Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B

Shonita is thrilled to return to Dayton, OH after the run of Shipwrecked! earlier this year. Born & brought up in Pune, India, she has degrees in banking, finance & journalism and graduated from Stella Adler School of Acting, NY in 2019. Some of her recent credits include A Christmas Carol, Origin Story, Wait Until Dark, Grand Horizons, Queen. Shonita will be seen next at the ‘Purple Rose Theatre, MI’. She dedicates her performance to the many children around the world who are caught in the crosshairs of wars and do not get to tell their stories. She hopes that as storytellers, we will continue to use our creativity, empathy and humanity to stop the cycle of violence. Instagram: @shonitajoshi, www.shonitajoshi.com

Kelly is so happy to play with her Human Race friends again!  She was last seen here in This is Tom Jones!, also having appeared in Deadline (understudy performances), Everything That’s Beautiful, Brother Wolf, and Shenandoah.   She has been a member of the resident ensemble at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company since 2004, and also loves working with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, CCM Theatre, and Xavier University.  Recently she was goofing off at Cincinnati Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing, The Play That Goes Wrong, and Kindred Spirits.  Film credits include Dark Waters, The Old Man and the Gun, Perception, Healing River, and C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America. For more information, visit kellymengelkoch.com.

Maggie (she/hers) is always grateful to be back at The Human Race where she was seen playing Marie Antionette in The Revolutionists and The Pilot in Grounded. After growing up on the red dirt of Oklahoma, she attended William Jewell College, Oxford University, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She’s performed regionally and internationally with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, The Kitchen Theatre, The Know Theatre, Birmingham Old Rep, and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Some of her favorite memories on stage have been playing Maggie “the cat” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, June in Alabaster, The Pilot in Grounded, Lizzie in Maytag Virgin, and Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists. She’s also a national award-winning playwright whose plays have been seen on stages coast to coast. You can follow her shenanigans as an actor and writer at www.maggielourader.com. Love to her folks, Justin, and the fur babies.

This is Matthew’s debut with The Human Race Theatre Company. He is an Actor, Puppeteer and Ohio native. Recent stage credits include Slave Play at Short North Stage, A Christmas Carol tour at The Ohio Theatre/Shubert Theatre, When We Were Young and Unafraid at Ember Women’s Theatre, The Motherfucker With The Hat and Hand To God with SNS, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and Sex With Strangers at The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, and Breaking The Code with Evolution Theatre Company. Grateful to be a part of this incredible cast and team. Please enjoy the show!

Originally from the farms and fields of upstate New York, Kate is an award-winning NYC-based actor/playwright. She is deeply passionate about creating new feminist, female-centered classics, both in new plays and in adaptation: stories that center around complicated women. Her work as a playwright celebrates theatricality, often features absurdity, and closely examines social and gender issues – as well as the timeless struggle to reconcile conscience / identity with social pressures. As an actor, she tends to play truth-tellers, oddballs, and misfits.

Kate was named 2017’s Playwright of the Year by the Wall Street Journal. She has been one of the 10 most-produced playwrights in the country, 3 seasons running (2017-2020); in both 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, she wrote two of the top 10 most produced plays in the U.S.; many of her plays have been produced internationally. Future productions, including 4 world premieres in 2019/2020: Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Emma at the Guthrie, Prostitute Play at Cygnet Theater, and Scarlet Letter at South Coast Rep. Her previously-produced plays include Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam; in which she originated the role of Marianne) – Winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; Nominee, Drama League Award; 265+ performances off-Broadway; “Top Ten Theater of 2014” – Ben Brantley; “the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history” – Huffington Post. Other plays include Vanity Fair (The Pearl; in which she originated the role of Becky Sharp; Nominee, Off Broadway Alliance Award; WSJ Critic’s Pick), Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages / HVSF; in which she originated the role of Lizzy Bennet; Nominee, Off Broadway Alliance Award; “Best Theater of 2017”, Huffington Post; WSJ Critic’s Pick), Little Women, Mansfield Park (originated role of Mary Crawford), and Dracula (Classic Stage Company; originated role of Renfield; WSJ Critic’s Pick.)

Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, at A.R.T., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, PlayMaker’s Rep, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Folger Theatre (8 Helen Hayes Award nominations; Winner, best production) & more. Kate’s Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, and Little Women are published by DPS. She is currently working on an adaptation of The Odyssey (commissioned by A.R.T.) as well as several new original plays – including Love Poem, In The Mines (Sundance Semi-Finalist; now collaborating with The Bengsons on this piece), Em (Red Bull New Play finalist), the Prostitute Play (O’Neill Semi-Finalist), and The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Haas Fellow play).

Additional acting credits include: Talley’s Folly (Syracuse Stage; WSJ Critic’s Pick; TheaterMania best productions of 2020) The Seagull (Bedlam; “best classical productions of 2014” – WSJ) Noises Off (Syracuse Stage), The General from America (HVSF), Cyrano (“Outstanding Performance by an Actress”- DFW Critics Awards, Amphibian Stage), Internet Famous (Youngblood), Dreams of A West Texas Marsupial Girl (PearlDamour), All That Fall (Cherry Lane), and more. Numerous independent films that she has performed in have gone on to festival success, including: Clermont Ferrand Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Festival del Film Locarno, Brooklyn Film Festival, Boston Int’l Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival (Jury Award Finalist), Honolulu Film Festival, Black Maria Film Festival (Stellar Award), etc. Kate has a BFA in Acting, Ithaca College.