Meredith Aleigha Wells (they/them) made their national tour debut in Dr. Suess’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas the musical, marking the first performance in a Broadway national tour by a wheelchair user. Their work has been honored with 2023 Walder Foundation and 3Arts Chicago nominations as well as the Purple Skies Playwright Award for their debut playwriting work, Dysfunctioning Just Fine the musical. 

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Sarah Anne Sillers (she/her) is thrilled to be back at the Kennedy Center, where she last appeared in The Dragon King's Daughter and The Day You Begin. Select local credits include Signature Theatre: Sweeney Todd, She Loves Me, RENT; Olney Theatre Center: Kinky Boots (Trish), The Music Man (Amaryllis), Singin' in the Rain, Elf the Musical, Olney Outdoors concerts (Sounds of Judy, Sounds of Barbra, 90s Girl Groups, ABBA Tribute); 

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Carl L. Williams (he/him/his) is thrilled to make his return to the Kennedy Center TYA program! Some of his favorite past credits include: Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie Starring Indigo Blume (National Tour) (Mules Davis), Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! The Musical! (National Tour) (Pigeon), Ordinary Days (Warren), Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (National Tour) (Ziggy), The Color Purple (Harpo), In The Heights (Benny), Sister Act (Sweaty Eddie), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch Mahoney), and Once On This Island (Papa Ge).

Farrell Parker is happy to be back with the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, having previously appeared in The Mortification of Fovea Munson and Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie! Other area credits include: the Kennedy Center Lab (Shear Madness and The Second City’s Almost Accurate Guide to America), Olney Theatre Center (Singin’ in the Rain), Arena Stage (Fiddler on the Roof), Constellation Theatre (The Wild Party), and Adventure Theatre (Fancy Nancy in Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas), among others.

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Anna Theoni DiGiovanni is over the moon to be working at The Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences—what a delight! Selected D.C. area work includes The Till Trilogy (Mosaic Theatre Company of D.C), Twelfth Night (Her Majesty & Sons, Founding Producer), Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure, She Stoops to Conquer (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), She Kills Monsters  (Rorschach Theatre), Venus in Fur (4615 Theatre), The Revolutionists, Bike America, The Explorers Club (Prologue Theatre Company), Pericles (Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting). DiGiovanni is a proud graduate of The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy at George Washington University. www.annadigiovanni.com 

Emily Erickson is thrilled to make her KCTYA debut with Through the Sunken Lands! Erickson is an actor, coach, composer, music director, and multi-instrumentalist based in D.C. Recent credits include The Honey Trap (Solas Nua), People, Places & Things (Studio Theatre), Our Black Death (Taffety Punk), Fitting In (Arts on the Horizon), Much Ado About Nothing (Chesapeake Shakespeare), STATIC: Noise of a New Musical (Flying V), Man Covets Bird (Spooky Action), and Richard II (Her Majesty & Sons). Erickson serves on the NTI faculty at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and is a resident teaching artist at Shakespeare Theatre Company and Round House Theatre. Proud MFA graduate of The Academy at STC/GWU. BFA: NYU. @emierickson www.emilynerickson.com 

Lily Lord (she/her) is a singer and actor from Falls Church, VA. She is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a BFA in musical theater and an emphasis in songwriting. Regional Credits include: Spring Awakening, Bright Star, Enchant, and Turn it Up. Lord has previously worked with KCTYA as a replacement on their Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie tour and while workshopping new musical Finn. She’s thrilled to be working with the Kennedy Center again! Instagram: @itslilylord

Tre’mon Mills (he/him) returns to this stage is a testament to his dedication and passion for his craft. His credits include Look Both Ways (Ensemble) with Theater Alliance/Kennedy Center; Push the Button Musical (Villian) with Keegan Theatre; Roll On (Joshua) with THEARC; P. Nokio: The Hip Hop Musical (P. Nokio) and 10 seconds (Jimi) with Imagination Stage; and A Raisin in the Sun (Bobo), Mamma Mia (Sky), and The Great Society (Bevel/Jackson) with Lyric Repertory Theatre. Mills thanks the Kennedy Center, the cast and crew, and his family and friends for their continued support. “With each performance, I strive to bring a transformative impact to audiences while immersing myself in the work I love.”

