presented by Corteva Agriscience

Marie and Rosetta

by George Brant, directed by Cristina Angeles

October 28 - November 23

Janet Allen Stage

28

Tuesday

October 28, 2025

29

Wednesday

October 29, 2025

30

Thursday

October 30, 2025

31

Friday

October 31, 2025

the roots of rock ‘n’ roll

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a fierce guitar playing gospel music legend, an unsung influence on Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, and Ray Charles. This magnetic play with music unearths the roots of the fearless “Godmother of Rock ’n’ Roll” and her wide-eyed protégée Marie Knight, as they begin their revolutionary ascent to become one of the most influential teams in music history. 

 

Show Resources

Study Guide – Download here!

Know Before You Go

  • Tickets range from $27 to $120
  • 1 hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission
  • Recommended for 7th grade and above
  • ASL-interpreted, audio described and open captioned performances are available on select dates
  • Content Spotlight: Contains profanity, discussions of Christian theology, segregation, racism, domestic violence, corporal punishment, and death.

Get Involved!

Special Programming

Show Times

Tue, October 28, 2025

7:30PM

Wed, October 29, 2025

6:30PM

Thu, October 30, 2025

7:30PM

Fri, October 31, 2025

7:30PM

Sat, November 1, 2025

5:00PM

Sun, November 2, 2025

2:00PM

Thu, November 6, 2025

2:00PM

Thu, November 6, 2025

7:30PM

Fri, November 7, 2025

7:30PM

Sat, November 8, 2025

1:00PM

Sat, November 8, 2025

5:00PM

Sun, November 9, 2025

2:00PM

American Sign Language and Audio Description Performance

Thu, November 13, 2025

2:00PM

Thu, November 13, 2025

7:30PM

Fri, November 14, 2025

7:30PM

Sat, November 15, 2025

5:00PM

Sun, November 16, 2025

6:00PM

Tue, November 18, 2025

6:30PM

Wed, November 19, 2025

7:30PM

Thu, November 20, 2025

7:30PM

Fri, November 21, 2025

7:30PM

Sat, November 22, 2025

4:00PM

Sat, November 22, 2025

8:00PM

Sun, November 23, 2025

2:00PM

Cast

Jaela Cheeks-Lomax
Marie Knight
Jaela Cheeks-Lomax
Marie Knight
(she/her) is a singer and actor from Mount Vernon, New York, and a proud graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. Credits include The Panic of 29 (Off-Broadway), In This Life (Atlantic Theater Company), Dainty (Playwrights Realm), and Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage). She is thrilled to make her IRT debut and is grateful for the chance to do what she loves. “Endless gratitude to the ‘Original Five’ and the beautiful additions—I am here because of you.”
Cherish Love
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Cherish Love
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
(she/her) a native of Dallas, Texas, is a dynamic artist with more than twenty years of experience in theatre and music. She has starred in acclaimed stage roles including the Witch in Into the Woods, Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act, and Rabby in Fat Ham. As a producer, arranger, composer, and music director, Cherish has collaborated with artists such as Elle King and Paul Cauthen, with credits on hit shows like Big Little Lies and Grey’s Anatomy. She fully wrote and produced her debut holiday album, Love’s Holiday, featuring performances by singers and musicians based in Dallas–Fort Worth. She also teaches voice and is currently writing her first book, The Artist’s Parallel. CherishLoveRobinson.com

