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BRIAN D. COATS (Bobo/Moving Man) returns to Geva Theatre Center where he was last seen as Gabriel in Fences. NY theatre includes On The Levee at Lincoln Center Theater/ LCT3; Mongo and La Ruta at Working Theater; Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Public Theatre/ Shakespeare in the Park ; Puddn’head Wilson for the Acting Company; The Bereaved for Partial Comfort Productions; Woza Albert! at Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education and Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood Festival. Regional credits include the South East Premiere of Clybourne Park at the Caldwell Theatre and Distant Fires at People’s Light and Theater Company (Winner, Philadelphia's Barrymore Theatre Award). Developmental Workshops include Macbeth 1969 with Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Southampton Writers Conference, New Dramatists, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ellison's Invisible Man for New York Theatre Workshop; Lark Play Development Center and New Black Fest. TV and film credits include Friendship! from Sony Pictures International, “Law & Order,” “Law &Order: SVU,” “JAG,” “Big Lake” on Comedy Central, “How to Make it in America,” “The Sopranos” and short film, For Flow, on HBO Zone. Mr. Coats is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

ARTHUR PETER DILBERT III (Travis Younger) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. Arthur was born in Rochester to parents Sharon L. Murrell Dilbert and Arthur P. Dilbert, Jr. Arthur is a fifth grader at Northwood Elementary School where he plays the trumpet in the band and sings in the chorus. He is a member of the dance ministry, drama ministry and choir at Abundant Life Faith Center. He also plays the drums at church. He takes tap and jazz dance at Miracles Dance Center and plays soccer for the YMCA. He has participated in theatre and dance productions at Abundant Life Faith Center, Downstairs Cabaret, Akwaaba, Hilton Theatrical Summer Camp and Miracles Dance Center. He would like to thank his older sister Samiah Ariel Dilbert for her support and great advice. Arthur thanks his parents, grandparents and aunts for encouraging him and transporting him to all of his events. Arthur is thankful to God for blessing him with this wonderful opportunity.

JESSICA FRANCES DUKES (Beneatha) returns to Geva Theatre Center where she last appeared in The Piano Lesson. Ms. Dukes just closed a show with The Second City, Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies; and is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co. where her credits include Booty Candy; In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play; Full Circle; Eclipsed, Fever Dream; Antebellum and Starving. Other regional credits include The Piano Lesson at Indiana Repertory Theatre; The Trip to Bountiful at Cleveland Play House; Passing Strange, Caroline, or Change at Studio Theatre; The Trip To Bountiful, Permanent Collection at Round House Theatre; Jitney at Ford’s Theatre; Sanctified - a gospel musical at the Lincoln Theatre; Unleashed: The Secret Lives of White House Pets at the Kennedy Center; In Darfur at Theatre J; Spunk for Tribute Productions/African Continuum Theater (Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress); The Bluest Eye, Insurrection: Holding History for Theater Alliance; The Bluest Eye at Horizon Theater; Fanny's First Play for Washington Stage Guild. Ms. Dukes earned her M.F.A. from the Catholic University of America. For my family.

DAVID PAUL EVE (Travis Younger) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. He is an honors student in the fifth grade at the WOIS in the RCSD. He holds an advance orange belt in Karate and studies at the ARIKATA Black Belt School of Martial Arts. David is proud of bringing home a first place trophy in his very first Karate Tournament. David Eve is making his theatrical debut and very excited about putting his creative talents to work. David is a member of the A’ Cappella group at WOIS and performed before two sold out audiences at the Auditorium Theatre, with the Yellow Jackets, in concert this past December. David utilizes his spare time to write and compose songs and short stories. He is an avid reader and is a technology enthusiast.

KEITH GALLAGHER (Karl Linder) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. He comes to Rochester from Chicago where he studied acting at Depaul University's Theatre School. Chicago credits include Man in Love at Steppenwolf Garage; Awake and Sing, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Northlight Theatre; Shining City at the Goodman Theatre; Arcadia at the Court Theatre; The Real Thing for Remy Bumppo and Tracks at TUTA Chicago. Regional credits include The Gospel According to James at Indiana Repertory Theatre and The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. TV credits include “Detroit 1-8-7.” Special thanks to Caitlin and to all who came to see.

