THE BASEBALL GODS
Creative Team
Cast
Juan Sebastian Cruz (Sam) is an actor and entertainer based in Houston. Credits include: The Winter's Tale, 72 Miles To Go... (Alley Theatre), Between Riverside and Crazy (4th Wall Theatre Co.), My Manana Comes (Stages Repertory Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Theatre Under The Stars), Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (BakerShake), and The Music Man (St. Luke’s UMC). He has performed in two contemporary dance shows WITCH and Frenzied Phony (ReFine Arts). He was last seen performing around town with Team A as a part of the Drama Squad (Catastrophic Theatre). Cruz is currently an active Teaching Artist with both the Alley Theatre and with Theatre Under The Stars. He is represented by Pastorini-Bosby Talent Agency. He holds a B.A. in Visual and Dramatic Arts from Rice University.
Justin Gibbons (Jamie) is an Actor/Stage Combatant/Dancer holding a BFA from the University of Houston: School of Theatre & Dance. He is an active member of the Society of American Fight Directors and a core member of Armed 2 Da Teeth Stage Combat Company He has performed for the Alley Theatre (Three Musketeers), Opera Omaha (Madame Butterfly), Prague Shakespeare Company (Seize the Crown: The Death of Kings), Main Street Theatre Company (Enemies), Houston Shakespeare Festival (Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV.1, Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, Antony & Cleopatra), Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Company (A Heroine Free Summer), The Landing Theatre Company (Redemption Series Play Festival), and in nine productions at University of Houston: SoTD (The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Julius Caesar, She Kills Monsters, All My Sons, Fuente Ovejuna, Thicker Than Honey, King Lear, Ring Around the Moon, Cymbeline).
Rachel Brownhill (Penny/Claire) is delighted to be back for her fourth reading for The Landing's NAV Playwriting Festival. Her other roles were Ma in The Benders, Sister Pasquelina in The Last Train and A BBC Reporter for Agathe. Mainstage roles at the Landing include Cram School Snow Day, also directed by Rob Kimbro, and Mom in Small Jokes About Monsters, which won her a Best Actress award for the main stage that year. Originally from the UK, she trained with The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and Salford University. Tours around the UK and overseas include the Moscow Arts Theatre in Russia where she played a Woman of Canterbury in Murder of The Cathedral directed by Ed Wilson and Matthew Warchus. For BBC Radio Jersey she played Patsy in Lily Langry, and Elsie in Frank for BBC Radio 4. Rachel has performed in many theatres around Houston including Betty Davis in Color Blind for The Fade To Black Festival at The Queensbury Theatre, Ladybird Johnson in The Disappearance Of Eartha Kitt at Midtown Arts Centre, Rhonda in Birds of Paradise for MOD and Juliet in Fine Wines for Mildred's Umbrella. Rachel has a great love for Shakespeare including many roles in the UK and Houston. This year she has regularly participated in Zoom and Drunk Shakespeare and her next project will be playing Maria in a live, online Twelfth Night with 60 Hour Shakespeare, UK directed by Gavin Leigh and Michael Corbidge of the RSC.
Rachel Greene (Stage Directions) is currently a Literary Consultant for The Landing Theatre Company and Shabach Enterprise's Fade To Black Festival, both centered in Houston, Texas. She recently closed MonologueBank.com, a non-profit online experiment dedicated to injecting more new work into the audition room. As a National Advisory Board Member of 50 Playwrights Project and through her membership with both LMDA and The Playwrights' Center, she is actively working to support writers and new play development. Rachel has held numerous Arts Administration positions at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis and the Dallas Theater Center and has enjoyed freelancing in casting and international cultural exchanges. She also gained extensive experience in teaching private English lessons during a seven-year stint in Japan. Her passions include new work development, the cultivation of the living artist, and the exploration of intercultural communication. When not doing her theatre thing, she is the Content Coordinator for First Colony Neighbors Magazine from Best Version Media.
Production Team
Rob Kimbro (Director) has worked as a director, designer, educator, technician, and dramaturg for theatres all over the country. His original adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants debuted at Stages Repertory Theatre in 2011. Other directing credits include An Iliad, which opened the Moody Center at Rice University; Rabbit Hole, Romeo and Juliet, Rough Crossing, and Much Ado about Nothing at Rice University; Ravenscroft and Dead Man's Cell Phone for Mildred's Umbrella; Deborah at 14 Pews and Four Henry V’s and Gate of Heaven for Nova Arts Project. Rob was the founder of the Madison Young Playwrights Festival in Madison, WI, and has worked with young playwrights through McCarter Theatre’s YouthInk! Program and the Houston Young Playwrights Exchange at the Alley. He was the assistant director for the world premiere of Regina Taylor’s Crowns at the McCarter Theatre Center and an SSDC Observer for Brian Kulick’s production of Twelfth Night in Central Park. Rob was half of the lighting design team for Horse Head’s Lidless and stage managed the 2020 Nebula Awards for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Houston and currently serves as the Head of Fine Arts at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Houston.
Samuel Pearson (Stage Manager) is the assistant technical director and Upper School tech theatre teacher at The Emery/Weiner School. The 2020-2021 season at the school included Cinderella (Enchanted Edition), The Laramie Project, Charlotte’s Web, The Theory of Relativity, and High School Musical Jr. He graduated from Rice University in 2017 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science & Visual and Dramatic Arts, and since then has consulted on student-directed projects and also served as stage manager and sound designer for the university theatre department production of She Kills Monsters. Previous credits with The Landing Theatre include run crew for Oleanna and stage manager for the Landing Local Home Tours show, Override.
Larry K. Wesley, Jr. (Scenic Designer) is an Exhibit Designer with Lone Star Exhibits. Larry designs, coordinates, manages, and leads a team of skilled craftsmen; who creates most of Houston's corporate and non-profit organization's displays and exhibitions, such as Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston Shell Open, Offshore Technology Conference and Dell World to name a few. For over 20 years Larry has been a scenic artist and designer of permanent installations, in places such as the Johnson Space Center Houston, U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville Alabama, Holocaust Museum in Dallas Mayborn Museum Complex in Waco, Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City and several others across the country. In his "free time" for the past 15 years Larry has worked primarily with the Ensemble Theater designing and building sets in all three venues, "YP Stage", "Black Box", and Main Stage. He was awarded back to back Giorgee Awards for Best Set Design in 2016 for Detroit '67 by Dominique Morisseu, and 2017 The Front Porch Society by Melda Beaty. Larry is a firm believer in texture and visual communication, and strives to immerse his audience and patrons into the worlds he creates through their eyes.
Clair Hummel (Costume Designer) is an Indiana-grown, Houston based free-lance Costume Designer. She is also a Costume Coordinator for Houston Grand Opera. Clair has worked with companies including: HGOco, HGO To GO!, REC Room Arts, Stages Repertory Theatre, Crossroads Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Classical Theatre Company, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Rice University, Horse Head Theatre Co, Mildred's Umbrella, University of Houston and Angelight Films. She attended Indiana State University and earned her MFA from University of Houston.
Hudson Davis (Lighting Designer) is a Houston based lighting designer, technician, and graduate from the University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance with a BFA in Theatre Production. Hudson is interested in the technology of lighting and its uses to create and support effective visual art. He currently is full-time with the AD Players as their Audio and Lighting Supervisor, where he has had the opportunity to light numerous concerts and plays for the camera. His past design experience includes work with Mercury Chamber Orchestra in their live/streamed concerts. Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Houston Ballet, and Several Dancers Core, including numerous tours and site specific productions. Hudson was awarded 2020's Best Lighting Design in the Houston Press Theater Awards for Tragedy, a Tragedy, and Baby Screams Miracle, both produced by The Catastrophic Theatre.
Alli Villines (Sound Designer) credits include The Catastrophic Theatre Drama Squad, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Holiday Super Show & Quarantine Edition (Music Direction/Ensemble), Speeding Motorcycle (Vocal Director/Ensemble), The Tamarie Cooper Show: Field Trip! (Ensemble), Horse Head Theatre Co. We’re Gonna Die (Singer/Actor/Ukuleleist/Arranger--Houston Press Theatre Award--Best Cabaret), Church (Reverend Alli), Dinolion’s LionShare, Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. The Exonerated (Soundscape Designer/Music Director), Houston Grand Opera Barber of Seville (Supernumerary), Nixon in China (Supernumerary), Misnomers They Read from a Script (foley/musician), PMT The Wild Party (Ensemble), The Landing Theatre Redemption Series, The Alley The Christians (Chorister), and Obsidian Speakeasy (Helen King). Phoenix Theatre One Man Two Guvnors (Christine/Ukuleleist), Mary Poppins (Ensemble). Heritage Theatre Festival Annie Get Your Gun (Ensemble), Charlottesville Opera Carousel (Ensemble), Die Zauberflöte (Ensemble), La Bohéme (Puppeteer), Live Arts A Chorus Line (Maggie), Adding Machine: A Musical (Soprano, Mrs. One), Busch Gardens Williamsburg Celtic Fyre (Lead Vocalist), Miracles (Soloist). Theatre West Virginia Grease (Ensemble), The Apple Tree (Ensemble), Cinderella (Ensemble). New Works/Workshops: Call Me Ann: The Ann Richards Rock Opera (Ann Richards), Tweet (Lily), Little Edelweiss: An Immigrant’s Fairy Tale (Oma), Babe: An Olympic Musical (Wanda, Bea Gottlieb). Education: M.M. Voice Arizona State, B.M. Voice McNeese State. Follow @ukulalli
