The Tune Up

Suzan-Lori Parks is a multi-award-winning writer and musician. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog which recently won the 2023
Tony Award, for best revival. Her other plays include Sally & Tom (2024) Plays for the Plague Year (Drama Desk Award, Best Music, 2023) and Father Comes Home From The Wars (2014). Parks’ first marathon-writing “micro diary plays” 365 Days/365 Plays were produced worldwide in what was the largest grassroots collaborative theatre project to date. She is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, a novelist: Getting Mother’s Body (Random House), and a screenwriter: Girl 6, Genius: Aretha, and The United States vs Billie Holiday. Parks also writes songs and fronts her band “SLP & The Joyful Noise” with her punk-couture medicine show, The Tune Up world-premiering this summer. As a college student Parks is grateful to have studied creative writing with James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write for the theatre.

Life Dance IV (Whitney Museum), The Bark of Millions (Sydney Opera House, BAM, Berliner Festspiele), Plays for The Plague Year (The Public), The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist (Lincoln Center, Hopkins Center, Stanford Live), Arden: But, Not Without You (The Flea), The Hang (HERE Arts Center, Drama League nomination for Best Director), The Fre (The Flea), Southern Promises (The Flea), How To Catch Creation (The Goodman), Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce (Town Hall, World Tour), Scraps (The Flea), Father Comes Home From The Wars… (The Goodman, BTAA Award for Best Direction), Syncing Ink (The Alley, The Flea), A 24 Decade History of Popular Music… (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Barbican, World Tour – Kennedy Prize & Pulitzer Prize finalist), Take Care (The Flea), Hir (Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood, Playwrights Horizons), Dream State of Affairs (The Invisible Dog), Marisol (Luna Stage), The Perils of Obedience (Abrons Arts Center), Seed (Classical Theatre of Harlem, Hip Hop Theatre Festival), Neighbors (The Public Theater), Limbs: A Pageant (HERE Arts Center). A Bessie Award winning director and performance artist, Niegel is the Artistic Director of The Flea; board member of A.R.T./New York; and co-creator of The Climate Sing.

Bio to come.

Jian Jung is an Obie Award winning set designer from Korea, based in New York City.
Recent theater credits include STAFF MEAL at Playwrights Horizons, THE FOLLOWING EVENING at PAC-NYC, THE NOSEBLEED at LCT3, Woolly Mammoth Theater (DC), and New National Theater Tokyo (Fall 2025), KISS at Wilma Theater (Philadelphia), OCEAN FILIBUSTER at A.R.T. (Boston), BODIES THEY RITUAL at Wild Project, THE DAY YOU BEGIN at Kennedy Center (DC), SUICIDE FOREST at Bushwick Starr, and LUDIC PROXY at Soho Rep and Japan Society. She has been closely working with Latino theater community for a long time, and designed Spanish and bi-lingual productions in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Venezuela. Opera and musical credits include DER FREISCHUTZ at Wolf Trap Opera (VA), PROMENADE at Fisher Center in Bard, LUCIO SILLA and EZIO at Huntington Theater (Boston), LE NOZZE DI FIGARO at Juilliard, and MOSKVA, CHEREOMUSHKI at Long Beach Opera (CA).
Jung received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Set Design, a Barrymore Award for KISS, and Edith Lutyens & Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Award for LUDIC PROXY. She was nominated for Henry Hewes Design Awards for SUICIDE FOREST and STAFF MEAL. Her design in Venezuela was presented in Prague Quadrennial.Jung received an MFA in Theater Design from New York University, and an MFA in Environmental Design from Ewha Women’s University in Korea, where she was born and grew up. She teaches at NYU Tisch Design MFA program and Sarah Lawrence College.

Bio to come.

Bio to come.

Shannon Slaton on Broadway has designed Melissa Etheridge: My Window and The Illusionists as well as being the Associate Designer for The Humans, Blackbird and serval other shows. He has also designed more than fifty national tours including: Shrek, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Noise/Funk, The Full Monty, Contact, A Chorus Line, Tap Dogs, Aeros, Sweeney Todd, The Wizard of Oz, The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Wedding Singer. Shows he mixed on Broadway include: Springsteen on Broadway, Cabaret, Annie, and Anything Goes. Man of La Mancha, Bombay Dreams, A Christmas Carol, Sweet Charity, Jersey Boys, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Drowsy Chaperone, Spring Awakening, Fela!, Anything Goes, Annie, Legally Blonde, and Cabaret.

​​Nitzan Gavrieli is a jazz pianist and composer who is a vital force on New York City’s jazz scene. His music expands on the traditional piano trio format, blending elements of classical music and Middle Eastern influences into a sound that is both distinctive and emotionally rich.In addition to leading his own trio, Nitzan is an in-demand sideman, arranger, and collaborator. He has recorded and performed with world-renowned artists such as Dennis Chambers, Mike Stern, Melissa Aldana, Francisco Mela, Mark Murphy, Chris Cheek, Steve Cardenas, and many others. His versatility and sensitivity at the piano have made him a valued contributor to dozens of albums and projects across genres.Nitzan is the featured pianist on the 2025 GRAMMY-winning album Bianca Reimagined (Best Large Jazz Ensemble) and the GRAMMY-nominated track Little Fears by Dan Pugach and Nicole Zuraitis (Best Jazz Performance).
He has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, performing at major jazz festivals and venues, including Town Hall, the Kennedy Center, Blue Note, Birdland, Smalls and Lincoln Center, among many others.
Nitzan also serves as musical director for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks in her musical collective SLP & the Joyful Noise.

Bio to come.

Bio to come.

Bobby Spellman is a trumpeter, composer, and educator known for his eclectic musical style, dynamic performances, and experiments fusing jazz and improvised music with disparate musical traditions from around the globe. A native of Boston, Bobby studied philosophy before earning a master’s degree in jazz performance from New England Conservatory, where he had the opportunity to study with John McNeil, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Morris, Bob Moses, Dave Holland, and Ben Schwendener. Since moving to New York in 2014, Bobby has led a series of groups including his “Revenge of the Cool” Nonet, Dingonek Street Band, and the Voodoo Club. Beyond leading and writing for his own ensembles, Bobby has performed across the Northeast U.S. with Motown legends the Temptations and the Four Tops, and with experimental jazz groups including the Either/Orchestra, Moppa Elliott’s Acceleration Due to Gravity, and the Sungazer Big Band. Bobby is also a member of the Ed Palermo Big Band, which performs monthly at the Iridium and specializes in playing the music of Frank Zappa. Bobby currently lives in Ridgewood, Queens with his wife, woodwind doubler Emily Pecoraro.

Bio to come.

Bio to come.

Marty Scott is a NYC-based trombonist originally from Long Island, NY. A graduate of SUNY Purchase (B.M. in Jazz Performance) and the Manhattan School of Music (M.M. in Jazz Arts), Scott has developed his craft as a working jazz trombonist and is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Influenced by Bebop, Hard Bop, Latin Jazz, and other styles, he has performed with various artists at venues including The Blue Note, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and The Django, both in and outside of New York City. Scott is dedicated to pushing the music forward while honoring the tradition that shaped him.

Bio to come.

Bio to come.