OUR TEAM
LORI PITTS
Artistic Director - Ally Theatre Company
Founder - Voices Unbarred
Facilitator
Lori Pitts (she/her) is a multifaceted artist and advocate based in DC, with expertise as a facilitator, Theatre of the Oppressed Joker, teaching artist, actor, director, and improvisor. Passionate about creating platforms for voices that often go unheard, she is the Producing Artistic Director of Ally Theatre Company, and the founder of Voices Unbarred, Ally’s programming arm that envisions a justice system radically reimagined by people directly impacted by that system. The organization uses theatre as a tool for changing policy and social attitudes, growing and healing community, and centering the voices of people both currently and formerly incarcerated. Pitts was the Artist in Residence at James Madison University in 2023, and is the co-author of a chapter in Into Abolitionist Theatre: A Guidebook for Liberatory Theatre Making. She has completed Georgetown University’s Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program, was 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 is a six-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. She has most recently been seen on stage with Second City, Rorschach Theatre, and Washington Improv Theatre (Teams: Hellcat, You’re Invited, Earth Wind & Tired).
Melissa Wilson
Program Associate
Melissa Wilson (she/her) is a performer, creative, teacher, and artistic administrator based in the DMV. She is passionate about using theatre as a tool to uplift marginalized voices and encourage empathy. She is excited by her work with Voices Unbarred because she gets to use theatre to meet people where they're at and uplift them skillfully in love. Melissa is a graduate of Eastern Washington University's Musical Theatre program. She has worked with Adventure Theatre MTC and 1st Stage as a Teaching Artist, and been seen all over the DMV acting in productions with theatres including Theatre 202 (Footloose), 1st Stage (Fair Play), and Unstrung Harpists (As You Like It). She also co-wrote, co-produced, and directed an original play called Recess for the 2026 Atlas Intersections Festival that explored empathy in politics from the perspectives of children. She is honored to invest her time, talents, and treasures in the work Voices Unbarred is doing. All glory to God!
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
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.
COMMUNITY ADVOCATES
A (*) indicates our active Community Advocates.
ANTOINE*
ANTOYNE*
AZIYRAH THE POET*
CHANTEL ROLLINS
DAMON JONES*
DAVID SAMPE*
DEMETRIA BALLARD-BEY*
DEVIN SMITH*
GENE DOWNING*
HERBERT ROBINSON*
IAN SIMPSON
MALIK (ROCKY) SIMPSON*
MAURICE (CHEF REESE) DIXON*
PORTIA N WILLIAMS
Q EXCLUSIVE*
REGINA COATES*
RONALD (RALO) WHALEY*
SAHIR MORGAN*
TAMIKA BRUCE*
RICARDO DAVIS*
TARIQ HERENCIA*
WALLACE "SHUBAKA" KIRBY*
THOMAS BRADLEY*
UMAR MUHAMMAD*
NOT PICTURED:
MR. SELLERS*
TAYTAY*
DAVE WATKINS*
RICARDO DAVIS*
ROBERT BARTON*
TERELL PETERS*
JOEL SMITH
ROBIN MILLS
LASHUNDA HILL
E. PAIGE WHITE
Board Member