Secrets and Lies Cast

Donald Paul Jones III is a Kansas City native. He received his B.S. degree from the Dr. Percy J. Vaughn College of Business at Alabama State University. His career in entertainment has since grown to include music, voice acting, short films, and he appeared in several regional theater productions as well. Some of his performances include Lewis Morrow’s Misunderstanding the Candy Game (Gem Theater), Don Halliburton’s The Root of All Evil (Gem Theater, Mesquite Arts Center, St. Louis Convention Center). He loves the stage because in his words, “When the lights come on, there is no hiding from the audience or even yourself, and to thrive on stage is a true display of mastery.” He considers himself a longtime friend of the company…and with his newest role, he hopes to solidify himself as “family”.

Brittany Evans is a Kansas City, MO native. She received her bachelor’s degree in theatre and performance with a minor in mathematics from Spelman College. Brittany found her love in theatre upon taking her first theatre and acting course there. She was involved in a couple of plays in college; Art After Dark (Baldwin Burroughs Theatre) and Blk Girl/Blk Boy (Black Box Theatre). Brittany, post-grad, acted in her first zoom play entitled 24 Hour Day Play (The Living Room Theatre). Her film credits include Erotic Awakening and Ushers. In 2020 through 2021, she trained in improvisational theatre with Tribe University in Kansas City. She has participated in a master class through Soul Center located in Atlanta, Tuning the Actor’s Instrument in 2021. She was introduced to The Powell Academy through a mentor to be coached in their master class for monologue work and acting in 2020. Brittany loves making theatre to reach diverse audiences and to move them by the imitation of life, through art. The exhilarating feeling and thrill of being on stage for that hour or two is “seemingly bliss.” Immediately following this play, she performed in METKC’s Flyin’ West, playing the youngest sister Minnie who brought the audience to tears. She is thrilled to be performing in this production entitled Secret and Lies as her first lead role.

Daniel André hails from Kansas City, MO. His career started at the young age of nine in his elementary's school play Follow the Drinking Gourd. He said, "I knew then that I had found my passion, my purpose." He is a graduate of The University of Central Missouri. Daniel has acted in productions with The Coterie Theatre and various other theatres during his career. This is Daniel's second production with KC Melting Pot Theatre. Daniel credits his family for always supporting him. "This is for you!

Amber Redmond is extremely proud to be able to work with KC Melting Pot Theatre. A longtime patron of the arts, she returns back to the stage in over a decade. She is a graduate of Theatre from Missouri Western State University. She's wishes to thank her family and friends for their support and encouragement to return to the art that she first fell in love with years ago. 

Chris is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, making his KCMPT debut. Chris has studied theatre at St. Mary's College of Maryland and Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, where he earned an Associates in Fine Arts. Chris is the author of numerous one-act and full-length plays, including North Avenue, produced online by The Blank Theatre in 2021. He last appeared on stage in a production of The Unexpected Guest at Laurel Mill Playhouse in Laurel, Maryland in 2020.

Ebonee was born and raised in KCMO and earned her BA in Theatre from University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She has appeared in Pass Over (OCTA), 2121 (KCMPT), and the stage readings of Pass Over, Flo, and The Journey (WCA). When not performing, Ebonee works on crew for shows with her last being the Stage Manager for Flyin’ West (MET). She joined the family in 2015 and still works as the Administrative Assistant for KCMPT and Just Off Broadway Theatre which she’s held since 2017.

Cecilia Ananya is grateful to be with Melting Pot Theatre again. An MFA graduate from UMKC, she began her acting here, in her hometown of Kansas City, where she's performed at The Coterie Theatre in Mice and Men as Curley's Wife and Lorraine Hansberry in To Be Young, Gifted & Black, amongst various other roles, and The Unicorn Theatre in Jar The Floor as Lola and as Sarah in Mud, River, Stone. She has worked in film, television, Off Broadway and with some of the nation's most prestigious Regional Theatres. Her favorite roles include; Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tamora in Titus Andronicus, Lady In Red in For Colored Girls, Lou Bessie in Old Settler, Linda in Does A Tiger Wear A Necktie?, Beneatha and Ruth in Raisin In The Sun (and wants to play Mama one day). She is ecstatic to be back at The Melting Pot Theatre, and thanks the powers that be for the opportunity. Cecilia is also an educator, community organizer, consultant and "artivist". 

E. Larry Guidry born a Midwest native but raised in the bayous of Louisiana started entertaining at the age of 26 in the arena of Poetry. Performing anywhere anyone would listen including KC's own Gem Theatre. Success in poetry expanded him to try music which he adopted the name B.Wize (iambwize.com). After a brief stint with acting in 2011, the acting bug surfaced again in 2021, and since then, E. Larry has been in over 15 productions and counting.

Jessica Whitfield is a Kansas City actor. She earned her BFA in Theatre from Drake University where she was an Irene Ryan nominee. She has also trained locally with Richard Alan Nichols, Andy Garrison and Heather Laird. She loves being a part of unique plays that make audiences think and feel. She has previously been in Striking Beauty and Beginnings from an End with KC Fringe Festival. She was recently on The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes on The Oxygen Network and she is in Container Masters on episodes 5 and 9 on Tubi. She was recently in KC Melting Pot's production of Barbecue. She is excited to return and is having so much fun with this talented cast and crew. 

John Van Winkle is thrilled to be working again with KCMPT. He holds a BA in theatre performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Some of his favorite KC stage credits include On Shoulders Now, Barbecue (KCMPT); The Orphans Home Cycle, The Cherry Orchard, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre); A Soldiers Play (Black Rep. Theatre KC); Inspecting Carol (Co production of Unicorn Theatre and Kansas City Actors Theatre). This is John's third KCMPT production.