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ABOUT REVELATION (Director's Note):

As a play, REVELATION is performed in three movements: 1) A doctor's office or the vestibule of Hell; 2) A bedroom and a pig parlor or twisting and turning on Earth, like a female Job; 3) Revelation or Heaven's fire. The O'Connor Estate's (from whom Karin Coonrod is the only director granted permission to adapt her work for the stage) mandate is to perform the piece verbatim, as written. This limitation becomes an impetus to open up a surprising theatricality. A direct line is drawn from the 21st century to 1963 to address the racism that O'Connor confronted in the pre-Civil Rights era and within herself. To achieve this, all white characters are played by actors of color. This chorus of actors--like a Greek chorus--creates the narration and also possesses an immortal resonance, a knowledge vaster than the opinionated characters in the doctor's office bound to their certitude ("What fools these mortals be!") and a joy and humility greater than is understood by the character Ruby Turpin when she shouts in a rage, "Who do you think you are?" Thus, the actors sculpt a lively trajectory from rage and brutal humor in the vestibule of Hell to one of awe--as an agelic chorus--in the fire of Heaven. The story moves into an unfathomable grace, with the desire to share fleeting glimpses of it in a visceral experience, toward catharsis.

Song List

1. "Radio Hymn - Leaning on the Everlasting Arms": Traditional Spiritual Arranged by Carlton Terrence Taylor 
2. "When I Looked Up and He Looked Down": From the Traditional Spiritual  "When I Looked Up" Arranged by Carlton Terrence Taylor 
3. "Reverie 1": Composed and Recorded by Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
4. "Reverie 2": Composed and Recorded by Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
5. "Mad Reverie": Composed and Arranged by Carlton Terrence Taylor 
6. "You Go to Blank": From the Traditional Spiritual "You Go to Your Church" Arranged by Carlton Terrence Taylor 
7. "Gratitude Reverie": Composed and Recorded by Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
8. "Cosmic Lullaby": Composed and Recorded by Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
9. "Even Their Virtues": Composed and Arranged by Carlton Terrence Taylor 

Cast

Creative Team

Meet the Company

Whitney Andrews

Performer

Whitney Andrews (she/her) is a Haitian American actor. Off Broadway: Sex Variants of 1941 (Skirball). Regional: The Inspector (Yale Rep). TV: Manifest (NBC), Wu Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), Happy! (Syfy), Gotham (FOX). B.F.A. University of Connecticut, M.F.A., Yale School of Drama. @whitneyjanell

Trezana Beverley

Performer, Ruby Turpin

Ms. Beverley is a recipient of a Tony Award for her acting in the Broadway show For Colored Girls. She is also a director, writer, and educator who has enjoyed directing and teaching at The Juilliard School and Purchase College. Recent acting credits include King Lear (as a man); Eleanor Roosevelt (“Eleanor and Alice”), and Nana Jackson (“Lady Sitting”- Arden Theater). She is the author and performer of her one-woman show Mabel Madness. Recent directing credits include “Animal Farm” and “The Mannequin Diaries”. Trezana has enjoyed a lengthy friendship and collaboration with Karin Coonrod and is happy to join the company of “Revelation.” She is represented by the Luedtke Agency.

Ahmad Kamal

Performer

NYC: Sumo (The Public). Regional: Babbitt, Everybody, Richard III (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Gloria, Kiss (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company); Holiday (Arena Stage); 4,380 Nights (Signature Theatre); The Return (Mosaic Theatre Company); Selling Kabul (Northlight Theatre); Baba, The Handless King (Amphibian Stage). Lucille Lortel nomination - Best Featured Actor; Helen Hayes nomination - Best Supporting Actor. BFA, University of Virginia; MA, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. @king_o_egypt

Julian Elijah Martinez

Performer

Broadway: Network. Off-Broadway: This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre); Sanctuary City (New York Theater Workshop); Anatomy of A Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); King Lear (Compagnia de Colombari); and Alligator (New Georges). Regional: King Lear (Shakespeare Theater Company); The Salvagers (Yale Rep), Father Comes Home From The Wars Part 1, 2, 3 (co-production Yale Rep and A.C.T); and 9 Circles (Forum Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination). TV: Wu-tang: An American Saga; Law and Order: SVU; Prodigal Son; and Elementary. Other: Company member of The Acting Company, Founding member of The Visit, the Already, and board member of Developing Artist. Training: MFA Yale School Of Drama. julianelijahmartinez.com

Jo Mei

Performer

Jo recently received an Obie Award for her work in Salesman之死 (Connelly Theatre). Other New York credits include King Lear (La MaMa), Lunch Bunch (PlayCo. & Clubbed Thumb), Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic), Babette’s Feast (Theatre at St. Clement’s), World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regionally, she has worked at Berkeley Rep, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Portland Stage, A.R.T., The Goodman, Woolly Mammoth, and others. TV credits include “Crashing”(HBO), “Nicki”(Freeform), “Bones” (Fox), and “The Good Wife” (CBS). Jo stars in and co-wrote the award-winning film “A Picture of You”; other film credits the upcoming “Rosemead” and “No Limits”, as well as “A Bread Factory, Part One”, “Who We Are Now”, “Adult World”, “The Grief of Others”. Member: The Actors Center. Training: Juilliard. Follow @jotomato

KenYatta Rogers

Performer

KenYatta Rogers is an actor and director with over 150 theatre, voiceover, film, and television credits. Acting credits include productions with Compagnia de’ Colombari, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Folger Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company. Directing credits include productions with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Constellation Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, African Continuum Theatre Company, IN Series, and Young Playwrights Theatre. An alum of Clark Atlanta University and the University of Pittsburgh, Rogers taught at South Carolina State University, Montgomery College (where he was named the 2014 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) and is currently a faculty member in the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Upcoming projects include performing with Everyman Theatre and directing at the Kennedy Center.

