Living in America: The Waiting List Is Full
The Cast
Marcia Barnes is always pursuing her lifelong love of the arts, particularly the performing arts. She has participated in artistic endeavors beginning at a young age. She has over 25+ years of group facilitation experience. Her work as a facilitator has included Domestic Violence and Conflict Management. Marcia has been a zAmya troupe member for five years and continues to pursue other areas in the arts.
Gerald Micheal Blackbird was born and raised with three brothers on Wind River Reservation in Riverton, Wyoming. He also lived in nearby Thermopolis. Jerry’s childhood was difficult. Others often considered his family “less than”. He later joined a carnival and learned about some of the wonders of life. Despite drug use and some bad relationships, Jerry is thankful he found his way to God and now has a better understanding of what it is to be a human being. While living on the streets, Jerry came across a zAmya workshop and is now a Troupe Member! He is also the treasurer of Street Voices of Change. Jerry has lived in government funded housing for the last three years.
Annette Bryant’s creativity extends across the world to many distinct disciplines. Whether people, plays, speaking engagements, puppetry, healing, laughter or love, Annette lives and creates with care and joy. Annette also goes by the name "Queen Mama," a moniker bestowed on her by her children's friends that reflects her kind and regal spirit. Annette loves using art to share her lived experiences, such as being an unhoused mother, and sees her creativity as a blessing and a way to connect with others.
JD Freeman. At the tender age of six, JD's young parents divorced. His single mother continued to raise him in the shadows of poverty and addiction, in government housing. This shaped in him a deep empathy and curiosity for others. A lifelong lover of music and performance, JD found joy in choir and making people laugh. He first experienced theater when doing two plays for his German class, one placed 7th out of 30 at a competition held at the U of MN. After a hardship led him to experience homelessness, he discovered zAmya by chance. Since then, storytelling through art has became a lifeline.
Jesse Gardinier is currently attending college to become a drug counselor. He uses the gifts of acting and singing to help bring awareness and comedy to the Minneapolis community. He has six kids. He wants the future generation to do better than he did and leave the world better than it is. He has experienced homelessness and was once on the waiting list for public housing, but never received it due to the pandemic.
Patty Gille has been involved with zAmya for 5 years. She was in the recent production of DisPlace last spring and is a regular participant in zAmya’s Library Shareformances. She’s written songs for shows like “Rent Control” and “The Voting Song”. She appreciates learning from others,sharing interactions, and emphasizing the idea of “respecting human dignity”. Her other work has included childcare, puppetry shows, and sharing the arts with the world around her. You can see her puppetry at work in BareBones’ Halloween Extravaganza or catch her with fruit on her head at the yearly May Day Parade.
Linward Jones grew up in the Red Hills of southwest Georgia. He experienced public housing through most of his early life until he reached 17. It was in public housing where he learned all of his artistic visions and accolades. He’s had a deep passion for inner-city housing and housing development. He shares zAmya passion for housing justice and looks forward to continuing his journey with zAmya as we affect one soul at a time.
SHANNON KEMP has been a proud member of zAmya for seven years, using the power of performance to spotlight housing injustice. A lifelong artist and performer, Shannon brings lived experience and deep passion to every role. Her work with zAmya is rooted in a commitment to storytelling that uplifts voices often unheard. As an outspoken activist for housing equality, she believes in the transformative power of theater to spark change. The Waiting List is Full is one of many pieces she’s helped bring to life with zAmya, each one a reflection of resilience and truth. Shannon is honored to share this story and stand in solidarity with those still waiting to be seen.
Caroline Mannheimer has been with zAmya since 2009. She wears many hats as a songwriter, playwright, workshop facilitator, director, and visual artist for zAmya. She’s originally from New Jersey / NYC. She’s the writer of Analysis Paralysis and plays the “Inner Voice” .
Sol Moran was born in Puerto Rico. As an artist since childhood, she enjoys creating, singing, happy noise making, dancing, writing and performing. She began her career as an actress with Teatro del Pueblo. She has also performed with Karios Alive. She is honored and fortunate to be a part of the zAmya Theater Project. She has also worked as a missionary, DJ, Photographer, an interpreter, motivator, counselor for domestic violence victims and the homeless, and as a natural healer. She feels very fortunate to be living in a HUD funded apartment.
