PRODUCTION CREW CAST

Epiphany is the labor of love of a group of artists dedicated to making film and making change. Our team includes some of the industry’s best and brightest; people who are striving to find new ways to tell a story and challenge their abilities.

NICOLE HODGES PERSLEY

Director

Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley is an award winning Associate Professor of Theatre at
the University of Missouri, Kansas City’s Theatre Conservatory. An artist-
scholar, Hodges Persley creates intentional bridges between the entertainment
industry and academia. She is the Artistic Director of the KC Melting Pot
Theatre, the premier African American theater company located at Just Off
Broadway Theater in Kansas City. Hodges Persley is an actor and director with
credits in theater, film, and television. Hodges Persley has acclaimed directing
credits in theatre and film including critically acclaimed productions of Lorraine
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Angelina W. Grimke’s Rachel, Amiri Baraka’s
Dutchman, Dominique Morriseau’s Sunset Baby and Lewis J Morrow’s Ain’t No
Such Thing as Midnight Black. She and her frequent
collaborator Monica Ndounou of The Craft Institute are in the launch stage of a
new creative social media platform called Create Ensemble which enables artists of
the global majority and accomplices to create performance, art and multimedia in
a safe digital space. Hodges Persley is the current President of the Black Theatre
Association, the co-creator of the Black Vitality Commission, sponsored by The
Craft Institute and Theatre Communications Group’s EDI Initiative. She
published articles and book chapters on Hip-Hop culture, African and African
American theater, Black popular culture, and sampling in American Theatre, Theatre
Journal, Theatre Topics, Palimpsest, and Stage Director and Choreographers Journal. She
has two forthcoming books, Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip Hop Performance
explores the influence of Hip-hop and African American culture on performing
artists in the United States and England and Breaking it Down: Auditioning and
Booking for Artists of the Global Majority and their Accomplices co-written with Monica
Ndounou. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, SDCS and the NTC (National
Theatre Conference).

LEWIS J. MORROW

Writer

Lewis serves as Kansas City Melting pot Theatre's Director of New Play Development. He has gained national recognition as both a writer and actor. A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Morrow’s plays include The Doves & Darkness, Look What the Fire Did, Elephant, The Little Bit You Can Do and Be Like Water. His workshop production of Ain’t No Such Thing as Midnight Black was produced in the KCMPT 18/19 season and his new play, Baybra’s Tulips, will close the KCMPT 2019-2020 “Greatest Hits of Black Theatre” season. His plays have been produced across the country, with forthcoming productions in England and Poland. Epiphany marks his first screenplay.

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CHRISTIE SCANLIN DOBSON

Producer

Film production credits include What We've Become, by Jennifer Nelson, production team and acting roles in Kevin Willmott's Jayhawkers, Blake Robbins' the Sublime and Beautiful, Chris Ordal's Earthwork, Josh Doke's Goodland, many projects with Through a Glass Productions and Women of LAwrence Film, and acting roles in Kansas city and Lawrence theatres. Currently, Christie is working on raising 3 boys and pursuing a PhD in Special Education. Her research agenda explores scholarship from the specialization Disability and Diversity in Education and Society.
Over the past 25 years, she has worked in theatre and film as an advocate and teaching artist with children, youth and adults with identified and unidentified [dis]abilities. Both her academic and professional aspirations have been framed by the exploration of creativity, connection and growth using the elements found in theatre and film.

StormDoor Productions launched in 2010 creating short documentary films and theatrical pieces by, for and about youth.

MARCUS GUIDER

Director of Photography

In the days where there’s endless amounts of visual content, as image makers we must hold ourselves responsible for what we put into the world. Is the content we’ve created conscious and thoughtful? Have we considered the impact our images will make? With every frame created, I aim to tell a story. A story of inclusion, and social consciousness – the story of humanity.

Working in many genres, Marcus has lit and shot for narrative, commercial, documentary and broadcast media. He is a continuous student of the art- observing and learning from all that is around him. By spending countless hours on set and studying his craft, he has successfully led crews on notable American shows.

Marcus Guider is passionate about people, the art of story telling, and the powerful influence of the visual medium.

