Carlyle Brown
Writer /Performer

Carlyle Brown Carlyle Brown is a playwright/performer, curator and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company based in Minneapolis. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, a Lifetime Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center. His plays have been produced at theaters across the country and internationally, He has received numerous commissions, fellowships and awards including the Gugenheim Fellowship, the United States Artist Fellowship ,the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater and the Helen Merrill Award. A scholar and historian, Brown has been an artist -in -residence or visiting professor at various colleges and universities. He has worked as a museum exhibit writer and story consultant. He curated the 2018 African Cultural Diaspora Residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis France and the Afro-Atlantic Playwright's Festival at the Playwright's Center in 2019. He just returned from the second Convening of the Cultural Diaspora Residency in France. Brown serves on the Board of The Playwright's Center and is a trustee of the Camargo Foundation. Illusion Theater has supported his work producing his plays Finding Fish, Acting Black, Down in Mississippi and most recently A PLAY by Barb and Carl. The Mellon Foundation awarded Brown a National Playwright in Residence grant to work with IllusioTheater for three years..

Victor Zupanc
Keyboard

Victor Zupanc received a Bachelor of Music from the University Of Victoria and his Master of Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego. As a composer, music director, sound designer and performer Victor has worked on over 300 plays at some of the most prestigious theaters in America and abroad. Artists he has worked with include Anne Bogart, Des McAnuff, Bill Irwin, Kevin Kling, Robert Woodruff, Tony Taccone, Stephen Sondheim, Randy Newman and David Byrne. His music has been heard in China, Japan, Europe, South America, South Africa, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. He has scored several feature films and documentaries including the critically acclaimed motion picture, The Operator. Victor’s theme music has been heard regularly on National Public Radio. Since 1989, he has been the resident Music Director/Composer at the Tony Award winning Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. He recently released an album of his music titled Welcome to MY World. www.victorzupanc.com.

Noel Raymond
Director

Noel Raymond is the Senior Director of Arts & Culture for Pillsbury House + Theatre where she has helped lead and implement theatre and arts programming to promote community vitality since 1995. Noel has worked extensively as an actor and director in theaters locally and nationally and is currently a core member of Carlyle Brown & Company. Noel’s directing credits include The Great Divide, Almost Equal To, The Children, Far Away and Angels in America at Pillsbury House Theatre; Are You Now…, Therapy and Resistance, Finding Fish, Acting Black and Down in Mississippi for Carlyle Brown & Co., and multiple workshops through the Playwrights’ Center. She has served on the Arts Commission for the City of Minneapolis and she co-founded the Burning House Group Theatre Company. Noel received a 2017 Ivey Award for her direction of The Children.

Deevo
Guitar

Guitarist Deevo brings a wide array of musical background to any gig he's on, with performance experience ranging from R&B, jazz, reggae, funk, rock, gospel, and blues. Born and raised in Chicago, he has come a long way from the boy who used to walk to his music lessons a mile and half away while carrying his guitar in a Hefty bag. He is now based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Currently he is performing with his band The BluPrint. Also he has performed with Grammy award winning The Sounds of Blackness, Grammy Award winning group The Commodores, The Steeles, Sara Renner, TKO, AGAPE, Dan Kusz, Big Walter Smith, R-Factor, Fred Steele, JD Steele, Mallia Franklin, PKG, Wain McFarland(IPSO FACTO), Smokey Joes Cafe Musical, Always & Forever Musical, Birmingham Musical, Bella Diva, Diane Martinson, Rebekka Fisher, The Fonky Baldheads, GeVonne Ford, Gwen Matthews, Les Exodus, Innocent, Jodie Sellers, Best Kept Secret, The Kenni Holmen Quintet, Yolanda Bruce, NorthCoast, Ryan & The Rule, Woodland Hills Church, Calvary Lutheran, New Hope Evangelical, Speak the Word Church, Barbara Leshore, Best Kept Secret, as well as Producers Ben Obi, Kirk Johnson, Matt "Dr" Fink, and Ricky Peterson.

Tony Paul
Percussion

Hailing from a small village called Cedros in the southern tip of the eastern Caribbean island of Trinidad, Tony Paul made his way to Minneapolis as a student attending Augsburg College in the 70’s. Since his arrival he established himself as a pillar in the twin cities Caribbean music scene. His musical interests are far reaching from American folk to Caribbean music and funk. Playing with a number of bands over the years including Simba, Ipso Facto, and Shangoya, Tony currently plays weekly with the Liquor Pigs and The International Reggae Allstars.