Molly Nilsen (she/her) is thrilled to be making her Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences debut! She is currently on a break from her third year as a BFA Musical Theater student at Pace University. Educational Theater: “Amalia Balash” in She Loves Me at Pace University Musical Theater Workshops; “Lena” in The Other Side at Strathmore/YAA Music Videos; Vocalist in “More” by Jess Westman in Inclusivity is Being Redefined by Jess Westman and Avery Roberts. Instagram: @mollynilsen TikTok: @mollyjnilsen

Tim J. Lord is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been produced and developed at theaters across the United States, including We Declare You a Terrorist at Round House Theatre, The Public Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Lark (RIP), New Harmony Project, Pillsbury House + Theater, and The Working Theater, among others. Since 2012, he has written 10 plays for the kids of the 52nd St. Project in New York, where he first began collaborating with Avi Amon. Lord was the first recipient of the Apothetae-Lark Fellowship for a playwright with a disability, a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a 2017 Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

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Avi Amon is a Turkish-American composer and sound artist. Theater work includes music, songs, and sound design for projects with 600 Highwaymen, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PAC NYC, Page73, The Public Theater, Roundabout, Spoleto, Target Margin, and Waterwell. Amon’s film scores have been featured at Cannes, Disney, HBO, Hulu, Slamdance, Tribeca Film Festival, and more. Amon is a MacDowell Fellow and has received artistic support from the Jonathan Larson Grant, the Reel Change Film Fund, Berkeley Rep, The Dramatists Guild, Goodspeed, Mercury Store, New Jewish Culture Fellowship, The O’Neill, Rhinebeck, and The Workshop. Amon is the music director at the 52nd Street Project and teaches at NYU. Amon’s multimedia music-theater piece, MOTHER/ROAD, will premiere this year. @aviamon

Cara Phipps is a theater maker and educator based in Saint Paul, MN, and is currently an assistant professor of theater at Graceland University. In addition to several projects in development, including a translation of No Exit, an adaption of The Alchemist with media designer Patrick Lord, and a devised piece on celebrity and iconography, she is currently directing Through the Sunken Lands, a new musical with music and lyrics by Avi Amon and book and lyrics by Tim J. Lord at the Kennedy Center for their Theater for Young Audiences program. Her work in the Twin Cities includes credits with The Moving Company, the Guthrie Theater, the Jungle Theater, and The Playwrights’ Center, where she has developed plays with several writers, including Marvin González De León, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, and C. Meaker.

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Fiona Rose Murphey (they/she) is a multi-hyphenate, DMV-based theater artist. Beyond thrilled to add the Kennedy Center TYA—and a beautiful show like "Sunken Lands"—to their credits, some recent and upcoming work includes: Queering Neverland: A Dramaturgy of Care (American Theatre in Higher Education conference & Journal of Consent Based Performance); VIORE: An Adaptation Story (The National Theatre); Daughters of Leda (Assistant Director/Dramaturg), Lost Girl (Assistant Director), Into the Woods (Assistant Musical Director), The Pliant Girls (Father), The Boy Detective Fails (Assistant Stage Manager), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Ensemble) and Variety Show (Kate) at American University (where she recently finished graduate school); and participation in the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive. More (and contact Murphey) on Instagram: @fionarose_sf

Ronya-Lee Anderson is an artist/scholar/educator from Washington, D.C. Born of Jamaican immigrants, she spent her formative years moving between school plays, church services, and bashment parties. She continued her education, obtaining a master of divinity (Duke) and an MFA in dance (UMD). Anderson is currently a doctoral fellow at the University of Maryland and on dance faculty at American University. Company Work: Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble National Tour; Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange National Tour; Marvin Gaye Project National Tour (Rehearsal Director) Awards: Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (2021); See Site National Endowment of the Arts Commission (2023); Kennedy Center REACH Residency (2024); Dance Place Artist Residency (2022-24). Instagram: @ronyaleeandthelightfactory

Angie Benson is a music director, conductor, keyboardist, and member of the American Federation of Musicians. Professional credits in the D.C. area include Signature Theatre: Pacific Overtures (Odaiko & Keyboard), The Color Purple (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Production), RENT; Studio Theatre: Fun Home; Olney Theatre Center: Elf, Singin’ in the Rain. National Tour: A Chorus Line and Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. Regional: A Christmas Carol: The Musical (Northern Stage, for which she also composed the score), The Who’s Tommy (Stoneham Theatre), First Date (Kansas City Starlight), and Have You Met Miss Jones (New Theatre, directed by Richard Maltby Jr., starring Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy). Benson is also an adjunct professor of musical theater at the University of Mary Washington. 

