Ed Shockley, MFA is author of more than fifty plays. His works have set five box office records and been honored with numerous awards, including the Stephen Sondheim Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Musical Theatre, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and PA State Arts Council Playwrights Fellowship. He has received commissions for youth theatre plays from Seattle Children's Theatre, Children's Theatre of Charlotte, Dallas Children's Theatre, Black Spectrum Theatre and the Harlem Renaissance Theatre. His historical short film, Stone Mansion, aired on Showtime television.  Website: http://edshockley.com.

Deanna Alisa Ableser is a theatre teacher at Dana Middle School in Hawthorne, California. Deanna was the recipient of the 2006 VSA Playwright Discovery Teacher Award and was honored at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre and a Masters in Education from the University of Southern California. She has been teaching and directing award-winning youth theatre for the past twelve years. Deanna believes that theatre allows children to play, create, explore, and discover the amazing spirit and passion that resides within them. 

Children's Program Coordinator and Children's Playwright in Residence at SkyPilot Theatre in Los Angeles, Nicole B. Adkins holds her MFA in Children’s Literature with an emphasis in playwriting from Hollins University.  She has a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Central Oklahoma, and studied Shakespeare at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.  A playwright for youth and adults, Nicole has worked with children’s theatres as a performer and teacher for over a decade.  She is a winner of the 2011 National Waldo M. and Grace C. Bonderman Playwriting Workshop, was invited to participate in the 2009 Bonderman Symposium Playwright Slam, and has been showcased in the annual Best of No Shame Theatre Virginia.  She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  Website:  www.nicolebadkins.com.

Dan Berkowitz is Co-Chair of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, and is the former Los Angeles Regional Rep of The Dramatists Guild of America, the professional association of playwrights, composers, and lyricists. His writing for the stage has been produced off-Broadway, in major regional theatres, in college and amateur theatres throughout the United States, and in Canada.  He is the author of four optioned screenplays, and was principal scriptwriter for The Movie Channel’s hosted format with Robert Osborne. A former Senior Story Analyst for RHI Entertainment, a division of Hallmark, Dan is a consultant for stage, film, and television scripts.  In addition to writing, Dan has produced and/or directed, scores of plays, musicals, and cabaret revues, as well as several seasons of syndicated television programming, and a raft of commercials and industrial and educational videos.  His website is http://danberkowitz.com.

Will Boersma is pursuing a BFA in Playwriting at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.  His writing includes Animals and The Boys, The Bed, and The Balsa (which received second place in the YouthPLAYS New Voices One-Act Play Competition 2011).  Besides playwriting he has acted in such roles as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Michael Novak in God of Carnage, and Jean in Ms. Julie, all at his high school in Skokie, Illinois.  His plays were part of The New Playwrights Showcase at Niles North High School in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.  He is looking forward to studying playwriting in college and pursuing it as a career in the future.  Until then, Will studies hard and thanks his family and his friends for giving him the experiences that inspire him to create his works.

John Bolen is a novelist/playwright/actor living in Southern California. He has been published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books (Hal Leonard Publishing), Independentplay(w)rights, Indigo Rising, Scars Publications, The Write Place at the Write Time, OC180news, Eunoia Review andYouthPLAYS. John is the Producing Artistic Director of the New Voices Playwrights Theatre & Workshop. His plays have been produced in theatres throughout the U.S. including New Jersey Repertory; Stages Theatre (CA); Chance Theater (CA); Cabrillo Playhouse (CA); Theatre@First (MA); NewGate Theatre (RI); Newport Theatre Arts Center (CA); Thalian Hall Studio Center (NC); Costa Mesa Playhouse (CA); Secret Rose Theatre (CA); The Asylum Theatre (CA); Lincoln Square Theatre (Chicago, IL); Malibu Stage Company (CA); Vanguard Theatre (CA); Garden Grove Playhouse (CA); Red Room Theatre (NYC; Gallery Theatre (CA); and the Empire Theatre (CA).

A professional writer for four decades, Nancy Brewka-Clark began her career after graduating from Wheaton College by covering Boston theater for many newspapers and magazines, interviewing luminaries such as legendary queen of the Yiddish theater Molly Picon, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jane Powell, Leonard Nimoy, Sandy Dennis, Robert Brustein and Israel Horovitz.  It wasn’t until 1997 that she wrote her first ten-minute comedy for a Boston competition to be judged by Craig Lucas. Although an April ice storm prevented both her and him from actually seeing the performance, her determination was fixed: she would think big and write small. Since then her plays have been produced in venues as varied as Brooklyn, New York and Harrogate, England, and many of her comic monologues have been published by Smith and Kraus.

Kenyon Brown is an award-winning playwright whose productions include Pillow Fight, Notification, All A-Twitter, In View of, Pride Trash, and Ashes to Snatches, Dust to Bust. He has been produced in SF, NYC, and LA as well as internationally. His professional theatre experience includes working at Circle Repertory Company in NYC. He was awarded the Hopwood Award for Drama from the University of Michigan. He is a member of The Playwrights' Center, The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., TCG, and The Writer’s Center of Indiana.

Matt Buchanan is a New England-based professional playwright and composer specializing in theatre with and for young people. His plays and musicals have been performed across the United States and in several foreign countries. He is also an accomplished stage and music director, as well as a performing musician. He was a founding member of the Boston rock band System Underload. Matt has a BA in Music from Harvard College and an MFA in Child Drama from the University of Texas at Austin.

Roger Butterley has worked with artists ranging from Michael McDonald and Phoebe Snow, to Gavin DeGraw and Jill Sobule, and has appeared on more than 20 albums. He has a longstanding relationship with Sh-K-Boom Records, having music directed many of the Sh-K-Boom Room concert series, as well as music directing and co-producing the CD of Paul Scott Goodman’s Bright Lights, Big City.  As a composer, he has written three full length musicals: Fallen Angel and Eagle Song (both with Justin Murphy), and Turandot: The Rumble For The Ring with Randy Weiner and Diane Paulus.  Roger has also composed music for commercials and industrials for clients including Avis, Symbol Technologies, and Chase Manhattan.  He recently completed music for a new ride at Hershey Park, The Reese’s Extreme Cup Challenge.

Maura Campbell is a playwright, director and screenwriter and has written more than thirty plays and has been produced in Vermont, New York, Florida, Virginia, California and Texas.  In addition to YouthPLAYS, her work is published by Independentplay(w)rights.com and Smith & Kraus.  Campbell has a BA in History from Norwich University and an MFA in Playwriting from Hollins University.  She lives in New York City.  Website: http://mauracampbellplays.com/.

Ruth Cantrell is an award-winning playwright.  Her scripts have been produced by the Dallas Theatre Center, the Nashville Academy Theatre, the Creede Repertory Theatre and various universities around the country.  Her play Back Home won “Outstanding Play” from the Rio Grande Theatre Festival, and The Stonecutter received "Best Children’s Play" from the Southwest Theatre Association in 1998.  Ruth received her BA and MFA from Trinity University.  She was recipient of the state of New Mexico’s highest arts award, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, in 2002.  She was awarded the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s (AATE) Special Recognition Award in 1991.  She is a member of Actors' Equity Association. Currently, Ruth is a professor of Theatre Arts at New Mexico State University, and the founding director of the Children’s Theatre Workshop.

Maryann Carolan is a playwright, screenwriter, designer and teacher. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Fourteen out of Ten Productions, whose mission is to combine the vitality of students with the experience of professionals in a collaborative theatrical environment. Her work for the stage includes: Love (Awkwardly) (Winner - Audience Favorite Award at Manhattan Theatre Source & Nominated for 6 MSU Theatre Night Awards), Storage, Something About Friendship, Teacher of the Year, and The Boarding House. Maryann received a Writing & Philosophy Fellowship from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and was a finalist in the Hanger Theatre’s Playwriting Lab Residency. She also serves as Director of the Union Catholic Performing Arts Company in Scotch Plains, NJ. Her website is www.14outof10.org.

Emily Cicchini writes material for stage, film and interactive media, most notably Becoming Brontë and Mays & Terese.  Her work has been honored with the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Original New Script, the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Original Script, and by the Children’s Foundation of America.  As resident playwright since the company's inception, the Pollyanna Theatre Company has premiered many of her original plays for young audiences, including Edward, The Owl, and The Calico Cat, A Christmas Rose, Community Helpers on Wheels, A Dragon’s Happy Day, Duckie Sees The World, Just Bee, and the Pattern Nation series.  She edited the 4 volume Mother/Daughter Monologues series for the International Centre for Women Playwrights.  Cicchini holds an MFA in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin where she was a James A. Michener Fellow, and a BFA in acting from DePaul/Goodman School of Drama.  See more at www.emilycicchini.com.

Keaton Cockrell is a graduate of Etiwanda High School, class of 2011.  He is an aspiring filmmaker from Southern California with a passion for theatre and art. Keaton’s influences include Hunter S. Thompson, Quentin Tarrantino, Adam Duritz, and many more.  Purple Cows Do Exist is his first published work.  He has directed and acted in various productions in addition.  “Imagination is the only skin I’ve ever been comfortable wearing.” -K.C.  In the future he hopes to one day be able to direct his own features “and actually get paid for it!”

