Song of Summer by Caitlin Dennis Bailey
Staged Reading
August 11, 2025
6:30 PM
Hosted at Literati Press Bookshop and Creative Writing Center
Her 90s pop persona embraced by Gen-Z, Sienna’s stock is rising across social media and the world. Can she write a hit song, book an international tour, keep her boyfriend happy and save democracy while she’s at it? Only a mysterious man in black and the delicate state of global politics stand in her way.
Photography by Brittnei Beauchamp Nixon. Check out her work at @brittneibeauchampphotography and on Facebook!
Bios
Elise Bear
VARIOUS
Elise Bear (they/she) (Iowa of OK/Osage) is a storyteller from Pawhuska, OK and received their B.A. in Theatre & Performance from Oklahoma City University. They are a director, performer, voice actor, dramaturg, and newly a poet. Recent projects include: The Mvskoke Project (Springer Opera House), Native Voices at the Autry’s Short Play Festival (dramaturg), How to Smoke Three Cigarettes at Once (Co.Arts, co-writer) and working as a teaching assistant at the Chickasaw Arts Academy for the Intermediate On Camera Acting Class. They are incredibly excited to be making their Whatever Works debut with this script! (www.elisebear.com | IG @elise_bear )
Jessica Carabajal
STAGE DIRECTIONS, CONTENT CREATOR
Jessica Carabajal (she/her) is pleased as punch to be making her Whatever Works debut! A proud lifelong resident of Oklahoma City, Jessica has trod the boards at The Boom, Oklahoma City Theatre Company, and Carpenter Square Theatre and has been a familiar face of the Theatre Crude Fringe Festival since its very beginning (minus that one COVID year—thanks, pandemic). She studied Theatre and Communication Education at UCO and spent several joyful years behind the scenes with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and the Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre at OU. Big thanks to Zach for roping her into this adventure and to her parents, who never miss an opening night!
Cristela Carrizales
SIENNA
Cristela Carrizales is a respected Oklahoma City actor, singer, improviser and director. She is the former Artistic Director of OKC Improv as well as founder and former Artistic Director of The City Cabaret OKC. Cristela has been teaching improv through various professional development workshops for over 10 years and has appeared in a number of stage productions around Oklahoma City. Highlights include Maeve, Dance Nation (Southern Plain Productions); Ms. Phelps, Matilda; Spong, James & The Giant Peach; Phantom, The Rocky Horror Show (Lyric Theatre); Christmas Eve, Avenue Q (The Pollard Theatre); Helen, Fat Pig; Susan, [title of show] (Ghostlight Theatre Club); Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Dionne, Hair; Charlotte Lucas, Pride & Prejudice, (Reduxion Theatre). During the day, she is the Director of Professional Development and Training for Academic Advising at the University of Oklahoma.
Dalen Enevoldsen
JO
Dalen Enevoldsen (she/her) is a lover of all things theatre from Oklahoma City. She studied acting at Oklahoma City University. You can also find her working behind the scenes in wardrobe, lighting and a little bit of every department with groups such as OKCREP, OKC Broadway, OKC Ballet, and more! Recently she has performed with Whatever Works and in The Dream Emporium at Electric Forest. Dalen is a proud member of OKC’s local IATSE chapter 112. Thank you for supporting live arts!
Erik Theo Hamilton
OLLIE
Erik Theo Hamilton (he/him) is a filmmaker, writer, and actor who graduated with a BFA in Acting from Oklahoma City University. Erik’s debut directorial feature Joey Witten is a Big Stupid Idiot and I Hate Him is currently gearing up for its festival run (trailer’s out on the “Big Stupid Idiot Film” Instagram!). Erik also worked on the film crews for Twisters, Tulsa King, and Killers of the Flower Moon. But Erik’s earliest love was the theatre; having performed theatre across Oklahoma, Texas, Edinburgh, and Beijing. Erik is so stoked to be back for his second staged reading with Whatever Works!
Rob Sturma
THE MAN IN BLACK
Rob Sturma (he/him) is a poet and editor who has been involved with the Red Dirt Poets since 2010 and the LP Writer’s Co-op since about five minutes ago. He curated and edited two pop culture themed print poetry anthologies, AIM FOR THE HEAD and MULTIVERSE, and was the founder and editor-in-chief of online lit journal FreezeRay Poetry for eight years and 22 issues. His current collection of poems HEAD V HEART is available from Moon Tide Press and his CYOA poetry zine YOU ARE DOOMED is available at finer local bookstores and probably his backpack.
Caitlin Dennis Bailey
PLAYWRIGHT
Caitlin Dennis Bailey (she/her) is from Oklahoma City. Most recently, her short plays have been heard as part of Theatre Crude’s Unconventional Shorts series. In Caitlin’s work the familiar and the extraordinary meet, exploring realities just beyond our own. When not busy writing plays, she is a PR and marketing consultant who helps brands and organizations tell their story to the public. Caitlin earned her B.A. in theatre and English from Middlebury College.
Zachary Scalzo
DIRECTOR
Zachary Scalzo (he/they) is a queer theatremaker, writer, and translator whose theatrical work has been developed and performed both in the United States and in Canada. He was the Artist in Residence in the English Department at the University of Central Oklahoma from 2022-2025, and is the current President of the LP Writer’s Co-Op in the Paseo. ⅓ of Whatever Works and ½ of Two-Player Theory, they can be found at azachofalltrades.com and on Instagram at @zjscalzo.
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