Maggie Babin

Maggie Babin (Emily/Melissa) is a senior Theatre (performance) major. Previous credits include LSU Mainstage’s The Wolves, Theatre Baton Rouge’s The Rocky Horror Show, and LSU Musical Theatre Club’s Trail to Oregon! After Roe, they will be continuing their work on the feature film Mysterious Behaviors, produced by Glen Pitre.

Daniel Daigle

Daniel Daigle (Flip Benham and others) is a first year MFA Acting student making their Swine Palace debut with Roe. Previous credits include: A School for Lies (Richmond Shakespeare), Twelfth Night (Richmond Catholic Theatre), Hamlet (Summer Shakespeare Wellington), Little Shop of Horrors (Breckenridge Backstage Theatre).

Marina DeYoe-Pedraza

Marina DeYoe-Pedraza (Sarah Weddington) is a first year M.F.A. Acting candidate. Previous credits include Yamel Cucuy with Glass Half Full Theatre, American Blood Song with Trouble Puppet Theater Co., and Salvage Vanguard Theater’s Casta by Adrienne Dawes. She has also written and performed a solo show Vulva Pope: Our Lady of the Sacred Part directed by Mikala Gibson for the East Austin Studio Tour, in 2022. From 2014-2023, she was a soloist and company dancer for Austin based modern dance company, Ballet East.

Craig Ester

Craig Ester (McCluskey, Flowers, and others), is very happy to make his Swine Palace debut in Roe! He is graduate student in the MFA Acting Program He is also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Break The Chain Theatre Company (BreakTheChainTheatreCompany.org). He wants to thank Lori for her trust and guidance, and his family and friends for their support, and his cohort for bringing him joy everyday. Previous credits include: Death of a Salesman (Howard/Stanley) with Flint Repertory Theatre, Merry Wives of Windsor (Slender), and Henry V (Ensemble), Macbeth (Macduff) and Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet) with Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and Too Heavy For Your Pocket (Tony) with Open Book theatre.

Michele Guidry

Michele Guidry (Mary and others) holds an MFA from Louisiana State University’s Professional Actor Training Program, and graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Theatre from Penn State University. Prior to moving to Baton Rouge, LA, she worked extensively in Philadelphia, PA with many companies such as The Wilma, The Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, The Lantern, Interact, and 1812 Productions, and was a part of the inaugural apprentice class for the Arden Theatre Company. Recent theatre credits include Oil and Noises Off! with Swine Palace Theatre Company, Talley's Folly with Bridge Nouveau Theatre Company, Twelfth Night with The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival, and August Osage County, with Swine Palace Theatre Company. Currently, she is the High School/Middle School Theatre Teacher at MSA West Academy, a magnet school dedicated to the best in STEAM education in Plaquemine, LA. She previously taught for Louisiana State University and Baton Rouge Community College. She has been a proud member of the Actor's Equity Association since 2000.

Alana Johnson

Alana Johnson (Connie and Ofelia) is an actor and comedian from New York City. She was part of the 2023 LSU MFA in Acting cohort. She’s been seen on CBS’s Blue Bloods, Powerbook 3 on STARZ, and is the co-creator of the BET Digital Series Two Grown. In 2018, she was one of nine out of thousands selected as a US Finalist for the ABC Discovers Digital Talent Competition. She performed at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the play Hiya Dolly, and on a plethora of stand-up comedy stages. Theatre credits include Swine Palace’s Craters, Operating Systems and SWEAT. Alana is managed by FP Artists and represented by Media Artists Group.

Leicester Landon

Leicester Landon (Justice Blackmun and others) is an alum of the Brown University MFA Program in Acting and Directing, the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory, and the LSU College of Music and Dramatic Arts. For stage and screen, Leicester has been director, actor, producer, designer, and educator. A proud member of the Actors Equity Association, he is also a company member of The Williams Project in Seattle and the international theatre outreach organization Stories 4 Strength, as well as a founding member of Salvage Art Productions.

Grace Laurent

Grace Laurent (Understudy) is a junior Theatre (performance). You may have most recently seen her in LSU’s Mainstage production of At The Wedding. Her other previous credits include the LSU Musical Theatre Club’s Heathers and Cabaret: Broadway Classics, and the University Theatre Alliance’s staged reading of Circle Mirror Transformation. She has also done many shows with ImprovLSU.

Maura McErlean

Maura McErlean (Norma McCorvey) is a first-year MFA Acting candidate. 1 in 4 women will have an abortion in her lifetime. As of 2022, abortion is completely banned in the state of Louisiana, denying women in this state potentially life-saving healthcare and the right to bodily autonomy. louisianaabortionfund.org

Kathryn O’Connell

Kathryn O’Connell (Ronda, Gloria Allred, and others) is an LSU Theatre Alum C/O 2019 currently based in New York City. Previous LSU credits include Lauren Gunderson’s one-woman show Natural Shocks and the LSU Mainstage LMNOP: The Musical. In NYC, Kathryn continued her studies at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and currently trains at the T. Schreiber Studio and Theatre. Kathryn is repped by The Green Agency (NYC) and Cohen Entertainment (NYC/LA) and is also a proud SAG-AFTRA member.

Emmanuela Wade

Emmanuela Wade (Aileen, Barbara, Roxy) is a first year MFA Acting student making her Swine Palace debut with Roe. Previous credits include Nate Parker Foundation films Baggage and Canoe.

Kate Zenor

Kate Zenor (Linda Coffee, Judy, and others) is a professional actor, content creator and bookbinder. She is incredibly excited to be returning to her Alma Mater for this production of Roe. Some theatre credits include Thomasina in Arcadia, Quincy/Bart in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play and, most recently, herself in a one-woman physical theatre piece discussing how chronic illness affects creativity.

Lori Elizabeth Parquet

Lori Elizabeth Parquet (Director) is an actor, director, and playwright from New Orleans, Louisiana with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Cornell University. As a director, Lori recently helmed White on White at JACK alongside Alec Duffy and served as the Associate Director of SUFFS and As You Like It at The Public Theater. She was also Associate Director of New York City Center’s Encores production of Promenade. She has directed Topdog/Underdog at Princeton Summer Theater and many other plays and staged readings at theatre companies and universities across New York City and the country. Her NYC acting credits include Macbeth, Dispatches From (A)mended America (Off-Broadway), The Providence of Neighboring Bodies (Dutch Kills Theater/Ars Nova), The Honeycomb Trilogy: Sovereign (Gideon Productions), Medea (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble), Dog Act, Ajax in Iraq, Honey Fist, Operating Systems (Flux Theatre Ensemble). International acting credits include Pillars of Society at Teater Ibsen in Skien, Norway and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2019 she won the NYIT Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for her performance in Operating Systems.

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Amara Copeland (Costume Designer) is a second-year graduate student here at LSU studying costume design and technology. She has worked on many productions within theater and film and aspires to be a costume designer for regional and Broadway theaters! She loves what she does and can't imagine a life without the drama!

John Michael Eddy

John Michael Eddy (Props Designer) is the Props Designer/Mentor for the LSU School of Theatre; he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Arizona and holds an MFA in Theater Production and Design from Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to his prop work and scenic designs, he serves on the Board of Directors for Playmakers of Baton Rouge; Playmakers is a children’s educational theatre group who is proud to call the LSU Reilly Theater their home.

Smaida Massatt

Smaida Massatt (Lighting Designer) worked as a lighting designer and electrician in the Chicago and Minneapolis areas. She earned her MFA in Lighting Design at the University of Minnesota. Some of the theatres she has worked for include Minnesota Children’s Theatre Co., Penumbra Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Theatre Latté Da, Interact Theater Company. She has also worked in several capacities in numerous theaters and dance companies including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and Chicago Puppet Festival.

Tyler Kieffer

Tyler Kieffer (Sound Designer) is the Assistant Professor of Sound Design and Technology for LSU Theatre. His work is primarily new plays, opera, and immersive theatre and has been twice nominated for the New York Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Sound Design in 2019 for Will Arbery’s Plano and in 2021 for Tectonic Theater Project’s Seven Deadly Sins. Other recent credits include Craters (Swine Palace); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tribes (Le Petit Theater), Parcel From America (Smock Alley Theater, Dublin) and Of A Mind a new immersive headphone experience for Oklahoma City Repertory Theater. tylerkieffer.com

Apollo Mark Weaver

Apollo Mark Weaver (Scenic Designer) has worked in the professional theatre world for more than two decades, with his designs appearing nationally on stages including Geva Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and Utah Shakespeare Festival. He has also designed sets for many local companies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and upstate New York. He has a strong background in scenic art and has served as a charge artist for many companies and projects in a variety of locations. He holds an MFA from Temple University and has also taught at Juniata College, Utah Valley University, and Arizona State University.