BARTON BUND (Founder, Managing Artistic Director) is the original founder of The Blackbird Theatre and its original company, BlackBag Productions. He most recently directed their acclaimed all-African-American production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other writing and directing credits include The Glob, The Rainbow & Women in Love (adapted from the novels by D.H. Lawrence), Margaritaville, The Jealous Type, and One Hundred Twinkling Lights (winner, Ann Arbor News Best Original Play, 2005). Bart is a staff writer for Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, Artist-in-residence at The Children’s Creative Center of Ann Arbor, as well as a Playmaker Playwright at The Purple Rose Theatre, and a nominee for the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2001 L. Arnold Weissberger Award in playwriting for his play Norma Peoples.

LAURIE ATWOOD (Board Chair) is the owner and operator of the Children’s Creative Center. She has appeared in plays and musicals throughout the area since you were very little. Credits include Dimly Perceived Threats to the System, Xmas Carol, The Nerd, I Remember Mama, The Shadow Box, A Little Night Music, and others. Laurie is a marathon runner and mother of three.

DANA SUTTON (Associate Artistic Director) has appeared in the Blackbird’s productions of The Rainbow, The Glob, The Seagull, Hamlet, Women in Love and Xmas Carol. As director: The Frontier, Night Blooming, and Dimly Perceived Threats to the System. Dana has served as Assistant Manager of the Manistee Civic Players’ Ramsdell Theatre and Opera House (1996-1997) in Manistee, Michigan. A northern Michigan native, Dana now proudly calls Ann Arbor her home along with her partner and husband Bart, their daughter Eowyn, and their dogs. She holds a degree in Theatre Arts from Eastern Michigan University.

Past Productions: