In this Moment Now: Count it All Joy

Aimee K. Bryant* is an actor, singer, and teaching artist who has appeared on many stages throughout the Twin Cities and across the nation since graduating from Howard University. She has appeared numerous times on ILLUSION’s stage including Bubbly Black Girl, No Distance Between Us, How Come There Ain’t No White People In This Show? Two Weeks With the Queen, The Laramie Project, and Child of God. City Pages named Aimee Best Actress of 2015; she was named a 2015-16 McKnight Theater Artist Fellow at the Playwright’s Center. Her debut album Becoming is available online.

*member Actors’ Equity Association

[photo credit: Lauren B Photography]

T. Mychael Rambo* is an award-winning actor, vocalist, arts educator, and community organizer. He is a beloved member of our Twin Cities arts community. T. Mychael has performed on every professional theater stage in the Twin Cities. He has also toured nationally and internationally including in NYC’s Carnegie Hall, Africa, Europe and South America. T. Mychael has originated many roles at Illusion including Ben in Miss Evers Boys and Durius Do -Wright in Always and Forever. He also appeared inBlues in the Night, Warrior Within, Waiting to Be Invited, and most recently in his one -man show Present where he shares how he learned to be present in his life and how his songs and stories are a present/gift he offers to audiences.

*member Actors’ Equity Association

[photo credit: Lauren B Photography]

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. A scholar and historian, Carlyle has been an artist-in-residence or visiting professor at various colleges and universities and has worked as a museum exhibit writer and story consultant. Illusion Theater has supported his work producing plays Finding Fish, Acting Black, Down in Mississippi, and A PLAY by Barb and Carl. Carlyle is the Andrew W. Mellon Playwright-in-Residence at ILLUSION THEATER and the 2022 Legacy Award winner from the Legacy Playwrights Initiative.

[photo credit: Lauren B Photography]

Ryan Bynum is an Emmy award winning native of Washington, D. C. Ryan Bynum is a versatile musician who brings creative and technical dexterity to every performance – whether performing solo or accompanying renowned artists including Debbie Allen, Mike Malone, Ice Cube, Diana Ross, Jellybean Johnson, The Steele’s, The Peterson’s, and many others. Ryan is co-founder of SNAPPED OPEN MIC (@snappedopenmic) a space for artists to perform, grow, and network at the Greenroom in Uptown Minneapolis. Ryan has been musical director for many organizations including 7th Street Live Festival in Saint Paul, Community Covenant Church in North Minneapolis, The Minnesota Black Music Awards, and “Here’s The Truth” on the CW Network (Emmy award). His adaptable style covers a spectrum of genres ranging from R & B, hip-hop, jazz, gospel, and classical. Ryan has called the Twin Cities home since attending the McNally-Smith College of Music in St. Paul.

Alanna Morris is a Caribbean-American dancer-choreographer, educator, and artist organizer. Alanna was a leading dancer with TU Dance in St. Paul, Minnesota from 2007–2017, directed by Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands. Alanna has been named one of Dance Magazine's “25 to Watch!;” Minneapolis' City Pages’ Artist of the Year and Best Choreographer. They have received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation in Dance (2015) and Choreography (2021), as well Springboard Danse Montréal (2022). 

Alanna is the Artistic Director of I A.M. Arts, a non-profit organization offering critical dance performance for the public, (w)holistic educational programs for BIPOC healers and early-career dancers of color, and community arts programs to support mid-career women entrepreneurs and BIPOC creatives with resources to thrive. 

Morris launched Roots and Wings LLC in 2023 to offer therapeutic movement practices for healers and professional dancers and arts & cultural program management for individuals and organizations. Roots and Wings empowers people with a practice for living and healing through self-awareness, teaching a spiritual approach to the moving body and giving unique support for chronic physical pain and grief. In 2024, they joined the Oshun Center for Intercultural Healing as an integrated health practitioner and opened the Roots and Wings Institute for Embodied Wisdoms. 

Alanna is currently on tour with Ashwini Ramaswamy and collaborators and is adjunct faculty at Hamline University. Alanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Juilliard School in Dance.

[photo credit: Bobby Rogers]

Saint Paul, MN native Frank Sentwali Gardner, or “Sentwali” as he is known in the artist community, has been a fixture on the Twin Cities Hip Hop and Spoken Word scene for over 35 years. He is co-founder of the acclaimed Spoken Word troupe EduPoetic Enterbrainment and owner of BMF Enterbrainment LLC. Sentwali has been facilitating workshops and residencies since 1999 and has been a COMPAS roster teaching artist for 20 years. In addition, he’s been a concert promoter and show producer creating some of the biggest Spoken Word feature shows the Twin Cities has ever seen. He’s served on the Board of Directors of non-profits such as MNSWA (MN Spoken Word Association) and S.A.S.E. Sentwali presently spends his time being a father, basketball coach, Spoken Word performance artist and award-winning arts educator.

[compas.org)

Z Makila* (he/him & they/them) is a local stage manager and teaching artist with a passion for work that inspires and invites audiences to learn and grow. Z has stage managed in many theaters and loves the opportunity to engage with so many artists and audience members across the Twin Cities. Select credits: Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, Alice in Wonderland, and An American Tail (Children's Theatre Company); The Lehman Trilogy (Guthrie Theatre); Beauty and the Beast (The Ordway); Thunder Knocking on the Door (Ten Thousand Things Theatre); Twelve Angry Men: A New Musical (Theater Latté Da); and Joyful Echoes (Minnesota Orchestra).

*member Actors’ Equity Association

Dante Benjegerdes (they/she/any) is a freelance lighting designer and technician based in the Twin Cities. They are ecstatic to be returning to the Illusion Theater. Local esign credits include A Jumping Of Point with the Jungle, and last year's production of In This Moment Now with the Illusion. Other design credits include The Imaginators with Black Hawk Children's Theatre, Sideshow with Nolte Dance Academy, and Blackberry, Agnes in Green, and Palanquin with the University of Iowa.