Horsegirl & Cowdaddy

Samora de la Brisa

Horsegirl

Lindsay Smiling

Cowdaddy

LINDSAY SMILING is an original member of the HotHouse Acting company and is now in his third year as Co-Artistic director of the Wilma Theater. Directing credits include The America Play, The Half-God of Rainfall (Wilma), Hamlet (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Florence and Mojo (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ) Citizen: An American Lyric (New Light), Romeo and Juliet (Delaware Shakespeare Festival). Acting credits include 23 Wilma productions (Fat Ham, My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion, Twelfth Night, Kill Move Paradise) and at over 20 other theaters across the country. Directorial credits include Mojo (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Florence (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Citizen: An American Lyric (New Light Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (Delaware Shakespeare Festival). This summer he will direct Hamlet and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Lindsay co-founded the Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia and is an Adjunct Professor at Temple University where he earned his MFA in Acting. More info about Lindsay @ www.lindsaysmiling.com

Ni-Ni

Bethel

Ni-Ni (he/him) is a trans man who was adopted from China when he was 14 months old. Since childhood he found a sanctuary to process his emotions and express his gender identity onstage. He graduated with a BFA in Acting from Wright State University in 2023 and has a singular professional credit in NAATCO’s Off-Broadway production of ISABEL in 2024… Until now!
@xigaini

DJ Hills

Playwright

DJ Hills (they/them) was (and is) an Animorphs kid. Their plays include Horsegirl & Cowdaddy (the Wilma/Soho Rep), The Caelumids (Ashland New Plays Festival), our chronicle (Great Plains Theatre Commons), and TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG (The Queer Ensemble; shortlist, Yale Drama Series). DJ’s plays have additionally been developed with The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, The Workshop Theater, and Boston Court Pasadena. Their poetry chapbook, Leaving Earth, was published by Split Rock Press. DJ has been a Lambda Literary Fellow in Screenwriting and a resident of Substratum and Tofte Lake Center. They are currently a resident of New Dramatists. Proudly born and raised in the shadows of the Appalachians, DJ now lives in Philadelphia. Find them on the Internet at www.dj–hills.com.

Adil Mansoor

Director

Adil Mansoor (he/him) is a Pittsburgh-based director centering queer folks and people of color. He’s developed new work with The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage & Film, The Playwrights Realm, Playwrights’ Center, Mercury Store, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, City Theater, and others. Mansoor’s solo performance Amm(i)gone, an investigation of Antigone, queerness, and Islam co-created with his mom, is a National Performance Network Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Theater Offensive, and NPN. Amm(i)gone’s national tour is produced by PlayCo, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Mansoor is a 2022 Sundance Art of Practice Fellow and the 2024 Emerging Artist Carol R. Brown Award recipient. Mansoor is the founding Artistic Director of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQ+ youth arts organization. He holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. www.adilmansoor.com

Jian Jung

Set Designer

Jian Jung(she/her) is an Obie Award winning set designer from Korea, based in New York City. Recent theater credits include Meatsuit (2nd Stage), Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons), Watch Me Walk (Soho Rep), The Nosebleed (LCT3 / Woolly Mammoth Theater, DC / New National Theater Tokyo), The Following Evening (PAC-NYC), 9 Kinds of Silence (PlayCo, Mabou Mines), Zoetrope (Abrons / Teatro Victoria Espinosa, Puerto Rico), Kiss (Wilma Theater, Philadelphia; Barrymore Award), Comeuppance (Woolly Mammoth Theater, DC / Wilma Theater, Philadelphia), Ocean Filibuster (A.R.T. Boston), The Day You Begin (Kennedy Center, DC), Suicide Forest (Bushwick Starr), Ludic Proxy (PlayCo, Soho Rep / Japan Society; Lutyens & Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Award). Her Spanish and bi-lingual productions have been in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Venezuela. She teaches at NYU Tisch Design MFA program and Sarah Lawrence College. www.jianjung.com

Kate McGee

Lighting Designer

Kate McGee (she/her) is an Obie award winning lighting designer. Past collaborators include Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey, Taylor Mac and Matt Rey, On the Rocks Theater Company, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Target Margin Theater, Mabou Mines, Diana Oh, Knud Adams, The New York City Players, Object Collection, Nazareth Hassan, and The Wooster Group. As a Project Number One Artist in Residence at Soho Rep she developed, wrote, and designed the solo VR experience Girl Mode, since seen at the Fabric Arts Workshop. She has toured extensively with Esperanza Spalding, and Tanya Tagaq. Other Awards include Barrymore, Drama Desk, and Multiple Henry Hewes Award Nominations.

