Resource Guide for Educators: Cast & Creative Team

Maiesha McQueen, Ethel Waters

Maiesha McQueen is honored and thrilled to be returning to The Armory in His Eye is on the Sparrow. She was last seen on The Armory main stage in the 2015 production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. Regional credits include: 'Da Kink in My Hair (Horizon Theatre, Atlanta); Sirens of Song (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Chasin’ Dem Blues (True Colors Theatre, Atlanta); Black Nativity (Dominion Productions, Atlanta); In the Red and Brown Water (PG Entertainment, GA); Little Shop of Horrors, Show Boat, Man of La Mancha, Guys and Dolls (Forestburgh Playhouse, NY). Film credits include: DayBlack (ArtistDirector Media), Down to Earth (Paramount Pictures). Maiesha has traveled the globe as a leading ensemble member and musical composer for the touring company Progress Theatre, whose work has been presented at spaces such as The Public Theater, 14^th Street Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, The Apollo Theatre and World Music Festival in Amsterdam. She holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, a master’s in education from Fordham University, and has spent over a decade teaching in both public and private sectors. Maiesha would like to thank her family and "tribe" for their unconditional love and support! maieshamcqueen.net

Darius Smith
Music Director/Piano Player

Off-Broadway: Futurity, Three Little Birds. DC AREA: Signature Theater: Jelly's Last Jam, La Cage aux Folles, Soon, Dreamgirls (Associate Music Director); Olney Theatre Center: The Producers, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Once on this Island; Studio Theatre: Choir Boy, Carrie: The Musical; MetroStage: Glimpses of the Moon; Adventure Theater-MTC: Petit Rouge, Go, Dog, Go; Charlie and the Purple Crayon, Big; and many others in the DC area. ORIGINAL WORKS: Marcus Nate is Alive and Great and Living in Detroit (workshop), The Snowy Day (Best TYA Production Helen Hayes nomination); U.G.L.Y. (Signature Theater SigWorks MT Lab, Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage); Songs in the Key of Chocolate (Signature Theatre Summer Cabaret Series). CABARETS: with Helen Hayes Award winners, Nova Y. Payton and Natascia Diaz. AWARDS: 2016 San Francisco Theatre Critics Award - Outstanding Music Direction (Choir Boy), 2015 Signature Theatre Young Artist Citation, 2015 Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Competition Finalist. UPCOMING: Raisin, The Wiz.

Timothy Douglas

Director
Timothy Douglas returns after directing the productions of Anna in the Tropics and A Feminine Ending. He is a New York based theater director who currently serves as an associate artist at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where he has staged seven productions, including the world premiere of Keith Josef Adkins’ Safe House. Recent credits include Seven Guitars for Yale Repertory Theatre; Disgraced and King Hedley II for Arena Stage; Father Comes Home from the Wars, parts 1, 2 and 3, for Round House Theatre; Richard II for Shakespeare & Company; BRONTE: A Portrait of Charlotte presented Off-Broadway; and the development of Ione Lloyd’s Eve’s Song for Sundance Theatre Institute/MENA Lab in Morocco. Timothy has directed nationally and internationally and counts among his many productions the world premieres of August Wilson’s Radio Golf for Yale Repertory Theatre; Rajiv Joseph’s The Lake Effect for Silk Road Rising (2013 Jeff Award for Best New Work); Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (six Helen Hayes Award nominations) for Theater Alliance, and the Off-Broadway premiere of a new translation/adaptation of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm — as well as his critically acclaimed Caribbean-inspired Much Ado About Nothing for Folger Shakespeare Theatre. He was the associate artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2001-2004, where he directed 16 productions including three Humana Festival premieres. The list of theaters Timothy has made productions for include American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Downstage (New Zealand), Guthrie Theater, Juilliard, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Pioneer Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre (associate artist, 2001-2005), PlayMakers Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, Steppenwolf Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and many others. Timothy earned his M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. timothydouglas.org

Larry Parr
Playwright
Larry Parr has had hundreds of regional productions and is a Dramatist Guild member. Awards and honors include: Hi-Hat Hattie – Kansas City’s Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, Florida Individual Artist Recipient, American Cinema Foundation’s First Prize for Screenwriting; My Castle's Rockin' – Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre’s ScriptFest, the first play by a white playwright produced in the history of the National Black Theatre Festival; Invasion of Privacy – 1999 Gold Coast Players Best Play Award, The National Arts Club’s Playwrights First Award in Manhattan, Ashland New Play Festival, Theatre Conspiracy’s New Play Competition, Florida Individual Artist Recipient, Dezart Performs Audience Favorite+; Sundew – Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater’s Annual Play Competition; His Eye is on the Sparrow – Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Recipient, The Sarasota County Arts Council’s John Ringling Fellowship Grant, Daytony Award for Best Overall Production; Shunned – Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater’s ScriptFest Winner, Utah Shakespeare Festival, New American Playwrights Project, Julie Harris Playwright Award Finalist; winner of Florida Studio Theatre’s Short Play Competition nine years in a row; winner of Stages 1993; winner of the 1994 Porter Fleming Playwriting Competition; and a recipient of the Barbara Anton Playwriting Award from Florida Studio Theatre, 2000 and 2010. larryparr.info