CAST/CREATIVE
Carey Brianna Hart
“My mother was jailed in the 1960s for registering individuals to vote,” says Carey Brianna Hart. “So many people have fought, struggled and died to have this right to affect our government — it should not be taken for granted.” Born in Miami, she graduated from the New World School of the Arts. She has a BFA in Theatrical Studies from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago. She has been a major presence in South Florida theater, including: the African American Performing Arts Community Theatre, AreaStage, GableStage, M Ensemble Theatre Company, Mad Cat New Theatre, Thinking Cap Theatre, the Vinnette Carroll Theatre and the Women’s Theatre Project, among many others. She has worked with the Afro-Academic Cultural Technological & Scientific Olympics, mentoring students in Drama, Playwriting, Oratory and Poetry. Carey has coached numerous students who have become NAACP National ACT-SO Medalists. She is also the author of Dust Tracks, a one woman show of Zora Neale Hurston.
Ricky J. Martinez
“This work is woke! A clear ring of authenticity and activism, for us to get back on point,” says Ricky J. Martinez. The award-winning Director and published playwright has been invited to direct for the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival’s the MFA Playwrights’ Workshop; Stanford University ’s National Center for New Plays; James Madison University and the Forbes Center; the Words A-fire festival in New Mexico; and other organizations across the country. His collaborations with playwrights on more than fifty world premiere plays have led to Pulitzer Prize finalists/wins and ATCA’s Steinberg finalists/wins. Awards include the 2016 Margo Jones Award, and the 2016 Remy Pioneer Award. He served as the Artistic Director for Miami’s New Theatre. Nationally, he served on the Executive Committee for the National New Play Network; the Advisory Board of the Latino Theatre Commons; as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts; the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation; the National Fund for New Musicals; and San Antonio’s Luminaria Festival.
Bill Spring
“During these unprecedented times, artists have no choice but to create. That is what we do and artists are critical right now,” says Bill Spring. “There is enormous power in artists working together, offering the viewer a passageway, inspiration, and igniting our collective spirit. It doesn’t take much for evil to come crawling out of the woodwork, but the truth-seeking voice of Bella is not one to be silenced.” Bill Spring is a writer and actor. His work has been featured nationally at various festivals including FUSE: the New York Celebration of Queer Culture at HERE Arts Center, and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Autobiographical works include Miss Vanilla & the Hustler, The Prehistoric Zip Code of Water, The House, Skin Deep, Dream of the Firemen, and Kmart and Spirituality. Spring has acted in numerous productions, including the play about Anita Bryant’s anti-LGBT crusade, called 1,000 Homosexuals (at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and the Colony Theatre), and in No Music in this House. Born in Atlanta, he received a BA in English with a minor in Theatre Studies at Emory University, and is a classically trained concert pianist.
Jose Lima
Jose Lima, the Producer of this film, is a marketing expert specializing in strategic media campaigns at the national and international level. He majored in Music Performance at both Miami Dade College and the University of Miami School of Music, and Public Relations/Journalism at Florida International University. Lima began his career in communications as a journalist, reporting on the film and television industries. Lima helped to lead international public relations campaigns at the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau for a decade, during the renaissance of South Beach. He promoted the Miami destination to travel writers, television producers and digital journalists from around the world and was one of the first in the world to spearhead the first-ever LGBT tourism campaign for a destination. He has directed global marketing missions to New York, Los Angeles, throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. Lima served as Vice President of Lifestyle and Tourism for one of the world’s top agencies, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, where he directed campaigns for UPS (for all of Latin America); Carlson Hotels Worldwide; the Cancun Convention & Visitors' Bureau and the Riviera Maya Tourism Bureau; Hertz Car Rental for all of Latin America; and the Negril Jamaica Tourism Board. He has been tapped as a senior-level expert to create campaigns during Art Basel Miami Beach, including the David Castillo Gallery, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Frost Art Museum, the Jewish Museum of Florida, and many more.