LaShondra Hood is an actress, director, artivist, and arts educator located in Louisville, KY! She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from Alabama State University and her Master of Fine Arts in Performance from the University of Louisville. LaShondra currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Co-Director of the African American Theatre Program in the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. With over a decade of experience in performance and theatre arts, LaShondra has appeared in dramas, musicals, dance concerts, staged readings, choir concerts, new play premieres, and play development workshops. She is passionate about educating and empowering students to reach their fullest potential and believes that a student’s journey through academia, and through life, is not just a learning experience, but another scene in a much larger production.

Tyja Lynnx is a second-year MFA student from Daytona Beach, Florida. She received her BA in Theatre Performance from Florida A&M University. In undergrad, she played Josephine Baker in Beth Turner’s Sweet Mama String Bean. After graduating from her HBCU, she began her working as an Acting Fellow at The Black Rep in St. Louis. While there, some roles Tyja played were Harriet Tubman in the touring TYA production of Alice Childress’s When the Rattlesnake Sounds and was an ensemble member in Timbuktu. At UofL she has been in St. Lucy's Eyes as Young Woman, Clyde’s as Letitia, and her most recent role is in Blues for an Alabama Sky as Angel. This is Tyja's first-time assistant directing and the beginning of her directing journey. Tyja is thankful for her family and friends' support, which has encouraged her to reach this point in her career.

Bailey Ramirez (she/her) is ecstatic to make her stage-managing debut. A senior Public Health major with minors in Theatre Arts, Chemistry, Biology, and Healthcare Management, she’s thrilled to attend UofL’s School of Medicine in the Fall! Her UofL credits include The Love of Three Oranges (Truffaldina) and Gloria (Kendra/Jenna), and she has loved exploring other facets of technical theatre. Raised in the Louisville theatre community, Bailey is blessed to have worked with Actors Theatre of Louisville and Kentucky Shakespeare. Her screen credits include National Anthem Girl, Saint Clare, various commercials, and portraying Little Bo Peep on PBS’s The Mother Goose Club. A nationally recognized dancer, she also choreographs and teaches at 360 Dance.

Hayden is a third-year undergrad Theatre Arts major at UofL. His area of focus is performance, but he has additional experience working in props, set-building, sound design, and scenic painting. You may have seen him recently in the Fall 2025 MainStage production of As You Like It as Orlando or as Prince Tartaglia in the Spring 2025 production of The Love of Three Oranges. This is his first time working management for a show! He also engages in Studio Theatre and starred as Algernon in their most recent production The Importance of Being Earnest.

Grayson is a Louisville native and Youth Performing Arts School graduate. He has been performing in the community for the past decade. Most recently, you might have seen him in Kentucky Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as Andrew Aguecheek with the Globe Players ensemble! He has also worked with IdeasXLab, the (Un)Known Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Little Colonels Playhouse, Bunbury Theatre, and of course, his alma mater, YPAS. In addition to acting, he is also comfortable on the headset as a Bradley award-winning stage manager for Outstanding Technical Execution for You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown at YPAS. You can find him next in UofL's upcoming production of The Laramie Project!

Aniyah Adams is a fashion artist specializing in craftsmanship and sustainability. She is currently a tailor’s apprentice, focusing on garment construction and pattern making. She is also an active weaver, studying textile development and the history of fiber arts. She holds a degree in Costume Design from the University of Louisville, where she built a strong foundation in drafting, draping, rendering, construction, and research-driven design. She has experience in the streetwear and entertainment industries, as well as in costume and fashion production environments, giving her a broad perspective of design across disciplines. Her practice emphasizes handmade processes, fabric knowledge, and traditional techniques. She integrates historical insight, narrative, and structural design to create garments that balance technical mastery with inventive, contemporary expression.

Gianna Alcala is an undergrad Theatre Arts major at the University of Louisville. She is one of the Undergraduate Student Representatives (2025-2026), a Box Office Manager (2023-present), and she has served as Co-Lighting Designer for Pipeline (UofL ‘26), Assistant Lighting Designer for Blues for an Alabama Sky (UofL ‘25), and Twelfth Night (Kentucky Shakespeare ‘25), and Assistant Sound Designer for The Love of Three Oranges (UofL ‘25). Gianna was also the Stage Manager for As You Like It (UofL ‘25). She has also worked in the Scene shop since the Spring of 2025 is the Master Electrician.

Skylar Swalls is a Louisville transplant theatre artist. Her theatrical background began with performing and now extends to sound design, stage management, arts administration, and scenic painting / design. You may have seen her as Doctor Watson in Miss Holmes or Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at UofL, or as Clarisse in The Lightning Thief at Clarksville Little Theatre. This is her fourth semester working in the scene shop, where she was previously the scenic charge and is now props master. Skylar works in the UofL Box Office, creating flyers, websites, merchandise, and social media content for the Department. She is also the president of Studio Theatre and is one of the Department’s undergraduate representatives. She hopes to one day perform in Broadway touring productions and her dream to be the first person to win a Tony for both performance and design.