Des Bennett (Dramaturg) (they/them) is delighted to be making their dramaturgical debut at Central Square Theater! Des is a multi-hyphenated theatre artist, facilitator, and maker dedicated to continued learning, iterative experimentation, and collective care as the framework for their artistic endeavors. Des is also currently serving as the Connectivity Coordinator at CST, and facilitator of CST’s Backstage Book Club. They were a founder and the previous Artistic Director of Reground Theatre Collective, a Boston-based intercollegiate group for emerging artists, dedicated to new play development and performance innovation. Their recent directing work includes My Body Is A Season (SpeakEasy Stage) and Scenes From Metamorphoses (Northeastern University Department of Theater). Des has held Research Assistantships with Dani Snyder-Young PhD on her recent projects, Theatre participation and arts-integrated peer leadership in substance addiction recovery processes (now an NEA funded project) and Digital performance, wellness, and equity, and contributed to the TDR forthcoming article publication, “Procedurally authored performances of mindful practice: Theatre-for-one, audience labor and self-optimization,” (Snyder-Young  2021).  Des holds a BA in Theater from Northeastern University, where they were awarded the Blackman Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement in the Art of Theatre (2019).

Jason Ries (Props Designer) (he/him) [rhymes with niece] is an award-winning, multidisciplinary designer based in Boston, MA. He relished working on Company One’s 1001 (props), We Are Proud to Present (set), WOLF PLAY (props) and the IRNE and Norton Awarded The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (set). Having designed lights and sets for Actors’ Shakespeare Project (Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, Henry V) and Monkeyhouse (Against the Odds, AE), he got his start as Resident Designer at EXITheatre in San Francisco from 1997-2004, collaborating regularly with Mark Jackson, David Malloy, and Banana, Bag and Bodice.

Nona Hendryx (Original Music Composer) (she/her) Revolutionary art-rock, new-wave goddess Nona Hendryx is a vocalist, songwriter, musician and multimedia artists. Tackling social issues, love and politics, Hendryx’s career spans decades of sound and style evolution. Longtime Nona Hendryx fans know her as one of the groundbreaking group Labelle and their No.1 worldwide hit ‘Lady Marmalade’ (Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi C’est Soir?” The Songwriter, Hendryx, came into her own as a solo artist post Labelle on Rock infused albums.  Her album Mutatis Mutandis (changing those things which need to be changed), Hendryx lends the necessary gravitas to a striking rendition of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit with a smoky vocal tessitura somewhere between funk and the end of the stratosphere. Nona is an Ambassador for Artistry in Music for Berklee College in Boston Conservatory and BerkleeNYC.  She curated and performed in a production she created for The Metropolitan Museum, ‘Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple of Dendur. Nona is composing music for the revival of ‘Blue’ a play with music, has written two compositions for The Roundabout Theater ‘s production and the Broadway debut of Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress both plays directed by Charles R. Wright and received a grant from Jazz South Arts to compose music for a new play ‘Young Nerds of Color by Melinda Lopez, directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons at Boston’s Central Square Theater.  Nona is passionate about Music, Visual Art and Technology and continues to be a prolific artist.