OUR TEAM

LORI PITTS

Artistic Director - Ally Theatre Company
Founder - Voices Unbarred
Facilitator

Lori Pitts (she/her) is a facilitator, Theatre of the Oppressed Joker, teaching artist, actor, director, and improvisor in the DMV area who is passionate about creating platforms for voices that often go unheard. She is the Artistic Director of Ally Theatre Company, and the founder of Voices Unbarred, a program of Ally Theatre that collaborates with people impacted by incarceration, artists, and policy organizations to reimagine the prison system and advocate for change using Theatre of the Oppressed. Pitts also teaches and performs regularly with Young Playwrights’ Theater and has most recently been seen on stage with Second City, Rorschach Theatre, The Welders, and Washington Improv Theatre. She completed Georgetown University’s Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program, is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Culture Caucus with The Kennedy Center, a graduate of the 202Creates Fellowship, a graduate of the Movement Matters Community Organizing & Popular Education Institute, and a four-time recipient of the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program grant through the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her work within the community.

SADE COLE

Program Manager

Sade Cole (she/her) is the Program Manager at Voices Unbarred, where she is excited to explore how theatre can be a powerful tool for advocating for criminal justice reform. Passionate about addressing inequities in the criminal legal system and amplifying the voices of individuals impacted by incarceration, Sade is dedicated to driving meaningful change. She also has a strong interest in education policy and empowering youth and families impacted by poverty.

Prior to joining Voices Unbarred, Sade has held various professional roles, most recently she worked as a Research Assistant at The Brookings Institution where she collaborated on projects advancing racial justice in the United States. Her experience spans policy research, nonprofit program coordination and stakeholder engagement, all focused on advancing social justice initiatives.

Sade earned a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Sciences from Virginia Tech. Go Hokies! She is eager to contribute to Voices Unbarred’s mission by fostering dialogue, creativity and collective action to drive systemic change through theatre.

ANGUM-PERI (AP) CHECK

Facilitator

Inner Voices Co-Director

Angum-Peri (AP) (they/them) is a cultural worker, organizer, multi-medium artist, Lover of Freedom and Cats, and nonlinear Being. Their first love is theater, and they have been acting since 3 years old. They discovered theater of the oppressed in college and fell in love with it as a medium for powerful storytelling that creates openness for transformation individually and collectively, and for building people power. They have about nine years of experience organizing and training in the co-creation of freer spaces and addressing issues impacting the Black Diaspora, culture, land, legal, gender, and sexual justice, and overall Being.

Angum-Peri has worked with various theater of the oppressed formations and is very excited to be a co-facilitator for Voices Unbarred. Their politics are rooted in the abolition of oppressive systems, and healing justice informed by Indigenous African ways of Being with the land, spirituality, and radical love and community. Co-facilitating with the men and women directly impacted by this cruel practice is more than just creating a performance; this is a process of healing and personal transformation that impacts and aims to shift public transformation through policy and practices. The relationships Angum-Peri has built so far with this talented and amazing group have been nourishing, teaching AP, and pouring into them, and it is an absolute honor to share space. AP looks forward to seeing you all get to witness our Community Advocates' creative brilliance and take up their call to action!

ALLISON FRISCH

Voices Out Loud Director

Allison Frisch (she/her) is a Director, Actor, and Dancer in Washington, DC. She is an alumna of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, where she recently completed Joy Zinoman’s Directing intensive. She holds a BFA in Theatre and Minor in Dance from Stephens College. Directing Credits: Dear America (Voices Unbarred), Pride of Doves (Action to the Word Theatre Company); Acting Credits: Princess Margaret* (Thelma Theatre), Suffrage Plays (Venus Theatre), Fools (Parlor Room Theater) Dance Credits: Dark Night Showcase, Spring Dance (KG Dance); Upcoming: Dhana and the Rosebuds (Ally Theatre). *DCMTA Best of 2015 - Best Lead Actress in a Professional Play.

SISI REID

Facilitator
Voices Out Loud Director
Ally Production Director

Sisi Reid (she/fae/they) is an internationally touring multidisciplinary theater maker, dancer, and director from Norfolk, Virginia and Wheaton, Maryland who practices theater as tools for collective liberation, healing, and youth empowerment. Sisi’s art is grounded in the values of justice, community building, and education instilled by her family and upbringing. As a creative visionary, Sisi is an actor, writer, playwright, dancer, director, spoken word poet, Emcee, facilitator, teaching artist, educator (including English language arts) and an applied theater practitioner.

Sisi is a graduate of University of Maryland and The Theater Lab’s Life Story Institute. She has taught and performed in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Colombia, London, and Brazil. As an applied theater practitioner, she has facilitated theatre workshops in prisons with University of Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Project, Voices Unbarred, and University of Rio's Theater in Prison program. Sisi was a Producing Playwright of The Welders 3.0 (2019 - 2023) and a board member of the Pride Youth Theatre Alliance (2018 - 202). She is a Maryland States Arts Council (MSAC) Independent Artist Awardee, Teaching Artist on the MSAC Roster, and an ArtEquity BIPOC Leadership Circle Alumni. Sisi continually curates and facilitates joyFULL spaces that are queer, Black and abundant. She is the founder of Black Joy Creatives DC and Soul Shine Theater Garden, a performing arts community that gathers, produces dance-theater plays, and teaches performing arts centered in embodied practices of joy, play, travel, healing arts, and liberation. As a playwright, her plays have been performed with The Welder 3.0, Imagination Stage’s Pegasus Ensemble, University of Maryland’s Second Season and Next Now Festival; Young Playwright’s Theatre’s Silence is Violence: LGBTQ + You and Silence is Violence: Who Earth Is This DC?, and Previous DC director credits: Macbeth (The Theater Lab), The Rainbow Fish (Anacostia Playhouse), Indefinition and Respirations (FRESSH Inc.’s Next To Kin Festival), Assistant Director: Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi’s KLYTMNESTRA: An Epic Slam Poem (Theater Alliance), and Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moore (Anacostia Playhouse). IG: @soulshinetheatergarden

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ELLE MARIE SULLIVAN

Facilitator

Elle Marie Sullivan (she/her) is a theatre artist based in Washington, DC. Some of the companies she has performed with are Washington National Opera, National Ballet of Canada, Shakespeare Opera Theatre, Anacostia Playhouse, and Annapolis Shakespeare Theatre. As a teaching artist Elle has worked with Round House Theatre, Educational Theatre Company, Encore Stage and Studio, Bach to Rock, and InterAct Story Theatre. Elle is also a registered yoga instructor (RYT-200) with training in trauma informed yoga. Elle loves working with Voices Unbarred and is excited to continue to grow with the company.