THIS LAND WAS MADE

ANTOINETTE CROWE-LEGACY (Sassy) stars opposite Forest Whitaker in the EPIX series “Godfather of Harlem,” the third season of which is currently streaming on MGM+. Antoinette can also be seen opposite Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto in the WeWork limited series “WeCrashashed” for Apple TV+. Before that, she made her Broadway debut in the highly-acclaimed Slave Play at the August Wilson Theater, which also completed a limited run of the show in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum. Antoinette can also be seen in Rebecca Hall’s feature Passing opposite Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. The film made a near-record breaking sale to Netflix for over $16M at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Among Antoinette’s many theater credits, she played leading roles in both Tori Sampson’s play If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, which Leah Gardiner directed at Playwrights Horizons, as well as in Aziza Barnes’s play BLKS, directed by Robert O’Hara for MCC Theater. Antoinette graduated from Yale’s prestigious MFA Acting Program, where she received the 2018 Carol Finch Dye Award. Past winners include Meryl Streep and Frances McDormand. Antoinette Crowe-Legacy is based in New York.

LELAND FOWLER (Drew) Off-Broadway: Plays for the Plague Year, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); one in two (The New Group); Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick); If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons); Measure for Measure (TFANA). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Rep, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre. TV: “City on a Hill.” Education: BA, Morehouse College; MFA, Yale School of Drama.

MATTHEW GRIFFIN (Troy) is thrilled to be a member of this incredible company and show. Credits include— Broadway: The Collaboration (u/s Jean-Michel Basquiat), Tina — The Tina Turner Musical (OBC), Off-Broadway: The New Yorkers at City Center, Born For This (Cutler Majestic), Cruel Intentions the Musical, Much Ado About Nothing, and others, TV Credits: “Inventing Anna” (Netflix, Co-Star), “Godfather of Harlem” (EPIX, Co-Star), Education: Circle in the Square Theater School. All Glory to God. Thankful for my family and friends, KMR Talent, Henry Russell Bergstein and Destiny Lily, and you.

SEAN PATRICK HIGGINS (Officer Heanes) Sean is returning to the Vineyard Theatre after the workshop production of This Land Was Made to bring the play fully to life. Off Broadway: Sleep No More (PunchDrunk NYC), A Clockwork Orange (New World Stages), Awful Event! (BAC). Regional: D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (Pennsylvania Shakespeare), Robin Hood in Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood (New Theatre), Macbeth in Macbeth (STL Rebel & Misfits) and 14 plays from Shakespeare’s cannon. TV/Film: “The Blacklist,” “Hyacinth,” “And Tomorrow The Entire World,” “Early Light,” “Dirty,” “White Flags,” “Small Dancing Particles,” among others. Certificate from Oxford (BADA). BFA, University of Wyoming. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

YASHA JACKSON (Gail) TV: “The Flight Attendant” (HBO Max, SAG Ensemble Award), “Love Life” (HBO Max), “Black Mirror” (Netflix), “Ray Donovan” (Showtime), “Run the World” (Starz), “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Manifest” (Netflix) “The Get Down” (Netflix), “The Bold Type” (Freeform), “Helpsters” (Apple+), “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime) and “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC). Film: Space Cadet (upcoming), The Hating Game (BCDF Films/Hulu), Clifford the Big Red Dog (Paramount Pictures), A Killer Among Us, Either Side of Midnight, Little Boxes.

EZRA KNIGHT (Mr. Far) Vineyard debut. Broadway: Mean Girls, Pretty Woman (OBC) Cymbeline. Off-Broadway: Coal Country; Public Theatre/Audible Theatre (original cast), Toni Stone; Roundabout Theatre (original cast), Merchant of Venice; Tfana, Oroonoko; Tfana, Julius Caesar; Public Theatre. Regional: Ivo Van Hove’s A View From The Bridge; Goodman Threatre, Playing the Assassin; Penguin Rep/Theatreworks Hartford/DTC, Othello; The Acting Company. TV: “East New York,” “The Equalizer,” “Found,” “Ordinary Joe,” “Power Book3- Raising Kanan,” “Billions,” “Daredevil (season 3),” “The Blacklist,” “Law & Order.” Film: The Tender Bar, Lost Cat Corona, The Abandoned, Blood Sand & Gold, Symposium (Short Film).

