Step into the smoky allure of this Tony Award-winning play and go on a spellbinding journey through the life and music of the iconic Billie Holiday.
Step back into time and immerse yourself in the soulful atmosphere of Emerson’s Bar and Grill, where every note resonates with the magic of Lady Day. Featuring a selection of Billie Holiday’s most well-known songs including “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child” performed live, the magic of this night will echo through your soul as you experience the highs and lows of her extraordinary journey. Don’t miss this unforgettable experience that celebrates the enduring legacy of one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time and secure your tickets now for a night of jazz, blues, and the timeless magic of Billie Holiday.
Content Advisory: Please be aware this production contains depictions of drug and alcohol use, and references to sexual violence, racism, and racial violence including the use of racial slurs. It is recommended for ages 14 and up. This performance is approximately 90 minutes long with no intermission.
Click here to read the performance program.
Why you Should See LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL
Because this music-filled production celebrates visceral, full-spirited artist and performer Billie Holiday. Escape to Emerson’s Bar and Grill for an evening of soulful jazz and story.
Join us for Music Fridays!
We are excited to have Kansas City-based jazz French horn and piano player Loren Broaddus playing in our lobby before our Friday performances of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill! Loren is currently finishing his master’s degree in jazz studies at UMKC. He has played the piano for 17 years and the horn for 11, and has led his own groups in Kansas City.
Get tickets to any of our Friday shows and come early to enjoy Loren!
Cast
Also Featuring
Creative Team
Directed by
Nedra Dixon
Music Director
Pamela Baskin-Watson
Scenic Designer
Rana Esfandiary
Costume Designer
Samantha Jones
Light Designer
Jason Lynch
Sound Designer
Jon Robertson
Wig Designer/Makeup Consultant
Earon Nealey
Associate Director
Ile Haggins
Associate Sound Director
Gianna Agostino
Bass
Amil McDaniel
Drums
Taylor Babb
Casting
Katja Zarolinski, CSA
Local Casting
Andi Meyer
Stage Manager
Alex Murphy
Production Assistant
Addie Price
Understudy – Billie
Amber McKinnon
ANGELA WILDFLOWER (Billie Holiday) (She/Her) KCRep: Venice. Broadway: Motown The Musical (Mary Wells). Off-Broadway: Venice (Hailey Daisy/Public Theatre). Regional: The Color Purple (Celie/Broadway Sacramento), The Color Purple (Shug Avery/The Denver Center, Latte Da/Geva Theatre), Ain’t Misbehavin (Charmaine, Rubicon Theatre ), My Lord What A Night (CATF), Emojiland (NYTF), October Sky (The Old Globe), Avenue Q (3-D Theatrical), Crowns (Pasadena Playhouse/Ebony Rep/ Unicorn Theatre), All Shook Up (3-D Theatrical), Dangerous Beauty (Pasadena Playhouse). Local: The Unicorn Theatre, Theatre For Young America, The Coterie. TV/Film: Blue Bloods (CBS); The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon Prime), FBI (CBS), Power: Raising Kanan (Starz), Atlanta (FX), Russian Doll (Netflix), Roxanne Roxanne Roxanne (Netflix), Education: BA, Spelman College. AEA Member AngelaWildflower.com, Instagram: iWildflower
BRIAN WARD (Jimmy Powers/Piano) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Awards: Anthony B. Cius Jr. Award, KU School of Music. Education: DMA, University of Kansas; MST, Portland StateUniversity; BM, Portland State. brianwardmusic.net
Facebook: BrianWardOrganTrio
Instagram: BrianWardMusic
AMBER A. McKINNON (US Billie Holiday) (She/Her) KCRep: School Girls, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. Local: The Colored Museum, The African Company Presents Richard III (Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City); The Sarah Play (White Theatre); Eclipsed, An Octoroon (Unicorn Theatre); Amadeus (Spinning Tree Theatre). Education: BFA in Drama, New York University, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Stonestreet Studios.
MUSICIANS
TAYLOR BABB (Drums) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Local: Buddy! A Buddy Holly Story (New Theatre); Kiss Me, Kate (University of Kansas); Hair (Wichita State); various productions with the Lawrence Arts Center. Education: B.A. in Jazz Studies, University of Kansas.
