Angela and Odessa are searching for something that might not be real, but they are determined to make a way out of no way. They seek out Adah– that’s right, the Celebrity-Wellness-Maven Adah–and follow her into the sand, hopeful that she’ll help them find what they need. sandblasted is a deeply stirring, funny, theatrically daring story of waiting and hoping, time and healing, from the award-winning playwright of Jump and Behind the Sheet.

Director

Manna-Symone Middlebrooks (she/her) is a Chicago-based theatre director and producer. She believes that theatre-making is excavation— the ways we dig through our histories, (re)discover artifacts of personal or cultural pasts, and use them in the stories. Her work is engaged in epic storytelling that unearths humanity’s complexity, rawness, and joys to embrace healing. Before relocating for school, she lived in Washington, DC, working as the Casting Associate for The Folger Theatre. Manna-Symone was also the 2017/2018 Resident Assistant Director & Artistic Apprentice.

Recent credits include Northwestern University: Precious Little, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. Associate credits: Steppenwolf Theatre Company: The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Amen Corner. Assistant credits: Chicago Shakespeare: All’s Well That Ends Well; The Folger Theatre: Amadeus, Henry IV, Part I;  Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: BLKS; Arena Stage: Indecent, Turn Me Loose; Studio Theatre: The Remains, Translations, The Wolves, Curve of Departure, Skeleton Crew;  Theatre J: Broken Glass. Education: MFA Directing Candidate, Northwestern University; BA Theatre Arts, American University; British American Drama Academy (BADA). @mannasymone