SCOTT BAITY, JR. (Travis Younger) is a seventh grade student at St. Columbanus School. He was last seen in the Purposed One Entertainment production of What You Don’t Know Can Kill You. He has also appeared in the Northwestern University films, Box and All Flesh Keep Silence and the independent film Touched. Scott has done a voice-over commercial for Verizon Wireless and played Winthrop Paroo in The Music Man with The Saint James Players. Other performances include The Princess & The Pea, A Noteworthy Tale and Stone Soup, at Sherwood Conservatory of Music; Middle Kid Blues, Manhattan Deal, Lights, Camera… Chicago! A Musical, The Five Scariest Words… Do You Want to Dance?, The Lion & The Cloud and The Cabin for Child’s Play Touring Theater Acting Camp. Scott made his acting debut at age six in My Name is Harriet Tubman. Scott is also an accomplished cellist, winning a Child-Serv Microsoft Rising Star Youth Scholarship and an Albertina Walker Scholarship.

SEAN BLAKE (Gospel Tenor, Bobo) is happy to be making his Court debut in Raisin. Regional theatre includes The Rose Tatto, Mamet Festival, Bounce, and The Story at the Goodman Theatre; Purlie at the Goodman and Pasadena Playhouse; and Once on This Island, The Bubbly Black Girl... and Joy of the Desolate at Apple Tree. Sean can be heard on the original cast recording of Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince’s Bounce. He also has been nominated for two Joseph Jefferson Awards and two Black Theatre Alliance Awards.

MICHELE CASON (Gospel Soprano) is excited to be making her Court Theatre debut. She was last seen as Gypsy in Tommy. Other credits include: Josephine Tonight! at the Theatre Building and the Jeff Recommended Deep Azure with Congo Square. Regional credits include: Glinda/Aunt Em in The Wiz. She would like to thank God, her family and friends for their constant love and support. She would also like to thank Charles, Cree, and Doug for this wonderful opportunity.

ROBERT CORNELIUS (Gospel Baritone) is pleased to be making his Court debut with Raisin. Most recently, Robert appeared in Provision Theater’s The Boys Next Door, and in Victory Gardens’ critically acclaimed world premiere of Wheatley. Robert has also performed locally at First Folio Shakespeare, and regionally at Milwaukee, Indiana, Madison, and Montana Repertories. Robert has also enjoyed success in music, touring with Dave Matthews, recording and touring with Poi Dog Pondering, and with his own band, RC7.

THOMAS J. COX (Karl Lindner) is pleased to return to Court, having previously appeared in Fräulein Else. He is a founding ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre, and has worked with them for 18 years on more than 30 shows, most recently as Quilp in Old Curiosity Shop and as Winston in 1984. Other Chicago credits include Woman in Black (ITC), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Victory Gardens), and Pride and Prejudice (Northlight). He has directed for Eclipse, Piven Theatre Workshop, and Lookingglass, where he directed his own Jeff-nominated adaptation of Scarlet Letter. He has just returned from Vermont, where he has performed for the past six summers at the Weston Playhouse; this summer he appeared in Urinetown and The Mikado. Film/TV: Since You’ve Been Gone (Miramax), Chi-Girl (Van Lier Prod.), Brotherhood (Showtime).

ERNESTINE JACKSON (Lena Younger) is a distinguished actress and singer with numerous credits both on and Off Broadway, in television, and in film. A winner of the prestigious Theatre World Award she has been twice nominated for the Tony Award: for Best Actress in the all-Black cast of Guys and Dolls, and for Best Supporting Actress in Raisin. In Chicago, she received a Jefferson Award nomination for her performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Ms. Jackson has also appeared on Broadway in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Jesus Christ Superstar, Applause, Hello, Dolly! and The Bacchae. Her television and film credits include Law & Order, A Man Called Hawk, Roots: The Next Generation, Swift Justice, Bonfire of the Vanities, Girl’s Town, and Showtime’s 10,000 Black Men Named George. Other roles include Bessie in Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years, Elizabeth in The Old Settler and Mama Rose in Gypsy. Ms. Jackson was recently seen as Fiona on The West Wing and as Agnes Bates on NBC’s Law and Order: Criminal Intent. A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Ernestine resides with her husband in Manhattan.

JOSLYN JONES (Mrs. Johnson) is overjoyed to be collaborating for the first time at Court. Credits include Crumbs From The Table of Joy (u.s. Lily, Goodman Theatre); Fabulation: Or, the Re-Education of Undine (Next Theatre); Relevant Hearsay (MPACCT: Theater on the Lake); Bee-Luther-Hatchee and Smokey Joe's Café (Open Door Repertory), Messhuggah-Nuns! (Chicago Jewish Theatre);The Kurt Weil Revue: Songs of Darkness and Light (Theo Ubique), To Kill A Mockingbird (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre); and Problem Child (The School at Steppenwolf, 2002). These performances are dedicated in memory of my parents, Albert and Delma Jones, Christine and Wanda Brown, and The Echoes of Joy: Eternal Love.

ADERO NEELY (Travis Younger) is twelve years old and made his professional debut as Little Tony in the controversial hit play Work It Out at the Arie Crown Theatre. Adero was the featured vocalist in The Tribal Queen–The Story of Nala (an adaptation of The Lion King) produced by Sammy Dyer School of Dance at the DuSable Museum and in Let Us Entertain You produced by Sammy Dyer School of Dance at the Harold Washington Cultural Center. He played the lead role of The Prince in Beauty is a Beast (Cherin’s Duncan Theater). He was named Chicago’s 2006 Most Talented Kid at the Chicago Music Awards. Adero was the opening vocal act for the spring 2006 New Jack Tour, opened for the National Bar Association Annual Convention featuring the Whispers in Orlando, Fla., and performed with KoKo Taylor at the Trump Majestic Star Casino. Recently, GUMBO and Word Up! teen magazines featured Adero as a young rising star. At age 10, he won his first national singing competition at the Kalahari Resorts (Wis. Dells) and was crowned 2004 Kalahari Idol. Adero’s environmentally conscious music video titled Save Some World for Me was picked up by iTunes, and numerous national and international television outlets. www.aderoneely.com.

HARRIET NZINGA PLUMPP (Ruth Younger) was recently seen in the World Premiere of The Boys Are Coming Home with the New Music Theatre Project.  Chicago credits: World Premiere of Loving Repeating... (About Face Theatre); Man of La Mancha (Court Theatre); Bubbly Black Girl... (Apple Tree); A Little Night Music, Rogers and Hart Revue (Ravinia); Hans Brinker (Theatre Building); Call Me Madam (Auditorium/Ovations!); American Premiere of Saturday Night, Side by Side by Sondheim (Peagasus Players). Other Credits: Sweeny Todd (Indianapolis Civic Theatre). Tour credits: Wizard of A.I.D.S. (Healthworks); Side by Side by Sondheim (Peagasus Players-Middle East/North Africa Tour); A Christmas Carol (East Coast National Tour). Regional Credits: Bounce (Goodman and Kennedy Center). Original cast recordings: Flaherty’s Loving Repeating and Sondheim’s Bounce. Harriet is a proud member of Actor's Equity. Thanks and love to Brett.

NEDA SPEARS (Gospel Alto) is making her Court Theatre debut. Chicago credits: Nunsensations!, Tintypes (Drury Lane Oakbrook); Big River, Honk! (Marriott Theatre); Side Show (Northlight); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare); The American Plan (Roadworks); Pope Joan; Could it be Magic?, conceived and directed by Barry Manilow (Mercury Theater); American Girls’ Revue (original cast). National tours: Once on This Island, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Big League Theatricals), Schoolhouse Rock Live! (Troupe America, Inc.). Thanks Doug and Cree. Love ya, Mom.

DAVID ST. LOUIS (Walter Lee Younger), is a native of Washington D.C., where he earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Howard University. Film and T.V. credits include roles in Trigger Effect, Third Watch, Law and Order, Law and Order S.V.U., A Royal Birthday, The Jury, One Life to Live, Homicide–Life on the Street, America’s Most Wanted, Temptation, and The Secret Path. Broadway Credits: Harlem Song, Rent, Jesus Christ Supterstar and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Regional work includes Once on this Island at CENTERSTAGE, From My Home Town at American Heartland Theatre, Me and Mrs. Jones at the Prince Theatre, Golden Boy at Long Wharf Theatre, Henry V with the Shakespeare Theatre, Candide with Arena Stage, and Bessie’s Blues at Studio Theatre for which he won a Helen Hayes award in the category of Most Outstanding Supporting Actor.

MALKIA STAMPLEY (Beneatha Younger) is very excited about her Court Theatre and Chicago debut. A native of Milwaukee, she just returned from playing Lorrell in Dreamgirls with St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre where she received the Woodie King Jr. Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. Some regional credits include Little Shop of Horrors at Madison Repertory Theatre and Skylight Opera Theatre, American Girl Revue at American Girl Theatre–NYC, understudy for Intimate Apparel (Mayme), ...Young Lady from Rwanda (Juliette), Sueno (Rosaura), A Christmas Carol (Belle/Lucy), and Clean House (Woman, Ana) with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre where she was an acting intern last season. Having worked with several theatres in Wisconsin, Malkia is blessed to spread her wings and feels welcomed to the theatre community in Chicago. Thanks to her provider, life, love and support.

TRAVIS TURNER (Joseph Asagai) is making his Court Theatre debut in Raisin. Mr. Turner was recently see in Seussical, The Musical at Chicago Shakespeare. Previous Chicago credits include Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein directed by Frank Galati (About Face/Museum of Contemporary Art); Footloose (Marriott Theatre); and The Princess and the Pea (Chicago Shakespeare). A recent graduate of Northwestern University where his credits include: Parade, Topdog/Underdog, the world premiere of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, and two appearances in the annual Waa-Mu Show. Thanks to Dominic, Mary, Mom and Dad.