Two of Hal Corley's plays, Finding Donis Anne and An Ounce of Prevention, have been widely performed (Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Walnut Street, Westbeth, and in Atlanta, LA, Boston and Charlotte, NC).  Most recent:  Executive Order 10450, Washington DC's Source Festival; Brush the Summer By, Adirondack Theatre Festival; A Man Who Knows How to Hold a Baby, Circus Theatricals, LA; ODD*, winner, Premiere Stages Festival, excerpted in S&K's Best Stage Scenes of 2008; Legion, New Conservatory Theatre Center, SF; and Easter Monday*, Pendragon Theatre, Saranac Lake, NY, excerpted in Exceptional Monologues 2*.  He has three times been artist-in-residence at Theatre Artists Studio, Scottsdale, AZ, where his Suocera and Mama and Jack Carew* were performed in rep.  The Studio has also staged Hal's Peoria and The Death Bite, and six shorts.  Two of Hal's 10-minute plays, 1959 and Il Nido e Bello, were finalists for the ATL Heideman Award.  Hal has twice been a semifinalist in the O'Neill Competition.  Long a New Yorker, he now lives in Summit, NJ.  (Plays marked by a * are published by Samuel French, Inc.)

Steph DeFerie grew up on Cape Cod and lives there still. The many terrific hours she spends performing and studying at the Harwich Junior Theatre make up the majority of her theatrical training.  Although she also writes for adults, for the last 11 years she has worked with the Chatham Middle School Drama Club because she loves introducing kids to the fun of performing.  Her favorite part of writing for young audiences is incorporating audience participation into her work.  She has published 17 scripts which have received countless productions in this country and abroad and won several awards.  Two of her plays comprised the inaugural season of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre's W.H.A.T. For Kids series.  Her most popular works include Once Upon A Wolf, Mother Goose Is Eaten By Werewolves, I Hate Shakespeare! and Nick Tickle, Fairy Tale Detective.  Visit her website www.freewebs.com/stephsplays for more info.

Noelle Donfeld, lyricist, bookwriter and composer, has had eleven musicals, including three commissions, produced in the last ten years in Chicago, Ft. Worth, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, Dayton (OH), and Birmingham (AL). Recent productions include: Carjacked at the 10 by 10 at the Triangle of the Arts Center (Carrboro, NC); The Spark, Hannah Senesh at Theatre Building Chicago; The Revolution of Betsy Loring at Casa Manana (Ft. Worth, TX) and Encore Theater (Dayton, OH); Squeak at the La Canada Theatre; Ghost(s), at the Lyric Theatre (Los Angeles), Powder Puff Pilots for University of Irvine, and Miss Vulcan 1939 at Red Mountain Theatre (Birmingham) and at Actors Co-op in Hollywood.  A member of the Dramatists Guild, the Academy for New Musical Theatre, ASCAP and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP), she is a triple semi-finalist of the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Project, and a finalist at Stages in Chicago.

Paul E. Doniger teaches drama and English (and runs the theatre program) at Pomperaug High School (Southbury, CT), and was a founding member of the prestigious CSC Repertory Theatre (Classic Stage Company) in New York City, where he was trained as a classical actor.  At CSC, Mr. Doniger served as a leading actor and Board of Directors member.  After leaving CSC, Mr. Doniger worked in numerous theatres and worked regularly in film and television.  He moved to Connecticut with his wife Nancy in 1979.  Mr. Doniger also served as an adjunct English professor at Western Connecticut State University, from where he holds a Master of Arts in English.  He has been published several times, including in Syntax in the Schools and English Journal, and is a contributing author for Grammar Alive: A Guide for Teachers.  In recent years he could be seen on stage as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Ventures (Fairfield University) and as Prospero in The Tempest at The Town Players (Newtown, CT). He is also the treasurer and archivist of the Connecticut Drama Association.

Joël Doty has written several adult plays that have been produced around the country.  Her play Action and Reaction is a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville Heideman Award.  Furry Tales is her first play for children, inspired by working as a volunteer in children’s community theatre productions. Her goal is to write plays for children to perform which are fun for them and full of comedy and nuance for the audiences (usually their parents!)  Her “day job” is counseling at a community college, but writing has always been a big part of her daily enjoyment.

Elizabeth Doyle wears several hats: composer, lyricist, singer, pianist, arranger and music director. Her single songs have been featured in New York ASCAP new music programs, Minneapolis' Cafe Latte Da, in the Chicago Humanities Festival, Death: The Musical in Houston (TX) and at various Chicago venues such as Park West, Maxim's, Victory Gardens and Preston Bradley in the Culturual Center. Her chamber music was performed at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.  Some of her other musicals include Fat Tuesday, Alice In Analysis, The Virginian, The White City and Duo, performed at the famed Steppenwolf Theatre.  A featured singer/pianist on Marian McPartland's NPR program Piano Jazz, Doyle was a magnet for many years at Chicago's famed Pump Room and has performed throughout the United States and Europe. She has two CDs available, Elizabeth Doyle and Time Flies. Her website is: www.elizabethdoylemusic.com.

Kitty Dubin is a widely produced playwright whose productions include Mirrors, The Last Resort, Ties That Bind, Change Of Life, The Day We Met, Dance Like No One’s Watching, Coming Of Age, and The Blank Page. Her work has appeared in theaters throughout Michigan as well as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin (TX). One acts including Tough As Nails, Mimi And Me, Blockbuster, The Prom Dress, Mystical Body, Bye Bye Love, Skin Deep, Strictly Personal, The Joy Of Sex, The Other Side, and Boob Job have been performed in numerous festivals and competitions. Kitty was awarded two individual artist grants in playwriting from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affair and has been teaching classes in playwriting at Oakland University (Rochester, MI) for the past fourteen years. She is also Playwright in Residence at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, where six of her plays have been produced.

Kelly DuMar is an award-winning playwright, creative arts workshop facilitator and author of a non-fiction book for parents, Before You Forget – The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children.  Kelly’s plays have been produced around the US and in Canada, and her award winning one-act plays and monologues have been published by a variety of publishers.  Kelly is a long-time member and past president of Playwrights’ Platform, Boston, and she produces the annual Our Voices Festival of Boston area women playwrights.  Kelly received her Master’s Degree in Education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and her BA in English with Honors from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Kelly is a certified psychodramatist and Fellow in the American Society for Group Psychotherapy, and she is artistic director of The Red Suitcase Playerz, a Playback Theatre Troupe for kids.  She lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.

Julia Edwards is an LA-based playwright, children’s author and illustrator, and teacher. Her plays—some of which include Family Planning, The Rats Are Getting Bigger, The Ravaging, and Lockdown--have been seen at The Public Theatre (NYC), the LAByrinth Theatre (NYC), The Flea (NYC), South Coast Repertory Theatre (Costa Mesa), Chalk Repertory Company (LA), Circle X (LA), and Salvage Vanguard Theatre (Austin) among others. Family Planning, produced in LA-area residential homes, won the LA Ovation Award for Best Production. She is a member of the Playwrights Union of LA. Her website is: www.JuliaEdwards.com.

Wysteria Edwards is a native of Washington State. She holds her degrees in Education and Theater from Whitworth College (B.A.) and from Washington State University (Ed.M.), a Masters in Reading and Literacy. After participating in the theater for over 25 years, she began the journey of crafting her first script, Broken Thread. This script marked her debut as a playwright in Chicago, where she serves as a Resident Playwright/Literary Manager for the Urban Theater Company. Recently she has adapted several works for the stage including The Disappeared, Belle Prater’s Boy, Dovey Coe, and the catalogue of Don Freeman picture books. Her play Mrs. Murphy's Porch was a Play Lab Selection for the Last Frontier Theater Conference 2010 (Valdez, AK) and The Disappeared received an “Honorable Mention” from the She Writes Festival.  She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Chicago Dramatists and International Centre for Female Playwrights and the Northwest Playwrights’ Alliance. Wysteria has studied privately under the mentorship of Stuart Spencer (NYC) and has participated in workshops with playwrights such as Steven Dietz.

David C. Field is a former ad man who wrote plays when the boss wasn’t looking. In the early ‘90s, an idea born on a restaurant napkin turned into A Legendary Christmas. The play was invited to the Sundance Children’s Play Lab, where it was workshopped into its present form. The world premiere was later staged at Actors Alley Repertory Theatre (North Hollywood, CA). Symmetry, a psychological power struggle set in academia, premiered at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre and earned a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for best new play. Other successes include comedies, one-acts and his own homemade granola.

Stephen Flowers is a middle school general music teacher in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL, and has been teaching music for 18 years. He has loved composing music ever since he was a teenager. Stephen has written and produced two musicals, a 10-minute play (The Proposal) which received a staged reading at Oakton Community College (Des Plaines, IL). He has composed several pieces for the Harper College Steel Band (Palatine, IL) and performs with a professional steel band named Pan Go.  Stephen received the Who's Who Among America's Teachers Award in 2002 and The Village of Mount Prospect Shining Star Champion For Youth Award in 2009. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois and a Master's Degree from Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbonnais, IL).

