The play starred Nadine Marissa, a film and television actress best known for her role as Nabila on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and her work on ‘Better Call Saul’ and ‘Baskets.’ Marissa played Hannah Green, a woman going through a midlife crisis who leaves her whole life behind in search of a better world, and inadvertently awakens an army of women and sparks a revolution.
Shelly, a mainstay of the Washington, D.C., theater scene, and Mahoney procured the funding to produce the play from the annual Carol Sutton/Sherri Marina Memorial Grant, which supports new plays featuring roles for Black leading actors – particularly Black women – and a New Orleans Theater Association Grant. Marina, who appeared in the hit 2017 movie Girls Trip, as well as several stage productions, was a faculty member at Loyola when she died in 2020.
“This is a full circle moment,” said Mahoney, whose most notable roles include Olivia on ‘The Walking Dead’ and Gladys Presley on ‘Sun Records.’ “Sherri Marina was a dear friend and colleague. To be able to utilize a grant named after her – to perform a new play, with several leading roles for women of color, at Loyola University – feels appropriate and deeply spiritual.”
Students in Loyola’s Theatre Arts and Dance program perform the other leading and supporting roles in the production. Kai Knight serves as the choreographer, with Flo Presti as the music director. John A. Mahoney and Ann Mahoney wrote the music and lyrics.
