Native Son: Block Party 2019

At ANTAEUS: Glass Menagerie, Native Son, Cloud 9, Picnic, The Liar, The Seagull, Tonight at 8:30, Mother Courage, Pera Palas, Trial By Jury; and directed The Importance of Being Earnest and You Can’t Take It With You. OTHER STAGE:  Pasadena Playhouse, Old Globe, Kirk Douglas Theatre, La Mirada, ETC Santa Barbara, Rubicon, MainStreet, Skylight, Blank, Odyssey, Boston Court, Playwrights’ Arena, and New York’s Public Theatre. FILM:  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Amsterdam, Alex and Emma, etc. TV: Recurring on NCIS: Origins, Platonic, Loot, Chicago Fire, Clipped; guest appearances include: Hacks, The Last Thing He Told Me, 9-1-1 Lone Star, Terminal List, S.W.A.T., American Horror Story, Jane the Virgin, etc.  2013 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Leading Actress for portrayal of Maria Callas in Master Class at International City Long Beach; and L.A. Drama Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award and an Ovation for Solo Performance for her solo comedy Non-Vital Organs. Gigi coaches actors and is a career mentor. gigibermingham.com

Matthew is honored to be a member of Antaeus Theatre Company. Big thanks to everyone here for being such terrific Mentors! At ANTAEUS: The Cripple of Inishmaan, Native Son and several ClassicFests. Other Theater includes: District Merchants, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and the NewSCRipts workshop of Origin Story (South Coast Repertory); Native Son (Kirk Douglas Theatre); Arsenic and Old Lace (La Mirada Theatre); The City of Conversation, Women In Jeopardy, Good People (Ensemble Theatre Company); A Moon for the Misbegotten (Rubicon Theatre); Stupid F*cking Bird, Bad Jews (Stage West); Spinning Into Butter, Rabbit Hole (Actor’s Co-op); Friends Like These (NY International Fringe Festival). Readings/Workshops include: Laguna Playhouse, Wallis Annenberg and Pasadena Playhouse. TV: Westworld. Also interested in writing, his first play Granite was work-shopped at Joan Scheckel’s Collective Loft. For Dad always.

At ANTAEUS: The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Native Son (Kirk Douglas Theatre). Other Theater: Haddon Park (Hollywood Fringe Festival), Tar (Playwright’s Arena), Burners (Moving Arts Theatre), Bars & Measures (Boston Court Pasadena), Elmina’s Kitchen (Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble), The Exonerated (The Actors’ Gang), Hercules Furens (Not Man Apart), A Taste Of Freedom (Ellis Island Theatre). TV/Film: Jane the Virgin, Shameless, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, K.C. Undercover, ER, Scrubs, Glee, Shake It Up!, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Training: MFA Acting, Columbia University. Love to my wife and son, Vanessa and Neo Orion. IG: @noelactor

JON CHAFFIN (Mr. Lonnie) is excited to be returning to Antaeus Theatre, where he previously lead the cast of the critically-acclaimed production, Native Son. Theatre: Two Trains Running (Matrix Theatre), American Saga: Gunshot Medley – Part 1 (Rogue Machine), Native Son (Antaeus Theatre), King Hedley II (Matrix Theatre), The Dumb Waiter (PushPush Theater). Television/film: Perry Mason, BMF, DIARRA From Detroit, Quantum Leap, S.W.A.T., Lucifer, Snowfall, Hawaii Five-O, Blindspotting, If Not Now, When?, 96 Minutes. Jon received his BA from Fort Valley State University. He is also a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

As a member of Antaeus Theatre Company, Ellis most recently recorded 90303: Inglewood - The Vig, an episode of “The Zip Code Plays."  Other Antaeus credits include Native Son, Three Days in the Country, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Ellis can be also seen and heard in many L.A. Theatre Works audio theatre productions including The Thanksgiving Play, Charles Busch’s Die Mommie Die, The Goodbye Girl, Jefferson’s Garden and the National Tour of LATW’s Seven. In early 2023 she’ll play Lucille Ball in the LATW National Tour of “Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom.” Other L.A. theatre credits include Native Son at Center Theatre Group’s “Block Party,” The Matchmaker at Actor’s Co-op, and workshops and staged readings at Pasadena Playhouse, Independent Shakespeare Co. and others.  Regional theatre credits include Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief at Opera House Arts, The Many Women of Troy with Pallas Theatre Collective and The Diary of Anne Frank with Oklahoma Children’s Theatre. She received a BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California.

