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ABOUT DQT

The Dramatic Question Theatre’s mission is to develop and present plays written by Women and People of Color as well as cultivate a diverse audience who supports them. We do this by providing playwrights with a range of opportunities and audiences with theatre that reflects their experiences.

OUR STAFF

Cast

Creative Team

Meet the Company

Anthony Grace

Willie Frank

Anthony Grace (he/X) was recently seen in Jordan E. Cooper’s Oh Happy Day! (Baltimore Center Stage), for the honey, you gotta say when (New York Theatre Workshop), a.k. payne’s Edi Ya & Diamond’s Grove (workshop: City Theatre, Theatre Squared) and BURNBABYBURN: an american dream, Is God Is (Yale Cabaret). As a playwright, X’s works include Van Sonata (Cleveland Public Theatre, Yale Cabaret) and nightfall/nu money. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Brianna Johnson

Alvalee

Brianna Johnson (she/they) is a NYC-based actor and music enthusiast who seeks to purposefully illuminate the intricacies of the human condition in her work. Brianna's work often centers Black life and artistic expression, and they are so thankful to use their body as a vessel to represent a multitude of lives and histories of people from the African Diaspora. Brianna has earned a BA from Barnard College in Africana Studies and Theatre. Recent acting credits include: axes, herbs, and satchels (Kamara/Cynthia/Ensemble, The Anthropologists) Breath of Life (Toni, Columbia School of the Arts), and Dream a Little Dream of Me (Colleen, SheNYC Festival).

Kiará Lauren

Betty

Kiará Lauren is a NYC based actor with an artistic practice that centers empathic driven storytelling as a means to curating radical vulnerability, humanity, and truth for black & brown femmes. Select Acting Credits: Vámonos (INTAR Theatre), Bb Brecht (The Public Theater), Cadillac Crew (WAM), Black Mexican (Wayward Voices), and Every 28 Hours Plays (Long Wharf Theatre). Education: Spelman College For More: http://www.kiaralauren.com

Camille Upshaw

Audra

Camille Upshaw is an East Coast based actress, creative, entrepreneur, educator, and mentor. Credits Include: Passing Down, Ceremonies for Alligator Bait or Guttah, Chicken and Biscuits (Broadway), 10x10 Play Festival at Barrington Stage & more. TV/Film: Sundance Film Festival (Still Here), CBS (Blue Bloods), CBS (FBI: Most Wanted) HBO Max (That Damn Michael Che), OXYGN (Monster Preacher) BFA: SUNY Purchase College

Rebecca-Anne Whittaker*

Conlurie

Rebecca-Anne Whittaker (she/her) is a first generation Caribbean-American actor, singer, and writer. Some of her credits include: Betty, The Good John Proctor, Trinity Rep; Johanna, Sweeney Todd, Trinity Rep; Marianne, Constellations, Brown/Trinity Rep; Hero, Much Ado About Nothing, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Ensemble, Lordes, Ice Factory at the New Ohio Theatre. She is a proud graduate of Vassar College and the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program in Acting. For Mom, Dad, Christina, and her awe-inspiring Aunties. www.rebecca-annewhittaker.com *Appearing through an Agreement between Dramatic Question Theatre, and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Sharell Williams

Stage Directions

Sharell Williams is a Circle in the Square Theatre School graduate. She also holds a broadcast journalism degree from Florida A&M University (FAMU). Past credits include: the Negro Ensemble Company’s Mecca is Burning (AUDELCO nominated for Outstanding Ensemble Performance), Race (The Heather Theatre), My Mama: The Super Action Hero (American Theatre of Actors) and The Buffalo Hero of WW1 (American Theatre of Actors).

Kyra Davis

Playwright

Kyra Davis is a southern multidisciplinary artist focusing on acting, writing, and producing. She was a part of the inaugural class of the Uptown Collective’s Renaissance Playwright Residency and is currently a producing fellow at The Tank in NYC. Her passion is creating art for underrepresented voices and advancing their opportunities in the industry . Her inspirations are both the Black women who came before her and the Black women who will come after her. She wants to create work that empowers and encourages them to live unapologetically. Selected credits include Law and Order: Organized Crime, Jitney (Rena), Intimate Apparel (Esther), and The Christians (Elizabeth).

Jessica Natalie Smith

Director

Jessica Natalie Smith (she/her) is an actor, director, choreographer, and recent graduate of the Brown University MFA program in Acting and Directing. Jessica is a member of the Drama League's inaugural Irene Gandy Assistantship cohort, the inaugural Choreography Fellow at The Hangar Theatre, the 2022 Lillian Chason Directing Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill, a 2020-2021 Teaching Apprentice at Brown University, and a 24 Hour Plays alum. Her directing work includes Every Tongue Confess (Yale University Theatre), Bulrusher (aso. Nicole A. Watson), TEETH (Jamal Jones Dance Company), The Revolting Teens of Sherwood by Joe Faust and John Maclay (Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn), Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage (asst. Nicole A. Watson, Guthrie Theatre), Dance Nation by Clare Baron (UNC Chapel Hill), soft by Donja Love (asst. dir. Whitney White, MCC), The Murmurations by Alexander Moggridge (Atlantic Theatre Acting School), The Bridge Workshop by Michael Mejias, Doug Silver, and Andrew Frank (Dramatic Question Theatre), seven methods of killing kylie jenner by Jasmine Lee- Jones (Leeds Theatre).

Lauren Pick

Stage Manager

Lauren Pick(she/her) is so excited to be making her DQT debut! She is passionate about creating art that fosters community, inclusivity, and joy. In her spare time, Lauren loves to sing and bake!

COMING SOON: 

Yerma in Vitro,

by Oliver Mayer, directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo.

May 28 and 29, 2025, 7pm

at Playwrights Horizons Downtown

440 Lafayette Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10003

Developed in DQT’s Classics in Color Program, Yerma in Vitro is a modern adaptation of Lorca’s masterpiece:

Yerma needs love. A custodian to rich undergrads at an elite university, she is part of an invisible underclass whose needs and desires are being silenced by fear and cruelty. But her yearning is bigger than anyone realizes. This new take on Lorca’s tale follows a childless young woman searching for love at any cost and places it in an ongoing Trumpian dystopia.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council.

The Dramatic Question Theatre's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts

with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks