Hansel and Gretel (in the 1980s)

Marie Thomas appeared on Broadway in the musical DON’T BOTHER ME I CAN’T COPE, and at Lincoln Center Theater in THE DUPLEX and ANTIGONE. She played Nina Dubois in Charles Smith’s KNOCK ME A KISS at New York’s New Federal Theater, the National Black Theater Festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and at Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She received the Audelco Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Also at Crossroads Theater, she played Sister Moore in THE AMEN CORNER and Dorabelle in THE DISAPPEARANCE with Ruby Dee. She received an Audelco Award for Best Actress for THE TALENTED TENTH in New York and at Atlanta’s National Black Arts Festival. She also received an Audelco nomination for her performance in AN EVENING WITH JOSEPHINE BAKER (Off-Broadway and at the National Black Arts Festival). Other theater credits include THE SUMMER HOUSE (The Passage Theater), KING LEAR starring Avery Brooks (Yale Repertory Theatre) and THE DANCE ON WIDOW’S ROW (New Federal Theater and The National Black Theater Festival). Television and film credits include The Cosby Mysteries, L.A. Law, Knots Landing, Amen, The Doctors, One Life to Live, As The World Turns and Hot Shots.

Micki Grant was a composer, lyricist, bookwriter, singer, and actor. With DON'T BOTHER ME, I CAN'T COPE in 1972, she became the first person to solely write book, music, lyrics and star in a Broadway musical. For the same show, she also became the first woman composer to win a Grammy for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album. Her other Broadway writing credits include additional music and lyrics for YOUR ARMS TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD (1976), songs for WORKING (1978), and IT'S SO NICE TO BE CIVILIZED (book, music, and lyrics, 1980). Her other writing work includes THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THEOPHILIS MAITLAND, CROESUS AND THE WITCH, STEP LIVELY, BOY, music and lyrics for J. E. Franklin's THE PRODIGAL SISTER (1974) and music and lyrics for PHILLIS (1986). She also wrote the English lyrics for JACQUES BREL BLUES. She received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance as Sadie Delaney in a two-year tour of HAVING OUR SAY (1996), which also ran six-weeks in Johannesburg, South Africa (1998). She is the recipient of the National Black Theatre Festival's Living Legend Award (1999) and the AUDELCO's Outstanding Pioneer Award in 2000. In February 2005, she was honored at the New Federal Theatre's 35th Anniversary Gala. Grant garnered an OBIE Award for music and lyrics; a Drama Desk Award for lyrics and performance; an NAACP Image Award; an Outer Critics Circle Award for music, lyrics, and performance; and five Tony nominations. In 2013, Micki Grant was awarded the Dramatists Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award.