Round 2
AFO Solo Shorts
Round 2
Veronica Barron
Fox
VERONICA BARRON creates physically exuberant visual theatre, using puppetry, dance, clown, music, and the human body. Her current works, Be Clean When We Die and Sound Shadows, blend shadow puppetry, dance, and traditional and original Americana music, and have earned support from the Casteliers Festival (Montreal), Maison Internationale des Arts de la Marionnettes (Montreal), Les Sages Fous (Trois-Rivieres, QC), Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), Puppet Showplace Theater (Brookline, MA), Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), the Montreal and Cambridge Arts Councils, and the Apollinaire Theater/The Boston Foundation. Veronica tours domestically & internationally as a puppeteer for acclaimed DJ Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall, which combines puppetry, live cinema, scratch DJing, and a string quartet to create a quirky, emotional love story. As an actor, Veronica specializes in new work development, and has appeared in world premieres with the Huntington Theatre Company, imaginary beasts, Fresh Ink Theatre, and others. A longtime collaborator with Liars and Believers, she helped create Who Would Be King and ICARUS, for which she was praised as “the cast’s best voice” (Scott Heller, New York Times). Veronica holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston University, where her studies included visual & choreographic theater, classical Indian dance-theater, clowning, and playwrighting.
Jody Christopherson
excavation
JODY CHRISTOPHERSON is a New York based generative artist and the Artistic Director of the so-fi festival. Her mediums include; theater performance, playwrighting, music/foley, photography, film, curation and theater production. Reviewers have called her a "visionary in the theater world and legendary storyteller", who is "a talent to watch, not to mention a pleasure to hear”. Her work has been performed in 28 cities in 6 countries, including Canada, Detroit, New Orleans, Key West, Orlando Miami, Amsterdam, Germany, Lithuania, Australia, New York. She has been producing and co-producing her work since 2004 in America and abroad. Recent projects include: St Kilda (writer/performer), AMP, (writer/performer), Greencard Wedding, (writer/performer/
filmmaker), Because You Are Good. Publications include: The New York Theatre Review, (Creator/ Editor and Chief since 2011), The Huffington Post, the New York Times, Yale Press, Bored Panda, Howlround, American Theater Magazine, TCG and the Climate Change Theater Action Anthology. Ms. Christopherson is the recipient of an Indie Theater Fund Emergency Grant 2019, the 2017 New York Society Library Grant for emerging female writers underwritten by Alexander Sanger, All for One’s So-Co Residency (2017), The LIT Fund Grant 2014. Speaking/ teaching engagements include The Orchard Project, Mason Gross School of the Arts and New York Mensa. jodychristopherson.wixsite.com
Tanya Everett
Thousand miles
TANYA EVERETT (Playwright/Performer) moved from Mass to Brooklyn to pursue her career as an actor and writer. Her plays have been performed in many Off and Off-off Broadway venues: including the Public, Cherry Lane, HERE Arts Center, TheaterLab, Kraine, Cherry Pit and the Tank. Her play And The Gods Walk Among Us was named Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award and Finalist for the Lark Development Week. Her play, A Dead Black Man, was a Finalist for the Dramatist Guild Fellowship in 2019. She recently graduated from Brooklyn College, under Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney. She won the AAUW Career Development Grant, the Truman Capote Scholarship, and the 2018 MFA in Playwriting Awards to support her academic pursuits. She was named an Alternate for the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in California. Some of her teachers and mentors include: Stephen Adley Guirgis, Ellen McLaughlin, Maggie Flanigan, and Julia Jordan.
RAZ GOLDEN (Director/Editor) is a director of theatre, film, and voice over. He is a Resident Director at The Flea, a member of the Roundabout Directors Group (Cohort 2), and was the 2019 Drama League Classical Directing Fellow. His current work focuses on new and classical texts, as well as narratives that explore shared cultural histories and myths and that center people of color. He has developed work with The National Black Theatre, The Public Theatre, NYU Tisch, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Waterwell, Dixon Place, and McCarter Theatre.