PERRI GAFFNEY (Mrs. Johnson) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. She was last seen onstage in New York City as Jesse in The Waiting Room by Samm-Art Williams. Other stage credits include The Resurrection of Alice, her one-woman show adapted from her debut novel of the same title at Main Stage West, H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players (AUDELCO Award Nomination), SIU Carbondale Campus, NBTF 2009, OSW, and Pittsburgh’s “Big Read”; Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest (Off-Broadway); Macbeth, The Music Man, and Death and the King’s Horseman at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; To Kill a Mockingbird at Virginia Stage; Intimate Apparel at ATL, Cleveland Play House, OSF; Polk County at Arena Stage (Helen Hayes Award Nomination), McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Fences at Weston Playhouse; Bee-Luther-Hatchee at St. Louis Rep and the Blue Heron in New York. TV credits include Nurse Bentley on “As the World Turns,” “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: SVU.” Film credits include Paving the Way (a feature-length documentary which she narrated and co-produced), Deep Trouble, Fake Preacher, Thunderborn and Cops, Crooks and Banana Cream Pies. Other writing credits include How to Manage Artists in Pop Music, a textbook she co-authored with Mitch Weiss and published by Allworth Press.

DAPHNE GAINES (Ruth) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. Regional theatre credits include Ruined at Denver Center (Best Supporting Actress Henry and Ovation Award Nominations); Three Children at Hong Kong Fringe Theatre; American Night: The Ballad of Juan José at Denver Center (Ovation Award Nomination); A Christmas Carol at Actor's Theatre of Louisville and Gee's Bend at Denver Center. NY and Off-Broadway credits include The Lily's Revenge at Here Arts Theatre (Obie Award); A Walk Across America... at LaMama Theatre (NY Innovative Theater Lead Actress Nomination); Faust for Classic Stage Company; Three Sisters at Classical Theatre of Harlem; Cedar Creek for Abingdon Theatre Company; The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc at Target Margin Theatre; Orpheus at Here Arts Theatre; Yokasta's Redux at LaMama Theatre; Nightvision: A Vampyre Opera at The Public Theatre and Brooklyn Academy of Music; Dead Tech at Smack Melon Theatre and Revelations: the Outtakes at the Public Theatre. She is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School and holds a B.A. in Theatre and Psychology from the University of Georgia.

LYNDA GRAVÁTT (Lena Younger) returns to Geva Theatre Center where she last appeared in The Old Settler. Broadway credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Doubt, 45 Seconds from Broadway and King Hedley II. Off-Broadway credits include Little Foxes, Dividing the Estate at Primary Stages; King Hedley II at Signature Theatre; Miss Witherspoon at Playwrights Horizons; Intimate Apparel at Roundabout Theatre; Crowns at the Helen Hayes Theatre; If Memory Serves; and The Old Settler (Theatre World Award). Regional credits include A Raisin in the Sun at Hartford Stage (Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Actress), The Member of the Wedding at Ford’s Theatre, Polk County at McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Intimate Apparel at the Mark Taper Forum, A Night in Tunisia at Alabama Shakespeare Theatre, Alley Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, the Kennedy Center and others. TV credits include “The Good Wife,” “Da Brick,” Law & Order,” “Law & Order: CI,” Law & Order: SVU,” a recurring role on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” “Trinity,” “Sex and the City,” “The Hoop Life” and “HACK.” Film credits include the independent films Violet and Daisy and The Bounty Hunter and major motion pictures All Fall Down and I Hate Valentine’s Day. Miss Gravátt is a graduate of Howard University and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

TYRIEN OBAHNJOKO (Joseph Asagai/George Murchison) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. He most recently starred as Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird for the Denver Center Theatre Company. Mr. Obahnjoko is a graduate from The Juilliard School Drama Division and has also studied at the Guthrie Theater Experience for Actors in Training and the Dallas Theater Center Actor Training Program. He has appeared in several theatrical Juilliard productions including A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park, The Merchant of Venice, Picnic, Broadway, Macbeth, A Midsummer Nights' Dream and the short films Wu Is Dead and Empire Corner. He received a special award as an Honor Bar Member of the International Thespian Society.

BOWMAN WRIGHT (Walter Lee Younger, Jr.) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in A Raisin in the Sun. He was last seen in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the La Jolla Playhouse. Other regional credits include The Dreamer Examines His Pillow at Shakespeare and Company, The Piano Lesson at Virginia Stage Co, Since Africa and House with no Walls at Interact Theatre, and Fences at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. He received his B.F.A. from the University of the Arts and his M.F.A. from University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Mr. Wright would like to his family and friends for their support.

LORRAINE HANSBERRY (Playwright) was born in Chicago in 1930 as the daughter of a real-estate broker. Interested in writing from an early age, she studied at the University of Wisconsin and then briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University. She moved to New York and worked on the staff of the black newspaper, Freedom. During this time she wrote A Raisin in the Sun which was inspired by the Hansberry family’s legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago. A Raisin in the Sun opened in March 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway where it ran for 530 performances. At the age of 29, Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest American playwright and only the fifth woman to receive the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play with A Raisin in the Sun, and the play was nominated for four Tony Awards. Ms. Hansberry wrote the screenplay for the 1961 film which was given a special award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her next play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, written in 1964, ran on Broadway for 101 performances and closed on the night of her untimely death from cancer at the age of 34. She left behind an unfinished novel and several plays. In 1969 a collection of her writings, adapted by her husband was produced on Broadway as To be Young, Gifted and Black and was published in book form the following year.

ROBERT O’HARA (Director) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with A Raisin in the Sun. In 2011 he released his film writing and directing debut, The Inheritance. He received the 2010 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play for Antebellum and an OBIE Award for his Direction of the World Premiere of the critically acclaimed In the Continuum at Primary Stages. He wrote and directed the World Premiere of Insurrection: Holding History at the New York Shakespeare Festival. The piece received the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play and was subsequently published by both TCG and Dramatist Play Service. He directed the world premiere of Brother/Sister Plays (Part 2), a co-production with McCarter Theatre and New York Shakespeare Festival. His recent stage directing credits include Tough Titty at Magic Theater; Eclipsed at CTG/Kirk Douglas Theater; A Life in the Theater at Alliance Theatre; Brother Size and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet at City Theater. ACT/Zeum recently produced his play, Good Breeding. His play, Etiquette of Vigilance, was recently produced by Steppenwolf Theater Company. He rewrote The Wiz (revived at LaJolla Playhouse directed by Des McAnuff). His plays have been produced around the world and he has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, TCG Extended Collaboration Grant, NEA/TCG Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists, the First Mark Taper Forum's Sherwood Award, and the TANNE Award for Exceptional Body of Work. American Conservatory Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, LaJolla Playhouse, The McCarter Theatre, NEA, Mark Taper Forum, Theater/Emory, Theatres De Mimes, Le Theatre L’Odeon, Theaterworks/USA and Bill Cosby have all commissioned work from him. Mr. O’Hara has also directed at Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theater, American Conservatory Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Edinburgh Fringe Fest, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, the Culture Project, the Flea, Athenaeum Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company. He has been an Artist in Residence at the American Conservatory Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, Theatre/Emory, O’Neill Theatre Festival, as well as an Endowed Chair at UCSD, Visiting Professor at DePaul University School of the Arts, and Adjunct at NYU, UI Chicago and Tufts. He directed the first Sundance Institute Theatre Workshop at the NYSF and recently completely his second Sundance Lab, directing Colman Domingo’s, Wild With Happpy. He received his Directing M.F.A. from Columbia University School of Arts has served on the Obie Jury, various NEA/TCG Juries and the Pew Fellowship Juries. He has written screenplays for Martin Scorsese and Universal (Live: Richard Pryor), Spike Lee and HBO (Micheaux), Jon Avnet and ABC (Parting the Waters), Richard Zanuck (Decalogue), Sony Pictures (Journey Is the Destination), Fine Line Cinema (Boorda) and Artisan Entertainment. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Undergraduate Acting Program at the NYU/TISCH School of the Arts.