AMIL McDANIEL (Bass) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Education: Current Music Performance student at Kansas City, Kansas Community College (KCKCC)
CREATIVE TEAM
LANIE ROBERTSON (Playwright) Lanie Robertson’s first plays, The Insanity of Mary Girard and Back County Crimes, are frequently performed by schools and community theatres. His play about Billie Holiday, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, was produced on Broadway and in London’s West End with Audra McDonald. Many of his works are about iconic artists and the societal issues they faced: Nasty Little Secrets (Joe Orton), Woman Before a Glass (Peggy Guggenheim), Alfred Stieglitz Loves O’Keeffe (Georgia O’Keeffe), Nobody Lonesome for Me (Hank Williams), The Gardener (Claude Monet), and Blythe Coward (Noël Coward). His works have been produced at the Alley Theatre, the Alliance Theatre, Annenberg Center, Arena Stage, Barrington Stage, the Edinburgh Festival, Festival d’Avignon, George St. Playhouse, Kennedy Center, Old Globe, Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, Theatre de la Huchette, Theatre Petit Montparnasse, Theatre Silvia Montfort, Vineyard Theatre, Virginia Stage, the Walnut Street Theatre, Westside Arts Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. His first novel is to be published in 2024. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, the Society des Auteur et Compositeurs Dramatiques, and the Writers Guild, East.
NEDRA DIXON (Director) (She/Her) As a life-long creative artist with a rich, extensive theatrical career spanning Broadway and Off-Broadway, National tours, regional theatre stages and concert venues, White House and Kennedy Center performances, and who is currently very active in the progressive arts scene of Kansas City, MO, Nedra no longer thinks of herself, solely, as what we in the Musical Theatre tradition refer to as a “triple threat”…an Actor/Singer/Dancer, adding Director/Choreographer to that “threat”. Rather…as an ever-evolving, ever-curious artist, Nedra joyously embraces the role of, and finding the fire of… “Griot”. Creating the rich stories, sharing the glorious sounds of her Black, definitively American history…of her Black, definitively American culture…is a compelling force that is an inextricable part of her being. It is as necessary as oxygen that these voices and stories are vibrantly, boldly expressed. Most recently, in partnership with her dear friend, colleague and writing partner, Pamela Baskin-Watson, they brought to the artistic front, in soaring music and vivid story-telling, a look at the intriguing lives of eight Black women, in their original new work, A GOD • SIB’S TALE: A Folk Opera. Currently, it is a gift to work with Pam to bring Lanie Robertson’s story of Jazz icon, Billie Holiday, to breath-taking, heart-piercing life, in this beautiful KCREP production of LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL. Nedra finds this ‘evolution’ to “Griot” in her artistic journey, fitting. She is a “Keeper of the Flame” of her undeniable artistic Traditions.
RANA ESFANDIARY (Scenic Design) (She/Her) KCRep: What the Constitution Means to Me, Twelfth Night, Chasing Gods, Cubic (Costume/Scenic). Regional: Love & Information, Everybody, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (University of Kansas). Costume Design: Urinetown, Sycorax, Airness (University of Kansas); The Wolves (Montclair State University). Lighting Design: The Legend of Georgia McBride, La Cage aux Folles (Kansas Repertory Theatre); Mascot (Projection, The Living Room); Sunset Baby (MeltingPot KC Theatre). Director: Gaza Monologues (Zoom production, Stanford University, Abbasi Program); Ashes to Ashes (University of Kansas). Awards: Commendation Award for Achievement in Costume Design Sycorax (The Kennedy Center of American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), 2020); Commendation Award for Achievement in Scenic Design for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (KCACTF, 2019); Kuhlke Humanitarian Award, University of Kansas, 2018; Joseph R. Roach Dissertation Research Award (University of Kansas, 2016-2017); Diversity Leadership Award, Group Category Interactive Theatre Group(University of Kansas, 2016). Education: Ph.D. (with honors, Theatre Studies) and MFA (with honors), University of Kansas; BA in Playwriting, Art University of Tehran, Iran. Dr. Esfandiary is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas. www.ranaesfandiary.com/
SAMANTHA JONES (Costume Design) (She/Her) KCRep: For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Regional: The Lonely Few (MCC Theatre); King James (Manhattan Theatre Club); POTUS, Every Brilliant Thing, Power of Sail (Geffen Playhouse); Jelly’s Last Jam. STEW (Pasadena Playhouse); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; King James (Center Theatre Group), Once On This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Dreamgirls (McCarter Theatre); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre Company); Goodspeed Musicals, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, Paramount Theatre (Aurora), Drury Lane Theatre, Writers Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago Children’s Theatre, TimeLine Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, The Muny, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland Playhouse, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, First Stage Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Players Theater. International: Harry Potter: Yule Ball. Education: MFA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; BFA Howard University. Upcoming: Two Trains Running (The Acting Company); Fat Ham (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) Affiliations: U.S.A. Local 829. samanthacjones.com
JASON LYNCH (Lighting Design) (He/Him) KCRep: Nina Simone: Four Women. New York: You Are Here: An Evening with Solea Pfeiffer (Audible Theatre/Minetta Lane Theatre); The Color Purple, How to Catch Creation (Geva Theatre Center). Regional: Inherit the Wind, Lucha Teotl, The Nacirema Society…, Layalina, I Hate It Here, Ohio State Murders, The Sound Inside, School Girls: Or, the African Mean Girls Play, Lottery Day, (Goodman Theatre); English (Guthrie Theater/Goodman Theatre); the ripple, the wave that carried me home (world premiere/co-production Berkeley Repertory Theatre/Goodman Theatre); East Texas Hot Links, The Island (Court Theatre); Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Dream Hou$e (world premiere/co-production, Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre/Alliance Theatre); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre Company) Dreamgirls (Goodspeed Musicals/McCarter Theater Center); Clue, Skeleton Crew (Alley Theatre); Mala (The Old Globe); A Doll’s House and A Doll’s House, Part 2 (in repertory), The Wild Party, Drag On (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); The Three Musketeers, Rent, Once On This Island, Black Odyssey, Hairspray (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); 1919 (world premiere), Choir Boy (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); cullud wattah (Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago); Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Feeding Beatrice (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis). Awards: Equity Jeff Award, Choir Boy; Black Theater Alliance Award, cullud wattah, Kill Move Paradise; Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, among others. jasondlynch.com
JON ROBERTSON (Sound Design) (He/Him) KCRep: Cyrano, Evita. New York: X, or Betty Shabazz vs The Nation (The Acting Company), Lesson Plan (On Site Opera). Regional: Kansas City Swing (REP STL), Cosmic Cowboy (White Snakes Project). Composition Conferences/Festivals: New Music Gathering, SEAMUS, Electronic Music Midwest, Kansas City Fringe, UC Davis Summer Arts, Opera America, and many others. Radio Drama: Kansas City: 1924 with Forrest Attaway and Victor Raider-Wexler. Awards: 2022 Hometown Media Award in the Entertainment and Arts Series category for Kansas City: 1924. Education: MFA Sound Design (UMKC 2016), Master of Music Composition (UMKC 2011), Bachelor of Music (University of Arizona 2005). Jon is a sound designer, audio engineer and composer based in Kansas City, MO, who composes and designs for theatrical productions, radio plays, film and video. He teaches electronic music and sound design at the University of Evansville, and was recently an adjunct instructor at University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Kansas City Art Institute, and Missouri Western State University.
PAMELA BASKIN-WATSON (Music Director) KCRep: Nina Simone: Four Women. Regional: Nina Simone: Four Women (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre). Local: Kiss Me, Kate; Parade, City of Angels, 9 to 5, The Color Purple (Metropolitan Ensemble Theater) Billie Elliot, Once on this Island, Finian’s Rainbow, Nine, Children of Eden, Rent, Girlfriend (Spinning Tree Theater) In the Heights and Cabaret (Music Theater Heritage) Five Guys named Mo-, Memphis (Black Rep Theater of K.C-The J co-production) A God’Sib’s Tale (Black Repertory Theater of K.C. (covid cancellation). Awards: 2021-22 OPERA AMERICA New Works IDEA grant recipient. Education: BS/emphasis in piano @ William Jewell College
EARON CHEW NEALEY (Wig Design, Make Up Consultant) KCRep: debut. Broadway: Fat Ham, Macbeth, Chicken and Biscuits, Sweat. New York: Midsummer Night Dream, Malvolio, Twelfth Night (Classical Theater of Harlem); Last Super (SOPAC); On Killing (Soho Rep); Hamlet, The Harder They Come, Fat Ham, Cullad Wattah, Mojada (Public Theater); Little Girl Blue (Goodspeed, New World Stages); On Sugarland (NYTW). Regional: Fat Ham, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (The Huntington) Dames at Sea, Kinky Boots (Bucks County Playhouse); Meet Vera Stark, Matilda (Colorado University); Nina Simone: Four Women (Berkshire Theatre Group); Little Women (Dallas Theater Center); Oklahoma!, Patsy Cline (Weston Playhouse); Memphis, Dream Girls (Cape Fear Regional Theater); Cadillac Crew, Twelfth Night (Yale Rep).
