Donja R. Love (he/him) is Black, Queer, HIV-Positive, and thriving. A Philly native, he’s the recipient of the Antonyo’s inaugural Langston Hughes Award, the Helen Merrill Award, the Laurents/Hatcher Award and the Princess Grace Playwriting Award. Other honors include the Philadelphia Adult Grand Slam Poetry Champion. He’s the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ People of Color. He’s also the creator of Write It Out – a playwrights’ program for writers living with HIV. Plays include soft (MCC), one in two (The New Group), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Nominations), and What Will Happen to All That Beauty?. He’s a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School. IG/Twitter: @donjarlove

Headshot Credit: Brandon Nick

Leon Addison Brown (Mr. Cartwright) Broadway: The Trip To Bountiful, Prelude to a Kiss, On the Waterfront, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. Misery.  Off-Broadway: Master Harold…and the boys, ( Drama League and Audelco nominee)The Painted Rocks Of Revolver Creek, The Train Driver, The Box, The Orphans Home Cycle Drama Desk Award, Two Trains Running. Regional: The Long Wharf ( CCC award) Hartford Stage Co., The Westport Country Playhouse(CCC award) Williamstown and Berkshire Theatre Fest., Yale Rep. Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage. Film/TV: Repair, Chicago Med. Evil, New Amsterdam , Forty Winks, Paris is in Harlem, Ben is Back, The Surrogate, We Crash, Music of the Heart, The Whirly Girl, The Edge, Evil, The Breaks, L&O, SVU. The Knick, A walk among the Tombstones. Training The UNC School of the Arts.

Biko is thrilled to be returning to MCC after playing Mr. Isaiah in soft (Lortel, Audelco Nominations). Other Off-Broadway credits include:  The Public, Rattlestick, EST, 59E59 and more. Biko recently played the Legendary John Carlos in World premier “The XIX” at The Old Globe. Other regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Studio Theatre, The Folger, Crossroads, Arden, Syracuse Stage, Chautauqua, Campo Santo and more. FILM & TELEVISION: “East New York” (Paramount),  “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Power Book II: Ghost” (Starz). “Modern Love” (Amazon) “Buck” (Sundance), “Dietland” (AMC).

Dharon Jones Native of Brooklyn, NY, Jones began dancing at the National Dance Institute (NDI) as a child. He recently graduated from Ithaca College in 2021, after making his Broadway Debut as ‘Riff’ in the 2020 revival “West Side Story” which was unfortunately shut down due to Covid.  Jones has appeared on film projects including: “Saturday Church”, “Champions”NYU (short), and recently shooting his first lead in a feature film set to release in 2022.  TV credits include: “Blue Bloods” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”  Thank you to my manager, Lisa Calli, my agent Leslie Zaslower, Telsey casting and the team at MCC!

Essence Lotus is a brooklyn born and raised artist with deep love and care for black trans and queer folk. each performance they do is filled with the intention of a ritual meant to venerate their honorable black american, panamanian, and diasporic ancestors and kin. essence wishes for you to hold yourself in softness, and that you may find others who can hold you just as softly. having graduated from kingsborough community college and tisch school of the arts, they remain a student of life.

Travis Raeburn is a proud son, brother and artist. A Brooklyn baby raised in queens, he is a graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Acting Conservatory (BFA). While attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School (Drama), Travis was apart of the MCC youth company for 3 years under Jen Shirley where he honed his voice in spoken word and poetry. He is over the moon to return back home with MCC family and community. Some credits include Wu-Tang: An American Saga season 2, First Match, commercials for MasterCard USA, Xfinity, and Pop Tarts and “In The Southern Breeze” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater last fall. Raeburn is forever in endless gratitude and debt to his mother and grandmother for their endless love and support. He would like to thank family, friends, and predecessors for allowing him to stand on their shoulders. Black lives have and always will matter. His website is travisraeburn.com and Instagram is travie_rae.

Shakur Tolliver is excited to be making his MCC debut. Shakur thanks you for
taking the time to bear witness. Theatre is nothing without you. Here are some
institutions and individuals Shakur has worked with and loves – Shotgun Players,
MCC, Blessed Unrest, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Chisa Hutchinson, Donja R.
Love, reg e. gaines, Whitney White. Shakur dedicates every show to Rodney,
grandma, Poppop, his mother, and everyone struggling to find their softness.
Shakurtolliver.com

Dario Vazquez Bronx native, Dario is thrilled to be making his Off-Broadway debut with MCC.  Currently a BFA Acting Major at Ithaca College, he can soon be seen in Ray Romano’s feature film directorial debut, Mr. Russo.  Other credits include The Good Fight and That Damn Michael Che.

Ed Ventura is a Dominican-Puerto Rican actor/writer/finesser born in Providence, RI and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx. He was the 2020-2021 Van Lier New Voices Fellow with The Lark, was a 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm Greenhouse Resident, and is a current member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood Collective. He’s had his work developed with LAByrinth’s 2019 Intensive Ensemble, Curious Theatre Company, and more. His previous acting credits have consisted of The Siblings Play (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), and The Parlour (Middle Voice). He’s currently working toward completing his BFA in Acting, and double minor in Playwriting/Screenwriting at SUNY Purchase. Ed is a proud alumni of the MCC Youth Company’s Acting Lab, Playwriting Lab, and Ambassadors program. He would also like to shoutout to all the women in his family that have made him the young man he is today.