YU Delegates
Nisa B
Nisa B (she/her) lives in Cambridge and this is her second year as a Youth Underground member. She learned how to come out of my comfort zone and expand her acting skills. Tune into what makes me a good actor and continue to tweak, mold and adjust things. She also learned how to cherish herself and her talents and she learned how to stand tall and laugh loud. Being an actor is her hobby, dream and passion all in one. She is proud to be an actor and she is proud to keep on putting beautiful works out into the world. Her favorite past production that she has been in so far is YU Festival 2024!
Sophie Straub
In my 14 years of life, my life has been filled with many things which bring me joy, which bring a smile to my face. One of these things is my family; my mother and father, and my two brothers, Elias and Jonas. I love them dearly. I also have several hobbies, which allow me to connect with others of the same interests and add a sense of levity into my life. For instance, I am an avid reader, the most common genre I read being fantasy. At the moment, my favorite fantasy series is the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. Otherwise, I regularly go climbing, and enjoy playing the piano. Math and science, as well, are key interests of mine, which evoke my curiosity and encourage me to think beyond the normal boundaries of academics.
Gedalya Gordon
Gedalya Gordon (he/him), in his third year as a YU Delegate, prepares for his favorite part of working on a show or production: “where it’s covered in all the colored lights, where the runaways are running the night,” in which alongside castmates, he gets to enjoy the exhilarating experience of playing make-believe in front of a live audience. In addition to his theatrical work at CST and at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Gedalya also enjoys making stuffed animals in his free time: breathing life into a lovable creature out of raw materials.
E. Bene
E. Bene (he/him) has been with the YU Program for almost a year. His favorite production is the staged reading of The Future I Want written by Abacus Dean-Polacheck. He gained the ability to speak with confidence and is excited to help bring focus to a topic that many people don't know exactly how to cater to.
Ashlyn
Ashlyn (she/her) lives in Boston and this is her first year as a member of the Youth Underground Program. It’s a new joy everyday for her! Her favorite art project is her red carpet making experience.
Willa Bellon
Willa Bellon (they/them) are a first year Youth Underground member. They learned to be less embarrassed throughout the program and are excited to see how the final show turns out. They did a tree oil painting project and it was their favorite piece. They are very passionate about animal welfare and just animals in general.
Zero Doyle
Zero doyle (any/all) is a first year Youth Underground member. They did a cool sculpting project a while ago. Zero learned working with new people can be fun and is excited to be able to be creative and do the play!
Sean Wendelken
Sean Wendelken (he/him) has enjoyed his third year of Youth Underground, learning unique strengths that come from working within an ensemble. His favorite part of the process is learning from everyone’s experiences to create something one person could never hope to dream up. Outside of YU, Sean likes to write, compose, act, play the piano and the trumpet. He also enjoys partaking in filmmaking projects.
Melanye Perez
Melanye Perez (she/her) has been with the Youth Underground Program for five months. She has learned how to get out of her comfort zone and be more creative! She is excited to keep learning from the show and see it come to life.
Farai Sundai
Farai Sundai (she/her) is a member of the Youth Underground Delegates Ensemble. This is Farai’s third year with the ensemble. She is a freshman at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. Past credits include 13 the Musical, Shrek the Musical, Peter Pan, and Beauty and the Beast. Past training includes Actor’s Technique New York (ATNY) and Youth Underground at Central Square Theater. Farai is currently working on a musical about youth empowerment, education, and social justice. She would love to one day star in it on Broadway. Farai has many dreams and knows she will achieve them, because she is limitless!
Zoë Adams Martin
Zoë Adams Martin (She/They/It) is in her third year with Youth Underground. In their free time, Zoë enjoys reading, art, and playing her saxophone. They are in eighth grade, and looking forward to many more productions to come.
Cady Seaton
Cady Seaton lives in West Newbury, Massachusetts and Talloires, France and is excited to be joining the Youth Underground Delegates this year. Cady can be found (or lost) in a book, writing stories and poetry, watching or performing plays and musicals, researching stories about activists and changemakers, or eating chocolate. Her favorite musical so far is Suffs by Shaina Taub. Cady lives with her parents, older brother, pet rabbit, many chickens, and a fish.
Shalom
This will be my first year performing as a YU delegate, and I’ve already found the program to be both incredibly fun and rewarding. My favorite part has definitely been the engaging theatre games we've all participated in. Needless to say, I’m beyond thrilled and grateful to be a part of this production!
Lorelai Ticona Johnson
Lorelai Ticona Johnson is excited to be working with YU. They have been doing theatre for years, and the arts as a whole their whole life.
YU Delegates (Production Team)
YU Ambassadors
Abby Griffith
Abby Griffith (she/her) is excited to join the YU ambassadors once again. Last year, she was a part of Youth Underground’s A Gun Is… and really appreciated her time working on that piece. Previously, Abby worked as an Education Intern with Central Square Theater and most recently as an Apprentice at Gloucester Stage Company. She is grateful to be working with CST once more especially on a play so relevant to her. As someone who just graduated college and is almost always uncertain of what her next move is, she hopes you relate as much as she does. Enjoy!
Marlee Schulman
Marlee Schulman is a graduate of Muhlenberg College, where they directed Far Away and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Last May, Marlee directed a new Beach Boys Jukebox musical with the Fork & Shoe Theatre co-op. Other theatre credits include Inventing Samanta at CST (Mr. Nakatsu), Gragger with Boston Worker's Circle (Writer/Ash Veros), and The Humans at Arlington Friends of the Drama (Dramaturg). They are also a member of Coro Allegro, Boston's queer classical choir.
Zay
Zay's experience with Youth Underground has been an amazing time. The discussions and stories that has been shared in the group inspires Zay and keeps the fires of hope for a better future burning bright. Youth Underground, and Central Square Theatre by extension, adds an extra connection to the community and encourages deeper and more intentional thoughts/discussion/planning around intersectionality and how a community is able to form.
Tolu Asade
Tolu is originally from Houston, TX and is excited to perform in her second show with YU! Her first was this year with the touring production of Inventing Samanta. Tolu spends a lot of time thinking about the future and has loved hearing and working on different perspectives throughout the course of this show. On that note, she’s looking forward to joining theatre communities and getting more involved with local theatre in her future.
Tolu has a BA in Theatre Arts from MIT and past credits include: Into the Woods, Fire Bringer & Non Player Character
Nicole Bates
Nicole Bates (she/her) lives in Westborough and has been with the Youth Underground program since 2022. She is very excited about working on a piece of investigative theatre. As a theatre artist, she loves working on projects that unite theatre with other disciplines. She finds the format of investigative theatre is a great way to allow community members to feel they are a part of creating a final product that they then get to enjoy as audience members as well!
Kym Darby
Kym Darby is both honored and thrilled to be working with Central Square Theater once again! A Boston native, she has been acting since she could remember, but officially got her debut in "The F&L at 1330" in the 2023 Boston New Works Festival, and also "A Gun Is..." with CST last year. Kym hopes to continue to pursue her passion for the stage and is excited to see what the future holds! Thank you CST!
YU Ambassadors (Production Team)
Director - Vincent Ernest Siders
Director- Vincent Ernest Siders (he/him) is an actor, director, producer, and educator. He is the Lead Instructor and Director of the Ambassadors of Youth Underground at Central Square Theater. He has received two Acting awards and two nominations for Best Direction from the Independent Reviewers of New England, the Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor, and Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston Award for Best Actor. Vincent is the founder and artistic director of TYG Productions, home of the Family Beef Feast Fest.
Playwright - Abacus Dean-Polacheck
Abacus Dean-Polacheck is an emerging theatre artist and recent graduate from Boston University. They have a passion for new theatrical works and some of their favorite projects have been Grow Until... (Stage Manager, Boston University), In Earnest (Director, Boston University), Orpheus in the Overworld (Music Director, Fresh Ink Theatre), and Eat Your Young (Lucia, Boston Playwright's Theatre). They grew up doing devised work and theatre for social change, and are honored to be working with Youth Underground for their second year.
Stage Manager - Emit Solomon
Emit (they/them) is super excited to be stage managing for the youth underground ambassadors! This is their first show with CST and they've been loving it! They graduated from Clark University class of 2024 with a degree in theatre arts. This summer they will begin getting their masters in performing arts leadership and management at Shenandoah University. Recent stage management credits include When The Mind's Free (Real Live Theatre) and Urinetown (Clark Musical Theatre). Favorite productions include The Prom (Props Designer and Performer, Open Door Theatre), Legally Blonde (Props Designer and Production Manager, Clark Musical Theatre), and Dreamballs (Director, Clark University Visual and Performing Arts Department.)
The following people helped to contribute to this project during the summer of 2024:
YU Summer Delegates
Anthony Dumerant
Basheer Abu-Rubieh
Dari Worrell
Enisa Bennett
Ehud Bennett
Edlyn Vincent
Finbar Clark
Janelle Casanova-DeJesus
Lio Caravan
Mazen Elsayed
Nufail Muhameid
Narlee Antoine
Shahan Chowdhury
Tashara David
Victor Costa
Zomba Phuntsok
YU Summer Production Staff
Youth Underground Playwriting Fellow: Abacus Dean-Polacheck
Director: Vincent Ernest Siders
Teaching Assistant: Sean Myers
Production Stage Manager: Ella Lichatowich
State Management Mentor: ty ruwe
Sound Design: Zay Pearson
Youth Underground Interview Mentor: Betsy Bard
Youth Underground Playwriting Mentor: David Valdes
YU Council
Alexa DiGeso, Ash Espada, David Goveia, Farai Sundai, Janelle Casanova-DeJesus, Thifany Da Silva