Announcing the Cast and Creative Team of One in Two

Show Description

Three men wait. When one is chosen, the trio must embark on telling a story of life inside a long-ignored epidemic. With joy, humor, and unbridled truth, Donja Love’s urgent and spontaneous new work drills through the statistics to give voice to what it means to be Black, queer, and HIV positive in a way only a live theatrical experience can deliver.

About producing this West Coast Premiere at Diversionary, Executive Artistic Director, Matt M. Morrow says, “One night during the pandemic I woke up with these words resonating in my mind clear as a bell: “one in two must be our first show back.” This revolutionary new play echoes Diversionary’s founding 36 years ago in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by calling us in to raise awareness about how this disease relentlessly persists within our Queer Black community. Spoiler alert: This play has the DNA of live theatre embedded so deeply within it that it can only exist in that delicate space between an audience and actor in real time. And did I mention that it’s funny? one in two is a radical theatrical jolt back to in-person production, and I could not be more honored to have Donja Love’s story bring us back home to our theatre on Park Blvd.”

Director, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg says about working on the West Coast Premiere of Donja R. Love’s new play, “After a year and a half of watching stories on a small screen, it’s thrilling to work on a story that can only be told and experienced in the Theatre. It’s an important play full of truth, hope, and theatrical imagination.”

About working with Diversionary Theatre in bringing this important play to San Diego, Executive Artistic Director of Common Ground Theatre and Diversionary Board Member, Yolanda Marie Franklin says, “One In Two is a very powerful play, and Common Ground Theatre is excited to be partnering with Diversionary Theatre to bring this important piece to San Diego audiences.”

More information can be found at: https://www.diversionary.org/one-in-two
For interviews and photos, please contact Jenny Case, Managing Director, at 619-220-6830×201 or by emailing Press@diversionary.org

ABOUT THE CAST

KEVANE LA’MARR COLEMAN (He/Him/His) is happy to be returning to Diversionary Theatre in this beautiful new play. Diversionary: As Much As You Can, The Facts of Life-The Lost Episode, Our Gay Apparel, Stage Directions (Diversionary Theatre). Elsewhere: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches/Perestroika, Shockheaded Peter (Cygnet Theatre); The Secret Garden, 1940’s Radio Hour, Return to the Forbidden Planet (New Village Arts); 9 Hours (Playwrights Project-Old Globe Theatre); South Pacific, Miss Saigon (Moonlight Amphitheatre); Airline Highway, Grey Gardens, Chicago: A Speakeasy Cabaret, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika; Red Planet Respite (ion Theatre), Naughty or Nice, De-construction of a Drag Queen (Circle Circle Dot Dot); The Car Plays (La Jolla Playhouse); Oklahoma, Crazy for You, Aida, Ragtime (Starlight Musical Theatre). Kevane was also a member of the Boston Ballet and graduated from Boston College with a double degree in Theatre and Pre-Law.

DURWOOD MURRAY* (He/Him/His) is ecstatic to make his return to Diversionary. Previously seen in Well and A Civil War Christmas. Elsewhere: Master of 2 Servants, To Kill a Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing (New Village Arts); Handbagged, Our Lady of Khibeho (Moxie); King John, Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2, & 3 (Intrepid Theatre).

CARTER PIGGEE (He/Him/His) is happy to make his debut with Diversionary Theatre in this phenomenal new play. Theatre Credits: Dry Powder (Backyard Renaissance Theatre), Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley (New Village Arts), Ironbound (Moxie). He has also performed in staged readings with Cygnet Theatre, Roustabouts Theatre, North Coast Rep, Amigos Del Rep, and Playwright’s Project. Carter earned a BFA in theatre performance from San Diego State University.

*Denotes member of Actor’s Equity Association

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Donja R. Love (he/him/his) is an Afro-Queer playwright, poet, and filmmaker from Philadelphia. He writes specifically about Black and Queer folx for Black and Queer folx. He is the recipient of the 2018 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, the 2017 Princess Grace Playwriting Award. He’s also the Lark’s 2016 Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellow, The Playwrights Realm’s 2016/2017 Writing Fellow, and the 2011 Philadelphia Adult Grand Slam Poetry Champion. He’s had productions at Manhattan Theatre Club (Sugar in Our Wounds) and Atlantic Theater Company (Fireflies). He’s the co-host of Off Book, a podcast on Black theatre; and the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ People of Color. Training: Juilliard’s Playwrights Program.se Hall.

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (She/Her/Hers) (Director) Is thrilled to return to Diversionary where she previously directed Fit to be Tied. Regional Theatre: The Garden (co-director), POP Tour- #Super Shiny Sara, WoW Festival- The Car Plays SD, Counterweight (LaJolla Playhouse); Skeleton Crew (The Old Globe); Roz and Ray, Sex with Strangers, My Mañana Comes, In the Wake, The Seafarer, The Good Body, Miss Witherspoon, Intimate Apparel, Proof (San Diego REP); The Piano Lesson, Fences (Cygnet Theatre); The Amish Project (Mo’olelo Perfoming Arts Company). Additional Credits: Delicia is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, which she helmed for 12 acclaimed seasons. Other directing credits include: Hamlet, Prelude to a Kiss (New Village Arts Theatre); Voyeurs de Venus, Bliss or Emily Post is Dead (MOXIE Theatre). Delicia has had the pleasure of directing productions at The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, University of San Diego undergraduates, Sonoma State University, University of Redlands, San Diego State University, University of California San Diego and Palomar College. Delicia was twice a recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship through Second Stage Theatre in New York, and is an alumna of the New York Drama League’s Directors Program as well as TCG’s New Generations Program. She has received NAACP Theatre awards and nomination for direction, a Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award as well as many “Craig Noel” awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play and Outstanding Dramatic Production from the SD Theatre Critics Circle.