ILE HAGGINS (Associate Director) KCRep: debut. Local: Begetters, Stew, Like Six O’clock (KC Melting Pot Theatre); Smart People, Skeleton Crew (KC Actors Theatre); Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous (KC Black Repertory Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (TIP-Indoors). Upcoming: Jawbone Crack Quick (KC Melting Pot).
GIANNA AGOSTINO (Associate Sound Design) (She/her) KCRep: Cyrano de Bergerac. Local: The Tempest (Sound Supervisor and A2, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); The Inheritance Pts. 1 & 2, Refuge (Unicorn Theatre); Man of La Mancha (Music Theatre Heritage); About Alice (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Everybody (UMKC); Deathtrap (City Theatre of Independence); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Bell Road Barn Players). Radio: Return to Dust, Climate Change Theatre Action (Kansas City Actors Radio Theatre). Regional: Far Away (UNC Charlotte, SETC Winner). Film: Amidst the Ripples (Production by Tova Larson.) Education: Bachelor of Music and Communications (UNC Charlotte); Candidate, MFA in Sound Design (UMKC). @gianna_agostino
ALEX MURPHY (Production Stage Manager) (He/They) KCRep: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Death of a Salesman, The Tallest Tree in the Forest, The Who and the What, The Santaland Diaries, Angels in America, Sticky Traps. Local: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical, Justice at War (Coterie Theatre); Death and the Maiden, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Blithe Spirit, Skylight, Sea Marks, A Lie of the Mind, And Then There Were None, The Realistic Joneses, My Old Lady, I’m Not Rappaort, At Home at the Zoo, The Gin Game (Kansas City Actors Theatre). Regional: The Prom (First National Tour), The Harder They Come, Romeo and Bernadette, Two’s a Crowd (Off-Broadway) Gem of the Ocean, The Scarlet Letter, Two Sisters and a Piano, Wine in the Wilderness (Two River Theatre), American Prophet (Arena Stage), A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story, Still Ready (Actors Theatre of Louisville), How I Learned What I Learned, An Iliad (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival). Education: MFA, University of Missouri – Kansas City. AEA Member
KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA (New York Casting) Katja Zarolinski, CSA, is a New York-based casting director handling productions for theater, film and television. Previous theatre casting work includes Broadway, off-Broadway and regional productions including Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Cape Playhouse, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Mosaic Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, People’s Light, Pittsburgh CLO, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Studio Theatre, Theaterworks Hartford, Virginia Stage Company, and many more. Film credits include Bernard and Huey, Fair Market Value, Senior Moment, Year By The Sea, Child of Grace, My Man Is A Loser, After The Sun Fell, Police State, Stalking the Bogeyman (short). Television credits include Twisted (ABC Family Pilot), Sesame Street, Saint George (NY Casting), and One Night Only (Vevo Pilot).
ANDI MEYER (Kansas City Casting) (She/Her) Based in Osage/Kikapoo/Kansa/Sioux/Otoe Missouria ancestral territory (Kansas City), Andi is an award-winning Kanaka Maoli/Asian American theatre maker/activist, arts educator, and parent. She is the Producing Artistic Director of Tradewind Arts, a boutique arts organization devoted to illuminating, motivating, and amplifying the voice of Native Hawaiian, Oceanic, and Asian American artists. Andi was a 2017-18 Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) Studio Resident. Her work has been recognized with support from ArtsKC, TCG, Asian Arts Initiative, The Kauffman Foundation, Charlotte Street Foundation, JOCO libraries, InterUrban ArtHouse, and the Dramatists Guild Fund, as well as two NEA award winning projects in partnership with The Coterie Theatre including Hana’s Suitcase and Justice at War. Andi’s directorial credits include Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them for Tradewind Arts; Justice at War at The Coterie; and Nomad Motel and Poor Clare at The Unicorn. She has appeared in productions at The Unicorn Theatre, The New Theatre, The Coterie, The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Disney’s Spirit of Aloha, with voice and on-camera clients including Hallmark, H&R Block, Sprint, and McDonald’s. AEA Member
CONCORDE THEATRICALS (Licensor) Concord Theatricals is the world’s most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Our unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Kitt & Yorkey, Ken Ludwig, Marlow & Moss, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anaïs Mitchell, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder and August Wilson. We are the only firm providing truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class production. With offices in New York, London, and Berlin, we have the most expert staffers in the industry.
Sponsored by
Photo (top) : Angela Wildflower as Billie Holiday in KCRep’s 2024 production of LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL • Photo by Don Ipock
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com