 5 countries, and been published in 12 international publications.  Her work has appeared in over 20 Off-Broadway, regional and international theatres, and the Crossroads Theatre production of her play Repairing a Nation (directed by Marshall Jones, III) was regionally aired during the second season of the WNET program “Theatre Close-Up” on NYC’s channel THIRTEEN, WLIC, NJTV.  The National Black Theatre production of her play Carnaval was nominated for 7 AUDELCO awards including Best Playwright and Best Production and won for Best Ensemble Performance.  Ms. Salter is a 2014 MAP Fund Grant recipient, a Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, USA Fellowship nominee, a two-time Playwright’s of New York (PoNY) Fellowship nominee. Acting credits include Gavin O’Connors feature film Pride & Glory starring Ed Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight, and the voice of ‘LATICIA’ in Rockstar Games’ video game release, Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Other credits: Stick Fly co-produced by Arena Stage (Washington, DC) and the Huntington Theatre (Boston), Head of Passes at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Lady Macbeth in TONY-nominated Macbeth at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, a recurring role in Forest Whitaker’s new series, Godfather of Harlem; Dominique Morisseau’s Mud Row as “Sally Childress”; and “Coretta Scott King” in the Broadway production of The Great Society, and as “LaVinia Shaw Williams” in the world premiere production of Kirsten Greenidge’s Our Daughters, Like Pillars at the Huntington Theatre.

Georgerinna Farley (Abigail & Others) is a Chicago based actor who is passionate about authentic storytelling. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University and holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Rhode Island College, where she was a proud Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Fellow. Her work spans across stage and screen, including “SEND HELP” (AMC Networks), Julius Caesar (Mark Antony), RENT (Mimi Marquez), and the world premiere of GANGSTERS! (Bloom/Prizzy), written by Zach Helm. With a strong background in music, dialects, and movement, she brings discipline, versatility, and heart to every project, driven by a desire to inspire the next generation to pursue their own dreams!

Niara Taylor (Nia & Others) is a Chicago-based performance artist and writer. Niara holds a BFA in Acting and a BA in Africana Studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she received the Outstanding Achievement in Performance Award. Favorite roles include Millie in Trouble in Mind (UMBC), and she recently appeared in 100 Days with Open Space Arts Chicago. She is excited to make her debut with Pegasus Theatre, having previously participated in the theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival. Niara is also a Hip Hop dancer and was an intern and choreographer with Black Ensemble Theater.

Justice Ford (US – Abigail & Others)  is an actress, arts educator, and writer hailing from the Southside of Chicago. A regional winner of Goodman Theatre’s “10-Minute Play Festival” Justice recent credits include Shakin’ The Mess Outta Misery (Jeff Nominated for Best Ensemble) at Pegasus Theatre. Last year, she was nominated for a Jeff Award for By The Way, Meet Vera Stark. Ford teaches youth theatre with the August Wilson Outreach Program. Her podcast “Unapologetic” was a finalist in Complex Magazine’s “Good Looking Out” (2018). Justice attended ChiArts as a student in their inaugural class (2013). Justice believes that art saves lives and hopes for continued opportunities to share stories and heal through art.