Renita Parkhurst has a bubbly personality. She plays the guitar, dances and sings. She has been with zAmya for three years and was first attracted by the weekly workshops at the Hennepin Central Library. She enjoys creating plays with the troupe. She’s lived in nine group homes and hopes for her own place next year!
Jada Windom is a passionate performing artist. She holds 10+ years of modern, contemporary, liturgical. and hiphop dance experience. As the newest troupe member, Jada played the lead role of Stevie/Adrian in zAmya’s production of DisPlace. Jada grew up in Detroit and has experienced public housing and homelessness.
Production Team
Maren Ward is a Twin Cities performer, director and community-based theater maker - named Best Theater Performer of 2018 in MN Monthly Magazine. Maren has been zAmya’s creative director since it started in 2004. She has been awarded a McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship (2007) and has attended the Cornerstone Institute for Community Based Theater and the Sojourn Theater/Center for Performance and Civic Practice Institute.
Esther Ouray has collaborated as a performing artist for over 45 years with numerous performance companies. As a teaching artist she has led countless residencies in schools, communities, and arts organizations both locally and afar. Esther was a company member of At the Foot of the Mountain Theater for many years, as well as a Core Artist with In the Heart of the Beast. Esther was the organizer of ‘A Day in the Life’ at St. Stephen’s Human Services, a program that engages the community at large in learning about homelessness. Incessantly, she seeks out creative opportunities that bring people together for the common good.
Robert Blood was born in Minneapolis and has been a member of zAmya Theater Project since first attending at the Minneapolis Central Library in 2018. Robert performed as a Council of Second Chances member in that year's production of Second Chance, performed and assistant stage managed Stories from the Book of Harbor Light and played Dave in A Prairie Homeless Companion. Robert sits on the zAmya Advisory Board, is a published poet, and lives in public housing.
Blake Brown grew up in Minnesota and received his BA in Theatre at the University of San Diego. Since 2022 he’s helped bring countless shows to life with zAmya as a stage manager. He’s also worked with The Guthrie (Hamlet, A Christmas Carol), Scripps Ranch Theatre (Love Song), Interact Theatre (Hell Is Empty & All The Devils Are Here, We’re Still Here) and Shakespearean Youth Theatre (Comedy of Errors), He’s passionate about theatre of the oppressed, community engagement, and solving the current housing crisis in Minneapolis.
Dameun Strange is a multi-instrumentalist, musicologist, composer, and sound designer. His work encompasses conceptual electronic and improvised electro-acoustic compositions that explore narratives and themes of the African diaspora, frequently incorporating Afrofuturist aesthetics. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in Composition at the University of Minnesota School of Music. Mr. Strange resides in the Frogtown Community of Saint Paul, MN, with his wife, Corina, and their daughter, Ezra.
Chris Lutter is a designer, inventor, theater-maker, and community educator whose work centers on creating puppets, masks, props, costumes, and kinetic installations from waste-stream materials. For over two decades, he has inspired original thinking in theatrical, educational, and public-art design with a focus on eco-consciousness, resourcefulness, and improvisation. As founder of Big Animal Productions LLC, Chris transforms discarded materials into imaginative public art that connects people to the Earth and each other. A Bush, McKnight, and Public Art Saint Paul Fellow, he also performs his renowned “Big Animal” puppets in community spaces and serves proudly as a certified puppet doctor.
Peter Morrow moved to the Twin Cities from Dublin, Ireland in 2012. He has designed, composed and collaborated with many companies, colleges, and amazing artists along the way including Interact, Wonderlust, Full Circle, Red Eye, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Stages Theatre Company, Exposed Brick, Mni Giizhik, New Arab American Theater, Theater Mu, Penumbra, New Native Theatre, Pangea, Playwrights’ Center, Theater Latté Da, The Children’s Theatre Company and The Guthrie Theater; Body Watani, BRKFST, Threads and Collide; Ifrah Mansour, A.P. Looze, Akiko Ostlund, Diver Van Avery, Pedra Pepa and Asha Rowland. He is delighted to be back working with zAmya again. Peter is a 2025-26 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow.