EIU Department of Theatre Arts

Tanya Everett, guest playwright for Good Enough

Tanya Everett moved from Massachusetts to Brooklyn to pursue her career as an actor and writer. Her plays have been performed in many Off-Broadway venues, including the Public, Cherry Lane, HERE Arts Center, TheaterLab, Kraine, Cherry Pit, and the Tank. She believes in the power of healing through artistry.

She wrote and performed Thousand Miles, which was nominated for a Drama League Award in 2021. Her play And The Gods Walk Among Us was named Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award and Finalist for the Lark Development Week. Her play, A Dead Black Man, was a Finalist for the Dramatist Guild Fellowship in 2019. She graduated from Brooklyn College in 2019, under Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney. She won the AAUW Career Development Grant, the Truman Capote Scholarship, and the 2018 MFA in Playwriting Awards to support her academic pursuits. She is working on several projects in development for film and TV. Some of her teachers and mentors include, Stephen Adley Guirgis, Ellen McLaughlin, Maggie Flanigan, and Julia Jordan.

She has developed original work on commission for several academic institutions, including The Chapin School, Brooklyn High School of the Arts, and Brooklyn College. She would love to thank everyone at Eastern Illinois for this opportunity and for the chance to make art live and in person! She dedicates this work to her grandmother Linda and her father figure John, who raised her with the belief that anything was possible.

Janai Lashon, guest director for Blood at the Root

Janai Lashon recently received her MFA in Acting from Ohio University where she also Co-Founded Vibrancy Theater. Her roots trace back to Kalamazoo, MI where she earned a BA in Theater Performance from Western Michigan University. During this time and after graduation she explored and developed a sincere passion for directing. Her most recent directorial credit is Alis Awake, a new work by Shawnti Brown. Other credits include A Song for Coretta by Pearl Cleage, Checkmates'by Ron Milner and her original written works commissioned by Blackstudent led organizations at WMU  such as The Yard I & II, Confessions of a Mixed Chic and Young Love. 

She’s excited to continue her directorial journey here at EIU with Blood at the Root' by Dominique Morisseau. Janai feels connected to this story especially since she had the honor of doing the dramaturgy at Ohio University Fall 2020 production under the direction of Tiffany Nichole Greene. Let’s play and seriously tell an authentic story that leads us to re-examine the threads of American History. 

Sheri Doyle, guest costume director for A Bright New Boise

Sheri Doyle is an Instructor of Costume Design at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois. She has prolifically designed over 40 regional productions and 2 full length movies in the last decade. In addition to Parkland College, her work has been seen on the stage at The Virginia Theatre, The Station Theatre, Heartland Community College, and The Little Theatre on the Square. Her movie is soon to be released on Netflix. 

Along with designing, teaching, and managing the costume shop, Sheri enjoys teaching Intro to Sewing with Parkland's Community Outreach College for Kids program. She considers her four almost-adult children her most successful design/build project to date.