Judy Freed has seen her plays and musicals performed in London, New York, Chicago, California, Washington, Massachusetts, and throughout the Midwest. Her writing has been recognized by such organizations as the National Music Theater Conference and the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Musicals include Sleepy Hollow (developed at the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theater Workshop), Emma & Company (named a Back Stage "Theatrical Highlight of 2001"), Through the Door (presented at Trafalgar Studios, London), Mom! The Musical (selected for the TRU Voices New Musicals Series), and Somebody Else's Troubles (featuring the songs of Grammy-winner Steve Goodman). Four of her plays for young readers have been published by Pearson Scott Foresman. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and the International Center for Women Playwrights.

Patrick Gabridge has written numerous plays, including Constant State of Panic, Pieces of Whitey, Blinders, and Reading the Mind of God, which have been staged in theatres across the country. His first novel, Tornado Siren, was published by Behler Publications. Much of his work seems to feature scientists—which might be explained by his degree from MIT. He co-founded Boston’s Rhombus writers’ group and started the on-line Playwright Submission Binge, as well as theatre companies in New York and Denver. More than thirty of his plays are published and have been used by thousands of students and teachers in performance and competition. Patrick lives in Boston with his wife and two kids (one of whom is a high schooler).

Fengar Gael's plays include Drink Me, The Spell Caster, Touch of Rapture, The Usher’s Ball, The Gallerist, Devil Dog Six, and Opaline.  She has had workshops and productions at the Sundance Institute, The New York Stage and Film Company, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia, New Jersey Repertory, the Salt Lake Acting Company, the Moxie Theatre of San Diego, The Kitchen Dog Theatre of Dallas, the Rorschach Theatre of Washington, D. C., The Seanachai Theatre of Chicago, MultiStages, and the Abingdon Theatres of New York.  She is a recipient of the Craig Noel Award, the Playwrights First Award, as well as commissions from South Coast Repertory, New Jersey Repertory, the National New Play Network, and a playwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council.  She is a current artist in residence with the composer Dennis McCarthy at the Collaborative Arts Studio 21 working on a new musical, Soul in Vinyl.

Sara Glancy is an actor/playwright currently pursuing a BFA in drama at TISCH School for the Arts. As a playwright, Sara has been recognized both locally and nationally.  In 2008, her play The Cheshire Smile received a staged reading at Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE as part of their Young Playwright’s Festival. This play then went on to become a finalist in the Young Playwrights, Inc. national playwriting competition and received an off-Broadway staged reading at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre in 2010.  She thanks her family and friends for their constant support of all her crazy artistic endeavors.

Adam J. Goldberg is a comic, performance poet, playwright, and reporter.  When he's not writing, performing, or comicking, he loves watching 50s movies about dangerous teenagers. His website is http://AdamUltraberg.com.

Jeff Goode is an actor, director, screenwriter and author of over 50 plays and musicals, including THE EIGHT:  Reindeer Monologues, Rumpelstiltskin, The Ubu Plays and Princess Gray and the Black & White Knights.  Jeff is the creator of Disney's American Dragon:  Jake Long, an animated series which first aired on the Disney Channel.  He is the founder of SkyPilot Theatre Company's Playwrights Wing and currently a visiting professor of playwriting for Hollins University's innovative Playwrights Lab.  You can follow his misadventures on the internet at: www.jeffgoode.com.

A thirty-five year stage veteran, Don Goodrum was born in Tennessee and raised in Mississippi, where he got his first taste of the spotlight as The King of the Calendar in his second grade play.  Don moved onto the church play circuit and managed to turn a Best Actor win in a One Act Play Festival into a theatre scholarship to Mississippi College.  At MC, Don began writing in earnest and saw several of his plays produced.  After college, Don wound up married and on the radio, a career choice that kept sharpening his comedic and writing skills for the next 32 years.  Don retired from radio in 2006 and began writing once again and has seen productions of many of his plays, including The Devil and Daniel Webster, an adaptation of the classic story by Stephen Vincent Benet.  He lives in Florida.

Neeley Gossett is an MFA candidate at the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University and is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. She holds an MA in English from The University of North Carolina Wilmington and a BA in Theater Arts from Marymount Manhattan College. Her works have previously received productions and readings at The Coastal Empire New Play Festival, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Mill Mountain Theatre, Riverside Theatre, and Big Dawg Theater. She worked as a literary intern with Celise Kalke at The Alliance Theater and was dramaturge for the world premiere of Class of 3000 at The Alliance Theatre. Neeley also teaches English at Georgia Perimeter College. 

Joanne Greene is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a degree in Voice Performance.  She taught drama for 23 years in Columbia County Schools in Evans, Georgia.  During that time, she produced and directed hundreds of plays and musicals.  After she retired from full time teaching, she begin working at Warren Road Elementary in Richmond County, Georgia in the Arts Infusion program teaching drama.  During the summers she teaches music and drama for The Art Factory in Augusta, Georgia.  Her short play Wait! was featured in Augusta's Le Chat Noir Theatre's Quickies.  She is also active in the community as a soloist and actress. 

D.W. Gregory is a resident playwright with New Jersey Rep and a member of the Dramatists Guild.  She writes frequently about the American working class experience and is best known for Radium Girls, an historical drama about dialpainters poisoned on the job in the 1920s.  A popular title in high school and college theatre, it has received more than 130 productions worldwide, including in London, Chicago, Boston, and Toronto.  The other feather in her cap is The Good Daughter, about a Missouri farm family struggling with rapid social change after World War I, which was her first project with New Jersey Rep and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when it premiered there in 2003.  Gregory's work in youth theatre was launched with a residency at Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD), where she wrote and premiered Miracle in Mudville and four other plays for young audiences.  Two of those works, Penny Candy and The Secret Lives of Toads, are available through Dramatic Publishing.  In addition to writing plays, Gregory has worked as a theatre critic, writing for The Washington Post, and as a teaching artist.  She is a founding member of The Playwrights Gymnasium, a process-oriented playwrights' workshop based in Washington, D.C. More information about her plays is available on her web site, http://www.dwgregory.com.

James Grob is an established writer, author and playwright and is currently a sports editor as well as a sports columnist and viewpoints columnist in his home state of Iowa.  James has written for television, radio and advertising companies.  He also wrote dialogue for a daily comic strip which appeared in newspapers throughout the Midwest.  He majored in English and Communication at the University of Iowa and minored in Theatre Arts.  While at the University of Iowa, he earned special permission to work in the playwriting graduate program as an undergrad and was honored to be able to successfully participate in the prestigious Playwright's Ensemble program.  He is fluent in all genres of playwriting and has had several plays produced.  He was also a co-founder of the Iowa Radio Workshop while living in Iowa City, where he conceived, wrote, voiced and produced radio comic and dramatic sketches, lampoons and song parodies.  Besides playwriting, James has written several short fiction stories and over a thousand poems. He is active in community theatre and has taken the stage many times.

Evan Guilford-Blake’s plays for children and adults have been produced internationally. They’ve won 33 playwriting competitions, including Ireland’s Eamon Keane and the Tennessee Williams one-act contest, twice (he is the only playwright to do so). Telling William Tell was honored as the winner of the 2006 Aurand Harris/New England Theatre Conference and the Jackie White Memorial competitions. A dozen of his plays have been published by Playscripts, Eldridge, Next Stage Press and others. He is a former professional storyteller; two volumes of his tandem storytelling scripts are published by Eldridge.  Evan has also won awards for his short fiction, and has pieces in several recent anthologies, as well as stories for adults and children on the web. He is a Distinguished Resident Playwright Emeritus at Chicago Dramatists and a Dramatists Guild member. He and his wife (and inspiration), writer and jewelry designer Roxanna Guilford-Blake, live in the Atlanta area. More information is available at www.guilford-blake.com.

Claudia Haas has been writing plays – primarily for teens – for eighteen years.  She has been honored with 1st Place in the 2009-10 Anna Zornio Memorial Play Writing Contest, 2007 Aurand Harris Play Writing Competition, the 2007 Bonderman Symposium at the Indiana Repertory Theatre and twice by the Jackie White Memorial Children’s Playwriting Contest.  Other honors include The Nantucket Short Play Festival and the Marilyn Hall Awards.  Many of her plays are commissioned by local theatres and schools in Minnesota with an eye towards writing for young performers.  Her plays have seen over 600 productions in every state in the U.S. as well as abroad.  She holds a B.A. in Speech and Theatre from Wagner College.  Additional theatre studies continued at Circle-in-the-Square Theatre and HB Studios in New York City.  She has been a teaching artist in the Twin Cities for 23 years.

Cheryl Hadley is a wife and mother of two.  Cheryl loves writing, and has written plays, skits, books of poetry, children’s books, various curriculum for children’s ministries, and many other types of material.  She has worked as a substitute teacher, residential child care worker, and day care provider, while raising children and supporting her husband Keith’s job teaching choir and drama at a local public school.  She continues to assist him in directing school dramatic productions. 