CLINT RAMOS (Scenic and Costume Designer) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with A Raisin in the Sun. Recent sets and/or costumes include How The World Began for the Women’s Project, Hurt Village and Angels in America for Signature Theatre Company, Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism at the Public Theater directed by Michael Greif, One Arm for The New Group/directed by Moises Kaufman, August: Osage County at the Old Globe, directed by Sam Gold),When The Rain Stops Falling at Lincoln Center Theatre, After The Revolution at Playwrights Horizons, Puss in Boots (Tectonic/New Victory), Measure for Measure at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Winter’s Tale for NYSF/Public Theater, The Temperamentals for New World Stages, The Good Negro for the Public Theater and many others. Other New York credits include Second Stage, New York Theater Workshop, Culture Project, Foundry, Ma-Yi, New Georges, Red Bull, Clubbed Thumb, others. Regional credits include Huntington Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, A.R.T, Guthrie Theater, Alliance Theatre, La Jolla, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, California Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Folger, Asolo, CenterStage, Kansas City Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center, Williamstown, others. Mr. Ramos is the recipient of the 2011 Craig Noel Award, 2010 Lucille Lortel award, 2009 TDF Irene Sharaff award, 2007 and 2009 American Theater Wing Henry Hewes award, 2008 & 2010 Drama Desk nominations.

JAPHY WEIDEMAN (Lighting Designer) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with A Raisin in the Sun. New York credits include Sons of the Prophet, Tigers Be Still at Roundabout Theatre Company; 4000 Miles, All-American, Stunning at Lincoln Center; All New People, The Talls at Second Stage; The Singing Forest at The Public/NYSF; Jack Goes Boating, Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Little Flower of East Orange for LAByrinth Theatre Company. Regionally, he has designed for ACT, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Houston Grand Opera, Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, Magic Theatre, Old Globe, Santa Fe Opera, Shakespeare Theatre, Signature Theatre, Westport. International credits include La Scala, RSC, West End, Edinburgh International Festival, Epidaurus Greece, National Theater of Korea, Amsterdam-NDO, and Opera Lyon. Awards and Mr. Weideman has been nominated for numerous Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, Hewes Design, Craig Noel/San Diego, and Bay Area Critics Awards. Upcoming projects include 4000 Miles and Slow Girl at Lincoln Center.

LINDSAY JONES (Sound Designer) is very pleased to return to Geva Theatre Center for A Raisin in the Sun, which is his 18th production here. Off-Broadway credits include Through the Night (Union Square/Westside Theatres), The Brother/Sister Plays (Public Theater), The Burnt Part Boys, (Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard), Top Secret (New York Theatre Workshop), In the Continuum (Primary Stages) and many others. Regionally he has designed for the Guthrie Theatre, Center Stage, American Conservatory Theatre, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Alliance, Goodman, Arena Stage, Yale Repertory, The Old Globe, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass and many others. International credits include Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Canada), Royal Shakespeare Company (England), as well as productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Scotland. Mr. Jones is the recipient of five Joseph Jefferson Awards and 16 nominations, two Ovation Awards and three nominations, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, two ASCAP Plus Awards, two Drama Desk Award nominations, and nominations for Henry Hewes Design, Barrymore, Austin Critics Circle, AUDELCO and NAACP Theatre Awards. He was also the first sound designer to win the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Film scoring credits include HBO Films’ A Note of Triumph (2006 Academy Award, Best Documentary), and Family Practice for Sony Pictures.

