Inspired by: Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Wallace Shawn, Caryl Churchill and Stephen Adly Guirgis

Ada A. is a Catholic playwright. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she was a 2021 National Young Playwright in Residency at Echo Theater Company in LA. She was also the inaugural artist in residency for Prop Thtr’s Nest Residency in 2021. She was a 2022 Semi-Finalist for Black Theatre’s Future of Playwriting Prize. Recent works include Tokens of Promise (2022 BAPF Semi-Finalist), developed as part of Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs and Victory Garden Theater’s IGNITE Chicago, Good Years (2021 BAPF Semi-Finalist), Peking Apples (2023 Seven Devils Finalist and 2023 O’Neill Semi- Finalist). Her one-act play, The Reverend Dr. Paul (i) Murray, was commissioned and produced by Valiant Theatre in Chicago; it was later produced at the Overtime Theater in San Antonio. Ada is a proud artistic associate of Prop Thtr.

Influenced by: Jackie Sibblies Drury, August Wilson, Alice Childress, Tanya Barfield

Calley N. Anderson is a Brooklyn-based playwright and Southern Black woman from Memphis, TN. Her ten-minute plays have received five festival productions to date (Emerald Theatre Company, TN 2016; Pride Theater at Chandler, VT 2017; Stable Cable Lab Co., NY 2017; InVersion Theatre, NY 2018; Fade to Black Fest, TX 2018). Calley is a graduate of Davidson College (BA in English, Concentration in Film and Media Studies) and The New School for Drama (MFA in Playwriting). She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the American Theater Group PlayLab, a 2020-2021 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, was a finalist for The Civilians R&D Group, a semifinalist for the National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Residency, and was recently commissioned by the University of Memphis Dept. of Theatre and Dance. Calley is also one of 18 Memphis Hub fellows of the Salzburg Global Seminar's Forum for Young Cultural Innovators and a Program Manager for NY Writers Coalition. www.calleynanderson.com

Influenced by: Caryl Churchill, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Qui Nguyen.

Ian August is an award-winning, internationally-produced playwright. His works have been developed with the Powerhouse Theatre Season with NY Stage and Film, Ashland New Plays Festival, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, NJ Repertory Company, Writers’ Theatre of New Jersey, Wordsmyth Theatre Company, City Theatre of Miami, the Garry Marshall Theatre, UC Davis Dept of Theatre and Dance, Passage Theatre Company, the Philadelphia Artists Collective, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the NY and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and elsewhere. He lives in Lawrenceville, NJ with his husband, set designer and performing arts teacher Matthew R. Campbell, and his two cats, Lentils and Kimchi. www.ianaugustplaywright.com

Influenced by: Zora Neale Hurston, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lorraine Hansberry, Lanford Wilson.

Quinn D. Eli grew up in the Bronx, NY, and now lives in Philadelphia. His short plays have appeared in Best American Ten-Minute Plays and been produced throughout the country. Longer works can be found on NPX, including Hot Black/Asian Action, a satire about sexual and racial stereotypes, and In Common, an interracial ghost story. He is a cofounder of Jouska PlayWorks, a Philadelphia-based initiative for playwrights of the African Diaspora. A member of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Black Theatre Network, Eli serves as Resident Dramaturg for Azuka Theater and heads the Theater program at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Nay (Naomi) Harris is a National Theater Institute and Advanced Playwriting alum of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Through their craft, Nay further alleviates stigmas regarding mental illness and self-harm in the Black communities and increases representation of Black Queer/Nonbinary love and joy. They participated in NYTW’s Casebook for On Sugarland and were a finalist for NBT’s I Am Soul playwriting residency. Among their works are Wounded Skyes, Glitter Bracelets, Club Leather Queen and Scratched Record. Nay is a Miranda Family Fellow and they’re an NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum. They recently completed Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop’s Revolution Now! 2022 development workshop and Art House Productions 2021-2022 INKubator Playwright's Group.

Inspired by Hansol Jung, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Susan-Lori Parks

Esme Maria Ng (they/she/he) is an early-career theater maker of Cantonese and Scottish descent, whose work focuses on the complexities of Asian American history, queerness and the family unit. Upon graduating with a BA in Theater and American Studies from Wesleyan University in 2022, Esme was awarded the Student Script Writer Award for excellence in playwriting and the Theater Outreach and Community Service award for their contributions to the landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion in the performing arts. As a playwright, Esme seeks to embody the phenomenon of laughing at/through the pain. Their plays have been presented by the Snug Harbor Porch Plays Festival, the Not Forgotten Play Festival and the Wesleyan Univ. Writers Circle Reading Series. Plays include: Pearl Dust from a Gun (Eugene O’Neill Semi-Finalist, Premiere Play Festival Semi-Finalist) FISH MEAT (Lambda Literary Retreat 2023, Workshop Theater Intensive) and In Loving Memory (Wesleyan Writers Circle). In 2023, Esme was named as a Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow under the tutelage of Victor I. Cazares. As an arts administrator, producer, dramaturg and script evaluator, Esme has worked at notable theaters including Manhattan Theatre Club, Ma-Yi Theater Co., Breaking the Binary Theatre and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Inspired by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Aleshea Harris, Minna Lee

