Our Team

Eric is a well-known musician and artist-activist in Kenya, Africa and worldwide. He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He is the Artistic Director of Rainmaker Productions and the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative, which he runs in concert with his wife, Managing Director, Sheba Hirst. In 2004, Eric set another milestone on the Kenyan music scene when he premiered a 21-song musical theatre piece, Lwanda, Man of Stone, based on a local folk story and marrying traditional instruments and styles of the Luo people of Western Kenya with contemporary urban Kenyan sound. It was staged at the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, in December 2006 before going on a national tour in 2007 and 2008 playing a total of 52 shows. Under the name Mo Faya it played at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2009. He is an alumnus of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program East Africa Initiative.

Sheba is the co-owner and Managing Director of Rainmaker Productions. She is a long-time arts producer in Kenya and now serves as the Director of the Nairobi Film Festival. She has also directed and produced the Sawa Sawa Festival in Nairobi to celebrate Kenyan performing arts. From 2005-2008, she was the Director of the Sarakasi Trust, dedicated to the study and performance of acrobatic arts. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2002 with a B.A. in Political Science. She and her husband Eric Wainaina live in Nairobi with their two children Seben and Neo. 

Roberta is a theatre director, dramaturg, teacher and producer, and the Consulting Producing Director with the NBO MTI. Between 2004-2020, Roberta was the Senior Program Associate-International with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, designing and implementing high-level peer-to-peer engagement with theatre artists in East Africa and the Middle East North Africa.  Sundance Theatre Program’s 12-year East African initiative involved multiple exchange activities between U.S. and East African performing artists. Her work in East Africa began in 2001, when she led the “East African Theatre Workshop” (Center for International Theatre Development and Ford Foundation East Africa Office). Ms. Levitow taught as a Fulbright Specialist in the Departments of Drama at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She co-founded and directs Theatre Without Borders (TWB), a grass-roots volunteer network of individual artists, theatres, and organizations focused on international exchange. Learn more about Roberta Levitow here.

Fred, Composer: Suzen Murakoshi's Slippery When Wet (LaMama E.T.C., 1994; Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1996; Penumbra Theater, 2005); jazz-theater collaborations with hattie gossett (Public Theater, Whitney Museum, Here Arts Center, Vision Festival and National Black Arts Festival, 1994-200); Clockwork! (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2011). Composer, arranger, musical director: LaChanze at Joe’s Pub and American Songbook (2002-2008); Crowns by Regina Taylor at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre (2012). Musical director: Kirsten Childs’s The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Playwrights Horizons, 2000; 2000 Audelco Award for Best Musical Direction), The Miracle Brothers (2005); recording, The Bubbly Black Girl...(2007). Co- leader: musical theatre-writing workshop (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 1999-2017). Educator: NYU/TSOA Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (1996-present; 2017, David Payne-Carter Award for teaching excellence). Currently NYU/TSOA Co-Associate Dean of Faculty. 

Deborah writes plays, musicals and opera librettos. She is best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie, which is produced all over the world. She is a two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe award in musical theatre for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing with Scott Davenport Richards and King Island Christmas with David Friedman.

She wrote the book and lyrics for Crossing Over, an Amish Hip Hop musical with composer and co-lyricist Stephanie Salzman. She is also a three-time winner of the Frontiers opera competition at Ft. Worth Opera for Albert Nobbs and Embedded, with composer Patrick Soluri, and Steal a Pencil for Me, with composer Gerald Cohen. Her plays include The Poetry of Pizza, The Blue-Sky Boys, The Comfort Team, and The Velvet Weapon, which have been produced at theatres around the US. Deborah’s latest play, My Lord, What a Night, will open at the historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC in 2021. Deborah serves as a mentor to the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, which is developing new musicals by Kenyan composers and writers. She teaches in the graduate musical theatre writing at NYU and the MFA playwriting program at Columbia University. Her plays are published by Samuel French, Applause Books, Dramatist Play Service and No Passport Press. 

Lesedi obtained her BA Hons degree in dramatic arts from Wits University and has also trained as a singer. She works as a singer, actress, voice over artist, director and MC using her talents both on stage and on TV. In 2012 Lesedi was the face and voice of ‘Lindi’ for the ABSA personal loans ad campaign. Lesedi has done voice overs for TV, Radio and Corporate AV and just some of her work includes voiceovers for Hollard, Black Opal cosmetics, Eskom, Johnson & Johnson, Sasol, and KFC. A seasoned theatre performer at the famed Market Theatre in South Africa, Lesedi has starred in the productions of Colored Museum (2014), Ketekang (2014), A Raisin in the Sun (2014) and Fishers’ of Hope (2015) amongst others. In 2016, Lesedi turned her talents to directing. Directing the poignant, When Swallows Cry (2016) and township-journey of Itsoseng (2017.) For bookings or more information on Lesedi, please get in contact with an agent at OSM info@owens.co.za.