Adam Hahn has been a resident playwright at SkyPilot Theatre in Los Angeles since 2010. SkyPilot has produced his plays Earthbound:  An Electronica Musical (written with composer Jonathan Price and lyricist Chana Wise) and KONG:  A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla.  His other plays include Frogger, Dear Abe (both first produced by Studio Roanoke in Roanoke, VA), and Feedback Loop (premiered at the 2010 Hollywood Fringe Festival).  Adam holds an MFA from the Hollins University Playwright's Lab.  As an actor, Adam has appeared in productions of the University of Iowa, in the Iowa Fringe Festival, and in the Piccolo Spoleto fringe theatre festival.  He starred in his play Dear Abe at Studio Roanoke.  He also performs long-form improv and is a graduate of the training program at iO West.

Jean Hart is a playwright and educator who writes and teaches in Brooklyn, New York. Much earlier, she graduated from the Dramatic Arts program at the University of California, Berkeley, then moved to Montreal to study clowning and puppetry before coming to New York and taking up street performance. Weary of living hand-to-mouth, she got a real job teaching English and drama, before she re-kindled her deep love for playwriting and saw many of her works performed, including The Moor's Petard, The History of Hate, When Bimbos Attack, Red Dirt; White Trash and Nanny Lends A Hand (for the International Cringefest and Queens Players) as well as Hannah, Queen of Horror (for CoffeeBlack Productions). She has penned numerous student productions, including 'Twas the Night, The Voyage Over, Animal Magnetism and Silent Night Story.  When he isn't composing music on guitar and other digital instruments, Crawford Hart works as an image retoucher in the New York City graphics industry. His most prized possessions are his wife and collaborator, Jean, and the most recent upgrade of Garage Band.  About Wild Alice, his first foray into musical theatre, he says, "It's great to have an outlet for the swarms of melodies buzzing around my brain."

Bradley Hayward grew up in a small Canadian town, where the overall lack of things to do left him plenty of time to write his first play.  Since that time, he has written many published plays that have been produced in over 20 countries around the world (India, Germany, Spain, Australia, and Japan, to name a few).  Two of his short plays, The Yogurt Connection and The Sexual Conspiracy, were produced Off-Broadway.  His one-acts geared toward high school students have been presented at Thespian festivals across the United States and Canada. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

Maria Hernandez recently graduated from Middleburg Academy High School and is in pursuit of an art and design career.  Since elementary school, she loved writing poetry and short stories.  Playwriting was first introduced to her when she decided to participate in a playwriting club formed by her world religions teacher.  With the influence of her drama classmates and experienced playwriting teacher, she became one of three authors of Cupid and Psyche:  An Internet Love Story.  She hopes to find an audience that will appreciate her artwork as well as her writing in the near future.  If anyone is to go through her school notebooks, they would find that they’re full of drawings and rhyming words used in poems.  Her favorite conversation topics are dreams, colors, and paranormal tales.  Her waterproof camera is her beloved companion.

Scott Icenhower is a member of the Dramatists Guild and an award-winning playwright with productions in the Southeast and West Coast. He has a children’s holiday play published with Contemporary Drama, and two adult comedies, The Twelve Months of Christmas and No Kidding, published with Eldridge. His “jukebox musicals” The Service at Rocky Bluff and One Mo’ Chance were performed at the Barn Dinner Theatre (Greensboro, NC), with The Service at Rocky Bluff returning in unprecedented back to back seasons due to popular demand and both runs having record-breaking pre-sales. Scott writes, acts and sends out a lot of query letters with his actress, director/choreographer wife, Katie Jo, in North Carolina.

Tommy Jamerson was born in North Carolina and raised in Northwest Indiana. He has been writing plays since he was in middle school, and used to beg his friends to help him perform them. While in high school, he fell in love with musical theatre, propelling him continue to his education in the arts. He attended and graduated from Indiana State University, studying theatre, with a concentration in playwriting and directing. While there, he was presented with the Angel of the Year: Humanitarian Scholarship, wrote for the Gendered Hate and Violence Conference 2007, and served as a judge for the Midwest High School Playwriting Competition. After earning his Bachelor of Science, he moved to Atlanta (GA) to work for the Horizon Theatre Company as a playwriting apprentice. He is currently a graduate student at the University of New Orleans and resides in Flushing (NY) with his dog, Remy.  Website:  www.tommyjamerson.com.

Lynn-Steven Johanson holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and works at Western Illinois University. He is a past president of the Mid-America Theatre Conference, a Network Playwright with Chicago Dramatists, and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. His plays have won the Snowdance Comedy Festival, the Nantucket Short Play Festival, Pend Oreille Playhouse’s Annual One-Act Play Festival, the Old Opera House’s New Voice Play Festival, the East Valley Children’s Theatre Playwriting Contest and he is a recipient of an AriZoni Theatre Award of Excellence for Best Original Play. His plays have been produced by the Turnip Theatre, American Globe Theatre, Makor Theatre, and Love Creek Productions in New York, the City Playhouse, First Stage, and The Attic Theatre in Los Angeles, and numerous other theatres throughout the United States.

Arthur M. Jolly was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, and is the playwright of A Gulag Mouse (Finalist Woodward/Newman Drama Award, Winner Off-Broadway Competition, Joining Sword and Pen Competition), Past Curfew (AOPW Fellowship winner), Trash (Semi-Finalist Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center Playwrights Conference), The Christmas Princess and How Blue is My Crocodile (both published by YouthPLAYS, Inc), and a collection of ten minute plays Guilty Moments.  Jolly is represented by the Brant Rose Agency.  Upcoming productions at www.arthurjolly.com

Jonathan Josephson's original plays have been read and produced throughout Southern California, including The Chance Theater, Theatre40/Wicked Literature, The High Street Arts Center, Pasadena Playhouse Balcony Theatre, The Syzygy Theatre Group, The Dana Point Theatre Company, The Westchester Playhouse, Moving Arts, and across the country including The Actor’s Theater of Louisville (27 Ways I Didn’t Say ‘Hi’ to Laurence Fishburne – finalist for the Heideman Award), Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Conference (Omaha), N4th Art Center (Albuquerque), and The Remmy Bumpo Theatre (Chicago). His play The Giant and the Pixie was named a Finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and his short play Beluga Room is published by Original Works Publishing and is included in Northwest Publishing’s “To the Sea” Anthology. BA in Theatre: Playwriting from UCSD and a proud member of The Dramatists' Guild of America and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.

Marianne Kallen has been a member of the Musical Writers’ Workshop at Theatre Building Chicago since 1992. Her musical What’s in the Picture? was produced at Roosevelt University in 2001. Her musical The Prairie was commissioned for Stages Festival 2000 (Chicago) and had a studio production at Theatre Building Chicago in March, 2004. Her children’s musical Tantrum on the Tracks was produced at Chernin Center for the Arts (Chicago) in 2004 and 2005, and at Theatre Building Chicago in 2007 and 2009. Her children’s musical The Adventures of Anansi the Spider was produced at Chernin Center for the Arts (Chicago) in November, 2005 and at Theatre Building Chicago in 2007. Her new children’s musical, The Magic Paintbrush, was produced at Theatre Building Chicago in October, 2007. She has released two CD’s of original songs: Lullababies and Little Bits of Rainbow. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Snow City Arts, Department of Pediatrics, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.

Owen Kalt is a Chicago-based lyricist.  In addition to Sleepy Hollow, he wrote the lyrics for Belle Barth: If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends, which has been produced in Chicago.  He also wrote the lyrics for American Klezmer, which has been produced in Los Angeles.

Linda Kampley has written 5 full-length plays, several one-acts, short-plays and a collection of monologues. Her one-act play, The Color of the Evening Sky was produced in New York City at St. Clement’s, and also at St Jean’s Playhouse, and in Los Angeles by the West Coast Ensemble. Her one-act Small Talk also received a production at St Clement’s. In Los Angeles, DramaLogue called The Color of the Evening Sky "a true gem” and “remarkably intelligent and humane. Its images of human cruelty and compassion have poetry, humor and are shudderingly authentic.” In New York, Kevin Grubb wrote that her dialogue was “reminiscent of Sam Shepard” and “as a character study alone, The Color of the Evening Sky lingers like a surgical scar.” Linda has also had poetry published in many small presses and has worked as an actress in New York and regional theatres.

Marisa Kanai currently attends Reed College in Portland, Oregon where she intends to study theatre and psychology.  She is a graduate of the American School in Japan, where she wrote and directed three one-act plays, including The Totally Life Changing Letter That Doesn't Really Matter, and discovered the magic of theatre.  Along with writing, she enjoys playing the cello and drinking tea.

Donna Kaz has had her plays and musicals produced across the US and UK and in NYC at The Director's Company, HERE, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Expanded Arts, New York Musical Theatre Festival and The Century Center.  She recently created and directed Performing Tribute, the stories of 9/11 for the Tribute Center at the WTC.  She wrote and directed JOAN for Endurance Theatre, which received a Jason Miller Award.  Donna studied with Sanford Meisner and recently apprenticed with Nagoya Musume Kabuki, the only all female kabuki troupe in Japan.  She is the recipient of residency fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi, The Blue Mountain Center, The Ucross Foundation and The New Lyric Institute for New Musicals.  She is an alum of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. 

 Henry W. Kimmel is an Atlanta-based playwright, who is a founding member of Working Title Playwrights, a theatre company dedicated to the development of playwrights and new plays. He has been a regular guest artist at Woodward Academy (GA) and the Hotchkiss School (CT), where he has helped high school students develop original work. His goal is to have his work produced in 50 states, and he is more than halfway toward his goal. Hank is a graduate of Brown University, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Emory University School of Law.

Kris Knutsen is an actor/playwright currently based in Calgary, Alberta.  Originally hailing from Seattle, Kris holds a B.A. in Theatre from Trinity Western University, and is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Playwriting from Hollins University in Virginia.  An adjunct professor of theatre at Trinity Western and Rosebud School of the Arts, Kris also directs “playmakings”: creating original theatrical works within a limited time frame with students and camps.

Steven Korbar’s full-length and one-act plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and throughout the United States.  His drama, Table for Four, opened at The Source Festival (Washington, DC) last June and will be published in Smith and Kraus’ Best Short Plays of 2010, as will his comedy Mrs. Jansen Isn’t Here Now.  Other productions include I Understand Your Frustration at the Turtleshell Theatre (New York, NY), Let Go at Future Ten (Pittsburgh, PA) and  Our Little Angel at the 78^th Street Theatre (New York, NY), as well as in Los Angeles and San Diego. His new full-length comedy Third Bull Run recently had its first reading at Elephant Stageworks (Los Angeles, CA).

Nathaniel Kressen is a Brooklyn-based playwright, screenwriter, and novelist.  His plays have been published by YouthPLAYS, The Good Ear Review, and One Act Play Depot.  Productions and workshops include PS 122, Soho Rep Walkerspace, The American Globe Theatre, Alive Theatre (CA), The Source Festival (DC), Longwood University (VA), Venture Theatre (MT), Hovey Players (MA), Old Armory Theatre (ND), Connecticut Heritage Productions, Prophecy Productions, FACT NYC, Spare Change Theater, The Lee Strasberg Institute, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.  His screenplay Adopting Skins won first place in The Relevance Group’s American Details Competition, and wrapped shooting in 2011.  The same year, his debut novel Concrete Fever was released in a hand-bound, illustrated limited edition by Second Skin Books that went on to sell in stores throughout Brooklyn.  At the time of publication, he is at work on new projects for the stage, screen, and shelf.

Kris Kukul bio coming soon.

Steve Lambert has written more than 20 plays. His work has been performed at UK venues in Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Salisbury, and in London at Camden People’s Theatre, Theatre503 and Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Work includes Last Train, Showing the Monster, Aftercare, Still, Little Deaths and Touch. A Good Send-Off was among the winners in 2009’s Pint-sized Plays competition in Wales. A common theme of his work is how people’s lives are affected by their sexuality. Steve is a member of the Heads & Tales story-telling group, whose series of Bristol audio stories can be downloaded for free (www.headsandtales.org.uk). For more details and reviews of Steve’s plays, please visit www.writewords.org.uk/steve_lambert.

Patricia Lamkin discovered her love of playwriting in the 90s working as an actor for the Philadelphia Zoo Treehouse Troupe, where she wrote or helped develop a dozen environmental education plays for children, including It's a Scavenger's Life and Witling. Commissioned museum works followed: Bat Tales for the Franklin Institute, as well as All the World’s a Stage and Haym Solomon: A Remarkable Man for Historic Philadelphia, Inc.  In Philadelphia, Patricia was a member of the Brick Playhouse, where she developed and premiered several short plays, including The Trestle, Teasing, and the one act, Last Wishes, which won the Brick's prestigious Best of IT award. Patricia now resides in Los Angeles and is a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP) and ReWrights playwriting group.  She was most recently seen performing in her real-life satire, Angel City, at the Next Stage Theatre. She holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Meron Langsner was one of three writers in the country to be chosen for the pilot year of the National New Play Network Emerging Playwright Residencies in 2007. His work has been performed around the country and overseas, and developed at the Lark Play Development Center in NYC, New Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Commons Freedom Arts Retreat, Region I Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference (where he later returned as a featured artist). Other publishers of his plays include Smith & Kraus, Applause, JAC, NorthNorthWest, and Lamia Ink. His scholarly work has been published by McFarland, Oxford University Press, Puppetry International, and EJMAS. Meron is also active as a professional fight director and director. He holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA in Playwriting from Brandeis, and a PhD in Drama from Tufts University, where he received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. He believes himself to be the first doctoral candidate in Drama to have literally defended his dissertation with a katana. More at www.MeronLangsner.com.

Carol S. Lashof is a playwright, librettist, and educator.  Her work has been broadcast on BET and NPR and has been staged professionally by Drama West Productions, Fringe Benefits, the Georgetown Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre of San Francisco, Manhattan TheatreSource, Paducah Mining Company, Palo Alto TheatreWorks, Short Plays Ensemble of San Francisco, Theater Artists of Marin, and Woman’s Will, as well as at schools, colleges, and community theatres around the world from Manhattan to Mandurah.  As a lyricist and librettist, Lashof collaborates with British composer James McCarthy; their work has been commissioned by the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the Scottish National Opera.

Donna Latham has been making up stuff, writing it down, and acting it out forever. Her plays have been produced from coast to coast. MyFace received its world premiere at the EstroGenius Festival and was part of F.A.C.T.’s WORDS & WINE Reading Series, both in New York. Do These Jeans Make My Butt Look Massive? received its first New York production at The Looking Glass Theatre. Proverbs was a finalist in the Irish Fest Play Contest at the Irish American Heritage Center (Chicago, IL), appeared at the Snowdance Comedy Festival (Racine, WI) and ran in a double-Irish bill with Paddy and the Mermaid at the Odyssey Stage Theatre (Chapel Hill, NC). Corner Critics opened Nothing Without a Company’s Word Circus II (Chicago, IL), and schools throughout the States have performed her series Grappling With Grammar.

Dr. David J. LeMaster is a Distinguished Faculty Level III and Playwright in Residence at San Jacinto College Central. He was Guest Playwright in Residence at State University of New York, Oneonta (The Grand Inquisitor), and at Midland Texas's Museum of the Southwest (D. H. Lawrence in Taos). As a playwright, he won the Three Genres Award from Prentice Hall (Lincoln) and the Coleman Jennings Children's Play Award from the Southwest Theatre Association (Boots and Bits). The American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) has recognized him for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting (Shaken) and Outstanding Achievement in Direction (Lloyd's Prayer). His publications, in addition to YouthPLAYS, include works with Brooklyn, Heuer, Eldridge, This Month Onstage, and many others.  He recently created "I Don't Know What to Say," a workshop for nurses dealing with incurable or terminal medical patients, which premiered at San Jacinto and united participants from English, Speech, Theatre, Counseling, Psychology, Dance, and Nursing.

Paul Lewis is a Seattle-based composer, lyricist and playwright whose staged work includes the musicals The Hours of Life (finalist in the Fulton Theatre New Play Discovery competition), The Recollection of Flight, Hail and Reign, Alley Dog (finalist for a Before Broadway production at Western Kentucky University); The World Below, a children’s opera; Last Poem on Earth: A Jazz Requiem, an evening-length choral and orchestral piece; and the short plays Guess What? and April on the Bed, in Summer.  Paul’s lyrics to a ballad by jazz legend Bill Evans have been recorded by vocalists around the world.  His work has received awards from Artist Trust, American Music Center, and the Bainbridge Arts and Humanities Fund.  Paul is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, BMI, Artist Trust, Association for Jewish Theatre, and Theatre Puget Sound.

Laura Lewis-Barr has been writing, directing, performing and teaching theatre for over 20 years.  Recent productions of Laura’s work include Chernobyl’s Fire and Cloistered Honey (Inspirare Theatre:  "Earnest, funny, introspective”—The Daily Herald); Addicted to Mars (Pittsburgh New Works Festival:  "Intriguing and carefully drawn…  Lewis-Barr’s writing drives the production.”—Pittsburgh Post Gazette); Golden Chalices (LoveCreek Productions and The Riant Theatre, New York, NY); Dove Killers (the side project in Chicago: “Riveting”—Windy City Times).  Laura has also adapted her romantic-comedy, Cloistered Honey, for the screen and is seeking a producer.  Laura’s Master's Degree in Drama is from San Francisco State University.  Before her move to the country (to work as Artistic Director/Theatre Professor at Sauk Valley College), Laura was a member of the Playwrights Collective and Chicago Dramatists.

Jean Lorrah has published over twenty books, several of which have won awards.  Among her works are three children's books about the Loch Ness Monster, written with Lois Wickstrom. Jean has recently been studying screenwriting with an eye toward feature films.  She often teaches writing workshops, and is a frequent international traveler.  She lives in Kentucky with her dog Kadi, and two cats, Dudley and Splotch, who are therapy pets for the local humane society. See Jean's daily TipsOnWriting on Twitter, or get all her latest news at www.jeanlorrah.com.

Samantha Macher is an MFA Playwright from Hollins University (Roanoke, VA), and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in Religious Studies and Philosophy.  During her graduate career, she has had several readings and productions, and is also a Reva Shiner Comedy Award Finalist. She is a Playwright-in-Residence at SkyPilot Theatre in Los Angeles, and a founding member of the Hell-Tro Theatre Collective (Brooklyn, NY). She has been a high school Latin teacher, an EMT, polo player, and guinea pig enthusiast, but is now a full-time writer. Her favorite color is pink.

