Joy Vandervort-Cobb

Joy Vandervort-Cobb (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director at PURE Theatre and Emerita Associate Professor of African American Theatre and Performance at the College of Charleston, began her career in theatre more than 40 years ago as an actress with the Freedom Theatre in upstate New York. As a director, through her work with Festival Theatre USA, Ms. Vandervort-Cobb’s work was seen at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and many of her shows have toured throughout the United States and Canada. Directing credits include national tours of Jackie, Vi, & Lena; My Soul is a Witness; Black Broadway; MAHALIA; From the Mississippi Delta (first national); Dreamgirls; Purlie and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. 

Regionally her work has included productions of Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (True Colors Theatre, Atlanta, GA; Actors Theatre of Louisville, Louisville, KY; August Wilson African American Theater Collective and City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh, PA), Oil (LSU Theatre); Airline Highway (LSU Theatre); Ain't Misbehavin' at The Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, the world premiere of Boston based playwright Patrick Gabridge's Chore Monkeys; Buzzer; By the Way Meet Vera Stark; Stick Fly; Flyin' West; Long Time Since Yesterday; The Story; Some Girls; King Hedley II (Swine Palace); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Swine Palace); Fences (Swine Palace); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Having Our Say; Wedding Band; C.O.T.O: Chocolate on the Outside; Funnyhouse of a Negro; Trouble in Mind; Blues for an Alabama Sky; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches; The Colored Museum; Red, Hot & Cole; Gospel at Colonus; Hair.

At PURE Theatre (where she is also a Core Ensemble member since Season X and Associate Artistic Director), Joy has been seen as the cantankerous but wise Scottie in Steven Dietz's This Random World and the equally combative yet graceful Nina, in Marco Ramirez's The Royale; the epic Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2, and 3; Citizen: An American Lyric; A Sudden Spontaneous Event; Vanya and Sonia and Masha, and Spike; The Birds; The Christians and The Mountaintop, an imaginative retelling of the last night of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life. Prior to joining PURE, Joy was seen in her self-created MOMENTS OF JOY, a one woman show based on her life and experiences as a parent, wife, teacher, and smoking-drinking-cussing new Christian during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and an invited run in Baton Rouge, LA, at Louisiana State University's Department of Theatre. Other roles include Polonius in Hamlet, the Soothsayer in Antony and Cleopatra, the melancholy Jaques in As You Like It, and Prospero in The Tempest as part of the Shakespeare Project in residence at the College of Charleston. No stranger to "in pants" roles, Vandervort- Cobb has also played William in Kenneth Lonnergan’s Lobby Hero.

A proud and grateful recipient of the 2023 MLK Humanitarian Award and 2018 MOJA Arts Festival Community Tribute Award for the Arts, Joy presently
makes her home on James Island, SC. She has two adult children, one grandchild, and the same husband she met on a national touring bus in 1984.

Alissa Clemmons

Alissa Clemmons (Assistant Stage Manager)  is a Senior Theatre Technology & Design and Mass Communication (Digital Advertising) dual degree candidate. This is her stage management debut with Swine Palace. Paint charge and design credits include LSU Mainstage's Marburg, Ms.Holmes & Ms.Watson- APT. 2B, and LSU 2024 Lab Season Rosita y Conchita. Other paint charge credits include Playmaker's The Little Mermaid and James and the Giant Peach.

John Micheal Eddy

John Michael Eddy (Props Designer) is the Props Designer/Mentor for the LSU School of Theatre; he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Arizona and holds an MFA in Theater Production and Design from Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to his prop work and scenic designs, he serves on the Board of Directors for Playmakers of Baton Rouge; Playmakers is a children’s educational theatre group who is proud to call the LSU Reilly Theater their home. www.johnmeddy.com

Kyla Kazuschyk

Kyla Kazuschyk (Costume Designer) Associate Professor of Costume Technology at Louisiana State University, Kyla holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from the University of Central Florida and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Costume Technology from Ohio University. She has created costumes for the Santa Fe Opera, the Washington National Opera, the Florida Grand Opera, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and the Texas Shakespeare Festival. She currently teaches and manages the costume shop at Louisiana State University. Professional costume design credits include Operating Systems, Airline Highway, and The Mountaintop, at Louisiana’s Swine Palace Theatre; Kimberly Akimbo, Tender Atlas, and Witch at McNeese State University, and the world premiere of The Christmas Spider at Opera Louisiane. Kyla enjoys creating costumes for competitive dance troupes and uniforms for the dance teams of professional basketball teams the Orlando Magic and the Detroit Pistons. Passionate about the possibilities of devised theatre, she designed and created costumes for Savage/Love, a work of physical theatre performed at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, and Love and Information, a semi-devised piece performed at Louisiana State University. Her research on the rewarding chaos of devising was first published in the 2017 Theatre Symposium and is now available through Routledge Press in her book, Creating Costumes for Devised Theatre.

Tyler Kieffer

Tyler Kieffer (Sound Designer) is the Assistant Professor of Sound Design and Technology for LSU Theatre. Tyler is a sound designer for new plays, opera, and immersive theatre. He’s been twice nominated for the New York Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Sound Design in 2019 for Will Arbery’s Plano and in 2021 for Tectonic Theater Project’s Seven Deadly Sins. Other recent credits include Swine Palace’s Operating Systems, Craters, ROE; Tribes, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Le Petit theatre in New Orleans, and Found at the Cork Midsummer Festival Ireland. Tylerkieffer.com

Smaida Massatt

Smaida Massatt (Lighting Designer) worked as a lighting designer and electrician in the Chicago and Minneapolis areas. She earned her MFA in Lighting Design at the University of Minnesota. Some of the theatres she has worked for include Minnesota Children’s Theatre Co., Penumbra Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Theatre Latté Da, Interact Theater Company. She has also worked in several capacities in numerous theaters and dance companies including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and Chicago Puppet Festival.

Rocky Sansom

Rocky Sansom (Voice Coach) is an Associate Professor of Voice & Speech at Louisiana State University, Associate Head of the MFA Acting program, and the voice coach of LSU’s resident theatre, Swine Palace. He is Affiliate Faculty with LSU’s linguistics program. As a voice and accent coach, he has worked Off-Broadway with York Theatre Company and Theater for the New City, and he has worked Off-West End with Arcola Theatre. Regional credits include the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Premiere Stages, and the Savannah Repertory Theatre.

Sarah Statham

Sarah Statham (Stage Manager) Previous production credits include: LSU School of Theatre’s Rachel, Airness (ASM), Swine Palace’s Craters (ASM), Sweat, LSU lab series’ The Goat, LSU’s Dream Logos performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and The Shawshank Redemption with 225 Theatre Collective. Sarah, also, has experience as a props designer on productions including LSU lab series’ Belleville and Wolf Play.

Apollo Mark Weaver

Apollo Mark Weaver (Scenic Designer) teaches scenic design at LSU and has worked in the professional theatre world for more than two decades. His designs have appeared nationally on stages including Geva Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and Utah Shakespeare Festival. He has also designed sets for many local companies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and upstate New York, including InterAct, Azuka Theatre, the Mercury Theatre, and Inis Nua Theatre Company. He has served as charge scenic artist for many companies and projects around the country and been a muralist for the Strong National Museum of Playx. He holds an MFA from Temple University and has also taught at Juniata College, Utah Valley University, and Arizona State University.

Daniel Daigle

Daniel Daigle (Paul/Dad) is a second year MFA Theatre candidate. Previous Swine Palace credits include The Book of Will and ROE. Most recently, Daniel was fight choreographer for LSU Lab Season’s production of The R & J Project. You can see Daniel next in Swine Palace’s production of Red Velvet, playing in February 2025.

Marina DeYoe-Pedraza

Marina DeYoe-Pedraza (Emma)  is an MFA Acting candidate. Before moving to Louisiana for graduate schools, she lived in Austin, TX. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Hofstra Univerisity. Previous Swine Palace credits include The Book of Will (Elizabeth Condell) and ROE (Sarah Weddington). She, also, directed for LSU's 24-25 Lab Season, Rosita y Conchita. Other professional credits include Yamel Cucuy with Glass Half Full Theatre, American Blood Song with Trouble Puppet Theater Co., and Salvage Vanguard Theater’s Casta by Adrienne Dawes. She also produced and performed her solo show Vulva Pope: Our Lady of the Sacred Part directed by Mikala Gibson for the East Austin Studio Tour, in 2022. From 2014-2023, she was a soloist and company dancer for modern dance company, Ballet East. You can see Marina in Swine Palace’s production of Red Velvet, playing in February 2025.

Craig Ester

Craig Ester (Konstantin/Foster) is excited to return to Swine Palace and The Reilly Theatre in People, Places, and Things. He would like to thank his family, faculty, and cohort for all they do to keep him afloat. Previous credits include: The Book of Will (Marcus/Ensemble), ROE (McClusky, Flowers, Ensemble) with Swine Palace, Macbeth (Macbeth) with Glass of Water Productions, Death of a Salesman (Howard/Stanley) with Flint Repertory Theatre, Merry Wives of Windsor (Slender), and Henry V (Ensemble), and Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet) with Michigan Shakespeare Festival. You can see Craig in Swine Palace’s production of Red Velvet, playing in February 2025.

Maura McErlean

Maura McErlean (Therapist Lydia) is a second-year MFA Acting candidate raised in Hershey, PA, and most recently based in Philadelphia. LSU: The Book of Will and ROE (Swine Palace), Dialect Coach for Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B (LSU Mainstage) and Macbeth, devised by the 2025 MFA Acting cohort. Selected Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Woman of No Importance (Walnut Street Theatre), The Wolves (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Twelfth Night (Atlantic City Theatre Co.), As She Likes It (Gamut Theatre Group). Upcoming: Red Velvet at Swine Palace. BA Temple University. A big thank you to Joy, Sarah S., Sarah N. & Alissa. Love to my family.

Sarah Nansubuga

Sarah Nansubuga (Assistant Director/Mom) is a third year PhD (Theatre) student with Minors in Communication Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Previous Credits include Swine Palace’s The Book of Will, Arcadia, Airline Highway, and LSU Lab Show’s Wolf Play. Directing credits include an original, self-authored show with LSU’s 23/24 Lab season, titled Let Me Be: Grandma, Mama, and Me, and Assistant Directing People, Places and Things. Sarah is incredibly excited and grateful for this opportunity!

Douglas Scott Streater

Douglas Scott Streater (Mark) is no stranger to the Swine Palace stage.  As a graduate of LSU’s MFA program, he is elated to be working with the Swine Palace on their production of People, Places, and Things. Douglas was most recently seen in the Swine Palace’s production of The Book of Will. His first performance with the Swine Palace and in the Louisiana area was in Airline Highway in 2019. He dedicates all his performances to his mother, the late Gladys Samuel, his lovely wife Adrienne, and his rambunctious daughters Ari-Elizabeth and Catherine-Rowe.

“I never want to be anything more than I am; what I don't have, I don't need.”  -Louis Armstrong

Emmanuela Wade

Emmanuela Wade (Doctor) a 2nd year MFA Theatre Major. Previous credits include Swine Palace ROE, and Nate Parker Foundation Short films CANOE and BAGGAGE. She was recently cast in Swine Palace's upcoming show Red Velvet.

Timothy Bourgeois

Timothy Bourgeois (Shaun/Ensemble) is a Senior Theatre (Performance) Major and History Minor. His previous credits include Swine Palace's The Book of Will, LSU Student Health Center's Tigerchat 2023, for which he helped write the script, and Chateaux Rouge Cinema's Mr. Hanaki. He is a member of LSU's Delta Rouge film club.

Sarah May Dages

Sarah May Dages (Ensemble) is a Sophomore Theatre Major (Performance). She is honored to be making her LSU theatrical debut with Swine Palace! Originally from Texas, Sarah is a performer and costume designer. Her favorite credits include Oklahoma!, Our Town, Into the Woods JR., and costume designing Dracula, Chicago: Teen Edition, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She is also a member of LSU’s Musical Theatre Club. She is grateful for her wonderful, beautiful parents and their endless love and support, despite physical distance.

Allison DePriest

Allison DePriest (Ensemble) is a Junior Theatre Major (Performance) and Music Minor and is so excited to be debuting in a Swine Palace Production. Previous credits include LSU Theatre Lab Show Dead City and LSU Turner-Fischer Opera production of Carousel. Allison will be debuting in the Evangeline’s Theatre upcoming production of Rock of Ages.

Leah Franklin

Leah Franklin (Ensemble) is a Junior Theatre Performance Major. Credits include Swine’s Palace People, Places & Things, and Films such as Problematic Intentions, Emancipation, Big George Foreman, and Sinners.

Priya Hildebrand

Priya Hildebrand (Ensemble)  is a Freshman Theatre Major (Performance).  She is delighted to be making her LSU debut in People, Places, and Things. High school credits include Pipeline, The Ash Girl, and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Upcoming appearances include LSU Geaux Film Sink or Swim and Theatre Baton Rouge’s A Christmas Carol.

Leah Hulin

Leah Hulin (Laura/Ensemble) is a Senior Theatre Major (Physical Theatre) and English Minor. Previous credits include LSU Theatre Lab's Rosita y Conchita and LSU MTC's Singeaux. They also devised and performed movement and aerial pieces in LSU Physical Theatre's Fall and Spring Showcases and were Choreographer for MTC's Haunted Hallways Cabaret.

Elijah Taylor

Elijah Taylor (T/Ensemble) is a Freshman Theatre Major (Performance). People Places and Things is his first Swine Palace Credit. Some of his previous credits include The Sweet Science of Bruising, Into the Woods, and 10 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse in High School. His future appearances in LSU projects include ensemble in Sink or Swim directed by Eli Sudul.

Albert (Tre) Williams

Albert (Tre) Williams (Ensemble) is a Senior Theater Studies Major. He has performed for LSU's Study Abroad Program in Scotland. He has done run crew for LSU's Airness and LSU's Physical Theater Performance in 2024.