Candice D'Meza is an actor, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist. A proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association, she has been called one of the “Seven Young Houston Theater Actors To Watch” and awarded the 2018 Best Utility Player Award by the Houston Press. Social practice in nature, her projects manifest as participatory theatre performance, workshops, and audio-visual installation. Her creative practice involves the use of theater, song, dance, film, audio/visual installation and memoir writings to explore how environmental, historical-cultural factors intersect with vulnerability, acceptance, grief and shame. Her current project “Fatherland” is an audiovisual immersive performance that serves as a community grief ritual for all those who have lost an emotional or physical homeland—by force or by fate. Her website is www.candicedmeza.com ; IG @candicedmeza ; Facebook.com/CandiceEDMeza
Synthia Green (director of Tightrope) is ecstatic to be making her directorial debut with this project! She is best known for her work as an actress in local theatre in the Greensboro area as well as productions in Dallas, Texas, where she earned her BFA in Acting at Southern Methodist University. That training has afforded her the opportunity to work as a theatre teacher for elementary school students in underprivileged communities. She would like to thank Meredith DiPaolo Stephens and the Goodly Frame Theatre for taking a chance on her and allowing her to get her feet wet with such a poignant piece. It has been a great pleasure!
Celeste Hinnant (director of Statue of Limitations) has performed with numerous local theatre companies: LiVMahob Productions (Pooled), Agape Theatre (The Amen Corner), MOJOAA Performing Arts (Escape to Freedom and Reclamation Series), Women's Theatre Festival (WTF) (Little Women), NYI Productions (Men Always Leave), Justice Theatre Project (12 Angry Jurors, Black Nativity, Color Purple, Ragtime and Still Life), Show’N Tell Ministries (68 and Duty), DaVine Connections (Up From Slavery and Black 365) & Town of Holly Springs (Finding Patience). She directed Uncle Tom's Hangar for MOJOAA's 2018 Reclamation Series and Agathe for WTF in 2019 and is a proud recipient of the 2019 Cary Players’ Pietzsch Award for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role.
Natasha A. Jackson (director of Who's Zoomin' Who? and Signs of the Times) is an award winning (2017) and award nominee (2016) stage manager in the local Triangle theater community. Credits include: Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, Wizard of Oz, Legally Blonde (Cary Players); For Colored Girls (Burning Coal Theatre Company); Long Story Short (UNC, Chapel Hill) Wakey, Wakey (Manbites Dog Theater); By the Way Meet Vera Stark and Gay Card (North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater). Natasha has also had the distinct pleasure of being the stage manager for special events such as the Women’s March on Raleigh for 3 consecutive years and Raleigh’s March for Science. Natasha made her directorial debut in January 2020 with the critically acclaimed Bourbon at the Border (North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater). She is also an Equity stage manager with touring shows Nina Simone: No Fear and Blues Long Gone (Yodyful Music Productions) and Native (EbzB Productions).
Eureka Lewis (director of Red Marks) resides in New York, but is a native of Detroit, MI. For as long as she can remember, she's loved writing & performing. She's written & directed numerous plays, including (but not limited to) "Sorry If I Let You Down", "Aunt Salley's Remains", "Finally Made It", "Too Far To The Left", "The Jagged Rose" & "What They'll Remember"- receiving rave reviews in The Huffington Post & Broadway World, respectively. She was recently selected (amongst hundreds of entries) as a featured writer for Billie Holiday Theatre's 50IN50 writers showcase. Her onstage credits include lead or pivotal roles in "Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope", "For Colored Girls", "Raisin In The Sun", "Portraits In Black", "God's Trombones", "In The City", "Tambourines To Glory", "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show", "Herstory" & "Waiting In Line" (to name a selected few). She's currently completing a book, to add published author to her list of accomplishments.
Chauncey Miller (director of Concrete Jungle) is an actor/writer based in Greensboro, NC. He recently directed his first ever production, Julius Caesar, a Zoom Experience, for Shared Radiance. Chauncey is excited by the opportunity Goodly Frame Theatre has offered him to continue his directing career in Zoom Fest Series 2, as well as the chance to feature his short play, Tightrope. Chauncey would like to thank Meredith DiPaolo Stephens for being a pioneer in this new medium known as Zoom Theatre and greatly appreciates the efforts she’s made that allows artists to do what they do best, create art. He would also like to thank the writer and cast of Concrete Jungle for their time and talents.
Adrian Dion Quarles (director of Submerged) is an actor, playwright, poet, podcastor, rapper, educator, and director from Shelby, NC. He is currently a Theatre Major at Guilford Technical Community College. Previous works include A Raisin in the Sun, To Kill A Mockingbird, King Midas & The Golden Touch, Annie, Working, Godspell, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Water into Wine, The Amen Corner, Let the Church Say Amen among others as an actor. As a director he has directed Air B & Butchery, Sport of Crowns, We Couldn't Be that Lucky, Time & The Battle of the Books. The latter two he also wrote. August Wilson is his greatest influence. Adrian also is the creator and host of the podcast ADQ's Renaissance in which he wishes to reflect the Harlem Renaissance by presenting art and stories that support the art. Adrian is very excited to direct Submerged. He looks forward to presenting elements of Afro Futurism.
Meredith DiPaolo Stephens (director of The Birds Are Feeding Me), previously assistant managing director of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival and managing and producing artistic director of Shared Radiance Performing Arts Company, is a proud Latinx and the founding producing artistic director of Goodly Frame Theatre. Work during the pandemic includes directing Reboot (Hidden Lion, short film), A Simple Jester (Hidden Lion, short film), producing Zoom Fest Series 2, Zoom Fest 2020, and canceled/postponed (GFT), and acting in Richard II as Duchess of Gloucester, The Merchant of Venice as Antonio (The Show Must Go Online, online TV series), and Lock In as Chancellor Theresa Whitemarsh (Spring Theatre, feature film). meredithdipaolostephens.com
John D. Swain (director of Haiku) taught English as a Foreign Language, Drama, Asian Theatre, and Japanese Studies at colleges and universities in Japan and California. After living and teaching in Japan for almost twenty years, he returned to the U.S. to earn his Ph.D. in Japanese Theatre from UCLA. In addition to articles on contemporary theatre and performance in Japan he as translated and published several Japanese plays into English. Other than that, he spent a year in England, and two in Tanzania as a child. His North Carolina roots are from his father who was born and grew up in Asheville and went to Duke. He cycles for fun and adventure, and when time permits, goes fly fishing. Acting, directing, writing, and producing theatre has been his passion since childhood.