Rebecca Kanach

Costume Designer

Rebecca Kanach (she/her) Rebecca is a 2025 Pew Fellow and Barrymore Award-winning costume designer whose work spans theatre, opera, cabaret, and devised performance. Based in Philadelphia, she is a founding member and resident designer of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret and a company member of Lightning of The Rod Bearded Special. Her practice centers on collaborative, interdisciplinary performance that reimagines theatrical traditions. Past credits include: Hansel und Gretel (The Juilliard School), Twelfth Night (People’s Light), GIRL DOLLS (Bearded Ladies/FringeArts). Upcoming: Priority Hoarding (Bearded Ladies Cabaret), Big Love (University of Rochester), and Cinderella (People’s Light). Rebecca teaches costume design at Temple University and holds an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829.

Erik Ruin

Puppet Designer

Erik Ruin (he/him) is a Michigan-raised, Philadelphia-based printmaker, shadow puppeteer, paper-cut artist, etc., who has been lauded by the New York Times for his ”spell-binding cut-paper animations.” His work oscillates between the poles of apocalyptic anxieties and utopian yearnings, with an emphasis on empathy, transcendence, and obsessive detail. He frequently works collaboratively with musicians, theater performers, other artists, and activist campaigns. He is a founding member of the international Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, and co-author of the book Paths Toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism (w/ Cindy Milstein, PM Press, 2012). Current projects include the Ominous Cloud Ensemble, an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music.

Johnny Gasper

Sound Designer

Johnny Gasper is a sound and video designer, and performer. Recent designs: Derangements (Clubbed Thumb – Nadja Leonard-Hooper, directed by Annie Tippe); Without Mirrors (The Brick – written/directed by Jerry Lieblich); Camino Real (Williamstown Theater Festival – Tennessee Williams, directed by Dustin Wills); Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica In The Woods (Rattlestick/New Georges, at HERE – Bailey Williams & Emma Horwitz, directed by Tara Elliott; Drama Desk Nominee); Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons – John J. Caswell Jr., directed by Dustin Wills, sound co-design with Tei Blow; Obie Award, Lortel Nominee); Coach Coach (Clubbed Thumb – Bailey Williams, directed by Sarah Blush). He has performed with Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, Advanced Beginner Group, Karinne Keithly Syers, and more. MFA: PIMA, Brooklyn College.

Jo Fernandez

Production Stage Manager

Jo Fernandez Previous Credits include – Broadway: The Ferryman, Head Over Heels; Recent Off-Broadway: Giulia, The Poison Queen of Palermo (PAC NYC), The Dinosaurs (Playwrights Horizons), Oratorio for Living Things (Signature Theatre), All Nighter (Soto Productions, Runyonland Productions), I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan (Atlantic); as well as previous productions at NYTW, St. Ann’s Warehouse, MCC, Second Stage, The Public, and MTC. Regional & Opera: Alien Girls (The Old Globe), The House on Mango Street, La Calisto (Glimmerglass), Henry V, Penelope (Hudson Valley Shakespeare), and Tulipa, A Wrinkle in Time, Annie Salem (NYS&F).

Leo Mock

Intimacy Coordinator / Dramaturg

Leo Mock (he/they) is a theatre-maker, clown, consent educator, and intimacy worker. He recently debuted his solo show, Lady! Lady! Lady!, and has been seen on various alt comedy and clown stages about town. They have provided intimacy choreography for theatres across Greater Philadelphia, including Azuka, The Lantern, EgoPo, InterAct, and Delaware Shakespeare. He serves as guiding faculty for Theatrical Intimacy Education and has a fresh MFA in Theatre Arts from Randolph College. You can find Leo at the Forget Death Club, or read their writing in The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook and Queering the Stage.

Lane LaVonne

Assistant Director

Lane LaVonne (they/he) is a stage director and artist specializing in the development of new plays and adaptation of classics. Their work has brought them to The Wilma, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Play Penn, Inis Nua, and Passage Theatre Co. Select credits include I Never Wanted (Gene Frankel, 15 Minutes of Frame Festival), Punch Back (Philly Theatre Week), The First (Passage Theatre Co.), Like Father, Like Son (The TANK).

Lay Hoon Tan

Production Manager

Lay Hoon Tan hails from Singapore and is based in New York. Select production management credits include The Potluck (Soho Rep), Henry VI (NAATCO), Scorched Earth (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Hate Radio (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Songs of the Living (Soho Rep), The Lunchbox – NY Workshop (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (The Public Theater), Spells of the Sea (The Kennedy Center), The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre Company), Appropriate (Signature Theatre Company), A Case for the Existence of God (Signature Theatre Company), Three Houses (Signature Theatre Company), Disney’s Tim Burton The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail (New York Botanical Garden). Lay Hoon uses she/her pronouns. She invites you to follow her work-in-progress IG @therealtechbananas