At ANTAEUS: Debut. Other Theater: Jelly’s Last Jam (Virginia Theatre), Building the Wall, Roxy in Cyrano (The Fountain Theatre), Venice (The Public Theater & Kirk Douglas Theatre - Ovation Award Nominated), Sammy (The Old Globe), Pippin (Mark Taper Forum), Asphalt (REDCAT), Atlanta, The Musical (Geffen Playhouse). Select TV/Film Includes: Major Crimes, Bones, The Mentalist, Castle, Criminal Minds, as well as contract roles on both All My Children and Guiding Light, H4 (an adaptation of Henry IV which she co-produced with Harry Lennix & Terrell Tilford), and as Josephine Baker in HBO's Winchell. Upcoming: #Truth, The Gleaner, Interference, Framed and CW's Lucifer. VictoriaPlatt.com

At ANTAEUS: Native Son (Antaeus Theatre Company/Kirk Douglas Theatre - 2019 Block Party). Other Credits: Gunshot Medley: Part 1 (Rogue Machine Theatre/WLCAC – Ovation Award Nominee); Domesticated, Animal Farm, Venus, The Crucible (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Royale (American Theater Company/BTAA - Best Featured Actress); Luck of the Irish (Next Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun (Milwaukee Rep/Timeline Theatre); My Kind of Town, In Darfur (Timeline Theatre); Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens Theater). TV/Film: Delilah (OWN), Bosch, Chicago MED, Masters of Sex, Magic Funhouse and Boss. Proud member of AEA & SAG-AFTRA.

Ned is happy to be on the ANTAEUS stage again. Other Antaeus productions include Hedda Gabler and Native Son. He had the pleasure of reprising his role in Native Son at the Kirk Douglas Theatre when it was chosen to remount in 2019 as part of their annual Block Party. Other LA Theater credits include the Los Angeles premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's A Permanent Image at Rogue Machine Theatre and All My Sons at Pacific Resident Theatre. In Chicago, Ned worked at The Goodman Theatre, The Court Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Organic Theatre, and many other Midwest regional theaters and Shakespeare festivals. In his other life as a fight choreographer, Ned built the fights for Hamlet and Les Liaisons Dangereuses at ANTAEUS.

 At ANTAEUS: Debut. Los Angeles Theater: Fences (Long Beach Playhouse), Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night (Downtown Repertory Theater Company). Regional Theater: Romeo and Juliet (Texas Shakespeare Festival). Training: BA.Theatre, USC. IG: @brandonrachal_

Born in New York City, Ms. Chapman is a director, actor, educator. She is the Associate Artistic Director of Ebony Repertory Theatre. Her directing credits include: The Gospel at Colonus (Ebony Repertory Theatre: 14 Ovation Nominations including Best Play & Best Play Direction, NAACP Theatre Awards 2016 Best Production Winner), Mockingbird, As it is in Heaven, The Ninth Wave, Steel Magnolias (Actors Co-op Theatre Company: Best Director Award), The Dutchman, A Summer Memory and a host of others. Film: The award-winning short films Memorial Street, Elijah’s Song and Why?. As an actress her television, film and stage credits include: NCIS, SMILF, Shameless, Glee, Dexter, 24, Six Feet Under, Short Cuts, The Lower Depths, Blood Wedding. She is currently the Center Theatre Group Program Advisor/Coaching Artist for August Wilson National Monologue Competition. A professor of various universities (Pepperdine, Chapman), she is currently teaching Film Acting at Azusa Pacific University. Ms. Chapman is a graduate of Yale School of Drama/M.F.A and alumna of The American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women. Andi is also a selected participant of the prestigious Lincoln Center Directors Lab.