2024 Barbara Whitman Award Finalists – Jo Cattell, Bo Frazier, Cara Hinh, Lanise Antoine Shelley, and Benita de Wit

Jo Cattell

Photo Credit: Joe Mazza

Jo Cattell (Playwright/Director) is a leading voice in the convergence of live theatre and immersive technologies, reimagining storytelling possibilities through the development and creation of new plays with tech. Her work has appeared at Sundance Film Festival, the BBC, Sky Television, Cirque du Soleil, and multiple US and UK theaters. She is a member of the LightPoets theatre collective, whose immersive graphic novel, Particle Ink: The House Of Shattered Prisms, will be opening at MGM Luxor in 2024. The LightPoet’s recently created Particle Ink: Speed Of Dark, which performed in Las Vegas 2022. LightPoets also created Particle Ink’s onstage metaverse for TED:2022 where the audience witnessed a world-first syncing of AR over 1400 devices with live performance. She is resident artist at the world-renowned Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois, with whom she created Hummingbird, an immersive theatrical experience with VR which has been performed in the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre and at Siggraph, Canada. She is a 3Arts awardee, a Joan Mitchell Center Fellow, a 2021 Illinois Artist Fellow and a Perkins Coie awardee. Cattell was the Maggio Directing Fellow at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. She is currently Head of content and co-creator at Kaleidoco, an innovative technology and entertainment company creating original IP and technology.

Bo Frazier

Bo Frazier (they/them) is a two-time Jeff Award-Nominated director, producer, and deviser. As a transfemme, non-binary, queer, and neurodivergent theatre artist, they are interested in traditionally excluded stories told in extremely imaginative ways. Recently, Bo directed the 2023 all-trans production of tick, tick…BOOM! featured in American Theatre Magazine, garnering 5 Jeff Award Nominations including Best Director and Best Musical.  They were also one of the #VG9 staff members fighting for Victory Gardens Theater to stay alive in 2022. Bo’s international career includes stints in London, NYC, and Chicago, where they have worked with with companies such as Goodman Theatre, National Theatre London, Signature Theatre, Dixon Place, NAMT, AMTP, Theatre167, Heartbeat Opera, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and London Theatre Workshop which they co-founded. SELECT DIRECTING/CHOREOGRAPHY: Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill (Jeff Award Nom-Best Director), Hit the Wall by Ike Holter, Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, Love & Information by Caryl Churchill, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens, and Associate Director for the London Premiere ofbare: the rock musical. Bo has developed/directed new work by Dillon Chitto, Jaime Jarrett, Dakota Parobek, C. Meaker, Leigh M Marshall, and KT Peterson. They started their career as a musical theatre performer, most notably appearing in the London Revival of Sondheim’s Assassins. MFA Directing – University of Iowa alongside the Iowa Playwright’s Workshop.  FINALIST: Princess Grace Award. Represented by Bret Adams Ltd. www.bofrazier.com

Cara Hinh

cara hinh (they/she) is a queer, fat, Việt, and Hoosier theatre maker. They rejoice in work that uplifts the messy intersectionalities of holding multiple identities. Select credits include Transfer direction of Sanctuary City at Arena Stage and Berkeley Rep, Little Women at Perseverance Theatre, Buried Ruins with the Sống Collective, love you long time (already) at Atlantic MixFest. Cara has been a Drama League Fellow, member of the ‘20-22 Roundabout Directors Group, a Directing Apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, SDC Observer on Hadestown and a Fellow at Baltimore Center Stage. carahinh.com

Lanise Antoine Shelley

Lanise Antoine Shelley (She/her) is a Haitian actress, director, painter, and host of the podcast, “When They Were Young; Amplifying Voices of Adoptees.” As a director, Lanise is spurred by the rigor of classical adaptations and committed to illuminating uncharted BIPOC classics from the diaspora. She was last seen collaborating with Red Bull Theater, Jackalope Theater, Pioneer Theater, Lookingglass Theater (AD), Chicago Shakespeare (AD), 16th St Theater, The Mercury Store, Paramount Theater, associate producing the indie film, “Fresh Hell” and others. She was previously awarded Black Theatre Coalition AMEX Directing Fellow 2023, Drama League Classical Directing Fellow, Stratford Shakespeare’s Chicago Fellow, and Victory Gardens Theater Directing Fellow.

Lanise received an MFA from ART/MXAT at Harvard University; BFA from Cornish College of The Arts; a certificate in classical theater from BADA in Oxford, England; a certificate in classical theater from Birmingham Conservatory in Canada, and trained in voice/speech with Kristin Linklater in Scotland. www.laniseantoineshelley.com

Benita de Wit

Benita de Wit (they/them) is a New York-based Australian director of theatre and performance. Most recently they were the Resident Director for Six on Broadway and Assistant Director for Straight Line Crazy starring Ralph Fiennes. Previous directing credits include Small Mouth Sounds (Circle in the Square), The Moors (Theatre Row), The Laramie Project (Pace University), Tartuffe (Pace University), Bat Out of Hell (New York City Center, US & UK tours, Associate Director) and the Australian premieres of Anchuli Felicia King’s Slaughterhouse (Belvoir St Theatre) and Kate Mulley and Andy Peterson’s Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Co). Benita is an SDC Associate Member and a New Georges affiliated artist. They have been an artist in residence at Barn Arts, Catwalk Residency and Vox Theatre Festival and they have worked at The Playwrights Realm, Classic Stage Company, The Shed, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Exquisite Corpse Company, and internationally in London, Edinburgh and Australia.   Their immersive and multidisciplinary work has been performed at National Sawdust, New York Public Library, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Roulette Intermedium and has included concerts with new music ensemble Kinds of Kings, a music video for indie pop band Tenderheart Bitches and immersive performances in collaboration with technology artist Gabe BC. Benita has an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and is on Faculty at Circle in the Square Theatre School.