Space Pirates Theatre Collective
SPACE PIRATES THEATRE COLLECTIVE Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill THE BILLIE HOLIDAY CONCERT PLAY by Lanie Robertson SPACE PIRATES THEATRE COLLECTIVE LIVE AT THE ZEBRA ROOM
SPACE PIRATES THEATRE COLLECTIVE PRESENTS: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill BY LANIE ROBERTSON LIVE AT THE ZEBRA ROOM MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS BY DANNY HOLGATE DIRECTED BY SKYE LAFONTAINE DIRECTOR’S NOTE I can’t believe we made it! What a whirlwind the show has been! From an expedited casting process, to a whirlwind two weeks of rehearsal, seeing this show up on its feet has impacted me in ways I didn’t know possible. The story is timeless, as is the music. Telling this difficult but beautiful and timely story while still celebrating the artist behind it has been a true challenge, and to be able to put it up during the 100th year of Black History Month just feels so right! Thank you to my incredible cast and crew for going on this crazy journey with me, I am so excited for you all to see what we’ve been cooking up!
CAST Billie Holiday ---------- Bessie D. Smith* Billie Holiday (cover) - Luz Rodriguez* Jimmy Powers ---------- Alonso Malik Pirio* CREW Director ---------------- Skye LaFontaine Music Director -------- Robby Good Stage Manager -------- Molly Anders* Producer/Designer ---- Ben Zingosr *The Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) Member
BESSIE D SMITH (BILLIE HOLIDAY) After almost a decade performing around the U.S. and beyond, Bessie D is thrilled to be making her L.A. debut with Space Pirates. Previous stage credits: The Wiz (The Wiz), Waitress (Becky), Rocky Horror Picture Show (Eddy/Dr. Scott), Drowsy Chaperone (Trix), The Color Purple (Shug Avery), Rock of Ages (Justice), and Urinetown (Pennywise). Bessie has also maintained several Jazz residencies from her life abroad in Bangkok, Thailand Crimson Room, Foojohn Jazz Club. “Deeply gratitude to my family, my life partner Tyler, and my fur child Maprow for holding me together”. For more Bessie D, follow her on Instagram @_bessied, and check out her recorded live performances on YouTube @bessied. ALONSO MALIK PIRIO (JIMMY POWERS) Alonso is a Grammy-winning performer, composer, music director, and pianist based in Los Angeles. Classically trained at UCLA, he has performed and music directed in dozens of pit orchestras and live theater productions, including A Christmas Carol with Center Theater Group, Tick, Tick.. Boom!, Singin’ in the Rain, and Parade. In addition to his theater work, Alonso composes and arranges for film, concert, and digital media, with scores featured at festivals including Tribeca, BFI, and SeriesFest. He brings versatility, technical skill, and collaborative expertise to every production he joins.
LUZ RODRÍGUEZ (BILLIE HOLIDAY [COVER]) Luz Rodríguez (she/her) is a Grammy-nominated singer, actress, coach, and entrepreneur from Los Angeles. She was most recently seen on stage in Hairspray at 5-Star Theatricals, preceded by her run in the new Broadway-bound musical Pump Up The Volume in the Hollywood Fringe Festival. You can also find her performing across the country with the award-winning choral group, Tonality. In addition to her creative pursuits, she owns and runs an organic skincare business, GAIA Naturals, with her mom. She would like to thank her parents for their endless support, and Space Pirates for her Equity principal debut! @luzr0driguez MAPROW (PEPI) Previous credits: Beef and Boards’ Wizard of Oz (Toto swing); Short North Stage’s dressing room morale. He’d like to thank his Space Pirates for his LA debut, and his mom for keeping the treats flowing.
