Performance Calendar

NORA COLE is delighted to return to Geva Theatre Center with her Audelco nominated, second solo show, Voices of the Spirits in My Soul. She was last seen at Geva as Rose in August Wilson’s Fences. Based in part on her Kentucky family slave history, Voices was researched from an ample collection of family letters and photographs. First produced at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU), NYC productions were later presented by the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art’s Seaport Salon. Other venues include the 2007 and 2009 National Black Theatre Festivals (NBTF), Juneteenth Festival at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and the University of Southern Indiana. Her first solo show, Olivia Opus, is a multi-media ode to adolescence.

Ms. Cole comes to Geva directly from reprising her New York Times critically-acclaimed performance as the Muse in the tenth anniversary production of Rinde Eckert’s, Obie Award winning, chamber opera, And God Created Great Whales at the Culture Project. Other recent and outstanding credits include Working (Director at ECSU); her work with George C. Wolfe as Anita in Jelly's Last Jam (Broadway) opposite Gregory Hines and the National Tour opposite Maurice Hines; Caroline, Or Change (Royal National Theatre) and the Night Club Singer in On The Town (Broadway); Doubt, Milwaukee Rep, Joe Turner's Come And Gone at Studio Arena; The Colored Museum at Hartford Stage Company; The Good Times Are Killing Me at Second Stage, and she has singly performed the epic Langston Hughes poem, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods For Jazz with an original score by Hale Smith.

Ms. Cole was a company member for more than fifteen years in Vinnette Carroll's Urban Arts Corp in NYC, and her repertory company in Ft. Lauderdale. Productions included, Your Arms Too Short To Box with God (Broadway, National & European tours), Medea (Title role), Boogie Woogie Rumble Of A Dream Deferred (Theatre of Renewal Award), and the pre-Broadway productions When Hell Freezes Over I'll Skate (Kennedy Center) and Alice. With Woodie King Jr.'s NBTC production, I Have a Dream as Coretta Scott King (Brighton and Birmingham, UK festivals and the first NBTF).

Television appearances include The Cosby Mystery Movie, “All My Children,” “Loving,” “Another World,” “The Guiding Light,” along with numerous commercials, and radio voice-overs. She has also performed for WNYC Public Radio's “Selected Shorts” series. Ms Cole attended Beloit College, Chicago Conservatory and earned a B.F.A. from the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago. She studied dance with Pepsi Bethel, Frank Hatchett and Barbara Fraser. She is an alumna of the renowned women's writing retreat, Hedgebrook, a recipient of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Women in Music Award and the Spencer Cherashore Fund Individual Artist Grant.

BOB RITZ (Set Design) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with Voices of the Spirits in My Soul. He lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he is a freelance designer and Faux painter. With an M.F.A. in Set Design from the University of Connecticut, Mr. Ritz taught theatre and design at Eastern Connecticut State University for twelve years. He has designed over 50 stage shows and continues to expand his skills with designs for the Department of Energy Museum in Washington, D.C. as well as commercial and private interiors.

RICHARD WINKLER (Lighting Consultant) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with Voices of the Spirits in My Soul. Mr. Winkler’s theatrical career spans 35 years on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional, national and international (Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin) theatre. Recent credits include 3 Mo' Tenors, The Property Known as Garland starring Adrienne Barbeau, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (NYC Opera.). National and Regional credits include Evita (25th anniversary tour), Fame, A Christmas Story, Kennedy Center Concerts (with Vanessa Williams, Patti Lu Pone, Angela Lansbury) Dirty Blonde, Nickel and Dimed, Wit, Dreamgirls, A Chorus Line and Jekyll and Hyde. Since 2007 Mr. Winkler has had great success as a producer. Producing credits include The Norman Conquests (Tony Award), Memphis (Tony Award), La Cage Aux Folles (Tony Award), A Little Night Music, Lend Me a Tenor, La Bete and the Broadway bound Nice Work If You Can Get It.

CANDACE LUNN (Stage Manager) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut with Voices of the Spirits in My Soul. She is a writer/stage manager based in NYC and thrilled to work on this production once again. Prior venues include the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art (RACCA), York College and the 2007 and 2009 National Black Theatre Festivals. She was the Stage Manager for RACCA's entry in the Public Theater’s 365 Days/365 Plays Festival, the Pearl Cleage Convergence, for which she also assisted with dramaturgy, and Dr. May Edward Chinn at the North Carolina Black Repertory. She was also Stage Manager for Collaborationtown’s Townville at La Mama, and Lyle Cogen’s Sticks and Stones at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Lunn was a quarterfinalist for the WB’s 2005 Sitcom Writers Workshop, directed a reading of her play, Showtime, Or How I learned to Love the 1-2 Punch at Theater for the New City and currently house manages at Playwrights Horizons.

IMANI (Creative Consultant) As Artistic Director, Imani wishes Nora Cole well from RACCA’s Seaport Salon, a comfy cozy theater, in lower NYC, that embraces artists in the development of their work and honing of their craft. Imani most recently won the Audelco Award 2010 for her direction of Dr. May Edward Chinn, appearing at the NC Black Rep in February 2012. Other credits include Rising / Castillo Theater, Adventures of Langston at Sea/ Schomberg Center, and Hot Methuselah / EST/New Federal. She is known for such groundbreaking work as Pearl Cleage’s Chain/ Judith Anderson Theater/NBTF, starring Karen Malina White; Rough Draft of My Life / HHTF/PS 122; her male take on For Colored Girls…; and her own Snow, Actors’ Theater of Louisville / Circle Rep/ NBTF.