Selected credits include Murder ballad at Studio Theatre [Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Set Design]; King John at Folger Theatre; Lend Me A Soprano and The Crucible at Olney Theater Center; The Chameleon and The Wanderers at Theater J; Monumental Travesties and The Till Trilogy at Mosaic Theater Company; Earthrise and Where Words Once Were at the Kennedy Center TYA; Nate the Great and Mr. Popper’s Penguins at Imagination Stage. Regional credits include Flyin’ West at Everyman Theatre; Red Riding Hood at Arden Theatre; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play at Studio Tenn; The Piano Lesson at Le Petit Theatre. Cohen received his MFA in scenic design from University of Maryland and is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. www.andrewcohendesigns.com

Justin Schmitz is elated to be returning to the KCTYA family! Previous credits: Darius and Twig, Me, Jane…The Dreams and Adventures of Young Jane Goodall, and most recently Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Associate: How to Catch a Star, Elephant and Piggie’s We’re In a Play! And Flowers Stink. Millennium Stage: Move! The Works of Isadora Duncan, Page to Stage Festivals, and other performances. Kenan Fellowship 2015-2016. Additional credits include various productions at: The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre, Constellation Theatre Company, Gala Hispanic Theatre, Imagination Stage, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, amongst many others. He has collaborated Off-Broadway with 59E59 Theaters and Round House Theatre, and The Dixon Place Theatre. For further information: www.justinschmitztheatre.com

Sherrice Mojgani recently designed The Mountaintop, The Adrienne Kennedy Festival, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Round House Theater); Tiny Beautiful Things, The Folks at Home, and The Garden (Baltimore Center Stage); The High Ground, The Heiress, and Two Trains Running (Arena Stage); Spunk, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and The Scottsboro Boys (Signature Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun, Murder on the Orient Express, A Few Good Me, and Sweat (Pittsburgh Public Theatre); Trouble in Mind, What You Are, and Skeleton Crew (The Old Globe). Mojgani is an associate professor at George Mason University in northern Virginia. She holds a BA in theater arts from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA. in lighting design from UC San Diego. smojgani.com

Jeanette Christensen is thrilled to be returning to KCTYA. Previous designs include How to Catch a Star, Earthrise, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Premiere and Tour 2019) and Show Way (Premiere and Tour 2024). She has most notably designed costumes for the Broadway national tour of On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan (2022-2024) and the world premiere in Spanish with Gala Hispanic Theater (Helen Hayes win—Outstanding Costume Design). She has designed for American Players Theater, Oklahoma City Rep, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theatre Festival, Folger Theater, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and Olney Theater Center. She has been an associate designer with The Muny, Roundhouse Theatre, Wolf Trap Opera, and Studio Theater. She has worked as a costume designer/mentor with Arizona State University, University of Maryland, Bowie State University, American University, and George Washington University. Education: BA in design and production from Arizona State University, MFA in design from the University of Maryland. Find more of her work at jchristensendesign.com.

Matthew Pauli is a performer based in Maryland. He toured six seasons as a clown with Big Apple Circus and spent five years as a principal puppeteer with Beale Street Puppets, based in Baltimore. At Imagination Stage in Maryland, he built the “Brontosaurus” for Lulu and the Brontosaurus, “Bunnicula” for two different productions of Bunnicula, giants for a production of The BFG, and the humans for 101 Dalmations. He built puppets for Mary Poppins at Olney Stage. He has built full size puppets of children for the Smithsonian, as well as for Spooky Action Theater’s production of The Oldest Boy. His basement currently contains a full-size rhino that a person can ride.

Luke Hartwood (he/him) is a queer Asian-American designer and artisan based on Manahoac land “Northern Virginia.” He is a recent graduate of George Mason University and is thrilled to return to the Kennedy Center after designing props for The Dragon King's Daughter. Recent credits include Las Hermanas Palacios, Baño de Luna, and Kumanana! (GALA Hispanic Theatre); The Mountaintop (Round House Theatre), The Chosen (1st Stage); Eldritch Investigations: A Psychogeographies Project and Angel Number Nine (Rorschach Theatre); A Nice Indian Boy (Olney Theatre Center); 9 to 5, The Hunchback of Seville, and Head Over Heels (George Mason University). lukehartwood.com @lukehartwood

Ryan Douglass is a scenic designer, director, and storyteller. His work was most recently seen at The MUNY in St. Louis with Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. He is currently the visiting assistant professor of scenic design at Purdue University. He has also worked as an adjunct professor in theater and design at The Pennsylvania State University, University of Missouri Kansas City, and Binghamton University. He graduated with his MFA in scenic design from The Pennsylvania State University. He received bachelor of arts degrees in music and theater from The Florida State University in 2009.

Chosen credits include: Quilters (1^st Stage) Bathing in Moonlight, Kumanana!, Revoltosa, (Gala Hispanic Theatre) Diagnosed (Creative Cauldron); Associate costume designer: Look Both Ways (Theatre Alliance and the Kennedy Center) the national tour of On Your Feet!, On Your Feet! En Español (Gala Hispanic Theatre), Show Way (The Kennedy Center), Our Verse in Time to Come (Folger Theatre), The Piano Lesson (Prince George’s Community College), Julius Caesar and The Cherry Orchard (STC’s The Academy for Classical Acting). Wardrobe Associate for The Winter’s Tale, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Saint Joan, Sense & Sensibility, and Nell Gwynn (Folger Theatre).

Marne Anderson is thrilled to return to the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences after over a decade. She is grateful to be a part of this wonderful show and team.  KCTYA: The Wings of Icarus Jackson, Cricket in Times Square; Regional: Arena Stage: Swept Away, American Prophet, Seven Guitars, Disney’s Newsies, A Raisin in the Sun, Moby Dick, Metamorphoses, Arabian Nights, Sophisticated Ladies; Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Old Globe: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci; Round House: Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Evita, Here There Are Blueberries, King Lear, Jane Anger, Amen Corner. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Stephen Bubniak (he/him) is thrilled to return to TYA! Previous KCTYA: A Wind In The Door, The Ice Cream Truck is Broken, Because, We Are All Connected. Additional credits: NSO: RENT in concert, Bernstein’s MASS, POPS: Norm Lewis, CeCe Winans; WNO: Romeo and Juliet; KC: 36^th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards, Songs For Hope, REACH Opening Parade; Arena Stage: American Prophet, Step Afrika! Holiday Step Show, Change Agent, Celia and Fidel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Newsies, Jitney; Studio Theatre: People, Places & Things, John Proctor Is The Villain, Queen of Basel, Kings, The Effect; Signature Theatre: Pacific Overtures; Woolly Mammoth: Kin (Workshop). He graduated with a double-major in computer science and theater (Design/Production) from American University.

Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick, CSA (she/her/hers) is a casting director and advocate manifesting change in how the real world is reflected in today’s media. Her focus is on elevating underrepresented and misrepresented communities, and with disability being the most underrepresented and misrepresented facet of our population, her passion for disability inclusion in media is always front and center in her work. She has been an active member of the New York casting community since 2004. Nickelodeon was her casting home for over 14 years, where she tapped into her love of developing young talent. From live action and animation, scripted and unscripted, long form and short form, and even podcasts, she has and loves to cast it all. Since her departure from Nickelodeon to open her own casting office in April 2022, some of her favorite credits include RespectAbility's Disabled Children's Content Creator's Lab (sponsored by Netflix), American Girl: Corinne Tan, the first American Girl of the Year film, which tells the story of the first Chinese American Girl, for Max and Marvista Entertainment, Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas? for Showtime, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah for Happy Madison Productions, airing on Netflix, and Well-Versed for Nickelodeon.

Elizabeth Hay has been an active member of the New York casting community since 2017. She has worked in many casting offices including The Public Theater in NY. Some of her favorite credits include One Jewish Boy, Moses, and This Much I Know (Theater J, D.C.), Past Lives, and the second season of White Lotus (HBO). She is passionate about inclusion for many reasons, one being she is one of the few casting professionals who identifies as a disabled person.