Fresh Ink

Playwright, Actress - Frederico, My Love

Carla Solari is a bilingual Argentine actress, teacher, and writer based in Minneapolis. She trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and the National University of Arts (UNA) in Buenos Aires, and studied with leading figures such as Ricardo Bartis, Miguel Guerberof, and Rubén Szuchmacher. She was awarded the Florencio Sánchez Prize for Female Revelation (2014) for her leading role in Yannis Ritsos’ Fedra. Her stage career spans classical and contemporary theatre across Argentina, Spain, Brazil, and the United States, with appearances at festivals such as the Almagro Classical Theater Festival (Spain) and the Playlabs Festival (Minneapolis). She is the author of three books, including Miguel Guerberof en Escena (Corregidor Publishing). Since 1996, she has run her own acting studio and has taught workshops at institutions such as the RESAD in Madrid. Beginning in 2025, she teaches the course "Acting in Spanish" at the Center for Performing Arts (CFPA) in Minneapolis.

At ILLUSION THEATER, she performed in My soul is not rested, by Cassandra Medley and directed by Aaron Todd Douglas featured in The Afro-Atlantic Playwrights Festival.

Playwright - Willa Cather is Dying

Kira Obolensky is an award-winning writer who lives in Minneapolis. Her plays have been produced Off Broadway, in Los Angeles, in Prague and Terezin, and in many Twin Cities theaters. She has received the Kesselring Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Mellon Playwright Fellowship, which put her in residence with Ten Thousand Things for six years. Most recently, she worked with Mixed Blood Theater and Riverplace in Warroad to create a community play called “Warroad Community Potluck,” that was performed by the community and directed by Michael John Garcés. She co-wrote a national bestseller about architecture, The Not So Big House, and has published two other books about architecture. Her short fiction has appeared in The Brooklyn Review, in hive literary, in Rollick, and in Quarterly West, where her novella, “The Anarchists Float to St. Louis,” won the novella prize.  She attended Juilliard’s Playwriting Program, Williams College, and received an MFA in Fiction Writing from Warren Wilson. She teaches at Spalding University’s Naslund Mann Graduate School of Writing.  Kira is a proud member of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and The Tent in NYC.

Director - Frederico Lorca, My Love

Carlyle Brown is a playwright/performer, curator, and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company based in Minneapolis. His plays have been produced at theatres across the country and internationally. His shows produced at ILLUSION include Nobody, No Time, Finding Fish, Acting Black, A Play by Barb and Carl, History of Religion, and Down in Mississippi. Other Twin Cities productions include Little Tommy Parker’s Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show, and The African Company Presents Richard III at Penumbra Theater, Beggars’ Strike at the Children’s Theater Company, the Mixed Blood production of Pure Confidence that moved to off Broadway in New York, American Family at Park Square Theater. Other plays that have been produced across the country include The Negro of Peter the Great, A Big Blue Nail, Dartmoor Prison, The Pool Room, Yellow Moon Rising, Down in Mississippi, and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, a Lifetime Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center, and recently Mellon Playwright-in-Residence at ILLUSION THEATER.

[photo credit: Lauren B Photography]

Director - Willa Cather is Dying

Noel Raymond has helped create community embedded arts programming at Pillsbury House + Theatre since 1995. She has acted and directed locally and nationally and is a core member of Carlyle Brown & Company. Directing credits include Almost Equal To and Angels in America at PH+T; Are You Now… and Down in Mississippi for Carlyle Brown & Co., among many others. She served on the City of Minneapolis Arts Commission and co-founded the Burning House Group. Noel received an Ivey Award for direction of The Children and a Sally Award for Arts Initiative together with former PH+T co-director Faye Price.

Frederico - Frederico, My Love

José Sabillón (He/Him) - Born in Honduras and raised in Texas, José has found a wonderful community of people and artists in the Twin Cities with whom he is able to exercise his theatre and painting practices. You may have seen him onstage most recently in a production Somewhere at the Guthrie. José has worked with theatre companies across the Twin Cities including Exposed Brick Theater, Open Window Theatre, Playwrights’ Center, Teatro del Pueblo, Pangea World Theater, Park Square Theatre, and Guthrie Theater. José is always thrilled to be supporting new work, and is grateful to be a part of ILLUSION’s Fresh Ink Series!