Stacey Sherrell

Performer

Stacey Sherrell Scott is a Juilliard graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, a business owner of an Acting and Performance Coaching business, ‘Setting Your Stage,’ and the program director for the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Education and Community Engagement Department. She is a proud SAG/AFTRA and AEA member and honored to continue working with Compagnia de Colombari.

Carlton Terrence Taylor

Performer and Music Director

Carlton Terrence Taylor is a passionate game-changer committed to empowering generations to think critically using art as a catalyst for change. Recent credits include Tina: the Tina Turner Musical (First National Tour), Deep Blue Sea and What Problem for New York Live Arts and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Late Show performing “The Americans” with Janelle Monáe, and Great Day in Harlem’s tribute to Janet Jackson. Theater: Illa (a hip hop musical), Ronve O’Daniels (NYMF), How the Light Gets performing Ilathi (NYMF), Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor (with Compagnia de’ Colombari, NYC, US and international tours), Five Guys Named Moe (Black Spectrum Theatre), Songs for A New World (The 411 Theater). Film: August Rush, TV: 80th Annual Academy Awards. Carlton is the Artistic Director of Ballet and Beyond NYC’s R.Y.S.E Conservatory. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced,” –James Baldwin.

Karin Coonrod

Director, Adaptor and Artistic Director, Compagnia de' Colombari

Karin Coonrod is the founding Artistic Director of Compagnia de’ Colombari and has directed on stages worldwide. Notable productions include KING LEAR (International Festival of Arts & Ideas; La MaMa ETC); Henry VI, Love's Labor's Lost (Public Theater, NYSF); King John, Julius Caesar (Theater for a New Audience); Enrico IV (American Repertory Theater); Everything That Rises Must Converge (New York Theater Workshop); texts&beheadings/ElizabethR (Folger Theatre; BAM/Next Wave Festival); and The Merchant of Venice (Venice, Italy; International Festival of Arts & Ideas; Peak Performances at Montclair State University; The Hopkins Center; Dartmouth University). Coonrod, with Compagnia de’ Colombari, has launched new theater traditions in Orvieto, Italy and brought works into detention centers, jails, schools, pubs, libraries, parks, museums, galleries, piers, churches, and the streets. The book The Transnational Theatre of Karin Coonrod (Bloomsbury Press UK) is currently in development. She teaches directing at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Aura Michelle

Stage Manager

Aura Michelle (she/her) hails from Calgary, Alberta, and is a recent grad of Yale’s M.F.A. stage management program at DGSD. Her recent stage management credits include Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Member, SPUNK, The Salvages (Yale Rep), I Am Alan Turing, Coriolanus, Apologiae 4 & 5, What of the Night, Pearl’s Beauty Salon, Fucking A, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, rent free (Yale, Geffen School); Romeo et Juliette and Kiss Me, Kate (Central City Opera); Shakespeare’s Women, Love and Information, and Dead Man’s Cell Phone (University of Victoria, Phoenix Theatre, her alma mater). Her artistic passion lies in avant-garde, multilingual, and politically evocative plays and musicals. She wishes to extend her heartfelt thanks to her teammates, Ace and Luca, and the cast for their brilliant work and collaboration.

Julian Ernesto Berroa

Assistant Stage Manager

Jennifer Harrison Newman

Movement Director and General Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby

Composers

Tony Geballe

Sound Designer

Nelsoli Maldonado

Sound Assistant

Julian Mejia

Sound Assistant

Christopher Akerlind

Lighting Designer

Peter W. Mitchell

Assistant Lighting Designer

Luca Evans

Production Assistant

Shin Kurokawa

Videographer

Cindy Sibilsky

Publicist, Marketing & Communications Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Natalie King

Development Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Jose Angel Perez

Correctional Facilities Coordinator, Compagnia de' Colombari

Alexis Woodard

Assistant Director, Compagnia de' Colombari

Father Paul Anel

Venue Host and St. Paul's Priest

Father Alexander Morard

Venue Host and St. Paul's Priest

Photos

Multimedia

Donors

We gratefully acknowledge our donors, supporters and partners, past and present, including: The Polonsky Foundation, The Eucalyptus Foundation, The Durst Foundation, The Sassafras Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, The Malka Fund, NYSCA - Rapid Restart, NYFA City Artist Corps, British Association for American Studies (BASS), The U.S. Embassy London, The Flannery O'Connor Estate, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Humanities, New Music USA, Henry Luce Foundation, More Productions, and The Better Buffalo Fund at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, The Emily Harvey Foundation, and Rehabilitation Through the Arts.

Program support for Compagnia de’ Colombari is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Director Karin Coonrod was funded by a City Artists Corp Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).

Compagnia de' Colombari is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit company. All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

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