The thing you notice - or at least I noticed - about Daveed is how quiet he is.  I first met him in the whirlwind that was my New York Hip Hop Theater Festival experience (my play Rewind was being workshopped by director Daniel Banks).  Daveed was the stage manager for the show, and as such I had little direct contact with him since he was so quiet, and I was more than a little overwhelmed.  What I do remember is basically anyone and everyone I was around at the time was incredibly talented and smart, and Daveed was no exception.

I was excited to find out he had moved back to the Bay Area.  However, we kept missing each other - at first I didn't have a solid email address, then I literally almost fell over him at the San Francisco Theatre Festival; and again we kept missing each other as I was preparing for a summer trip. 

Then I realized I had spent all this time trying to recruit him, and I had never seen him perform.  I had no doubt he was good, but it was a leap of faith (there are a lot of good actors who would not work in this show).  In the end, it was a leap I was prepared to make - (I had been the subject of a similar "blind theatre date" at the beginning of this year.)  And his credentials came with rave reviews from not only the workshop director but Christine as well, who had also worked with him.

And now that he's warmed up to us, he's being a lot more outspoken.  He's got quite a range of musical talents, and he makes performance choices that are woonderfully surprising.  (And he's got some of the freshest threads to ever grace the rehearsal room.)