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Guitarist - Frederico, My Love

Daniel Volovets is a guitarist, composer, and arranger, specializing in classical, flamenco, Latin-American, and jazz music. Although born in the United States, his music is informed first and foremost by his Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish heritage. Daniel's mastery of many genres and aesthetics is evident in the breadth of his repertoire, which spans numerous countries and eras. He is an acclaimed arranger and composer, exploring the harmonic possibilities of the guitar in solo and ensemble contexts, such as in his original composition "A Meadow by the Sea,” which was part of the 2021 Emmy-winning television program "Hippocrates Cafe: Reflections on the Pandemic."

Daniel has released seven full-length albums and is currently working on several more in addition to four songbooks of original compositions and arrangements. In addition to his musical career, Daniel graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed psychiatry residency through the Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training Program, now continuing to balance careers in music and medicine as an inpatient psychiatrist and psychotherapist at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Edith - Willa Cather is Dying

Charity Jones has performed on stages throughout the Twin Cities including the Guthrie, The History Theatre, The Jungle Theater, Park Square Theater, Mixed Blood, Workhaus Collective and Children’s Theatre Company. Nationally, A.C.T., Shakespeare Theater Company, Kansas City Repertory and others.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Willa - Willa Cather is Dying

Christina Baldwin is a director, writer, singer, and actor whose work bridges theater, opera, and concert performance through bold collaboration and inventive storytelling. As Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater, she champions new works and interdisciplinary creation, directing and performing across plays, musicals, and operas.

In 2023, Baldwin conceived, co-created, and directed the acclaimed Dinner for One, which premiered at the Jungle Theater and continued at Greater Boston Stage in 2024. Her recent directing and writing work include new opera librettos and Everything Comes to a Head, created with Lyric Opera of the North and the Decameron Opera Coalition and selected for the Library of Congress’ Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection.

A frequent collaborator with leading regional and national institutions, Baldwin’s work includes long-standing artistic partnerships with the Guthrie Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, The Moving Company, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Her career reflects a deep commitment to ensemble-driven creation, arts education, and expanding the possibilities of contemporary performance.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Lighting Consultant; Lighting Design (The Postman’s Daughter)

Dante (they/she/any) is a freelance lighting designer and technician based in Minneapolis who is excited to return to the ILLUSION. Previous ILLUSION design credits include Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot, Red and the Mother Wild, and In This Moment Now. Recent design Credits Included: A Jumping Off Point (Jungle), The Pinballs, The Imaginators (Black Hawk Children's Theater) Assistant design credits include Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, Annie (Children’s Theatre Company). The Song Poet (Minnesota Opera), Rusalka; Pelleas et Mellisande; The Flying Dutchman (Santa Fe Opera Festival) Sound of Music; The Jungle Book (Glimmerglass Opera Festival)

Stage Manager - A Pickle; Frederico, My Love; The Postman’s Daughter

Joelle Coutu is excited to be back with ILLUSION THEATER. Joelle has been a stage manager in the Twin Cities for over 20 years for various large and small companies.  She has worked for such places as the Theater Latte Da, Lyric Opera of the North, Skylark Opera, History Theater, Guthrie Theater, Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, Park Square Theater, Triple Espresso, among others.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Stage Manager - Willa Cather is Dying

Ajah Williams is a freelance Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager in the Twin Cities. Select credits include: ARTISTRY (SM): Once on This Island; Singin' in the Rain; Rent. TEN THOUSAND THINGS: Violet (SM); Iphigenia at Aulis (ASM). THEATER LATTE DA (ASM): School Pictures; Cinderella; 2024 NEXT Festival; The Color Purple; 2023 NEXT Festival; We Shall Someday. THEATER MU (SM): 2023 & 2022 New Eyes Festival. STAGES THEATRE COMPANY (SM): The Day You Begin; Once on This Island, Jr.; Maybe. YELLOW TREE THEATRE (ASM): In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play; Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood. Ajah graduated with a B.A. in Theatre & Dance from Hamline University in 2022 and is grateful every day to be doing what she loves.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States