Gina Femia
my pierced ears
GINA FEMIA (Playwright/Performer) work has been seen/developed at MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, EST, The Flea, Page 73, CTG, Theater of NOTE, Panndora Productions, among others. Plays include ALLOND(R)A (2019 Kilroys List, Winner: Leah Ryan Prize, Runner-up, Yale Drama Prize), THIS HAPPENED ONCE AT THE ROMANCE DEPOT OFF THE I-87 IN WESTCHESTER (2019 Kilroys List Honorable Mention), We Are a Masterpiece (Winner: The Doric Wilson Award, Stage Rights publishing), The Mermaids' Parade (Finalist, American Blue Ink Award, Semifinalist, The Relentless Award, Finalist, Princess Grace Award). Gina is the 2020 Otis Guernsey New Voices award winner, a 2019-2022 Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, the 2019 Parity Commission Winner and a 2019-2020 member of Ingram New Plays Lab & Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots writer's group. She is an Alum of EST Youngblood, Page73's Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, New Georges' Audrey Residency and Project Y's Writer's Group. Gina’s a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O’Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College (Lipkin Prize in Playwriting).
Freddy Padilla (Photographer/Animator/Video Editor) is a Brooklyn native who is a photographer, artist and major pop culture geek. He has collaborated with his wife, Gina, as dramaturg on a few of her plays (ALLOND(R)A, For The Love Of). After working at The Drama Bookshop for two decades, he still has a great love of theater and designs theater inspired t-shirts. Wepa!
Nela Fortunato
Latitude Solitude
NELA FORTUNATO is a Latin American Actress-Singer-Director. She is part of the Buenos Aires based physical theatre company La Monstruosa, which creates performances through dance, voice, puppeteering and has been part of Mucho Gustok Festival (2016/17/18/20 editions). She is also part of Usted Está Aquí Company: a creative ensemble, exploring site-specific and immersive pieces: Usted está aquí (2012-15); Rrom, a gypsy wedding (2016-18); La Subasta (2019). Since Covid19 quarantine, she has developed a version of her show Dora Lemer for online streaming video for @MicroteatroBA and a radio version for Tsunami Escénico Radio Show; created a short film called P.E.E.L.E, soon to be released on insta @Espacio Salvo as well as collaborated with British artist Lydia Stevens on the online piece: JJOO 2020. As a director, she gave life to the French author Chantal Thomas’ play Incrustations; by working with masks and original paintings and music. In 2019 she created a one to one piece inside a tent: A la Carte!, with which she toured London, Athens and Spain, where she closed the Short Film Festival: Luna de Cortos with her movement piece Syris, based on Russian Folk stories. She graduated from Andamio 90 Drama College in Buenos Aires, completed the post graduated course at London International School of Performing Arts (2009/11) and co-funded International Lyrebird Theatre Co.
Thanks to Giverny Petitmermet's sharp eyes and AFO.
Nathan Gebhard
cityDANCE 03 - Brooklyn
NATHAN GEBHARD (Creator/Performer) is an interdisciplinary performance artist based in Brooklyn, hailing from north woods of Minnesota. He creates art to breath, listen, to celebrate and mourn, and to commune. journalDANCE is a series of visual journal entries that began in 2016 and has become a staple in his artistic practice. New York credits include The Unrepentant Necrophile (HERE, IRT Theater, Cloud City) and Saint Ex (So-fi Festival at Torn Page). He has also tours nationally with TigerLion Arts' Nature. Check out nategeb.net for more information and previous entries in the journalDANCE series.