BETTIE O. ROGERS (Wig/Hair Designer) returns to Geva Theatre Center where she designed wigs for Fences, Sweeney Todd, Pride and Prejudice, Five Course Love, and 1776 among others. Broadway credits for hair design include A View from the Bridge; Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk; One Mo Time; Riverdance on Broadway; Street Corner Symphony and Swinging on a Star. As a wigmaker/hair designer her credits extend beyond 100 productions in film, television, and theatre. Currently, Ms. Rogers is in her sixth season as the Department Head Hairstylist for NBC’s Saturday Night Live for which she’s received an Emmy in 2008 and a total of four nominations.

JENNI WERNER (Dramaturg) is in her first season as the Director of Literary and Artistic Programs at Geva Theatre Center. Previously, she served as the Director of Programming at Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the non-profit theatre field. From 2005-2011, Ms. Werner produced TCG’s annual National Conference, curating the content and organizing the logistics for the largest national gathering of professionals in the non-profit theatre field. For the past six years, she was adjunct instructor in the Program in Educational Theatre in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, and is now an adjunct instructor at both SUNY Geneseo and RIT. Favorite dramaturgy credits include Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure and Midsummer Night's Dream, all produced by NYU’s youth outreach program; and productions of Marisol, She Stoops to Conquer, The Basset Table and Naga-Mandala. Ms. Werner has an M.F.A. in dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a B.A. in theatre and history from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

MICHAL HAREL (Assistant to the Director) is thrilled to be assisting Mr. O’Hara with this innovative piece. She was seen at Geva Theatre Center in the 2006 production of A Christmas Carol, and also studied at the Geva Summer Academy in 2005 and 2006. Ms. Harel recently graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in Acting from Columbia College Chicago. She immensely enjoys exploring the world of theatre both onstage and backstage, and is looking forward to her next adventure.

VERONICA AGLOW (Stage Manager) returns to Geva Theatre Center where she last stage managed A Christmas Carol, Dracula, On Golden Pond, Girls Night The Musical and assistant stage managed Perfect Wedding, The Music Man and Over the Tavern. Ms. Aglow recently stage managed the Philadelphia run of Girls Night at the Kimmel Center’s Innovation Studio, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Little Shop of Horrors at the Devon Theatre. Favorite credits include productions of Parade, Can-Can, and the world premiere of Broadway’s American Idiot. Ms. Aglow is a proud graduate of Point Park University. As always, she would like to thank her super-supportive parents, who have helped make her dreams a reality. FRANK CAVALLO (Assistant Stage Manager) returns to Geva Theatre Center where he has stage managed numerous productions, including Perfect Wedding, On Golden Pond, The Music Man, A Raisin in the Sun, Anything Goes, Below the Belt, Five Guys Named Moe (twice), Vigil, several Reflections Festival premieres and the occasional production of A Christmas Carol. He has also worked as a stage manager at various other regional theatres, as the production manager for the Rochester Children’s Theatre at Nazareth College, and toured for Poetry in Motion with Ms. Salome Jens’ one woman show, About Anne…, featuring the poetry of Anne Sexton.

FRANK CAVALLO (Assistant Stage Manager) returns to Geva Theatre Center where he has stage managed numerous productions, including Perfect Wedding, On Golden Pond, The Music Man, A Raisin in the Sun, Anything Goes, Below the Belt, Five Guys Named Moe (twice), Vigil, several Reflections Festival premieres and the occasional production of A Christmas Carol. He has also worked as a stage manager at various other regional theatres, as the production manager for the Rochester Children’s Theatre at Nazareth College, and toured for Poetry in Motion with Ms. Salome Jens’ one woman show, About Anne…, featuring the poetry of Anne Sexton.

JULIE ANN MADONIA (Assistant Stage Manager) started at Geva Theatre Center as an Apprentice Stage Manager for the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 Seasons. Her favorite shows during those seasons included Laughter on the 23rd Floor, A Christmas Carol, Later Life, Five Guys Named Moe and Antigone. She is also honored to have been a part of the opening season of the Nextstage, for which she stage managed Stop Kiss and Women Who Steal. Ms. Madonia has previously stage managed three years of Hibernatus Interruptus as well as Stars of Geva in conjunction with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Thanks to Derek, Mom & Dad for their continued love and support. Love to Michael and Lilly.