SKYE (DIRECTOR) Skye is an LA born and raised actor and director and is so excited to be working with SPTC! Coming from a showbiz family, Skye has been involved with the arts her whole life, studying at both the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and CalArts, before going on to create her own theater company with her sister, NOTASCAR. To date, her directing credits include original productions as well as Rent and Dog Sees God. On the acting side, she has been seen in shows such as The Vortex, Company and multiple productions with the Delusion interactive theater company. She has made TV guest appearances on NCIS, and has lent her voice to video games Elder Scrolls, World of Warcraft, and Ace Force 2. Skye can also be heard on children’s series Mermaze, and promos for Apple TV. She couldn’t be more excited for you all to experience this special show! ROBBY GOOD (MUSIC DIRECTOR) Robby Good is a composer, performer, and general musical collaborator across all mediums. He has provided the scores to nearly 50 films and animations of varying lengths, a number of upcoming video games, and his concert music has been premiered by groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the National Children’s Chorus, the Lyris Quartet, and the CSUN Wind Ensemble among others. His music directing credits include The Fantasticks, Once Upon a Mattress, and the original musical Distopia, of which he was the primary composer and sole orchestrator. Robby currently holds a master’s degree in Composition for Visual Media from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and currently serves as the Director of Operations for the Unprecedented Music Association (UMA).
MOLLY ANDERS (STAGE MANAGER) Molly Anders (she/her) graduated from the University of Washington focusing on directing immersive, collaborative, and safe theatre spaces. Some of her most recent projects include directing How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Seattle’s Lowbrow Opera Collective debut production of Thirst. Since moving to LA, Molly has collaborated with theaters including Neil Gooding Productions, Valley Opera and Performing Arts, Poets Road Gallery, and Native Voices. She also teaches a stage management course at the California School of the Arts. Molly worked with Space Pirates on their debut production, Lynn Marie’s Glue, and is now thrilled to be working with them as their Operations Director. BEN ZINGOS (PRODUCER/DESIGNER) Ben Zingos (he/him) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who studied at San Francisco State University where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Theatre Arts. His main focus is working in found spaces, using an immersive design methodology he codified during his thesis work, that asks designers to find real world spaces that naturally cry out for a specific play to be brought to life in them, inviting audiences to step into a new and unique theatrical experience with each production he mounts. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Space Pirates Theatre Collective, an L.A.-based nonprofit theatre that utilizes his methodology, and in 2026 will make history as the first American theatre to run a full season of plays in which all performances are radically affordable, while simultaneously paying all cast, creative, crew, and front of house staff a living wage.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS These generous foundations and individuals are who make the work we do possible! PATRON – $10,000+ THE DINWIDDIE FOUNDATION We are honored to have the generous support of Spencer Dinwiddie and his foundation for our season opener, Lady Day at Emerson Bar & Grill BEN ZINGOS COLLABORATOR – $2,000+ FRANCES EDWARDS ANONYMOUS DONOR LEADER – $1,000+ NICOLE FARRELL HOUSE OF AMBROSE
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS These generous foundations and individuals are who make the work we do possible! NEIGHBOR – $500+ RALLS FAMILY ANONYMOUS DONOR SUPPORTER – $200+ MICHAEL EDWARDS LAUREN FULLER FRIEND – $100+ MACKENZIE MARTINEZ GLENN PERKINS BRUCE GALLER TAYLOR DINWIDDIE LYNN MARI CORY RASMUSSEN
DESIGNER’S NOTE Billie Holiday was famous for many things, and made many things famous—one of those was the Shure 730B “Uniplex” cardioid crystal microphone, an incredibly unique instrument for one of the most unique voices in music history. The “Uniplex” design is a simple but effective one: an omni-directional cardioid crystal microphone element, encased in a uniquely designed directional case. The case is completely solid on the back, blocking any and all sound coming from where the mic is faced away from, while the front is divided into four quadrants by a metal “cross” shape that meets in the center to form a small circle. The actual openings for sound are spaced in four “soundwave” shapes that increase in length, and ever so slightly in width as they branch out to the solid sides of the case in each quadrant. Billie Holiday took advantage of this in a wholly unique way for performance, manipulating the microphone and her positioning so that her voice entered the slits in the case at varying angles and with varying intensity, creating reverb within the case of the mic itself and further amplifying every unique, indescribable, and absolutely essential quality of her voice with a level of fidelity other microphone of the era simply couldn’t match. She became so accustomed to using it, both live and on her records, that it became inextricably linked to her artistry, and is likely a large part of why later generations today are able to hear her voice in as much glory as we have grown accustomed to hearing it. Had she not happened upon it early in her career, music history as we know it might be completely different. It allowed her to express her incredible skill and talent as she intended it to be heard, and that is why it was essential to us that we found a working one.