RHYS TIVEY (Music) is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer. He grew up on a small horse farm in the woods of upstate New York. His newest solo album, "Unsteady," is available on Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. Follow on IG @rhystivey or join the mailing list at rhystivey.com
Charles Gershman
Oedipus 2.0.2.0
CHARLES GERSHMAN (Playwight) is a queer playwright/TV writer. He is a Dramatists Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow, a 2019 Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award winner, and a 2019 Relentless Award Semifinalist. Recent work has been produced or developed with The New Group, The Flea, 59E59 Theaters, Theatre503, and the American Playwriting Foundation and published by Oberon Books. He received his MFA from NYU-Tisch in 2018. charlesgershman.com
WILLIAM STEINBERGER (Director) has developed new plays at Hartford Stage, the Drama League, Berkshire Theatre Group, New Light Theatre Project, the Wilma, 59E59, The Flea, The Tank, Bethany Arts Project, Judson Church, Passage Theatre, Czech Center NYC, Theatre Horizon, InterAct, FGP, Uglyrhino and several universities. He is Artistic Director of InVersion Theatre and his dramaturgy has been featured in The Wall Street Journal. Will produced Andy Bragen’s Notes on My Mother’s Decline for PlayCo/ABTP at NYTW Next Door. He is a Resident Director at the Flea, past MTC Directing Fellow and member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. WSteinberger.com
EDDIE COOPER (Performer) At Classic Stage Company: The Cradle Will Rock and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Encores! Off Center: Promenade, Assassins, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater and Little Shop of Horrors. Atlantic Theater Company: This Ain't No Disco. Two River: All-male A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. TV: “Forever,” “Mozart In The Jungle,” “Banshee”, and HBO’s “The Night Of.” Thanks to my family and friends for their love and support. @MrEddieCooper
KAtie MElby
Hortice Welcomes the Day
KATIE MELBY (Creator/Puppeteer) is a theatre and puppetry artist who recently became an ASMRtist during her time in quarantine (Melby ASMR on YouTube). She is co-Artistic Director of 3 Sticks, a physical theatre company dedicated to making new work, that she co-founded after graduating from the Lecoq-based London International School of Performing Arts in 2005. Their work has been presented across the US, Canada, and Japan as well as Ars Nova, Dixon Place, and Governors Island Art Fair in NYC. Her credits include Basil Twist’s Rite of Spring (Lincoln Center) and Sister's Follies (Abrons Art Center), Mabou Mines’ La Davina Caricatura (La Mama), The Cat Who Went to Heaven (Brooklyn Academy of Music), l’Arbre Enchanté (Fire Island Opera Festival), Firebird (Chilean Tour), American Weather (HERE Arts Center), The Disappearing Man (Musical Theatre Factory) and numerous productions with Back Room Shakespeare Project. She is also a member of BREAD Arts Collective, and a co-founder of the Brooklyn arts space Cloud City.
ANDREW LYNCH (Composer/Sound Designer) is a Composer, Performer, and Sound Designer. Recent projects include: a new musical adaptation of Elektra with Director Juliana Kleist-Mendez at UCSD, Calafia at Liberty with the Wetsuit Collective at the La Jolla Playhouse’s 2019 WOW Festival, and Leap and the Net Will Appear presented by the Catastrophic Theatre in Houston and New Georges in New York. He is a co-founder of the Brooklyn arts space Cloud City, and co-artistic director of the physical theatre company 3 Sticks.
Melisa Tien
Regina's_Zoom_presentation_Oct2020
MELISA TIEN (Playwright) is the author of the plays Best Life, The Boyd Show, Yellow Card Red Card, Familium Vulgare, and Refraim, co-author of the music-theater works Swell and Mary, and co-producer of the audio series Active Listening. Best Life will be produced at JACK in 2021. Swell was part of the 2019 HERE Summer Sublet Series and will be produced online in 2021. Yellow Card Red Card was produced at the New Ohio Theatre in NYC in 2017. A New Dramatists resident playwright, Melisa is a recipient of a grant from the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre, a commissionee of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting. She has been a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, a participant in the Nautilus Composer-Librettist workshop, and a member of the 2010-2012 WP Theater Lab. She has also been a resident of the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, and Tofte Lake Center. Melisa has presented work at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Women Playwrights International Conference, and the National Asian American Theatre Conference and Festival. She currently teaches a course in experimental theatrical writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She holds a BA from UCLA, an MFA from Columbia University, and a Culinary Diploma from the French Culinary Institute. melisatien.com
SANDRA DALEY (Performer) is an Afro-Caribbean artist, living in Harlem. As an actress, her credits include Savages, Absent, Madam Secretary, Blacklist, The Breaks and The Miracle Worker. She is an OBIE Award-winning producer, award-winning playwright, director, and dramaturg. Sandra is a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award for her contribution of diversity to the American theater landscape. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College and teaches Acting and Playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. Two of her plays made it to the Kilroys List 2017. Sandra is a member of Beehive Dramaturgy Studio. Most recently, The Fire This Time presented a reading of her full-length play Hedda: A Portrait of a (Young) Woman and a production of her short play Anonymous, which was also produced by the EstroGenius Festival 2018. Sandra’s play Straddling the Edge is a Barbour Award finalist and was recently workshopped at the cell theatre. Les Fréres is a 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist and a 2017 Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist. She received a SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency, where she began her new play The Island Bull’s Wife. It is now complete, under the mentorship of Adam Bock, and is a Princess Grace Award semi-finalist. She was named a NYFA Fellowship Finalist for Playwriting. Her short play Man in the Moon was developed and presented by The Exquisite Corpse Company; Shirley and Iris was presented at the Going to the River Festival 2016 at EST, and Jake was produced at New Perspectives Theater and most recently at Silver Spring Stage. Her choreo-poem Genesis was presented May 2017 at 50in50: Writing Women Into Existence, curated by Dominique Morisseau. Sandra’s short film Take Flight was featured at the Everybody Digital Film Festival and Dreams Deferred, which she wrote/directed/produced, was featured in the 2017 African American Women in Cinema Film Festival.
Zonia, Tsang Lok Sze
Up Here to Breathe
ZONIA, TSANG LOK SZE (she/hers) (Playwright/Composer) is thrilled to be part of AFO's Solo Shorts. Her work has been presented at the Apollo Theater, Two River Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, the Cherry Lane Theatre, La MaMa, the Duplex, 52nd Street Project, and also in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Previous plays include: Eye of the Beholder, The Cantonese Opera Play, The Blue-and-White Porcelain (Finalist: World Sinophone Drama Competition). She is a graduate of EdUHK and NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
KENDRA CUI (she/hers) (Director/Child) is excited to be exploring virtual theatre as a new medium for the first time. Usually she can be found behind the stage, where her recent credits have included A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dramaturg), Die Fledermaus (Assistant Director), The Joy Luck Club (Dramaturg) and The White Snake (Director). After graduating from Wellesley College with a Theatre and Economics degree, she recently returned to Hong Kong, where she grew up. Massive thanks to Zonia for her unwavering trust and love of onesies.
Round 1
Beaudau Karel Banks
So Tired...
BEAUDAU (Bo-day) KAREL BANKS is a Choreographer, Dancer and Production Technician born and raised in Belize, Central America. Beaudau is a Black, queer, gender non-conforming immigrant artist and Theatre Technician based in New York City that started formal dance training at the age of thirteen studying ballet and modern dance. They were accepted and graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. They are now living in New York City freelancing with various artists while still following their love of theatre production.
Eliza BEnt
Karen, I said
ELIZA BENT is a playwright and performer whose performances are indeed, “bent”: “different from normal; strongly inclined; changed from an originally straight condition” and often feature misfits who toil in the recent past. These "bentertainments" include soloish works (Toilet Fire and Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen), plays (Indeed, friend!, On a Clear Day I Can See to Elba, The Hotel Colors), adaptations (The Beyoncé, She of the Voice), and hybrid affairs (Real Talk / Kip Talk, Blue Wizard / Black Wizard, Pen Pals Meet). Bent’s shows have been developed, workshopped, and produced at the Abrons Arts Center, JACK, the New Ohio, the Atlantic, the Bushwick Starr, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door Series. Residencies with MacDowell, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, SPACE on Ryder Farm, New Georges, Target Margin Institute Fellow, Casa Zia Lina, and Pilot Balloon. As an actor Bent has performed in pint-sized New York theatres, regionally in Omaha and Louisville, and toured internationally. Bent has a BA in philosophy and an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College. She currently is a lecturer in the Radio/TV/Film department at Northwestern University.
EllaRose Chary &
Brandon James Gwinn
NEMOD Industries Presents Dr. Blau's Seance Machine App - Surround Sound
NEMOD Industries Presents Dr. Blau's Séance Machine App: Surround Sound is an immersive, digital, theatrical experience in 4 parts. When each part ends, look for the link to get to the next part and follow any instructions.
ELLAROSE CHARY (she/hers) (Playwright) is an award-winning New York-based writer and advocate for inclusion in musical theater. She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, and winner of a BOH Cameronian Arts Award and the Weston Award for Musical Theater. Her musical TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX has been developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (NMTC Incubator Residency, NMTC Finalist), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (Triple R Residency), and the UArts Polyphone Festival. She is the bookwriter for the award-winning THE DOLL MAKER’S GIFT, which opened at The Rose Theater in 2019 and THE SÉANCE MACHINE, which premiered at The Tank in 2019. Her other shows include: COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE, THE LAKE AND THE MILL, QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME., and the Malaysian musical MARRYING ME. She has been in residence at Ars Nova (Uncharted), Harvard ArtLab, Catwalk Institute, and has received an Anna Sosenko Grant and a NAMT grant. Her work has been produced, developed and commissioned by the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Drama League, The Civilians and City Center (Encores! Off-Center), Theater C, Prospect Theater, The Flea Theater, Joe’s Pub, and 54 Below. She is an activist and advocate for inclusion in musical theater both on and off stage. She has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, and Musical Theater Today (where she is a contributing editor). She has appeared on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater and co-curates Tankaret, a cabaret series for underrepresented voices.
BRANDON JAMES GWINN (Playwright) is an award-winning composer, lyricist and musician. His new album, Bullit, will debut later in 2020. His album Not Too Late is now available and was supported as part of Trixie Mattel's LiveNation North American Tour. His musicals include How to Survive the End of the World (web-musical now streaming on YouTube), Cotton Candy & Cocaine (Ars Nova Uncharted, NAMT Grant, Theatre C), Queer. People. Time. (Dramatist Guild Fellowship, CATWALK Residency), TL;DR: Thelma Louise Dyke Remix (The Tank, Polyphone at UArts, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Barn Arts), Matchmaker Matchmaker, I’m Willing to Settle (ART Club Oberon, New York Musical Festival 2011), and Small Town Story (World Premiere: American Theatre Group, Finalist Richard Rodgers Award, NAMT Writer’s Residency Grant, Village Originals Seattle, NYTB Commission). He created the horrifying soundscape for the world premiere of The Séance Machine (The Tank). Web Series Themes/Scores: It Takei's Two (George Takei), Tori Tries It (Tori Scott), The Anonymous Lives of John and Jane. Music director/producer: Alexis Michelle’s LoveFool ("RuPaul’s Drag Race," Broadway Records) Trixie Mattel’s Two Birds and One Stone (Billboard #1). MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Proud member of ASPAC, Grammy Voting Member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, & Dramatists Guild of America.
LISA C.M. LAMOTHE (Performer) is so happy to be reunited with Brandon James Gwinn and EllaRose Chary, after a spooky and fabulous run of The Séance Machine this fall, and is pleased to be revisiting Dr Blau. Lisa is an actress, singer and educator. She has had the pleasure of lending her vocals to original cast recordings, film scores, and parties/events. Favorite theatrical credits Off-Broadway and Regionally include: Incredibly Deaf Musical (Diva); Ragtime
(Sarah), All Shook Up (Lorraine), Walden (Effie/May), Romeo & Juliet (Balthazar). An avid supporter of new works, Lisa has also performed in: How Green Was My Valley (soloist) at the Actors Studio, Blood Puddin (ensemble) at New Dramatists,
Bloom! by Melvin Tunstall III (ensemble), The Goddess Wheel
(Persiphone/Penelope), The Restoration of Sight (Denise), and others. This summer Lisa joined an ensemble of actor/singers in Chris Wade’s 29Lives and will be seen in the upcoming webseries, as a featured soloist. Commercial work includes Loews, and Education Connection (EC Singer, recurring). BFA: Pace University, Magna Cum Laude. When not performing or directing, Lisa works as a teaching artist and facilitator, specializing in arts education, violence prevention, and Restorative Justice. Follow Lisa on Instagram @LisaLaDiva!
All thanks and Glory to God. Phil 4:13
Jasmine Eileen Coles
Tend
JASMINE EILEEN COLES is an artist who was inspired by Nina Simone “to reflect the times we live in.” One of the most urgent stories Jasmine is amplifying begins on June 9, 2020 in Fort Tryon Park in New York City, when Dominique Alexander was found mysteriously hanging from a tree. It was hastily ruled a suicide in the same month that six other black men were found hanging around the country in the same manner. Jasmine requests that people join the movement to support Dominique’s family and take action by following @declaringjusticefordomo and #justicefordomo on Instagram. For other information on Jasmine, visit jasmineeileencoles.com.