JULIAN ELIJAH MARTINEZ (Huey) Vineyard Debut. Broadway: Network. Off-Broadway: Sanctuary City (New York Theater Workshop); Anatomy of A Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company) Mud (Boundless Theater Company); Alligator (New Georges). Regional: King Lear (Shakespeare Theater Company); Father Comes Home From The Wars Part 1, 2, 3 (co-production Yale Rep and A.C.T); and 9 Circles (Forum Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination). TV: “Wu-tang: An American Saga;” “Law and Order: SVU;” “That Damn Michael Che Show;” “Prodigal Son;” and “Elementary.” Other: Company member of The Acting Company, co-founder of the Encompass Collective, Board member of Developing Artist. Training: MFA David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. julianelijahmartinez.com

CURT MORLAYE (Gene) recently completed production on the independent film Rob Peace, directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor. He can be seen in David Simon’s HBO limited series “We Own This City,” as well as in Season 3 of the Apple TV+ series “Dickinson” and the Showtime series “City On A Hill.” Recent theatre credits include Lockdown (Rattlestick Theater) and Wrong River (Flint Repertory Theatre).

OLIVER PALMER (Officer Frey) feels incredibly blessed to be making his off-Broadway debut at the Vineyard Theatre. Regional: American Buffalo (Dorset Theater Festival), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare in the Square). Film/TV: “FBI,” “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Orange is the New Black,” “Daredevil” (Netflix). B.F.A. NYU Tisch Stella Adler/ Experimental Theatre Wing. Originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, Oliver Palmer is an award winning screenwriter dedicated to sharing southern stories. To Elizabeth: my heart, always. More at www.olivercpalmer.com

LIBYA V. PUGH (Miss Trish) Theatrical credits include: Dot (Vineyard Theatre), Tami in How To Catch Creation (Geva Theatre), Nat in Roan at the Gates (Alley Theatre); Naomi in In the Book Of (Florida Studio Theatre); Francine/Lena in Clybourne Park (Alley Theatre); Valdemar/Others in The Complete Fictional Utterly True Final Strange Tale Of Edgar Allen Poe (Baltimore Center Stage). Film/Television: FBI, Kindergarten Teacher, Platinum Wigs, Love or Money (Pilot), One Life To Live, Law & Order: SVU, Dark Seed, Jack’s Big Music Show, Under the City, Positively, and Judy/Judy. Education at the University of Illinois-UC (MFA) and University of Louisiana (BFA).

TORI SAMPSON is a native of Boston. By introducing her daughter to the genius that was Carroll O’Connor, Tori’s mother opened her eyes to the art and power of comedy for “goodness sake”. And it was on and poppin’ from there. Today, Tori focuses her imagination on creating comedies for the stage and screen. Her plays include This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre, 2023) If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, 2019) and Cadillac Crew (Yale Repertory Theater, 2019).

Her plays have been developed at Great Plains Theatre Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s The Ground Floor residency program, Victory Garden’s IGNITION Festival of New Plays, Playwrights Foundation, Ubuntu Festival and Vineyard Theater. Tori is a 2017–18 Playwright’s Center Jerome Fellow and a 2018-19 Mcknight Fellow. Two of her plays appeared on the 2017 Kilroys List. Her awards and honors include the 2016 Relentless Award, Honorable Mention; the 2016 Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting from The Kennedy Center; the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Second Place; the Alliance Theater’s 2017 Kendeda Prize, Finalist; the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Finalist. Tori is currently working on commissions from Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Atlantic Theater Company. She holds a BS in sociology from Ball State University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama.

Tori is currently a writer on “His & Hers” at Netflix. Other T.V. credits include “Citadel” at Amazon, “Three Women” at Showtime, “Hunters” at Amazon, and an episode for the Amazon anthology “Solos.” On the development front, she is currently co-creating an adaptation of the novel The Secret Lives of Church Ladies for HBO Max and an original animated series for Bad Robot. Prior to that she developed a drama with Anonymous Content and Drake, and wrote a comedy for HBO with Issa Rae producing. On the feature side, Tori wrote the movie 61 for Disney+ that tells the true story of Chris Paul.

TAYLOR REYNOLDS is an OBIE-award winning director based in New York, originally from Chicago. Selected directing credits: Clyde’s (Berkeley Rep/Huntington Theatre), La Race (Page 73/Working Theater), Tambo & Bones (Playwrights Horizons/CTG), Man Cave (Page 73), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, New York Times Critic’s Pick), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Baltimore Center Stage/Playwrights Realm), Plano (Clubbed Thumb, Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution), and Think Before You Holla (creator/deviser). Taylor has worked as a director, assistant, and collaborator with companies including Keen Company, Ojai Playwrights Conference, MCC, New Georges, MTC, Signature Theatre Company, and The 24 Hour Plays. She is the 2021 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award recipient, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum.