“We is shadows. And shadows is seen, not heard.” In pre-Civil war Georgia, Toy and Colis spend long days on the plantation silently serving adolescent twins Mittie and Daniel. But in the dead of night their world comes alive, as they lie beneath their masters’ beds whispering stories to each other through a vent in the wall. When Father announces the family is moving to Louisiana, the children face uncertain futures. Do they dare come out of the shadows? A compelling testament to the power of the human spirit from one of America’s most promising playwrights.

Previews: April 8–12, 2018
First Night: April 13, 2018
Regular Performances: April 14–29, 2018

Recommendation: High school and above. Contains adult language, haze effects and the smoking of electronic cigarettes.

Running Time: Approximately ​one hours and​ ​45 ​minutes with no intermission.

Kemp Powers is a playwright, screenwriter and storyteller. His plays include One Night in Miami…, The Two Reds, Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue and A Negro by Choice. He received the 2013 Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play for the world premiere of One Night in Miami in Los Angeles. That production also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP Theatre Awards and an LA Weekly Theater Award. One Night’s 2016 production at London’s Donmar Warehouse was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. Powers’ work has been developed at South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Rogue Machine Theatre. In television, he was most recently a writer for “Star Trek: Discovery” (CBS All Access). He has toured nationally as a storyteller for the Peabody Award-winning series, “The Moth,” and was one of the 50 storytellers selected for publication in their New York Times-bestselling book, The Moth: 50 True Stories (Hyperion Press). Powers is a founding member of The Temblors, a producing playwrights collective in Los Angeles, where he resides. 