Darian Dauchan
Brobot PSA
DARIAN DAUCHAN is an award-winning actor, writer, and musician who has appeared both on Broadway (Twentieth Century starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche) and Off Broadway (Jean Cocteau Rep., Classical Theatre of Harlem). He is the 2016 Loop Station Vice Champion of the American Beatbox Championships, a finalist for the 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and more recently completed The Brobot Johnson Project, an Afrofuturism, Sci Fi Hip Hop transmedia piece. The web series The New Adventures of Brobot Johnson won for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 2017 LA Web Festival, Best Soundtrack at the 2017 Escape Velocity Festival sponsored by the Museum of Science Fiction, and Best Editing at the 2018 Independent Television Festival. The album Brobot Johnson: Bionic Boom Bap is now available on iTunes, and the show The Brobot Johnson Experience is a Howard Gilman Foundation Grantee and critically acclaimed New York Times Critic's Pick by Ben Brantley.
Visuals by Sadah Espii Proctor.
Toni Ann DeNoble
A Secret Cup of Gladness
TONI ANN DENOBLE is a writer and actress born and raised in Jersey City, NJ; and is now based in Los Angeles, CA. She wrote A Secret Cup of Gladness in response to the Ossie Davis quote: “I find, in being Black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.” Credits include: Sneaky Pete (Amazon), Elementary (CBS), Shades of Blue (NBC) and Manifest (NBC). Theatre credits include: Smoke & Mirrors, New Georges, Playwrights Realm, Clubbed Thumb, LaMama, Negro Ensemble Company, National Black Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Poetic Theatre, Dutch Kills, Piehole Inc, and NYTW. VR: Tender Claws and Oculus Quest. Her solo show Eulogy for Cookie was featured at Dixon Place & The Nuyorican Poets Café, winning First Place and brought back for encore performances. Upcoming: Weird Weird Times for Google/YouTube, and A Storybook Ending - HBO Film Festival, American Black Film Festival, Woodshole Film Festival. MFA, Columbia University.
Kathryn Grody
White Hair
KATHRYN GRODY
MEMORABLE OFF BROADWAY - Fishing, Top Girls, Nasty Rumors and Final Remarks, Museum, 49 Years (with Estelle Parsons), Endgame (with Alvin Epstein), The Oak Tree, Seven Jewish Children, The Woman Who Lost Her Head, The Penetration Play, A Model Apartment, A Mom’s Life, falling apart....together
FILM - Harry and Walter Go To New York, My Bodyguard, The Lemon Sisters, Another Woman, Reds, Men With Guns, Limbo TV - "The Sunset Gang" with Uta Hagen, "Execution of Private Slovak" with Martin Sheen
Nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her three-character solo show, A Mom’s Life, Obies for The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Top Girls, all at the Public Theater. She was recently seen as Gaby in Susan Miller’s 20th Century Blues at The Signature.
Her essays have appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Mountain Record, and Oprah Magazine, and the narrative version of A Mom’s Life was published by Avon. She is on the board of Dances For A Variable Population and Downtown Women For Change, and is a Usual Suspect with NYTW.
Directed by Sybil Wigglesworth.
MAtthew Paul Olmos
to the people i hated
MATTHEW PAUL OLMOS (Playwright) is a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, New Dramatists Resident Playwright, Center Theatre Group LA Workshop Playwright, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Playwright, Princess Grace Awardee, selected by Taylor Mac for Cherry Lane's Mentor Project, and La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Awardee; selected by Sam Shepard. He spent two years as a Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist being mentored by Ruth Maleczech; former New York Theatre Workshop Fellow, Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident, Dramatists Guild Fellow, Primary Stages Playwright, INTAR playwright; and is an Ensemble Studio Theater lifetime member, Echo Resident Playwright, and Kilroys nominator. His work is produced internationally and nationally, published by Samuel French and NoPassport, and is taught in university. Currently developing American Nationalism Project, in part through New York Theatre Workshop’s Adelphi Residency and We Walk Along the Christmas Bridge, in part through Center Theatre Group’s LA Workshop. matthewpaulolmos.com
ANNIE HENK (Performer). Off Broadway: Pinkolandia, Lucy Loves Me. NYC Theater: Triggered (The Amoralists); City of No Illusions (Talking Band); Cute Activist (New Saloon); The Rafa Play (Flea Theater); To The Bone (Cherry Lane Theatre); La Ruta (Working Theater); The Play About My Dad (Collaboration Town); Enfrascada (Clubbed Thumb); Frank Dwyer, Sadly Missed (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Regional: Ritu
Comes Home (InterAct); Pinkolandia (Two River Theater); Enfrascada (Renaissance Theaterworks); Taking Flight; The Cook (Stages Repertory Theatre). Film/TV: "Bull," "The Blacklist," "Longmire," "Red Oaks," "High Maintenance," That’s What She Said; "White." Entre Nos. Member: The Actors Center. AEA, SAG-AFTRA.
Erika Sheffer
The Descent
ERIKA SHEFFER (Playwright). Plays include Russian Transport at The New Group (Outer Critic Circle nomination), regional premiere at Steppenwolf, with subsequent productions in the US and abroad. The Fundamentals at Steppenwolf (TCG Edgerton New Play Award, featured as part of The Guggenheim’s Works in Process Series), and Vladimir, which is set to premiere at South Coast Rep in April 2021. Erika’s plays have been read and developed at Steppenwolf, The New Group, Vineyard Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Atlantic Theater Company, and Ars Nova. She is a recipient of Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and an alumna of Ars Nova Playgroup and Space on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm Group. She has held commissions from Geffen Playhouse and Steppenwolf and is published by Dramatist Play Service. BFA, Syracuse University.
PURVA BEDI (Performer). Theatre: Wives (Playwrights Horizons), India Pale Ale (Manhattan Theatre Club), Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk Award), An Ordinary Muslim (NYTW), Uncommon Sense (Tectonic, IDIOT! (HERE), Veil'd (WP), Rise of Dorothy Hale (St. Luke's). With Target Margin Theatre as Associate Artist: Reread Another, Tempest, Second Language, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, Old Comedy, 5 Hysterical Girls Theorem. Regional: Rice Boy (Mark Taper), My Wandering Boy (South Coast Rep). Select Film: The Assistant, Gabriel’s Rapture, Sully, Equity, Kumare, Cosmopolitan, Green Card Fever, American Desi. TV: "High Maintenance," "Billions," "The Code," "She’s Gotta Have It Too," "Person of Interest," "Madam Secretary," "Nurse Jackie." Member The Actor's Center Workshop Company, Founding member, Disha Theatre. Teacher, Anthony Meindl Actors Workshop. She co-created the web series "Shrinkage," streaming on Amazon, and the play Assembled Identity (HERE), which premiered Off Broadway in spring 2018. Purva studied at Williams College, BADA, and the Public Theater Shakespeare Lab. Purva is represented by Artists & Representatives and managed by Forte Artist Management. Purva lives in New York City with her husband, two small humans and two large cats.
Casey Alexander Smith
Their Names
CASEY ALEXANDER SMITH is a New York City native. He is a full-time artist and arts educator and is grateful to the many voices and talents that supported this work. As a black man in America, he is blessed to bring creations like this to life but is plagued constantly by the voices that go unheard and the creations that will never be seen.
Emily Waters
Look Back At It
EMILY WATERS (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based theater-maker, poet and educator. Emily helped to roll out #MeToo Curriculum with Girls for Gender Equity, focusing on joy and storytelling through theater. Emily has also co-created healing justice spaces and has facilitated workshops with Harriet’s Apothecary. Emily was an Emerge Fellow '19, with Hemispheric Institute and was the headlining performer for the work in progress at Abrons Arts Center. They are also the recipient of the Peace and Social Change Fellow with Columbia University where she supervised research on the healing capacity of theater for survivors of gender based violence. In December 2019, Emily was awarded the Mount Tremper Arts Family Residency. Emily has been a collaborator and performer in works presented at The Shed and HERE Arts. She has also presented her original work at JACK, the Apollo, NYC’s Highline, In Solidarity Conference, Novo Foundation Grantmakers of Color Conference, and Judson Church. Emily is currently a Performance Project Fellow with University Settlement and was a selected writer in Billie Holiday Theater’s annual 50in50. Most recently, Emily is creating work commissioned by Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop’s Revolution Now! podcast series. To find music and research credits for this piece check out this link:
www.canva.com/design/DAEDACUj620/u3vl1BHIUdMeFi3VZFRu7g/edit.
To read the script you can click this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fN_Mye9PEQImajyHLugDUfVnHuPjaMMQPg7vDJHpGvs/edit?usp=sharing
and to connect with Emily you can go to their website: