Author: Lazarus Simmons

Noelle Young-Davis (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Baltimore, Maryland. In love with performing for as long as she can remember, Noelle’s passion for acting was nurtured in high school at Baltimore School of the Arts. The minute she stepped on stage for the first time she knew the stage was where she belonged. Noelle’s enthusiasm for creating goes beyond theater. She writes, is a mover/dancer, and loves to sing. She also won the Baltimore Center Stage’s Young Playwrights Festival in 2020. You will often see her smiling or hear her laughing. Noelle is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. Educational theater credits include: Fires in the Mirror, Life Is a Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and Mud Row. Noelle was privileged to spend a year in London studying at Shakespeare’s Globe, where she also played Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing. Noelle made her professional debut in Romeo and Juliet as Juliet at Door Shakespeare in Wisconsin. She is always extremely grateful to her family for their constant love and support. 

Chloe Wales (they/them) is an actor! Huzzah! Originally from Oahu, Hawaii, Chloe began their love for storytelling through Hula and Tahitian Dance. Their introduction to traditional theater came at 10 years old when they saw a one man play about the treatment of Asian Americans during World War II. That did it for them. The ability of the performer to evoke empathy and true conversation blew their mind! Ever since then, they’ve been seeking out theater that starts conversations and enacts real social change. They’ve ridden that wave to California, Berlin, London, NYC, and yes, Rutgers! They believe theater is an art of collaboration and are passionate about devised work and new play development. Process is everything. At Rutgers, they’ve had the opportunity to play some dreamy dream roles: Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing) and Segismundo (Life is a Dream). 

When not in a theater, you can find Chloe in the nearest body of water: surfing in the Pacific or the Atlantic, or teaching swim lessons at the nearest rec center. They enjoy botany, yoga, and a good mosh pit. They come from a long line of swim coaches, teachers, and puppeteers. Chloe is stoked to be entering this next chapter in their artistic career and hopes that it is full of joy, laughter, contribution, collaboration, and love!

Ava Lamantia (she/her) was born and bred down the Jersey shore in Monmouth County, NJ. Born into a family of former business-owners, Ava learned the definition of hard work from a very young age. She worked hard growing up, putting on impromptu shows for her family on the hearth of the fireplace nightly. This led her to go on doing singing and dancing lessons, eventually moving on to compete in those disciplines and perform in musical theater. It was later on when she went to the performing arts program at her high school that her dear acting teacher opened her eyes to the craft of acting. She fell in love with plays and film as well as the techniques of the greats. She’s passionate about studying and passionate about the community and sacredness that lies in spaces where stories are told. When she’s not reading plays, Ava can be found outside with her beloved rescue dog Rambo or surrounded by her loved ones. Past roles at Rutgers include Hero in Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe, Rosaura in Life is a Dream, and Carly in At the Wedding. 

Charity Wilder (she/her) is from Paterson, New Jersey. She is a proud Jersey girl who is ready to take on the world. At a young age, Charity discovered she wanted to be on stage after seeing kids flying in Mary Poppins. She knew was ready to soar just like them. She spends most of her time listening to jazz, painting, and dancing. Since being at Mason Gross, she has fallen in love with Movement based theatre. She’s excited to combine her movement-based training and her love of acting in shows in the future. She is grateful for her amazing family that has supported her the entire way. She can’t wait to see where this journey takes her. Her Rutgers Theatre company credits include Toshi in Mudrow, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing, Estrella in Life is a Dream, Student in Angela Davis School for Girl with Big Eyes, Ntozake Shange/Anonymous Boy 2 in Fires in the Mirror and Ensemble in Saudade.

