Payton Aurora Jones (Playwright, she/her, California) is a 19-year-old vocalist, actor, writer, and advocate who uses her voice, creativity, and vision to inspire communities, shift culture, and tell stories that drive healing, repair, and transformation. Her work lives at the intersection of performance and purpose, where narrative becomes strategy, and young people shape what’s possible. Raised in Southern California, Payton’s foundation was built through lived experience. She grew up watching her mother turn struggle into leadership, organizing from the ground up. That lens, rooted in resilience, equity, and imagination, shapes everything she creates. Whether commanding a stage in musical theater, performing original music, or helping lead national youth campaigns, Payton is committed to using art and advocacy to address the mental, emotional, and systemic wounds communities carry. Her work centers young people not just as participants, but as narrators of their own change. A 2025 winner of ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence, Payton dreams of writing, acting, and producing original films, creative productions, and vocal projects that prove that story is power. She isn’t here to fit into anyone’s box—she’s here to build new rooms entirely, where justice lives, culture shifts, and thriving is a way of life.

Mayam Citlary Mejia  (Director / Stage Directions) (She/Her/Ella) is a director, writer, and stage manager from Delano, Ca. She is a third-year Theater (directing concentration) and Sociology double major at UCSB where she has recently directed scenes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night & Antony and Cleopatra, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, E.M Lewis’s How The Light Gets In. This summer she traveled to the Prague Summer Shakespeare Intensive to study and work with Lisa Wolpe on her genre-defying adaptation of Winter’s Tale which toured at the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival. Mayam aims to create spaces where the creative process leads with authenticity and intentionality. Whether it be adapting Twelfth Night in drag or a queer casting in Uncle Vanya, she always asks herself “who is missing” in this piece and how can we create works that highlight the communities in our world. 

Brian Harwell (Actor 3) has been performing and directing in the Santa Barbara area for the past 25 years and has appeared on most local stages at some point. He is passionate about community safety and the effort to end gun violence, and is honored to participate in this creative approach.

Alphonse Mouzon (Actor 1) has been acting since the age of six, when he was cast in the original Lethal Weapon film. Since then, he has put himself through college, earning his BA in Film Production from California State University, Northridge. He continues to act in movies, TV, and on stage, and recently performed at the Santa Paula Theater Center as William Pierce in the play The Cottage and both Speakeasy projects with Fractured Actors Theater Company (Prom and Golden Age). Special thanks to his family, friends, and his brilliant and beautiful lady, Lindsey, who adds the sweetest to his life.

Lindsey Nickel (Actor 4) is an actress, writer, and creator passionate about inspiring connection and building community through storytelling and art. Her original plays, Me Now and Emotional Intelligence Agency, have been produced in Ventura County. She has recently been seen on stage with Fractured Actors Theater Company in Backstage Bedlam, The Speakeasy Prom, Comic Potential (Jacie Tripplethree), and The Golden Age, as well as at Santa Paula Theater Center in Playzapalooza! and The Spine & The Spark. Lindsey is honored to work with Ensemble Theatre Company and UCSB to be part of this important project and mission, Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence.

K.J. Powell (Malik) a Miami native, began his entertainment journey at 14 and is a graduate of Pepperdine University. He recently starred as Cory in Fences (Laguna Playhouse) and appeared in The Double V (ICT) and Farragut North (Theatre 68). His performance in Fences earned him an Orange Curtain Award nomination and win for 2025 Best Featured Actor, adding to earlier honors as an August Wilson Monologue Competition finalist, Spotlight Award recipient, and California Educational Theatre Association scholarship winner.

A’xela Ritchie (Jay) At 18 years old and born and raised in Santa Barbara, I’ve spent the past few years dedicated to growing as a performer. I’ve been acting for three years and have performed in five productions at Santa Barbara High School, spanning genres from mystery to modern interpretive works to musicals. I’m deeply passionate about the arts and their ability to move audiences, inspire empathy, and shed light on real-world struggles. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to be part of this impactful production.

Jamila Webb (Actor 2) is an actor and producer from St. Louis, Missouri whose work spans theater, television, and film. As an actor, Jamila’s notable TV includes the final season of Netflix’s Family Reunion, Superstore, The Office, Extant, Masters of Sex, Arrested Development, and A.P. Bio, and recurrings on Jane the Virgin, The Comedians, and I’m Dying Up Here. As a producer, she is the creator and founder of First Fifteen – a creatively daring community where BIPOC writers are supported to tell their stories and receive structured feedback from industry writers from such hit shows and films as P-Valley, The Walking Dead, Harlem, The Blackening, The Upshaws, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Only Murders in the Building. Jamila earned her B.A. in urban studies from Stanford University, followed by her M.F.A. in acting at American Conservatory Theater, and resides in Los Angeles.