Frankie Alicea-Ford (He/Him/His) (Associate Director) is a San Diego based, New York City trained theatre artist who has been working professionally since 2012. After receiving his BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Frankie has worked as a performer, deviser, educator and administrator throughout the US and abroad. He has created and spearheaded multiple theater education programs throughout Connecticut and New York and worked as the Residential Director of The Center for Creative Youth, based out of Wesleyan University. He currently works as a teaching artist with La Jolla Playhouse, New Village Arts and Diversionary Theatre and has extensive training in devised theater techniques, arts integration and trauma based theater practices. He was most recently an Artistic Associate and the Artist-In-Residence at New Village Arts in Carlsbad, CA.

Victoria Petrovich (She/Her/Hers) (Scenic & Projection Designer) is happy to make her return to live theater (!) as a new member of the Diversionary Theatre family to collaborate on this achingly beautiful new play. Previous collaborations with director Delicia Turner-Sonnenberg include The Good Body and In the Wake (SAN DIEGO REP), Blue Door and Bliss! Emily Post is Dead (MOXIE). Other current collaborations (scenic/costume) are with director Ben Krywosz at NAUTILUS MUSIC-THEATER on the new song-cycle Stations of the Heart and Moonlit Walk Home. Some previous collaborations with Nautilus include Twisted Apples-Stories from Winesburg OH, The Fantastics, Ordinary Days, Joan of Arc, Sister Stories, The Last Five Years, Snow Leopard, Without Colors, and The Juniper Tree. Recent pre-pandemic projects (scenic/costume/projection) have been with director Robert Castro on the opera El Cimmarón at the Im•Pulso Festival at UNAM, Mexico City, OLIVÉrio, A Wrinkle in Time, Aladdin’s Luck, Frederick (scenic/projection), Treasure Island, Ferdinand the Bull, Dreams of Anne Frank (scenic/costume) at Lewis Family Playhouse, a theater-for-youth which tragically closed due to the pandemic. Other local productions include A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, A Hammer, Bell and a Song to Sing, Federal Jazz Project, The Who’s Tommy (projection/ SAN DIEGO REP). International work has been with the International Opera Theatre in Cittá della Pieve, Italy and include Sacco e Vanzetti, Errori!, and Il Sogno di Una Notte di Mezza Estate. Victoria teaches in the Design area/Theatre & Dance, UCSD.

Brooke Kesler (She/Her/Hers) (Costumer Designer) is thrilled to be returning to the Diversionary Theatre team on this wonderful piece! Recent designs include: Red Bike (MOXIE); Girlfriend (Diversionary Theatre); She Loves Me (SDSU); Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach (SDSU); The Glaspell Project: Trifles and Woman’s Honor (SDSU); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kingsmen Shakespeare Co.). She has also worked as an Assistant Costume Designer on A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Santa Fe Opera), Cosi Fan Tutte (Santa Fe Opera), Il Trovatore (Central City Opera), and La Cage Aux Folles (Cygnet Theatre). As a Southern California local she is currently the Assistant to the Costume Director at the San Diego Opera, and a Lecturer in Costume Design at San Diego State University.

Minjoo Kim (She/Her/Hers) (Lighting Designer) is happy to make her debut with Diversionary Theatre in this beautiful play. Her collective lighting design credits include Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies (Mile Square Theatre), The Two (Space Owul), The Great Leap (Cygnet Theatre), Quiet No More (San Diego Women’s Chorus), Qulili (The Blindspot), IDEAS-Cetacea (Calit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall), Crimson Girl (Dongsoong Art Center), Die or Not (Seoul Art Space Mullae), Mask on/off (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre). Her work Othello got selected in the Emerging Artist/Imagination Exhibit from the USA at Prague Quadrennial in 2019.

Mason Pilevsky (Xie) (Sound Design) is a sound designer, composer, and audio mixer. Favorite sound design credits: I and You (Moxie), The Niceties (Moxie), American Buffalo (Backyard Renaissance), Handbagged (Moxie), Hir (Cygnet), and Macbeth (Trinity). Favorite Diversionary credits include: Homos or Everyone in America (Assistant Sound Design) and Ballast (Assistant Sound Design).

Beonica Bullard (She/Her/Hers) (Stage Manager) is happy to make her debut with Diversionary Theatre in this beautiful new play. Beonica earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater from San Diego State University. Honors include a Certificate of Recognition in Artistic Achievement from the California Legislature Assembly. She has Staged Managed several shows with Dir. D. Turner Sonnenberg such as Julius Caesar (SDSU), Roz and Ray (San Diego Repertory Theater), The Niceties (MOXIE).