CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION STAFF
Jeffery V. Thompson’s (Director) involvement at OOTB has transitioned quickly from being the director of The Constant Wife in ’23, to advisory board member in ’24, and finally to his current positions as director of this production as well as having recently been elected as OotB’s new Artistic Director. Other NYC area directing credits are Sarah Sings a Love Story (Crossroads Theatre Co.), My Harlem ’Tis of Thee (Aaron Davis Hall), Ice Out: Shackled and Chained (National Black Theatre), and Shot: Caught a Soul (Pulitzer Center). National directing credits include The King and Me starring Emmy award winner Keith David, Paul Robeson, starring Tony award winner Chuck Cooper; The Shaneequa Chronicles, starring Stephanie Berry; Welcome Home, Marian Anderson, starring Vanessa Shaw; Gorilla, My Love (Lincoln Center Institute); Coriolanus (Take Wing and Soar); and The Souls of Black Folks: A Centennial Celebration, starring Danny Glover, Phylicia Rashad, Geoffrey Wright, Nora Cole, Peter Jay Fernandez, and Keith David. As an actor, Mr. Thompson has appeared in critically acclaimed productions On- and Off-Broadway and in regional theaters across the United States. His scripts have been produced on Broadway as well as at theaters in New Jersey; Philadelphia; Washington, DC; Florida; Arkansas; and Ohio.
Halina Malinowski (Producer) Animal Farm is the 18th show that Halina has produced or co-produced for OotB. As president of OotB’s board of directors, Halina is responsible for the company’s strategic direction, legal compliance, and administrative, managerial, and financial challenges. Her experience includes over 30 years’ engagement with and for nonprofits.
Harlan D. Penn (Scenic Designer/Technical Director) is a proud graduate of Florida A&M University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The South Florida native has designed for Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, cable television, regional theater, and educational theater. In addition, Penn has served as an art director and assistant art director for film and television productions for Netflix, Hulu, ABC/Disney, NBC, Hallmark Movie Channel, CBS, and Turner Broadcasting. Film/TV productions include God Friended Me, For Life, Girls 5eva, The Last O.G., Saturday Night Live, Raising Kanan, FBI Most Wanted, Fire Island, The Noel Diary, Rise, Madame Secretary, Katy Keene, and Roland Martin Unfiltered. Mr. Penn is currently an assistant professor of Scenic Design at York College in Jamaica, Queens, NY.
Katherine Roberson (Costume Designer) just completed the Brownstone Steps Play Festival produced by Alicia Foxworth. She is glad to be back working with OotB, where she was most recently the costume designer of Birds of a Feather and previously of The Butter and Egg Man, The Constant Wife, Chicago, Five by Tenn, and others “as a big girl still puts on mother’s clothes and walks down the long steps.” Her long career also includes working as costume designer or wardrobe mistress for the Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theater, Morningside Players, H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players, Black Spectrum Theater, NYC Shakespeare Festival Theater, AGM Theater Company, and many others.
