Berkeley Rep’s OVATION gala

Eisa Davis is an award-winning performer, writer, musician, and composer working on stage and screen. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher, and wrote and starred in the stage memoir Angela’s Mixtape, named a best of the year by the New Yorker. Angela’s Mixtape is now published with The History of Light (Barrymore nomination) in a volume from 53rd State Press / TCG. Of her thirteen full-length stage works, highlights include Ramp (Ruby Prize winner), The Essentialisn’t (Creative Capital Award), and Mushroom (Barrymore nomination). Notable collaborations include Cirque du Soleil’s first ice show, Crystal, AFROFEMONONOMY, and the songs for the musical adaptation of Walter Mosley’s Devil In A Blue Dress. Davis has released two albums of original music: Something Else, and Tinctures (with Daniel T. Denver), songs from which were featured on the Showtime series Soul Food. She is the co-writer and -producer with Lin-Manuel Miranda of the concept album Warriors.

Davis wrote for both seasons of Spike Lee’s Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, and produced and wrote for the FX series Justified: City Primeval. As a theatre actor, she has earned an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, an AUDELCO, three Lucille Lortel nominations, and a Drama League nomination. She is known for her screen roles on Mare of Easttown, Kindred, The Wire, House of Cards, Pose, Ahsoka, The Looming Tower, Hart of Dixie, and as a member of the original Broadway cast of the Tony-winning Passing Strange. She can currently be seen in the films Relay and Ex-Husbands, and on the Netflix series The Madness.

Davis saw some of her first professional theatre at Berkeley Rep and worked there in high school as a telemarketer. She returned for Passing Strange, and Bulrusher ran at Berkeley Rep in the fall of 2023 (Best of Bay Area Theatre). She is a three-time participant in Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor development lab, and has also worked as a creator and performer in the Bay Area at La Peña, West Edge Opera, and ACT.

Other awards include the USA Artist Fellowship, the prestigious Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, New Dramatists playwright residency, and a multiyear fellowship with Black poetry organization Cave Canem. An advocate and creator of hip hop theatre since its inception, Davis is a Bay Area native and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Photo by Jimmy Fontaine

Brian Quijada is an Emmy-nominated playwright, actor, composer, and artistic director of The Wild Wind Performance Lab for New Play Development. As a playwright/composer, his work spans theatre to audio plays to television. His hip-hop solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? has been produced across the country at Teatro Vista, Ensemble Studio Theatre, City Theatre Pittsburgh, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geva Theatre, and more. His other works include Kid Prince and Pablo and Somewhere Over The Border. He is a four-time Jeff Award winner, three-time Drama Desk nominee, and one-time Lucile Lortel winner.

Nygel D. Robinson is a singer, actor, writer, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Chicago, IL. Nygel’s select theatre credits include Brother Davis in The Amen Corner at Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he was also the music director; Jimmy Powers in Lady Day at North Carolina Theatre; Larry in Lincoln Center’s concert version of Beau: The Musical; Jesus in Godspell at St. Michael’s Playhouse; and The All Night Strut at Milwaukee Rep.