Nina Mansfield is a playwright and fiction writer whose plays have been produced professionally and by academic and community theatres throughout the United States and in Canada.  Her produced plays include: Bona Fide; Clean; Crash Bound; Erasing the Brain; Missed Exit; No Epilogue; Pedestrian Casualty: Bronx, USA; Smile; Text Misdirected and The Tea Exercise. Nina holds an M.A. in Educational Theatre with Teaching English 7-12 from New York University and a B.A. in Theatre and Sociology from Vanderbilt University.  She studied acting and directing at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.  She is also a proud member of The Dramatists Guild, the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Nina currently teaches Drama and English in the state of New York.

Kate McGrath’s numerous plays have been performed in Philadelphia, Boston, New York and beyond. Seafood, with music by Charles Pettee, was selected as Best Play of North Carolina and produced by the Perihelion Theatre Company, and was a finalist at Boston’s Theatre In Process National Playwriting Competition.  November Women was a finalist at the Lovecreek Festival, and both November Women and Getting Sasha have received several international productions. Philadelphia area credits: Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Walking Fish Theatre, Women’s Place Theatre and the Women’s Theatre Festival.  Kate is a member of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center, and holds an MA in Theatre from Villanova University.

Matthew Mezzacappa has loved musical theatre ever since his mother brought back the audiotape of Les Miserables and played it for him at age 5.  He performed sections of Les Mis in 2^nd grade on top of a desk (with teacher's approval).  He originated the role of Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol at MSG and has performed at the Kennedy Center.  He holds an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing (NYU), where he wrote Jennifer the Unspecial (Ronald Ruble New Play Festival winner, Weston Playhouse New Musical nomination).  His one-act, Singing in the Shower, was performed at the Old Academy Players alongside pieces by Tennessee Williams and Neil Simon.  His play Take Part in History played at the Constitution Center on Pearl Harbor Day.  He co-wrote and directed Kidnapped By the Books, an unprecedented collaboration among over one hundred parents, students, teachers and administrators at PSIS 266 in Queens.

Liz Shannon Miller is a writer for stage, screen and the web, currently working as a staff writer on G4's Attack Of The Show.  She has a BFA in screenwriting from USC, and since graduating has written dialogue for the U.S. Army, covered the online video world for the tech site GigaOM, and been published by the New York Times, Variety, The Wrap, Nerve and Thought Catalog. Produced theatre works include the critically acclaimed Lights Off, Eyes Closed (SkyPilot Theatre), as well as the one-acts Something Biblical (Sight Unseen Theatre), Ideation (3 of a Kind Theatre), Negotiations (Black Box Theatre), and Judgement (SkyPilot Theatre).  Based in Los Angeles, she has been a playwright-in-residence with SkyPilot since 2010.  For more information, visit http://lizshannonmiller.com

Dominic Mishler has worked as a board operator, stage manager, and wardrobe manager for academic, community, and small theatres for the last eight years.  He received his BA in Theatre and MFA in Creative Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside. While at UCR he worked with the Theatre Facility Unit to provide technical support to international performers and national tours as well as student productions.  From 2008 to 2010 he was the stage manager and board operator on several plays for the Long Beach Playhouse including Sabrina Fairand The Violet Hour.  He started with SkyPilot in March of 2011 as the dramaturge on The Emancipation of Alabaster McGill and was most recently the stage manager on their world premiere of Lights Off, Eyes Closed.

Rebecca Moretti was born in Los Angeles on July 4th to a Jewish Israeli mother and a Catholic Italian father.  She was raised in Rome, where she attended Marymount International School, until age eight, when her family moved to the United States.  In Los Angeles, Rebecca attended a Jewish elementary school and high school at Harvard-Westlake School, where she developed her love of writing, theatre, and film.  Her plays have been selected for production at the Harvard-Westlake Playwrights Festival, and she directed the annual statewide Harvard-Westlake Film Festival, in which her film House of Time was screened.  Her play Platform Nine was produced by the Blank Theatre for its nationwide Young Playwrights Festival at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood and starred Ariel Winter, from ABC's Modern Family.  Rebecca is fluent in English, Italian, French, and Hebrew.  She won first prize in the national French contest Le Grand Concours, and is passionate about traveling and languages.

Cate Mullen holds both an MSW and MFA and has been writing professionally for the past ten years.  Her works have been published in both print and online literary magazines.  Some of her poetry has been chosen for spoken word performances in Cleveland and in South Africa.  She worked as an urban medical and psychiatric social worker for twenty years prior to returning to school for her Masters in Creative Writing.  She is the mother of two sets of twins one set identical and one set fraternal.  Pure luck!  Cate was given a great love of Native American stories and culture by her father, who was a fan of Jim Thorpe, the Native American athlete.  She has had a great love of theatre from childhood and was involved with writing, producing, and directing neighborhood plays.  Cate acted in several high school productions and had the lead in Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap in college, managing to do all this with severe learning disabilities.

 David Muncaster is a playwright from the United Kingdom who has won awards at festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. He specialises in comedies and has written more than a dozen full length and one act plays as well as several hundred sketches. His writing has been praised for characters that are authentic and dialogue that has pace, humour and momentum. In addition to writing for the theatre, David also writes about the theatre with regular articles in several newspapers in the northwest of England, and he is the new script reviewer for the Amateur Stage Magazine. He also enjoys acting and directing and is an active member of his nearest community theatre.

Forrest Musselman lives in the beautiful southeastern corner of Minnesota with his wife and two children.  Along with YouthPLAYS, he has plays available through Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer, Big Dog Plays, and Contemporary Drama Service.  You can follow his latest antics on Facebook and at his website: www.forrestmusselman.com.

A Newington-Cropsey Fellowship recipient for dramatic writing and research (2008), Rocco P. Natale is the author of seventeen plays and musicals. The latest of which, Smoke Signals, holds the distinction of receiving the Siff Grant for educational performance and was developed to tour with HAI, Inc. In addition to this distinction, his two-hander, Room at the End of the Hall, was a semi-finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference.  His adaptation and concert work has been presented in staged readings and productions throughout New England and New York, and his one-act comedy I Like Husband is the winner of the “Long and Short of It” competition.  For his work on the boards, Mr. Natale has been honored with Connecticut Drama Association’s highest honor, the “Best Actor Award” and has served on the staff of various regional and Off-Broadway theatre companies- most recently The Mirror Repertory Company and Signature Theatre Company.  Mr. Natale holds dual B.A. Degrees in both Psychology and Dramatic Studies as well as an M.A. from NYU.

James Balmer and Mary Nelson bio and pictures coming soon!

Robin Pond has been writing sporadically for almost 40 years, but his first foray into short play writing occurred in 1997, when he was asked by his employer to write a comedy sketch about pension fund investing as part of a promotional exercise. Over the past few years, his plays have received numerous productions in schools and community theatres throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Robin lives with his wife and three grown sons in Toronto, Canada. Many years ago, when his sons were little, Robin wrote a children’s story for each of them. DragonSlay is the play version of the story that he wrote for his oldest son, Prince Simon.

Composer/lyricist and librettist Miriam Raiken-Kolb is a native of Buffalo and a graduate of Oberlin College.  While pursuing an acting career in NYC she began to write music-- including the first songs for a full-length musical, Sara Crewe, which was premiered by the Needham Community Theatre in 2007 and is published by Dramatic Publishing Inc.  Other works for the musical theatre include a full-length adaptation of another famous Burnett work, The Secret Garden, published by YouthPLAYS, and a one-act musical, two-character play about Emily Dickinson, I Dwell in Possibility.  She has also composed an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass.  Raiken-Kolb is currently working on a new musical, Precious Bane, based on the celebrated novel by Mary Webb.  She and her collaborator Geralyn Horton have been developing this work under the auspices of the Advanced Writers’ Lab, a writers’ workshop that meets at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA.  She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with husband Roger Kolb and daughter Gwen.

Spencer Robelen, a native of Fort Lauderdale Florida, was involved in the performing arts all through high school. He participated in the annual Florida State Thespian Competitions, winning several superior ratings for Solo Music and two Critic’s Choice Awards for Playwriting. He has also won a total of four Cappie Awards for Theater Excellence in Broward County, including Creativity in Music Composition and Best Comic Actor in a Play. Spencer is an alumnus of Saint Thomas Aquinas High School and the Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts; he currently attends the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. 

Amelia Denyven Ross is a Children’s Librarian for the Roanoke County Public Library System in Virginia, and the leader of the library’s Teen Creative Writing Club. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing from Brevard College, and has earned a Certificate in Irish Studies from University College Cork, Ireland. Amelia is a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Visit her blog at www.thescribblerross.wordpress.com.

Danny Rothschild’s life began in Italy, but took a sudden turn when his family decided it would be a nice idea to live in Africa.  This incident would eventually change his life forever by giving him a magnitude of experiences that would enhance his thinking, his writing, and his views on life.  He moved to the US for the first time to attend Interlochen Arts Academy as a creative writing major.  He currently resides in Bath, one of the most beautiful cities in the United Kingdom, where he studies Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and works at a soap factory, volunteering for the Theatre Royale every now and then.  His one-act was published by YouthPLAYS, received an off-Broadway staged reading by Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Inc., and he was a finalist for VSA’s Playwrights Discovery, a finalist for NFAA’s YoungARTS program, received honorable mentions from the Blank Theatre Company’s Playwrights Festival, was the recipient of numerous Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and winner of many unofficial—but equally prestigious—fort building contests.  He hopes to become an accomplished writer, while running a bakery on the side.