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STEPHEN DEAVER

Editor

Stephen has been a professional editor for over a decade.
He's edited nationally released feature films like Kevin Wilmott's Jayhawkers, Diane Glancy's The Dome of Heaven, starring Wes Studi, and Last Breath, which has been distributed across the world. He's cut short films that have screen in festivals across the country. He's crafted documentaries about a legendary artist, a changing education system, and students on the front-line of tragedy. And for commercials, Steve has put together spots for everything from GoogleKC to TNT.
He's even received two Emmy nominations for his work.
No matter the project, Stephen uses his talent for storytelling to communicate the film's message with clarity and style.

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CHRIS BLUNK

Associate Producer

For ten years Chris has produced narrative, documentary, and commercial projects. Films as producer include Jayhawkers, What We've Become, The Sublime and Beautiful, Spiral Bound, a documentary on the education system, and AIR: The Musical, which has been distributed in North America, Australia, China, Taiwan, and South Africa. He has produced content for cable, theatrical releases, and internet everywhere. His latest project is Why Dont You Lose 5 Pounds,

A Documentary from Executive Producer

Nancy Kerrigan.

JEAN JOO

Assistant Director

Jean’s film career started humbly off with 7th grade Introduction to Drama to screenwriting her first short about her family’s version of The Joy Luck Club in college to now having had the honor of working with a dynamic team of her first short film, Epiphany. Epiphany was Jean’s first experience as an Assistant Director. She strives to build stories that create meaningful relationships, empathy, and understanding. She uses film to explore the Asian American experience, which can be difficult to share due to the strong shame culture in Asian society.

Jean currently resides in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband and two dogs. She trains and rehabilitates dogs, but being a military wife, is focused on building Barks + Boarding LLC towards being able to train dogs free for Veterans to minimize rehoming rates for dogs and to support Veterans through trauma.

ERIKA KJORLIE GEERY

Production Art and Photography

Erika Kjorlie Geery is a visual artist, photographer, writer, stylist, performer, and educator. She worked in the commercial photography, music, and film industries in Austin, Texas. She was Vice President of the Darkroom Co-op in Austin from 2004 to 2008. Erika taught alternative process photography classes and workshops at the University of Texas at Austin’s Architecture Department. Her artwork is included in the UTSOA’s Visual Resource Collection. Her work has been published in print media throughout Texas and Kansas. Her work is owned and collected by art lovers around the world. She is a board member of the Lawrence Corporation for the Advancement of the Visual Arts. She has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated since the Spring of 1993. She graduated from Washburn University in August of 2001 with a Bachelor’s degree in Art and a minor in English. She served as Elementary and Middle School Judge for the 2019 Lawrence Vanguard Awards. She has performed as an actress in several short films as well as features. She is currently both a Teaching Artist at Raintree Montessori School and a Visual Arts Teacher at the Lawrence Arts Center.

KILEY CHAVEZ

Art Director

Kiley Chavez graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Film and Media Studies in 2016. She has worked as a production assistant, camera operator and set decorator on various productions in the Lawrence and Kansas City area.

LA'RON COOPER

Sound

La'Ron is our Sound Mixer and boom Operator.

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SAM JONES

Key Grip

Key grips are important. Sam is a really good one. Just ask Marcus and Tony.

DAVID JOAN

1st Assistant Camera

David is quiet and brilliant and captured all the footage and kept it safe.

TONY ONTIVEROS

Gaffer

Tony O is a film icon around these parts. When he's on set all things run smoothly. Plus, he brings all the lights.

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GARY LANGE

Grip

Nicole and Christie met Gary in the KU Theatre Department and that's the start of a bunch of awesome

JONATHAN LAW

Grip & Electric Swing

Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan

DUNCAN BURNETT

Sound Engineer

Musician

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KHRYSTAL.

Composer

Khrystal Coppage is a native of Wyandotte County, in Kansas City Kansas. She received her BLA from UMKC.

Khrystal has appeared in several theatre productions, most recently including,

“We Shall Not Be Moved” (The Coterie), and “The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip” (KC Melting Pot Theatre), and this season will be in “Rise Up” at The Coterie and “A Raisin in the Sun” at KC Melting Pot Theatre.

Along with theatre productions, Khrystal has been cast in a quite a few film productions, including the now viral trailer “Bel-Air” casted as Ashley Banks. And most recently appearing in “U Shoot Videos?” both Written and Directed by Morgan Cooper.

Khrystal is also a musical artist, having released her first studio album “The Awkward Muva” in July 2018, available on all streaming platforms. Her work fuses the worlds of theatre, film and music production. Her most recent music release is her single “You, Again” available on all streaming platforms.”