The Department of Performing Arts and Humanities
of the School of Liberal Arts at CCBC
presents

THE MOJO AND THE SAYSO

BY AISHAH RAHMAN

Director
Cohen Ambrose

Set & Lighting Designer
Technical Director
G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III

Costume Designer
James J. Fasching

Composer
Daniel Lewis

Stage Manager
Devin Hale

March 8 at 11:10 am
March 9, 10 at 7 pm
March 11 at 3 pm
March 12 at 10 am

Produced by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing, Inc,
224 E 62nd St, NY, NY 10065 | www.broadwayplaypub.com

THE COMPANY

Awilda | Kaylah Crosby

Acts | Brian Horshaw

Blood | Ahmad Lake

Pastor | Tirrell Bethel

KAYLAH CROSBY (Awilda) Kaylah is in her third year as a theatre major at CCBC, and she is very excited to be taking part in her first CCBC production! Kaylah is not new to the stage, having been an active member of her high school theatre department. While there, she performed in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and Neil Simon’s Rumors. Kaylah will be graduating this semester, and intends to continue studying acting at a four-year university. She is very much looking forward to sharing Aishah Rahman’s touching and captivating work with the community.

BRIAN HORSHAW (Acts) is super pumped to return to CCBC’s academic theatre after playing Headmaster Marrow in last season’s production of Choir Boy. He’s had the privilege to be cast, direct, and music direct multiple productions within the Baltimore theatre community. Brian is currently majoring in theatre with a concentration in performance and looks forward to whatever God has in store for his future. “Snaps” to the incredibly talented cast and crew; and to my daughter and #1 cheerleader, London; I hope to always make you proud.

AHMAD LAKE (Blood) is currently a sophomore at CCBC, where he is a Theatre/Performance major working towards his Associates Degree. The Mojo and the Sayso will be Lake’s first performance on stage since having the lead role in a fourth grade play. His original career goal was to become a graphic designer after having his digital self-portrait selected to hang in the gallery of the Maryland State House. However, after much self-reflection, Lake realized that he wanted to channel his energies towards a career with a broader spectrum of creative endeavors. Effectively incorporating a vast variety of talents and learned skills is what Lake has found in the art of acting. Being cast as “Blood” has confirmed to Lake his life’s path will always involve performing in the arts. The process leading up to this performance has solidified his passion and respect for the theatre. He is honored to be working with the cast, crew and director of Mojo. Lastly, Lake thanks his family for their unending support as he pursues his dream of becoming a professional actor.

TIRRELL BETHEL (Pastor) makes his return to CCBC’s Academic stage this semester. Nearing the end of his Theatre degree, Tirrell made his stage debut in 2016’s production of Rashomon where he played the Priest. He has also appeared as The Ghost in Hamlet Lost/Found, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, Everyman in Everyman, and in a series of improv shows with CCBC’s student run theatre club. Tirrell is ecstatic about playing the Pastor and he would like to give a special thanks to his family who has supported him up to this point in his life, as well as to the cast and crew for being awesome and hardworking individuals. Tirrell plans on transferring to a 4-year college and has high hopes of being in movies someday.

DRAMATURGICAL NOTE

Almost 45 years ago, in the early morning hours of April 28, 1973, Clifford Glover, a 10-year old fourth grader at PS 40 in Jamaica Queens, New York, was shot in the back and killed while running away from Thomas Shea, an undercover New York City Police officer. Shea and his partner were looking for two Black male suspects in connection with a robbery that had occurred the night before. Shea claimed he thought Clifford was carrying a revolver, and therefore killed the boy in “self-defense” (although the boy was running away from Shea). Shea also claimed he didn’t realize that Clifford was a child, who weighed approximately 90 pounds and stood no more than five feet tall. Prosecutors subsequently charged Shea with murder, the first time in 50 years that an officer was charged “with homicide while killing someone on the job.” Shea would later be acquitted of those charges by a jury comprised of eleven white men and one black woman.

Clifford’s mother, Eloise and stepfather, Add Armstead divorced soon afterward. Eloise would spend the rest of her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals, while Clifford’s other siblings moved from one foster home to the next. A once seemingly “normal,” middle class Black American family was now left shattered…splintered…fractured.

Playwright Aishah Rahman wrote The Mojo and the Sayso in response to and inspired by Clifford’s senseless killing. However, instead focusing on the tragedy, grief and despair that come with the loss of the life of a 10-year old, Rahman instead wrote a poetic jazz drama wherein all of the characters subconsciously process their grief through memories and rituals of jazz.

We hope audiences leave our production of The Mojo and the Sayso not only with the reminder of a pathology of continued police killings of unarmed Black Americans, but more importantly, the possibility of hope and rebirth through death and memory.

Connie Winston, Production Dramaturg
Cohen Ambrose, Director

PRODUCTION STAFF

Director | Cohen Ambrose
Assistant Director | Ja’min Williams
Scenic/Lighting Designer/Technical Director | G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III
Stage Manager | Devin Hale
Costume Designer | James J. Fasching
Composer/Musician | Daniel Lewis
Light Board Operator | Emily Butterfield
Sound Board Operator | Ja’min Williams
Set Construction | Emily Butterfield, Ja’min Williams, Erin Johnson
Bisola Amodu, Elle Caintic, Cheyanne Mason, Donita McCullough
Light Crew | Ja’min Williams, Erin Johnson, Emily Butterfield
Run Crew | Donita McCullough, Erin Johnson, Joey Hernandez
Raphael Stancil, Lashay McMillian
Fire Watch | SJ Raines
Production Dramaturg | Connie Winston
Box Office Manager | Lisa L. Boeren
Box Office Staff | Eva Grove, Thom Purdy
Production Photographer | Katie Simmons-Barth
www.katiesimmonsbarth.com
Production Manager | Brad Norris
Production Coordinator | Connie Winston

PRODUCTION STAFF BIOS

COHEN AMBROSE (Director) is an actor, director, teacher, playwright, dramaturg, and theatre scholar, who has lived and worked in Montana, Washington, New York City, Prague, Czech Republic, and Baltimore. He holds an MA in Performance Theory and Criticism, an MFA in directing from the University of Montana, and a BA in philosophy and theatre from The Evergreen State College. His scholarship has been published in Theatre Symposium, Wheelhouse Magazine, State of the Arts, The Brecht Yearbook, the University of Montana Press, and the Performance Philosophy Journal. He has directed or acted in over twenty five professional and academic productions, most recently including an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo, Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days, and a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. He teaches Acting, Introduction to Theatre, Script Analysis, Philosophy, and Theatre History at CCBC Catonsville, where he also coordinates the Theatre Program. Special thanks to his wife, Laura, and his new baby son, Cillian.
G. MAURICE “MOE” CONN, III (Scenic Designer, Lighting Designer, and Technical Director) is the full-time Technical Director and Designer at CCBC Catonsville Center for the Arts Theatre. He has an MFA in Scene Design and Technical Theatre. Moe has been doing technical theatre since 1993, as a Designer, Technician, Technical Director, and Educator. Moe had also served as the Technical Director and Designer for Cockpit in Court Theatre, Maryland’s Oldest Summer theatre, for 4 summers. Moe has received multiple nominations for Best Scene Design from Broadway World.com and Received Best Scenic Design from the MD Theatre Guide’s Readers’ Choice Awards. When not backstage, Moe volunteers with the ESTA foundation’s “Behind the Scenes”. He also helps coordinate the Long Reach Long Riders charity motorcycle ride, (www.LRLR.org ) to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity fights AIDS and ESTA’s Behind the Scenes, two theatre-based charities.
JAMES J. FASCHING (Costume Designer) is the resident costumer in the Performing Arts and Humanities Department at CCBC.  His career in design has taken him from designing for the Miss America Pageant, to having his own television spot on KDKA-TV for interior design tips, to designing hundreds of productions for Cockpit-in-Court Summer Theatre, Dundalk Community Theatre, Peabody Opera Company, Theatre Hopkins, and The School for the Arts in Philadelphia, to name a few.  Mr. Fasching teaches Makeup Design for the Theatre program.
DEVIN HALE (Stage Manager) is a new CCBC Theatre Major. In his CCBC debut, he played David in CCBC Catonsville’s production of Choir Boy. This is his first time working backstage on a production.
JA’MIN WILLIAMS (Assistant to the Director)
Ja’min Williams is a CCBC Theatre Major, and no stranger to the stage. He has performed as Bobby, in Choir Boy, Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, and Laertes from Hamlet. Other roles include Joseph Asagai (Raisin in the Sun) and Steve (Neighborhood 3). Ja’min takes a step back this from acting, this semester, to do some behind the scenes work, as well as assist Professor Cohen Ambrose in making his vision for this production come to fruition. He is excited to be a part of this process, and wishes the entire cast and crew a great show. Break Legs!
DANIEL LEWIS (Composer/Musician) Versatile musician Daniel Lewis has elicited acclaim that it is “great to hear such good music so well played.” Trained as a classical guitarist, Mr. Lewis is known for very expressive phrasing and a commitment to unique programming, regularly performing music ranging from Renaissance Lute masterpieces to lesser-known 21st century works. Equally at home in many musical styles, Mr. Lewis’ recent performance schedule has included original compositions on classical guitar, diverse music for the electric guitar in contemporary musical theater, and traditional American folk music on acoustic guitar and banjo. He can be heard in recordings of chamber music by Terry Champlin released by Highwater Music; and by David Loeb on the Vienna Modern Masters label.
As a composer, he has contributed music for projects produced by Tim Corbin Films, scored productions for Academic Theatre at CCBC, performed music written for Hamlet Lost/Found at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, along with frequently writing for River’s Edge Community Church.  His compositions have been praised as “contemporary, fun, and complex,” and make use of the wide palette available today, ranging between solo classical guitar, traditional chamber ensembles, synthesizers, and beats produced in Digital Audio Workstations.  Recently, he completed a piece for Banjo and String Quartet based around a reimagining of 19th Century Banjo tunes, and is now working on a commission for the 50th anniversary of the Central Maryland Chorale.  Mr. Lewis holds a Master’s Degree from Mannes College the New School for Music and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the Community College of Baltimore County, where he directs the Music Theory and Ear Training sequence.

Special Thanks

Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis | President, CCBC
Dr. Mark McColloch | Vice President of Instruction
Dr. Rich Lilley | Vice President of Enrollment & Student Services
Dr. William Watson | Dean of Liberal Arts
Patti Crossman, Chair | Performing Arts & Humanities
Terri Charles | Media Relations Coordinator
Jackie McTear | Graphic Designer
Sodexo Food Services
Brain Comotto | Keyboard, recording and editing  
Delroy Gaither, Jr. | Percussion  
Frank Higgins | Double Bass  
John Morgan | Trombone
Jim DeAngelis, Ryan Washington, Tony Prescott | CCBC Automotive Program