The Piano Lesson

The Cast

JONIECE ABBOTT-PRATTJONIECE ABBOTT-PRATT (GRACE)

is making her debut at Yale Rep. Her New York and regional stage credits include The Good Negro directed by Liesl Tommy (The Public Theater); Dividing the Estate (People’s Light & Theatre Company); Mama’s Gonna Buy You (William Inge Theatre Festival); Dirt Rich (Summer Stage); The Piano Lesson (Delaware Theatre Company); Stick Fly, The Overwhelming (Contemporary American Theater Festival); False Creeds (Alliance Theatre Company); Breath, Boom (Synchronicity Performance Group); and The Doll Play's (Actor’s Express). Film and television: Why Did I Get Married?.
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EISA DAVISEISA DAVIS (BERNIECE; ORIGINAL MUSIC, MUSIC DIRECTOR)

is making her Yale Rep debut. Theatre work includes Passing Strange (OBIE Award), This, Intimate Apparel, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Valley Song, and Adrienne Kennedy’s June and Jean in Concert. Select film and television credits include Passing Strange, The Wire, Damages, Mercy, the Law & Order franchise, Welcome to the Rileys opposite James Gandolfini, Robot Stories, the HBO short Happenstance,and the upcoming In the Family. As a playwright and composer, Eisa has collaborated with Liesl Tommy on both Angela’s Mixtape (named a Best of 2009 by The New Yorker) and The History of Light. Other plays include Paper Armor (presented at Yale’s Langston Hughes Centenary), Six Minutes, Ramp (winner of the Ruby Prize), and Bulrusher, a 2007 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has performed original music from her album Something Else such as BAMCafe, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, and the Yale Cabaret. A graduate of Harvard, the Actors Studio School, and an alumna of New Dramatists, Eisa lives in Brooklyn, NY. www.eisadavis.com
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TYRONE MITCHELL HENDERSONTYRONE MITCHELL HENDERSON (AVERY)

made his Yale Rep debut in the world premiere of The America Play by Suzan-Lori Parks in 1994 and also appeared in the play at The Public Theater. His other New York credits include The Tempest, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Public Sings, Letters to the End of the World, Stonewall, and the first national tour of Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk. His regional theatre credits include Radio Golf, The 39 Steps, Reckless, Enemy of the People, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, Topdog/Underdog, Intimate Apparel, Gutenberg the Musical, Yellowman, The Piano Lesson, Jitney, All My Sons, Art, The Crucible, “MASTER HAROLD” ...and the boys, Angels in America, A Raisin in the Sun, and Blues for an Alabama Sky. Film and Television: Ride for Your Life, The Treatment, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, A Legal Mind, As the World Turns, and All My Children. Awards: AUDELECO Award nominee and recipient of the Dallas Theatre Critics and Leon Rabin Awards.
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CHARLIE HUDSON, IIICHARLIE HUDSON, III (LYMON)

is making his Yale Rep debut. Previous theatre credits include White Women Street (Irish Repertory Theatre);  “MASTER HAROLD” ...and the boys (Portland Stage Company); Fly (Crossroads Theatre Company, The Vineyard Playhouse); A Raisin in the Sun, Richard III, A Christmas Carol, All the King’s Men, Cyrano de Bergerac (Trinity Repertory Company); Hillary (New Georges); Old Comedy (Classic Stage Company); Mother Courage and Her Children (The Public Theater); Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Romeo and Juliet (Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble); Julius Caesar and Topdog/Underdog (Brown/Trinity Consortium). Charlie’s film and television credits include The Rosa Parks Storyand Waterfront, and his voice is featured in the McGraw-Hill's PodClass GRE Vocabulary Study Guide. Mr. Hudson is the 2003 KC/ACTF Irene Ryan Best Actor Award winner, Region IV. He is a 2004 graduate of Alabama State University and a 2007 MFA graduate of the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium.
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LeROY McCLAINLeROY McCLAIN (BOY WILLIE)

is a proud graduate of Yale School of Drama and is excited to return to the Yale Rep stage where, as a student, he appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella.  His Broadway credits include Cymbeline and The History Boys.  Other New York credits include Measure for Measure, Othello (with Philip Seymour Hoffman; also toured internationally in Austria and Germany), The Good Negro (also directed by Liesl Tommy), Oroonoko, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Huck & Holden, and In Search of Stanley Hammer.  His regional credits include Antony and Cleopatra, The Whipping Man, The Good Negro, Blue/Orange, Elmina's Kitchen, Othello, Trouble in Mind, The Comedy of Errors, Rough Crossing, Richard II, Three Days of Rain, Private Eyes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Like Sun Fallin' in the Mouth, and Twelfth Night.  His television and film credits include a recurring role on Rubicon, The Adjustment Bureau, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Guiding Light (recurring), Breaking In, The Stage, and After.  LeRoy also trained at the National Theatre Acting Studio in London.
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KEITH RANDOLPH SMITHKEITH RANDOLPH SMITH (DOAKER)

is making his Yale Rep debut. Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning revival of August Wilson’s Fences (standby for Troy Maxson) starring Denzel Washington, as well as the original productions of King Hedley II and The Piano Lesson; and Come Back, Little Sheba. His Off-Broadway appearances include The First Breeze of Summer, Fabulation,August Wilson’s Jitney, Holiday Heart, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His regional theatre credits include Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage), In Walks Ed (Long Wharf), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (California Shakespeare Festival), Resurrection (Philadelphia Theatre Company), The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove (Goodman Theatre), and Looking Over the President’s Shoulder (Merrimack Rep). Film and television credits include Three Windows, Warrior Class, Backstreet Justice, Girl Six, and Law & Order.
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CHARLES WELDONCHARLES WELDON (WINING BOY)

is the Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc., where he has performed in more than forty plays including The River Niger and A Soldier’s Play.  Film and television work includes Stir Crazy, Roots: The Next Generation, Fast-Walking, The Wishing Tree, and Hill Street Blues.  Charles started his career as lead singer of the Paradon's with the number one song Diamonds and Pearls and segued to musical theatre, starting with the original San Francisco company of Hair. His first Broadway performance was in the musical Big Time Buck White.
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MALENKY WELSHMALENKY WELSH (MARETHA)

made her Yale Rep debut earlier this season in the world premiere of Bossa Nova by Kirsten Greenidge. Malenky’s first stage experience was in the world premiere of Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas at Long Wharf Theatre, and she also appeared in the same show at New Haven Theater Company the following year. Malenky has worked for Wilhemina Models in New York and has performed in a children’s music video. She is a member of the Elm City Girls Choir, and in her free time, she enjoys reading, drawing, playing with her sisters, and skateboarding. Her dream is to be a veterinarian one day.
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