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Aislinn Brophy

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Aislinn Brophy (Ellen/Ms. Saunders/Cathy) is an actress and arts administrator based in the Boston area. She is excited to be performing in her first show with The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater. Aislinn graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Theater, Dance & Media, and is proud to have been a part of Theater, Dance & Media’s very first graduating class. Recent theater credits include A Story Beyond (Liars and Believers), Heritage Hill Naturals (Fresh Ink Theatre) and Red and the Wolf (Fresh Fruit Festival).

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Marge Dunn

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Marge Dunn (Joshua/Lin) is making her debut with with The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater. Recent Boston credits include Cardboard Piano (The New Repertory Theatre); Miss Holmes, It’s a Wonderful Life (Greater Boston Stage Company); Three Sisters (IRNE nomination), Dancing at Lughnasa, And A Nightingale Sang (IRNE nomination) (Wellesley Repertory Theatre); Dog Act (IRNE nomination) (Theatre On Fire); Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing (Boston Theater Company); and has been seen on stage with Sh!t-faced Shakespeare as Beatrice, Benvolia and Katharina. Offstage she fills her days as a teaching artist, director, fight choreographer, tech director, and yoga instructor.

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Joshua Wolf Coleman

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Joshua Wolf Coleman (Danforth)  Central Square Theater: Cloud 9; Joshua has worked with luminaries of the stage including Edward Albee, Joseph Chaiken and Anne Bogart at The Guthrie Theater, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the La Jolla Playhouse. Other roles include: Norry the Drag Queen, the Headless Sheep, Puddn’head Wilson, and Macbeth, Lysander, Friar Lawrence, Angleo, and Iago. He is currently playing President Obama in web series, Obama Monologues. Television work includes, Bosch, How to Get Away With Murder, The West Wing, Scandal, House, Huff, Grays Anatomy and Touchstone’s Hidalgo.

August 2019.

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Luther Henderson

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Luther Henderson is and Arranger, Musical, Director and Pianist. Born on March 14, 1919 in Kansas City, MO, Henderson moved to Harlem with his family and became neighbors with Duke Ellington at age four. Ellington would become a major influence on Henderson’s life, beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s when he adapted and orchestrated some of Ellington’s larger works, such as “Harlem — A Tone Parallel” and “Three Black Kings,” for performance in a concerto grosso format by Henderson’s orchestra and another symphony orchestra. Henderson’s classical training at the Juilliard School and music study at New York University led Ellington to dub Henderson “his classical arm.” His talents included composing, arranging, conducting, and performing, and he was hired by Ellington in 1946 to orchestrate his Broadway musical, Beggar’s Holiday.

Henderson worked on more than 50 Broadway productions in various capacities. For Ain’t Misbehavin’, he was the original pianist as well as orchestrator, arranger, and musical supervisor. For Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, he was the musical consultant and arranged several selections. He orchestrated such musicals as the Tony Award-winning Raisin, Play On!, and Jelly’s Last Jam. As a dance arranger, Henderson’s credits included Flower Drum Song, Do Re Mi, Funny Girl, and No, No Nanette. His skill in bringing a jazz sensibility to musical theater was much in demand. For Jelly’s Last Jam, he rearranged Jelly Roll Morton’s jazz compositions and musical fragments into a hit musical; Ain’t Misbehavin’ used the music of jazz great Fats Waller as a base.

Henderson’s talents extended to the arena of television, where he held positions as musical director, orchestrator, arranger, and pianist for the Columbia Pictures television special Ain’t Misbehavin’ for which he received an Emmy nomination.

Albums to his credit included several with the Canadian Brass Quintet and Eileen Farrell’s I Got a Right to Sing the Blues, which was re-released in 1992. For Columbia Records, the Luther Henderson Orchestra recorded six albums. In addition, Henderson contributed to various albums recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Andre Kostelanetz Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, Mandy Patinkin, Polly Bergen, Anita Ellis, and others. Henderson’s composition “Ten Good Years,” with lyricist Martin Charnin, was recorded by Nancy Wilson on her Coconut Grove album.

Henderson died of cancer in 2003. His widow, Billie Allen- Henderson, created the Luther Henderson Scholarship Fund at the Juilliard School in New York in 2006 for students of color to pursue musical study.

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Murray Horwitz

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Murray Horwitz became the host and co-producer (with Jill Ahrold Bailey) of WAMU’s The Big Broadcast in June of 2016. Murray is a Tony Award-winning playwright, lyricist, and director, whose accomplishments include originating the hit NPR comedy quiz, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, co-authoring the hit Broadway musical Ain’t Misbehavin’, and writing the song lyrics for John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby at The Metropolitan Opera. He has been called, “My first mentor” by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

In 2016, Murray collaborated on a new musical, Born For This: The BeBe Winans Story, at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and Arena Stage in Washington. He is Director of Special Projects for Washington Performing Arts, for whom, in 2014, he wrote and directed Of Thee We Sing: The Marian Anderson 75th Anniversary Celebration. His other playwriting credits include Hard Sell at the Public Theater in New York; RFK – The Journey to Justice for L.A. Theatreworks; Freedom Rider, at the University of Missouri/Kansas City: and a musical for young audiences, The Magic Tree House: A Night In New Orleans with Allen Toussaint and Will Osborne. He is an occasional commentator for NPR News, and appears with Susan Stamberg in NPR’s annual special, Hanukkah Lights.

The winner of three Peabody Awards, a Tony for Ain’t Misbehavin’, two National Medals of Arts (for NPR Cultural Programming and Washington Performing Arts), and the Order of Arts and Letters from the government of France, Mr. Horwitz began his career as a clown in the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus.

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