Performing Arts at CCBC
presents

CLEAN SLATE

Devised by the cast and director

Director
Damon Krometis

Set & Lighting Designer
Sound Design/Operator
Technical Director
G. Maurice “Moe” Conn III

Original Music
Marshall Gibbs
Becca McKenny

Livestream Producer
Anne Lefter

Stage Manager
N.J. Saroff

Streaming Dates:
November 12 at 9:35am
November 12 at 1:00pm
November 14 at 7:00pm
November 16 at 11:00am
November 18 at 10:00am

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

What is Clean Slate? It is the investigation of a set of questions we’ve been posing over the last six months at CCBC.

The play explores a question posed by our cast: what does unbiased criminal justice look like? If we clean the slate, and start from scratch, what structural changes are needed to create a more just and equitable world? The cast has researched and written a series of scenes that interrogate these questions.

On another level, the play explores theatre’s basic purpose in society. In a year marred by social unrest, racial reckonings, and a bitter election, what should theatre say? In the age of a pandemic, what should theatre look like? How do we create liveness in a world of virtual streaming?

It has been a complex journey that has challenged our assumptions and stretched our imaginations. But we never intended this experiment to exist in a bubble. It needs you.

Our piece asks you, as fellow citizens, to offer the answers to our questions. We invite you to actively shape this new world – to make suggestions, take risks, and seek a better world onstage with us. No choice is wrong. No idea is ludicrous. What you suggest, we will dramatize for you.

I wish we could run this experiment with all of us in the same room. But I hope that after our hour or so of playing together through screens, we still become a community – a group of people who have shared something unique and ephemeral together.

So, imagine a better world, and let’s make it real. And above all else, enjoy yourselves.

Damon Krometis
Director

WORKS CITED

SETTING

The halls of Lady Justice and elsewhere, USA

THE COMPANY

Sophie Freedman
Dahjn Maria Gomez
Elijah Gross
Shaterra Hatchett
Becca McKenny
Andrew Pfluger

SOPHIE FREEDMAN is making her debut with CCBC, but this is not her first performance on stage! In high school, she performed in Robin Hood: A British Pantomime, Annie: The Musical, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Now, as a sophomore at CCBC, she is excited to continue performing on stage and honing her craft!

DAHJN (pronounced DON) MARIA GOMEZ is a Theatre Major here at CCBC Catonsville.  She is also a student of the NYU/TISCH Performing Arts Industry Essentials Certification program.  Dahjn is a member of SAG-AFTRA, with professional credits in TV/Film, Theatre and Voiceover. She was cast as Sister Evangelique in the postponed Spring 2020 production of Our Lady of Kibeho. Dahjn plans to transfer to UMBC in Fall 2021.

ELIJAH GROSS has been singing since he was a child, performing in talent shows, and with choirs in school and church. His first acting role was in 2017’s Choir Boy at CCBC Catonsville. where he sang in the ensemble. He performed in CCBC’s Uprising Plays and in Working, A Musical, both at CCBC Essex in 2018. He’s also worked on technical crew for CCBC’s productions of The Verge and She Kills Monsters. He is in his last semester of CCBC and is pursuing his career as an actor and singer.

SHATERRA HATCHETT is learning day by day how to be a better actress. She works really hard and takes all the information that is given to her to improve her skills as an actress, and is getting her AA degree in Acting/Performance. She has been in many productions in high school. In Fall 2018, she played Bertha in the play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at CCBC Catonsville. She also has been in plays outside of CCBC, and does some playwriting herself.

BECCA MCKENNY returns to CCBC, after being a part of last season’s postponed production of Our Lady of Kibeho. Becca was educated at the The Park School of Baltimore and The KIPP Ujima Village charter school. A trained filmmaker and screenplay writer, Becca studied Film at Stevenson University, Asian Studies at HCC (Korean Language), and is currently in pursuit of her MBA. Becca has been training in acting since the 7th grade, and has built up her repertoire by training in Opera. Coming from a family of professionals, her love of performance was highly contested. But Becca refused to let her dreams die, despite her difficulties. Becca has a chronic disability and yet overcame this hurdle, and acted in a few professional films. Her future goals include to film her own movie, and produce a TV program.

ANDREW PFLUGER is grateful to be a part of this experimental production of Clean Slate. As a second-year theatre/performance major, he had previously worked backstage in She Kills Monsters and Our Lady of Kibeho, but this is his acting debut on the CCBC stage. Outside of CCBC, he has performed in shows like Brooklyn the Musical, Frozen, and Sweeney Todd at DLC in Columbia.

DAMON KROMETIS (Director) joined the CCBC faculty in 2019 after spending three years teaching at Emerson College and Roxbury Community College in Boston, MA. He holds a MFA in Directing from Northwestern University and has been directing professionally for nearly 15 years. His work has been seen in New York, London, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, and Baltimore. An occasional playwright, his writing has been seen in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, Louisville, and various universities around the country. He is the former artistic director of Examined Man Theatre and a longtime assistant of famed South African director Yael Farber. Damon is also an avid scholar of participatory theatre techniques, directing, and social change, and his articles have been published in Theatre Topics and on Howlround Theatre Commons (howlround.com). A native of Ellicott City, he is happy to be back in the mid-Atlantic and a part of the CCBC community.

NJ SAROFF (Stage Manager) returns to CCBC after acting in She Kills Monsters and The Verge. This is their third year as a theatre major. Previously they have stage managed with Fells Point Corner Theatre, Acme, Trupenny, Spotlighters, and STAR LTD. They hope you enjoy the show.

G. MAURICE “MOE” CONN, III (Scenic & Lighting Designer) is in his eleventh year with CCBC where he is the full-time Technical Director and Designer at CCBC Catonsville’s 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. He served as the Technical Director for 5 summers at Cockpit in Court where he continues to design both lights and sets. He has also designed for Vagabond Players in Fells Point. 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 “Behind the Scenes” which provides financial support for theatre technicians in need throughout the entertainment industry. He also helps coordinate the Long Reach Long Riders charity motorcycle ride, (www.LRLR.org) to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity fights AIDS and Behind the Scenes, two theatre-based charities.

PRODUCTION STAFF

Director | Damon Krometis
Scenic & Lighting Designer | G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III
Sound Designer | G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III
Costumer | Anne Lefter with the Company
Technical Director | G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III
Stage Manager | N. J. Saroff
Original Music | Marshall Gibbs, Becca McKenny
Light Board Operator |
Sound Board Operator | G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III
Stage Crew | Zoe Hammel, Michelle Harrison, Missy Merry
Set Construction | Jaemi Giesselmann, Zoe Hammel, Erin Johnson
Marcus King, Missy Merry, Yasmin Moore, Nekko Sanders, Tamar Zonenberg
Camera Operator | Erin Johnson
Box Office Manager | Lisa L. Boeren
Production Coordinator | Anne Lefter
Production Manager | Brad Norris
Communications Assistant | Cathy Kratovil

Special Thanks

Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis | CCBC President
Dr. Joaquin Martinez | Provost & Vice President of Instruction
Dr. Rich Lilley | Vice President of Enrollment & Student Services
Dr. William Watson | Dean, School of Arts & Communication
Professor Patti Crossman | Chair, Performing Arts and Humanities
Dr. Rebecca Ocampo | Arts Pathways Coordinator
Anne M. Lefter | Director, Performing Arts
Johanna Lawrence | Administrative Support Assistant, Performing Arts
Melissa Lane | Chair, Criminal Justice
Tressie Nickelberry | Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice
David Vaughn | Instructor, Criminal Justice
Vagabond Players