Norman has worked with companies including SF-Shakes, Word for Word, Lorraine Hansberry, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players, CentralWorks, Perspective Theater, Oakland Theater Project… Recently performing in GREAT EXPECTATIONS with San Jose Stage Company, he last summer understudied (& performed!) PERICLES for SF Shakes.

Founder of Oakland Public Theater, Norman creates a ‘different kind of Black Theater”, expanding notions of culture to encompass often invisible roles of African-Americans. He also embraces a new position as a PlayGround Associate Producer. The Baldwin Project is a follow-up to a similar project created with playwright Richard Talavera, “BEFORE THE DREAM: The Mysterious Death (& Life) Of Richard Wright”.

Richard Talavera is an actor, playwright and Managing Director of Teatro Latino in San Francisco. He is a collective member of El Teatro de La Esperanza, Artistic Director of Tale Spinner’s Theatre Company, and owner/operator of The Mexican bus which was created as a Day of The Dead installation and operated for 28 years.

Alternating between theater and activism RT writing includes work inspired by history and identity. He conceived the Richard Wright Centennial Project to celebrate the 100 Year Birthday of Richard Wight to Oakland Public Theater. The process of which included a dozen readings over a two year period and which inspired this James Baldwin follow-up.

Natalie has served as the Literary Fellow for the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA and Assistant Program Director for the Eugene O’Neill Studio Retreat in Danville, CA. Her stage managing credits include Playground’s Zoom productions of Perfect, and Young Playwrights Project, a Zoom production of Evelyn Jean Pine and Katja Rivera’s THE INVISIBLE PROJECT, and Role Player Ensemble’s production of Ripcord.

Natalie is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, with a BA in Theatre: Literature/History, and currently can be found in service with City Year Sacramento in an eighth-grade English/History class.

Kobi Appel-Bernstein is the Development Liaison for the Project. Kobi has a background in college, youth, and professional theater, acting as well as writing. He has professional experience working in communications and development for several non-profit and educational organizations, including Goodwill SF.

Currently Kobi works as a tutor for young children, and as a puppeteer at Children’s Fairyland. He studied history and literature at Sarah Lawrence College, where he also worked as a research assistant in Medieval Literature and received the Lipkin Prize for the Humanities. He hopes to be a teacher one day.