	Giovanni Adams (Colis) is an alumnus of the Pacific Playwrights Festival and is excited to return. He recently played Neil in Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment at Geffen Playhouse and Frederick Douglass in Mount Misery at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. He was in the world premiere of Kemp Powers’ One Night in Miami (Rogue Machine Theatre, LA Drama Critics Circle Award and NAACP Theatre Award for Best Ensemble). He has participated in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, where he worked on Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm’s Br’er Cotton and Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies and the Writer’s Workshop Retreat at Center Theatre Group. His other stage credits include The Recommendation and Bela Lugosi’s Dead (IAMA Theatre Company) and Miss Julie and King Lear (Yale Repertory Theatre). Recently, his solo show, Love Is A Dirty Word, developed in collaboration with Becca Wolff, premiered at VS Theatre and received Ovation and LA Drama Critics Circle awards recognition. His film and television credits include Nina, “Criminal Minds,” “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gary Unmarried.” Adams was born in Jackson, Miss., and received his BA from Yale University.
	​Daniel ​Bellusci (Daniel) is excited to be returning to SCR after appearing as Prince Charmont in the Theatre for Young Audiences production of Ella Enchanted earlier this season. His regional appearances include Bobby Strong in Urinetown (Coeurage Theatre Company); Matt in The Fantasticks (Sierra Madre Playhouse); Cookie in Nice Work If You Can Get It, Joey Primo in Rock of Ages and Tyler in Merrily We Roll Along (Summer Repertory Theatre); and Billy in Hit Song! (world premiere, El Portal Theatre). Bellusci was the first-place winner of LA’s Next Great Stage Star 2017 (The Colony Theatre).
	Mark Doerr (Father) is pleased to be back at SCR where he was previously seen in Ameryka (Critical Mass Performance Group), Track 3 and Big Shot (both with Theatre Movement Bazaar, or TMB, before touring the U.K., China and Russia) as part of the Studio SCR series. He appeared on Broadway in The Visit with Jane Alexander and off-Broadway in Sharon: The Musical, adapted/directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald. His SoCal work includes Mirette (MainStreet Theatre Company), The Treatment (TMB/ The Theatre @ Boston Court, Ovation and LA Weekly Award nominations); Peace In Our Time and The Malcontent (Antaeus Theatre Company); White People and Lady (The Road Theatre, Ovation and LA Weekly Award nominations); Liberty Inn: The Musical (Andak Stage); Ruby, Tragically Rotund (Playwrights Arena) and The Wasps (Lost Studios). His film and television credits include Red Tails, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Life at the Resort, Fortress, “Leverage,” “Mad Men,” “Bones,” “Criminal Minds,” “CSI: NY” and “Lie To Me.” A Juilliard School graduate, he studied Shakespeare in Oxford, Chekov in Moscow and musical theatre in Ann Arbor. Doerr has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1992. Find more delicious tidbits: markdoerr.com.
	Elyse Mirto (​​​​​Mother) made her SCR debut earlier this season in Shakespeare in Love as Queen Elizabeth. Her LA theatre credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses and As You Like It at Antaeus Theatre Company; Collective Rage at The Theatre @ Boston Court; Barbecue at Geffen Playhouse; Figaro (LA Drama Critics Circle Award nomination), A Flea in Her Ear and The Guardsman at A Noise Within; Conviction (Ovation Award nomination) at Rubicon Theatre Company; Steel Magnolias at Laguna Playhouse; and Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing at Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival. Her New York credits include White’s Lies (off-Broadway), Any Day Now (New York Innovative Theatre Award-winner, lead actress), Next Year in Jerusalem (New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination), Catch the Fish and The Eternal Husband. Her Chicago credits include Goodman Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Her recent television credits include “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “NCIS,” “Malibu Gothic” and a recurring guest-starring role on TNT’s “The Last Ship.” She has appeared in numerous films and more than 25 national commercials. Mirto is a Detroit native who studied at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and has a BFA in music theatre performance from Western Michigan University.
	​​​​​Chauntae Pink (​​​Toy) appeared at SCR previously in the Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Little Black Shadows. She is very excited to be working on this dynamic piece of theatre and with such an outstanding cast. Pink is an Afro-Caribbean actress from East Flatbush, New York. A recent graduate of UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television, she got her start doing summer stock theatre in Valdosta, Ga. Her theatre credits include The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Scream (Rockwell Table & Stage) and the LA Times Critics Choice, Bulrusher (Skylight Theatre Company and Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble). Her television guest appearances include CBS’ “Two Broke Girls,” “Franklin and Bash” on TNT, Nickelodeon’s “School of Rock” and, most recently, ABC digital’s “American Koko” produced by Viola Davis. Pink was featured in the box office hit, Straight Outta Compton, and returned to the big screen with a supporting role in Lake Bell’s I Do... Until I Don’t with Ed Helms and Amber Heard.
	​​​​​​​Emily Yetter (​​​​​Mittie) is thrilled to return to South Coast Repertory in Little Black Shadows. Yetter previously appeared in SCR’s Theatre for Young Audiences productions of The Night Fairy, as the title character, and OZ 2.5, as the character of Dee. Her other credits include Regan McNeil in Geffen Playhouse’s The Exorcist, Tinker Bell in Theater Threesixty’s national tour of Peter Pan, Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Bolero, Ravel’s Dance for Orchestra, Portland Center Stage’s Oregon Trail as Mary Anne, The Odyssey’s award-winning Tempest Redux as Ariel and, most recently, Aviron Group’s horror-immersive production, The Strangers Experience, as the lead. On screen, she has appeared in various national commercials, the final season of “Grimm,” Warner Bros. Project X, Geek and Sundry’s “Spooked,” and Go90’s “Relationship Goals.” She trained at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television and the British American Drama Academy. emilyyetter.com

*The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

• OC Register • At South Coast Repertory, ‘Little Black Shadows’ casts light on an unknown aspect of slavery
• Daily Pilot • Pre-Civil War South drama premieres at South Coast Repertory
• Geek Girl Authority • Playwright Kemp Powers on Little Black Shadows, "Star Trek: Discovery" and More
• Press Release • South Coast Repertory Premieres Little Black Shadows by Kemp Powers