James Gillins (he/him) was a 10 pound baby born in Santa Monica, California. Born and raised in the valley in the year 1999, art was always incorporated into his well-rounded schedule of extracurriculars and fostered his love for creative expression. James knew his path led towards the arts in high school which meant leaving his small school and auditioning for Valencia High’s vocal jazz ensemble as well as their choral program. James received news of his acceptance into the vocal jazz program the same day he suffered a major baseball accident causing the loss of his 4 front teeth, but by the end of James’ senior year, he was offered a presidential scholarship to study jazz vocal performance at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Valencia High is also where James took a single year of theater 3, catching a bug which festered for two years until, after much internal and external debate on personal artistry and assisted by the space given due to a global pandemic, James decided to take the leap of faith and begin a new training program in acting here at Rutgers. James feels immensely satisfied with his decision. He is excited to be in more and more rooms with people who share his passion for the work, and plans to further his artistic growth through work at UCB as well as motion capture programs. Rutgers Company Theatre credits include:

Benedick – Much Ado About Nothing

Lady Capulet – Romeo & Juliet

Clotaldo – Life is a Dream

Chorus – Orlando

James would also like to thank the maxillofacial surgeon team of Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Maranon for his Hollywood whites* 

Jacynth Apora (she/her/they/them) is from Englishtown, New Jersey. She is a proud Asian-American. She is a Filipina and is Chinese. She aspires to learn the languages, live in the Philippines, visit China, and make Philippine and Chinese art. When she was four years old, she watched Philippine teleseryes and then had one woman shows to recreate them in her parents’ bedroom, playing every character, because her little brother wasn’t born yet to play with. Jacynth is also excited to further her career in music and writing, dabble in other forms of art, and build a stronger online presence. Her favorite roles include being Conrade in Much Ado About Nothing on the Shakespeare’s Globe through the Rutgers MGSA’s program in London, and being Benvolio in R+J at Rutgers MGSA. What makes them happiest is making people feel loved and bigger than themselves, which is why they love to endeavor in all kinds of art. They root their passion for acting and the arts in the way it all makes them feel at home and in the way people receiving their art can feel less alone and find a home in it too. 

Abby Sanchez (she/her) is a Filipina-American actress native to New Jersey. Growing up in Parsippany she spent countless hours of her childhood in constant creative states whether it be singing and dancing, DIY crafting, or bathing in the light of local performance spaces. Her love for acting was found in her hometown school auditoriums where she discovered the power of community building through performance. Outside of school her passion is traveling. She finds that adventure and constant exploration helps to fuel the fire of her life and her work. Her work in Holy Week (Victoria) and In a Word (Man) have gifted her the chance to play the unexpected heartbreaker, which helps her pave the path to subverting the expectations for Asian American women in all spaces. In addition to acting, she also adores writing, and plans to develop her own works to share more about the Filipina American experience.

Austin Jackson (he/him) grew up all over the place. He moved every few years as a child of a military family, but he went to high school in Calvert County Maryland. His love of writing stories, making Lego stop-motion videos, and filming Nerf war films clued him into his love for storytelling and performance from an early age, but it wasn’t until he played Scar in The Lion King for his eighth-grade musical where his passion for theater truly took off. When he’s not acting Austin spends most of his time cooking in restaurants and at home (He’ll make you a killer fried rice if you ask). He also loves being outside and spends a lot of time hiking, backpacking, and kayaking. He dreams of learning to surf and hiking the entire Appalachian trail. Some of his Rutgers Theater Company credits include: Miles in She Kills Monsters, Dromio of Ephesus in Comedy of Errors, and Truffaldino in The Little Green Birdie. He is a lover of Shakespeare, improv, and all types of weird and experimental theater.

Eileen Han (she/they) is a first-generation Chinese immigrant from Langfang, Hebei. At 14 and on her own, she left the home that bore and raised her in order to bear and raise herself all over again. This experience drove her to seek shelter in acting, where she gained comfort and confidence to channel different characters through her own body. With a heart full of gratitude, Eileen is eager and unafraid to tell stories from her side of the world. Recently, she has been working on an English translation of Taiwanese writer Lin Yihan’s novel, Fang Si-Hci’s First Love Paradise, in the hope of adapting it into a stage play. While working on this project, Eileen is inspired and motivated to grow into someone, in the writer’s words, “who has a better imagination of others’ sufferings.” Her Rutgers Theater Company credits include: Ginny in Smart People, Ninetta in The Little Green Birdie, Witch/Seyton in Macbeth.