Mike Rothschild is a playwright and screenwriter living in Los Angeles.  He is a playwright in residence at SkyPilot Theatre, where he has written numerous works, short and long.  He has also freelanced for many websites and media companies, and written several television pilots.  His favorite cupcake flavor is red velvet, but wouldn’t turn down something with chocolate, either.  Follow him online at rothschildmd.com, or on Twitter at @rothschildmd.

Sharyn Rothstein’s plays have been produced and workshopped in New York and around the country by companies such as The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Georges, 3Graces Theater Co., Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, The Vital Theatre and Soho Think Tank. She holds an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she was the recipient of the Television Department’s Award for Excellence, and is the recipient of a 2008 Ensemble Studio Theater/Sloan commission. Her play March was a finalist for the Yale Drama Series Competition, and her newest full-length play, The Invested, which will be produced in New York in 2011, was a finalist in the SheWRITES New Play Competition at Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta. Sharyn is also a member of Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s collective for emerging playwrights under the age of thirty, as well as the Ars Nova Playgroup.

John Rotondo is a playwright, screenwriter, director and producer.  He is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Fourteen Out of Ten Productions, a production company dedicated to creating a collaborative theatrical environment between students and professionals.  His work for the stage includes: Love (Awkwardly), which won the audience favorite award at Manhattan Theatre Source (New York, NY), Storage, Something About Friendship, The House She Built, Write for Me and The Boarding House.  John graduated from the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was a finalist for the Hanger Theatre’s Playwriting Lab Residency and serves as the director of fall productions for the Union Catholic Performing Arts Company. His website is www.14outof10.org.

Keegon Schuett is a playwright, actor, and director who is currently living and working in Memphis (TN).  He studies theatre at the University of Memphis, where he is pursuing a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology and works as a freelance photographer.  He discovered a passion for storytelling at a very young age while growing up in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia.  He later cultivated an interest in theatre and began performing.  He has appeared in over 20 productions, in addition to directing and writing several shows.  He has worked in theatre for over 10 years and is very grateful for the support of his family, friends, and mentors that have helped him through creative roadblocks over the years so far.

Hannah Estelle Sears grew up in San Francisco and has been writing creatively since she was seven years old. She began writing one-acts in eighth grade and was a finalist in PlayGround’s New Voices One-Act Writing Contest as a sophomore in high school. She has been active in theatre her whole life, performing predominantly in musicals such as Aida, Footloose, The Music Man and Oklahoma, as well as participating in a student-written and performed peer education theatre project and student-written one acts at her high school, The Urban School. She is a writer and director in The Urban School’s 2012 spring one-acts festival and plans to attend Yale University in the fall. She is extremely excited to be part of YouthPLAYS and thanks her mother, father, sisters and mentors.

Nathan Selinger is a student at Niles North High School in Skokie, Illinois.  A staged reading of his play Poster Children was presented during his high school’s New Playwright’s Showcase as a part of their 2011–2012 production season.  In addition to playwriting, he has appeared onstage in roles such as Freddy in Noises Off, Don Lolo in The Jar, and Archbishop of Canterbury in Henry V.  He also has a strong affinity for stagecraft, and has worked backstage for many productions both as a part of his high school theatre department and at his local community theatre.  Nathan is extremely grateful for the opportunities that he has gotten to work in the theatre, and he looks forward to continuing his work in the theatre in high school and beyond.

Three times nominated for the prime-time Emmy Awards, Grammy-winning songwriter Michael Silversher has spent more than 40 years working in music, theatre, films and television, beginning with a staff-writing position with the Fifth Dimension in 1969, followed by ten years as founding composer/musical director of Theatreworks (Palo Alto, CA). Since 1986, Michael has written, composed and created sound design for Tony Award-winning theatre companies, The Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles, CA) and South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA), and has toured the world in support of theatre, working regularly with the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) and serving as resident composer for the Sundance Playwrights' Lab for five years.  He composed the score for 75 episodes of the hit television series Dinosaur Train, all of the songs for Pajanimals, and has worked on numerous other television and film projects.

Tom Smith's published plays include The Wild and Wacky Rhyming Stories of Miss Henrietta Humpledowning, ESL, What Comes Around, A Christmas Carol and Johnny and Sally Ann... (YouthPLAYS), Marguerita's Secret Diary (Baker's Plays); Gray (Original Works Online); and The Pathmaker, Comedy of Errors (editor), Much Ado About Nothing (editor), Two Gentlemen of Verona (editor), and Love's Labour's Lost (editor) for Encore Performance Publishing as well as Dangerous, The Odyssey and Drinking Habits, published by Playscripts. His other plays have received productions both nationally and internationally. Tom is the recipient of the Robert J. Pickering Award for Excellence in Playwriting, the ATHE Playworks Award, the Orlin R. Corey Outstanding Regional Playwright Award, the Richard Odlin Award, a Seattle Footlights Award, and has been a selected participant in numerous playwriting festivals across the country. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Feel free to check out his website at www.tomsmithplaywright.com.

Adam Spiegel is a New York-based composer, singer, actor and pianist, among many other things.  He has written two full-length musicals, Camp Rolling Hills and Cloned! (presented in Developmental Reading Series' at NYMF and at the York Theatre).  He completed two years as a composer in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where he worked on a musical adaptation of the movie Back to the Future with lyricist Dan Wolpow.  As an actor, Adam has been seen as Peter in Vital Theatre Company's Pinkalicious, The Musical!  He has written and arranged many songs for several rock/pop bands and a cappella groups.  Adam is a graduate of NYU Steinhardt's program in Music Business.

David Spiegel learned to write at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he received a Bachelor's degree in Television, Radio & Film.  He is a full-time Writer/Producer for CNN's Money Unit and a part-time student at Rutgers Business School, where he is getting his MBA in Marketing.  Before CNN, David was an associate producer of Classroom CloseUp, New Jersey, a weekly education news magazine, on New Jersey Network.  And long before that, he was a counselor, head counselor, and theatre director at a small overnight summer camp in Upstate New York.  Camp Rolling Hills is his first published work. 

Steven Stack is the lead playwright at Jigsaw Entertainment, a production company where he also acts and directs.  He teaches theatre at Forte Studios, working with ages 7 to adult.  Steven has worked for over 20 years as actor, director, playwright, and instructor, starting in the third grade when he took on the challenging dual role of both Hansel and the Father in Hansel and Gretel.  Steven taught middle school for 12 years and knows that age group well, influencing his writing style, choice of topics, and often his intended performers/audience.  He has written and directed full-length plays, one-acts and scenes for theatres, performing arts schools and professional organizations.  Steven spends summers with the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth, guiding gifted students through their own original theatrical works.  His goal for this age group:  to help them grow into themselves by giving them stories that resonate beyond the stage.

Susan M. Steadman, a longtime Dramatists Guild member, has written for and about the stage during several decades as a professional theatre practitioner.  Her plays include works for young audiences, such as The Cinderella Chronicles (YouthPLAYS); competition-winning dark comedies with a feminist slant, such as Filling Spaces; and audience-participation murder mysteries.  Her theatre publications range from the critically lauded reference work, Dramatic Re-Visions, to magazine and journal articles and contributions to such books as Notable Women in the American Theatre.  With a Ph.D. in Theatre from Louisiana State University, an M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University, and a B.A. in English summa cum laude from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, she has taught at universities, public and private schools, recreation departments, camps and conferences.  Along the way, she has staged nearly 70 productions, guided two improvisation troupes, toured company-developed plays, and served as artistic director of a professional theatre company on Atlanta's Southside for 16 years.

Alexis Stickovitch is currently a student at James Madison University. She is pursuing a Forensic Chemistry degree and is hoping to work for the FBI one day.  She is also a Spanish minor.  This is Alexis’ first play that she has written but not the first play that she has seen.  She has avidly participated in drama clubs since sixth grade with roles including a singer in Schoolhouse Rock and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.  In her free time, Alexis enjoys reading, playing guitar, doing taekwondo, cooking, and hanging out with her family and dogs.  Her favorite author is Chuck Palahniuk and subsequently, her favorite movie is Fight Club.

Callan Stout’s plays have received readings in New York, London and Los Angeles. Her first children’s play, an adaptation of Aesop’s Fables, was produced in Los Angeles by The Rainbow Factory. Her other children’s plays, Brownies, Bicycles and Bigfoot, and an adaptation of The Jungle Book were both produced by the Youth Education Entertainment Series at the Santa Monica Theatre Guild, recognized with the American Alliance for Theater and Education's Outstanding New Children's Theatre Company award. The company now recognizes one adult and one child each year with the Bigfoot and Little Foot awards, after Callan’s play, for achievement and commitment to YEES. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts with a BFA in Dramatic Writing and holds a Masters in Folklore from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her plays for adults include; More than Breakfast, The Pastry Queen, A Song for a Surfer, and Heat. Spark. Explode.  Her latest play Crap Crap Crap; or everything I don’t want to be at 40 received a reading as part of the Cherry Lane Theatre’s Tongue’s readings series. Her website is: www.callanstout.com

A former police officer still longing for her old beat in Syracuse’s diverse west end neighborhood, Donna Stuccio completed an MFA in Creative Writing/Playwriting at Goddard College and her undergraduate work in acting at Syracuse University’s Drama Department. She is Artistic Director of Armory Square Playhouse, a non-profit playwrights’ collective. Her full-length plays, Blue Moon and The Job, were produced by Salt City Playhouse. She was selected for Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre’s 48 Hour Playwriting Marathon, during which she wrote Heart Burn. Her short play Nice Pants was selected by Wolf’s Mouth Playwrights’ Collective for its inaugural 10 Minute Play Festival, and her full-length, elegy in blue, was chosen to open the 2010-2011 season at Syracuse’s Rarely Done productions. She was selected to attend the 2010 Kennedy Center Playwriting Summer Intensive. Donna teaches playwriting, acting, and criminal justice, sometimes entertaining students and anyone else who will listen, as most former cops do, with stories of her time on the street.

 Trevor Suthers has had over 50 pieces of theatre both staged and broadcast and screened in almost 80 productions. These range from monologues and sketches, to musicals and a pantomime. He has had both one-act and full-length plays produced in the US, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Brighton, Salisbury and all around the North West of the UK in every imaginable venue from mainstage to theatre foyer to numerous bars. He has been story editor for popular TV soap Coronation Street and has written episodes of Eastenders. He has also produced over 30 stage shows and 14 performances of topical-satire show, Headline Cabaret, since its inception in 1993. This year he produced the critically-acclaimed JB Shorts, six short plays by top TV writers, to sell-out audiences in Manchester. 

When Dave Ulrich is not writing plays for SkyPilot Theatre, he enjoys writing challenging works for children.  Along with The Raven And The Swan, he has also penned The Adventures Of Max And Cheez children’s book series, shorts for the Disney Channel, and has two additional children’s books planned.  As a playwright in residence at SkyPilot Theatre, Dave has created Death And Popcorn, Ten Lords A-Leaping, and The Infernal Airport.  Before SkyPilot, he created over 40 short plays, two one-acts, and two full-length plays, The Passionates and The Harvey Project.  He is now at work on his first musical, The Golden Parachute.  His plays have been performed on both coasts, in the heartland, and even Europe and North Africa. He has also penned countless radio and television commercials, digital ads, and print ads for the advertising industry. You can find him online at daveulrich.net.

Elana Weiner-Kaplow is currently studying acting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.  Last year she lived in Tel-Aviv, volunteering at an after-school shelter for Arab and Jewish children where she taught English, guitar, as well as a theatre games and storytelling class.  She has also worked at the Na Laga’at Center in Tel-Aviv, a theatre for deaf-blind actors.  She is a graduate of Niles North High School ('10) in Skokie, Illinois. In addition to Pitched, she has also written a one-woman show about the life of Yiddish Theatre actress Molly Picon.

Jeri Weiss has always loved the theatre, but realized she was better behind the scenes than in front of the audience.  She started writing plays as a student at Mills College and is now pursuing an MFA in playwriting at Hollins University.  As a member of the Sacramento Regional Theatre Alliance, she serves as a judge of new works for their annual Elly Awards competition.  Jeri is also an award-winning screenwriter and has had two films produced.

Lois June Wickstrom has been writing children's stories and fantasy professionally for over 30 years. She also develops children's science activities and currently performs as Imagenie 'If something looks like magic, design an experiment. See if you can make it happen again." on YouTube and MindTV.  She is the author of Starting With Safety, sold by American Chemical Society, and the It's Chemical series. Her science articles appear in Highlights magazine.  For income, she fixes computers. She is married, has two grown daughters, one silly dog, three grand daughters, one grandson, and loves to garden. When she refers to the "back forty" she means the back forty square feet of her small inner city back yard. Her children's books include Orange Forest Rabbit, Nessie and the Living Stone, The Lying Day, Wendell the Bully, and other titles.

Allison Williams is the author of Hamlette, Mmmbeth, and Drop Dead Juliet (an EdTA top ten most produced play), as well as a musical of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Her radio plays have been heard on NPR, and she toured Canada with her award-winning solo show, True Story. Allison also travels the world as a trapeze artist and fire-eater with the Aerial Angels, and coaches for Starfish Circus, a school residency program. More on her exploits at www.angelsintheair.com.

Karin Diann Williams is an Artistic Associate at NYC's Looking Glass Theatre where audiences have seen her plays Head, Time Troll, and The World among others.  Her work has also been produced by San Diego's Fritz Theater—where she served as playwright-in-residence from 1992-2001—the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre Digital Performance Institute, Art House Productions, Lamia Ink!, the Midtown International Theatre Festival, Collaboraction Theater, Boston Theaterworks, Space 55, Flush Ink Productions and many more.  As a partner in the motion media company CulpepperWilliams, she wrote and produced The Captive (Webby People's Choice Award & NYTVF "Best Web Series" Award) and the independent feature film Jordan.  Her plays are available through YouthPLAYS and Original Works Publishing.

Cynthia Chi-Wing Wong obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre Writing at New York University.  Her clarinet solo piece "A Daisy Chrysanthemum" received its world premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York.  Her full-length musical Jennifer the Unspecial: Time Travel, Love Potion & 8^th Grade (book and lyrics by Matthew Mezzacappa) was nominated for the Weston's New Musical Award and was produced at NYU's Summer Workshop and Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey.  Jennifer the Unspecial won the Outstanding Musical Award at the 2011 Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival at Caryl Crane Children's Theatre in Ohio.  Cynthia was one of the few Asian composers admitted to the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York; she was commissioned to transcribe piano scores for the internationally renowned pianist Lang Lang more than once; Cynthia is also a TCSOL certified Chinese teacher from Columbia University. www.cynthiawongmusic.com

In her career to date, Alison Wood's work has encompassed both music and theatre; the musical 4 A.M. is her first venture combining these as a writer. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in Dramatic Literature, she worked in professional theatre for several years as director, teacher, actor, and stage manager. From there Alison shifted her focus to music, writing and recording two albums and playing live shows with her band. Recently she's been adding film to the mix as she's taken a break from performing to focus on her writing and other creative efforts.  In 2006, Alison released her first full-length album, At Arm's Length, in 2007 she followed it up with Fairytale Endings Aside, and now that 4 A.M. has been launched, she's looking forward to working on album number three. Through all her work in various media, Alison is ever conscious of and grateful to the teachers who helped and inspired her along the way.

Randy Wyatt is a director, playwright and improv coach. His plays include Said and Meant, Synonymy, Sonata Blue, 9x9x9, Tiny Catastrophes and Rising Sun, Rising Moon. His work has been published by Heinemann, Applause Publishing, Smith & Kraus, and Playscripts, Inc. and has been produced throughout the United States and seven countries. He earned his MFA in Directing from Minnesota State University in Mankato. He is a member of The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. He currently is the Theatre Program Chair and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Asher Wyndham is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.  His work has been produced around the country, as well as in Canada, England, and Australia.  His awards include the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play for Cassius Sargent's Chicken Bones at the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center (KCACTF), and the Holland New Voices Award for the same play from the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha.  His produced works include Happi in Iowa (Fancy Pants Theatre, MI) and Fatima & Maama (Short + Sweet, Australia).  Dream House, a monologue, is published in Original Middle School Scenes and Monologues by Dramatic Publishing.  He studied under the late Lanford Wilson at the Edward Albee New Playwrights Workshop at the University of Houston.  He was awarded a Playwriting Fellowship at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference in 2010 through KCACTF.  He received an MFA in Playwriting from Arizona State University.  He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Nelson Yu is a Toronto-based playwright, screenwriter, middle-grade novelist, and video game developer. His plays and musicals have been produced in Canada. He studied under acclaimed MG/YA author Richard Scrimger at the Humber School for Writers and acting & writing at George Brown College and Second City Toronto. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto (BSc) and Humber College's Creative Writing program.

Don Zolidis is a former high school and middle school theatre teacher and is currently a professor of creative writing at Ursinus College.  Originally hailing from Wisconsin, Mr. Zolidis received his B.A. in English from Carleton College and an MFA in Playwriting from the Actor's Studio Program at the New School.  He has received numerous honors, including the 2004 Princess Grace Award for Playwriting for White Buffalo, now published by Samuel French.  His plays have appeared or been workshopped professionally at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Stage West, Purple Rose Theatre, The Victory Theatre, Bloomington Playwright's Project, Chattyboo Productions, Mirror Stage Company, Impetuous Theatre Group, and New Dramatists.  His plays have had amateur productions in all 50 states and 16 countries and have won numerous state championships.  His screenplays have received numerous prizes, including the 2009 PAGE gold medal for drama, 1st prize in the family division for both the 2008 Screenwriting Expo and 2008 StoryPros Contest and several others.  He has one screenplay under option with Will Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Productions and a second in development with an independent producer.  He lives with his wife and his two adorable boys.