Elm Thicket Digital Program

Celebrating local dance, theatre and art in the

Dallas Arts District.

Soul Rep Theatre Presents

ELM THICKET (A world premiere serio-comedy)

January 11 – 20, 2024

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Soul Rep Theatre Company Presents

ELM THICKET (A world premiere serio-comedy) Written by Anyika McMillan-Herod Directed by Natalie King Presented with support from AT&T Performing Arts Center and the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture

PLAYWRIGHT’S ARTISTIC STATEMENT Elm Thicket is a love letter to the neighborhood I grew up in, the people who call it home, and those who are fighting to never leave.

I define myself as an ARTIVIST, knowing the privilege, power, and possibilities that stem from being a creative with a clear voice and call to make a positive and transformative difference in our world through the craft of theater. It is my responsibility to do more than entertain. The stage is so much more than a platform for storytelling. It offers a sacred and protected space for healing, confrontation, revisiting history, celebration, learning, imagination, and invention.

I’ve found no better place to explore our humanity than on a stage.

Nothing compares to the vulnerability theater gifts us…the opportunities theater gifts us to understand each other, to connect with one another.

I am tremendously fulfilled in this work, in every aspect that I engage – as an actor, director, and playwright. I value the courageous, collaborative community that comes with being a theater ARTIVIST. It brings me the upmost joy to build, to share, to provide a voice for the marginalized, and to grow in my own humanity with fellow creatives.

CAST Mira Butler.......................................................Anyika McMillan-Herod Ronald James...................................................................Keith Price

TIME AND SETTING January – June 2020 in Elm Thicket, a historically working-class Black community in central Dallas, Texas that is experiencing major gentrification.

THE PLAY Act One SCENE ONE January 20, 2020 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday)

SCENE TWO A week later

SCENE THREE February 14, 2020 (Valentine’s Day)

SCENE FOUR Three weeks later

INTERMISSION

Act Two SCENE ONE April 22, 2020 (Earth Day)

SCENE TWO Early June

SCENE THREE June 19, 2020 (Juneteenth)

PRODUCTION TEAM DIRECTOR......................................................................Natalie King PLAYWRIGHT...................................................Anyika McMillan-Herod STAGE MANAGERS.............................Malaisian Parker and Ruby Pullum SCENIC DESIGNERS..........................Ashley Oliver and Rebecca Jeffery SOUND DESIGNER..........................................................Nash Farmer COSTUME DESIGNER......................................................Ashley Oliver LIGHTING DESIGNER.............................................................Phil Vilar GRAPHIC DESIGNER.........................................................Chris Herod ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER/STAGE HAND........Gabriel David Giron Vives INTIMACY COORDINATOR....................................................Irwin Daye

SOUL REP THEATRE COMPANY STAFF ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER.......................Guinea Bennett-Price EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER..................Anyika McMillan-Herod ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF FILM,CO-FOUNDER....Tonya Holloway ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THEATRE...............Dee Hunter-Smith GENERAL MANAGER.......................................................Ashley Oliver DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION..........................................Daylene Carter EDUCATION DIRECTOR/FINANCE MANAGER...................Rebecca Jeffrey

SPECIAL THANKS TO The Creator, AT&T Performing Arts Center, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Elm Thicket Neighborhood Association, Uptown Players and @nira.jpeg (photography)

BIOS NATALIE KING (Director) is an accomplished actor, director, and educator. She is excited to be back at Soul Rep. After beginning her career as an actor/director, King fell in love with the art of storytelling. She created a performance company called Universal Connection which focused on the children’s stories of African descendants throughout the diaspora. The troupe toured and taught in dozens of elementary schools. Her gift for storytelling was noticed by a casting director at Walt Disney World and King became the first African American Storytelling character at Walt Disney World in Florida and one of the few performers of color as they experimented with the programming for Walt Disney World’s newest park, the Animal Kingdom. After several months as a Storyteller, King was asked to create a storytelling show to be performed exclusively for Walt Disney World’s American Express Gold Club Members.

King returned to Dallas to begin a journey into the field of arts education.

She became the theatre director at South Oak Cliff High School and is now the Theatre Director at Skyline High School. King never stopped performing and directing professionally, even while running a high school theatre program. King believes that there is no better way to speak your truth than the theatre and feels blessed to do what she loves.

King’s professional directing credits include, Jesus Christ Superstar– WaterTower Theater, The Piano Lesson–Theater Arlington, The Glass Menagerie–Circle Theatre, A Raisin in the Sun–WaterTower Theatre, History Lesson–Deep Ellum Theatre, Universal Connection–Tour, Soweto in ‘76–South Dallas Cultural Center, Sideshow–Deep Ellum Theatre, My Castle’s Rockin’--The Story of Alberta Hunter– Circle Theatre, A History Lesson-- Deep Ellum Theatre, Sunny South –Soul Rep, Trinity River Plays – Soul Rep.

ANYIKA MCMILLAN-HEROD (Mira/Playwright) is an actress, author, director, poet, and playwright. A Dallas native, Herod is an alumna of Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing and Visual Arts(’89), holds a BFA in Theater from Prairie View A&M University (’93) and studied acting in California Institute of the Arts’ MFA program.

She is co-founder and Executive Director of Soul Rep Theatre Company, Dallas’ longest operating professional Black theater company.

Anyika’s select acting credits include The Golden Bench of God, Hurt Village, and Steal Away – Soul Rep, and Angela’s Mixtape – Soul Children’s Theatre Company, and The Mexican Medea – Cara Mia Theatre Co. As a playwright, Herod was commissioned to write a play – Do No Harm - inspired by three enslaved women who served as “guinea pigs” for Dr. J. Marion Sims who is known as “the Father of Gynecology.” Do No Harm made its world premiere in January 2021 as a filmed play as part of Soul Rep Theatre Company’s 25th Anniversary Season. The stage premiere of Do No Harm was featured in the 2022 season of Elevator Project.

Anyika’s two short historical dramas, They Will Not Be Butchered, about the Haitian Revolution, and The Ballad of Jane Elkins, exploring the first legal hanging in Dallas, were featured in area festivals, including Bishop Arts Theater’s The 1619 Project One Act Play Festival. Her play about the journey through breast cancer, The Monarch, made its world premiere in June 2018, in a co-production with Echo Theatre Company. She adapted two Latin American short stories by Juan Rulfo and Alfredo Cardona Peña for Teatro Dallas’ 2017 Day of the Dead production –An Evening With Two Giants. Additionally, Anyika debuted three short plays in 2017, two in Soul Rep’s Southside Stories Festival and the other, Migration, in House Party Theater’s Damsels! Play Festival. She’s written several short plays, published a novel, and two collections of poetry and was a 2019 Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project. Learn more about Anyika and her writings at www.anyikaherod.com

KEITH PRICE (Ronald) is an accomplished actor, playwright, poet, songwriter, and emcee. He’s been a member of Soul Rep for two decades. Keith’s select acting credits include Tales from the Mist (Teatro Dallas), Blues For An Alabama Sky, A Soldier’s Play (Stage West/Soul Rep) and The Freedmans and The Trinity River Plays (Soul Rep).

His select playwriting credits include Allegra Spain, The Freedmans, A Mercy Killing and the critically acclaimed Hip Hop Musical, Noxide Square.

Price’s most recent plays include Nat, a historical one-man short about Nat Turner, and the celebrated comedic short, The House Special, set in South Dallas’ only and infamous Chinese food restaurant – Wah Wah’s. He has also written plays for children’s theater, including Pecan Tan and the Project Kids and Rep Tales.

NASH FARMER (Sound Designer) began sound designing for Soul Rep with Topdog/Underdog and would later win the Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Award for best sound design in a musical for Naughty But Nice. He then took some time to finish his Bachelor’s Degree in History and later returned as a sound designer, most recently for Soul Rep’s regional premiere production of Travisville and co-production with Echo Theatre, Cadillac Crew. He also works as an actor, producer, and editor for ‘The Doom Train Players,’ an actual play tabletop role playing game podcast.

REBECCA JEFFERY (Scenic Designer) is a Designer, Choreographer, Teacher, and Curriculum Writer from Tulsa, Ok. She holds a BS in Dance from Stephen F. Austin State University. She worked with Dallas ISD for 13 years as a dance director and curriculum writer. She has been with Soul Rep Theatre Company since 2013 as a scenic designer, curriculum writer and finance manager. Rebecca has worked on several productions including Amazing Grace, The Freedmans, Sexy Laundry, and Retales.

ASHLEY OLIVER (Scenic & Costume Designer) is an actor, designer, and director from Arlington, TX. She holds a BA in Drama from Prairie View A&M University and has been involved with Soul Rep since she was 14 years old. She’s worked with a diverse group of companies in the DFW area, most recently the Dallas Theater Center (Cake Ladies, Little Women, As You Like It, Fetch Clay, Make Man), StageWest (Bootycandy and Deer), GPAC (Dreamgirls) and Jubilee Theatre (Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery and Flight), Soul Rep Theatre (Hurt Village, Dot, Do No Harm), and Erykah Badu’s One (Hu)man show.

“A word equals a thought, a thought an idea, an idea an action, an action can change the world.” – Claude McKay

MALAISIAN ANN PARKER (Stage Manager) is a native of Morgan City, Louisiana. She received her Associate of Applied Arts Degree from KD Conservatory College of Film and Dramatic Arts in Dallas. She has worked on projects in the DFW area making her mark as an assistant director, stage manager, assistant stage manager, backstage crew, director’s assistant, production assistant and actor. Favorite pieces she has done include: The Talented Tenth, Almost Blue, False Hopes, Good Kids, and Baby with the Bathwater. She also has a background in dance and singing. Malaisian recently made her stage debut as an actor with Soul Rep in the world premiere of Erin Malone Turner’s lovely new commissioned play, What Fits Inside a Human Heart. She believes that her passion will always lead her to purpose and that’s why the arts will always be her first true love! Find her on social media platforms @MalaisianParker or Malaisian Ann Parker

RUBY PULLUM (Stage Manager) is a certified COVID Compliance Officer, stage manager, director, choreographer, designer, and performer in the DFW area with nearly 8+ years of experience. She has worked on various shows regionally including; the World Premiere of Rage by

Janelle Gray (AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project), Legally Blonde, Heathers, Spongebob the Musical, & In The Heights (NTPA Repertory), a regional premiere of The Residents of Craigslist (Millennial Poison Theatre Co.), Forever Quest (a devised piece with Cry Havoc Theatre), A Raisin In The Sun & The Odd Couple (WaterTower Theatre), Cadillac Crew (Echo Theatre and Soul Rep Theatre), and the inaugural live production of As You Like It (Plague Mask Players). She would like to thank her partner Paris for being a constant in this aspect of her life and always supporting her wild dreams. You can see her work in action next with Plague Mask Players or WaterTower Theatre! Tiktok: @sm.extra.ordinaire

ABOUT SOUL REP THEATRE COMPANY (Dallas’ longest operating Black theater company)

OUR MISSION Soul Rep Theatre Company exists to provide quality transformative Black theater.

OUR VISION To shift the paradigm of how the Black experience is valued.

UP NEXT FOR SOUL REP Yanga

By Jaime Chabaud Directed by Anyika McMillan-Herod A World Premiere Co-Production with Cara Mia Theatre and Mulato Teatro

Thunder Knocking at the Door (a bluesical)

By Keith Glover Directed by Guinea Bennett-Price

February 17 – March 5, 2024

To learn more, visit www.soulrep.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @soul_rep_theatre @soulreptheatre

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