Creative Team

Cristina Angeles
Director
Cristina Angeles
Director
(she/her) is an Afrolatina director, writer, and theatre maker who develops new plays, musicals, and socially conscious adaptations of classics that place women of color at the forefront. Today, Cristina is the associate resident director at Roundabout Theatre Company, and the founding artistic director of Checkmark Productions, an NYC based company dedicated to developing new work by artists of the global majority. Her recent directing credits include Hilary Bettis’s Queen of Basel at TheaterWorks Hartford and overseeing the North American productions of Six: The Musical. More at cristinaangeles.com
Morgan Stevenson
Music Director
Morgan Stevenson
Music Director
is a Chicago-based music director, musician and educator whose theatre credits include Fannie: The Life and Music of Fannie Lou Hamer (OSF, SeattleRep, Goodman, True Colors, Actors Theatre of Louisville, City Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, IRT), Marie and Rosetta (Northlight, Milwaukee Rep), Passing Strange (Theatrical Outfit), Fela! (Lambert-Smith Media), Little Shop of Horrors and Nina Simone: Four Women (IRT). Morgan E. is a 2022 Suzi Bass Award nominee who recently scored the piano/vocal score for the new opera Safronia (Lyric Opera of Chicago, premiering 2026) and leads MEaux Vibes & VIP, an innovative band that connects all genres in vibrant harmony. https://linktr.ee/morganemusicnow
Rodrigo Escalente
Scenic Designer
Rodrigo Escalente
Scenic Designer
is originally from El Salvador and based in New York City. Rodrigo’s work has recently been seen at Philadelphia Theater Company, Syracuse Stage, Dorset Theater Festival, TheaterWorks Hartford, American Stage, Great River Shakespeare Festival, INTAR, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Repertorio Español, the Public Theater, Atlantic Theater, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, University of Rochester, Muhlenberg College, Opera House Arts, and Billie Holiday Theatre. For more info visit rodrigoescalante.com
Yvonnne Miranda
Costume Designer
Yvonnne Miranda
Costume Designer
is excited to make her debut at Indiana Repertory Theatre. A United States Marine Corps war veteran who hails from the state of Texas and now resides in Chicago, she has been nominated for the 2022 Helen Hayes Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage’s co-production of Ain’t No Mo’, and was named American Theatre’s Role Call: People to Watch. yvonnemirandadesigns.com
Jason Lynch
Lighting Designer
Jason Lynch
Lighting Designer
(he/him) is a Chicago-based lighting designer and returns to IRT, where he designed The Play That Goes Wrong and Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Regional: Alley Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Geva Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, among others. Awards: Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Design (International Black Theatre Festival), one Joseph Jefferson, two Black Theater Alliance/Ira Aldridge, Michael Maggio Emerging Designer. Jason is represented by The Gersh Agency. jasondlynch.com, @jasonlynch.design on Instagram.
Carson Joenk
Sound Designer
Carson Joenk
Sound Designer
is a multidisciplinary artist and the co-artistic director of Rat Queen Theatre Company. She is also a New Georges Jam member and co-founder of the interactive media company, Sour Milk. Select Sound: Off-Broadway: Garside’s Career (The Mint), Made by God (Irish Rep), you don’t have to do anything (HERE), Regional: Off by One (People’s Light, Barrymore Nominee), The Mountaintop (Weston Theater Company), Goldenleaf Ragtime Blues (Shakespeare Theatre Co.), Julius Caesar (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). Other: Usus (Clubbed Thumb), Bloom Bloom Pow (ART NY // The New Georges), Fiction (600 Highwaymen).
Spencer Bean
Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Spencer Bean
Acoustic and Electric Guitars

was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended Cal State LA. Theatre performance credits include the August Wilson African American Theatre in Pittsburgh, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre and Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and the IRT’s production of Fannie. He has played for various movie soundtracks and jingles as well as The Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, and Sesame Street. He has toured worldwide and recorded on multiple gold and platinum recordings for Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, and Barry White, to mention a few … including a White House Performance with Gladys Knight for PBS. spencerbeanmusic.com

Claire Wilcher
Intimacy Consultant
Claire Wilcher
Intimacy Consultant
earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from Michigan State University, where she specialized in acting, pedagogy, and intimacy direction. Claire is a Certified Intimacy Director with IDC Professionals (Intimacy Directors and Coordinators), advocating for consent-based theatre spaces, bodily autonomy for actors, and safe-yet-creative storytelling. Her intimacy choreography has been seen on the stages of the IRT, Phoenix Theatre, IndyShakes, Summer Stock Stage, Summit Performance, Purdue University, Marian University, Williamston Theatre in Michigan, Three Brothers Theatre in Waukegan, and Redtwist Theatre in Chicago, among others. More at clairewilcher.com
Richard J Roberts
Dramaturg
Richard J Roberts
Dramaturg

This is Richard's 36th season with the IRT, and his 28th as resident dramaturg. He has also been a dramaturg for the New Harmony Project, Write Now, and the Hotchner Playwriting Festival. He has directed IRT productions of A Christmas Carol, Bridge & Tunnel, The Night Watcher, Neat, Pretty Fire, The Cay, The Giver, The Power of One, and Twelfth Night. Locally he has directed for Actors Theatre of Indiana, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Edyvean, and many more. Richard studied music at DePauw University and theatre at Indiana University and was awarded a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.

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Josh-Andrew Wisdom
Stage Manager
Josh-Andrew Wisdom
Stage Manager
a New York City based freelance stage manager who loves creating art. He has recently served as a production assistant at the Wagner Johnson Production office, assisting various shows like Once upon a Mattress, Lempicka, and Stereophonic. This is his first production with Indiana Repertory Theatre, and he is very grateful to be here in Indianapolis! Joshua is an alum of the Stage Management Professional Apprenticeship Program at the Juilliard School as well as an alum of the University of Miami, with a B.F.A. in stage management.