Utkarsh is a writer/performer who likes theater and TV a bunch! Their work often explores the intersections of gender, race and performance with jokes, participation and lots of caps lock. They started their theater career in Baltimore and have since been a Sesame Street Writers’ room Fellow, Pipeline PlayLab Member, Princess Grace Award Finalist for Playwriting, Children’s and Family Emmy Nominee, Ars Nova CAMP Finalist, New Victory LabWorks Finalist and Eugene O’Neill NPC Semi-finalist. They’re currently a Story Pirates Podcast contributor and MFA candidate in Playwriting at Brooklyn College, where they’ve received a Himan Brown Award. Keep an eye out for their episodes of Alma’s Way, Lyla in the Loop and Caillou!

Inspired by August Wilson, Andrew Bovell, Bertolt Brecht

Syd is a playwright, actor, author, instructor, singer and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Texas State University. He has penned various stage productions in Chicago, Texas and LA. In Chicago, he served as a resident playwright for Green Light Performing Company producing numerous plays. He also wrote and performed his one man show, Brother’s Tellin’ which opened for Lily Tomlin’s show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe in LA. Syd was then selected for the Mark Taper Playwright’s Program. He went onto a string of produced plays including Akashic Permutations, Unsung Heroes, Aberdeen and Netarine and Zu’s Earth. Rushing was honed to be a winner in the Queensbury Theatre New Work Playwright series, a residency with Theatre 4 the People and a recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Distinguished Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center. In addition, he is the Inaugural August Wilson House Playwriting Fellow, New 21st Century Voice Winner, National Black theatre Grant Recipient for Play Development and a Screen Craft TV Pilot Top Ten Finalist. He has completed an epic panorama seven play cycle featuring the guts and gumption of contemporary black lives in MS, Chicago and TX. More info:

sidneyrushing.squarespace.com

SMJ (they/them) is an NYC-based, mixed-Latiné, and Trans non-binary playwright, educator, & theatermaker originally from Mount Vernon, OH. They are a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. They create work that is unapologetically queer and designed to highlight & challenge collaborators. Their plays warn about our world's funny yet terrifying truths.

Currently, SMJ is creating work with Ars Nova, New York Stage and Film, Lincoln Center, National Queer Theater, The Road Theatre Company’s Under Construction Playwriting Group, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, The Orchard Project, The 24 Hour Plays, and Andy's Summer Playhouse. Their work has been seen in various forms throughout the US including the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Otterbein University, Wright State University, Art House Productions, The Workshop Theater, The Fled Collective, Live Arts, Philly Theater Week, The Tank, and DR2 Theatre. SMJ also writes for the serial podcast, University Radio. SMJ has been a semifinalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference, Princess Grace Award at New Dramatists, Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, and The Civilians R & D Group as well as a Finalist for the 2023 Parity Development Award, Write Out Loud Contest, 5th Avenue Theater's First Draft Commission, and the Doric Wilson Playwright Award.

SMJ is a graduate of Otterbein University and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. They’re a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys.

Influenced by: Mia Chung, Luis Alfaro, Anna Ouyang Moench

Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters is a Barrymore nominated actor, playwright, and teaching artist in Philadelphia. She’s an InterAct Theatre Core Playwright and the Lead Artist of the Philly Asian Performing Artists’ Playwrights Project. Her play, “Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned,” was presented at the PlayPenn Conference. It will have a world premiere production with Simpatico Theatre Company (postponed due to COVID-19) and has earned her a spot on the 2020 Kilroys List and Table Work Press Recommended list. Her play “Half of Chopsticks” was a finalist for both the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and Seven Devils New Plays Conference, and received a workshop and reading at the inaugural Boise Contemporary Theatre BIPOC Playwrights Festival. Her Kpop romcom, Be Like the Flower, is a finalist for the Austin Film Festival’s Table Read My Screenplay. She is a two-time finalist for Unicorn Theatre’s In-Progress New Play Reading Series as well as a finalist for the Playwrights Center Many Voices Fellow and has taught playwriting with Bucknell University, Northwestern University’s National High School Institute, PlayPenn, Arden Theatre Company, and Theatre Exile. Stephanie is a proud graduate of Bucknell University, London Dramatic Academy, and CAP21. Her plays can be found on NPX.

Brysen Boyd is playwright, TV writer, and essayist originally from Tacoma, WA. He served on the writing staff for HBO’s Succession (in a position created for him), is a 2023 Artist-in-Residence at Williamstown Theater Festival, the inaugural Playwright-in-Residence at Reverie Theater Company and is a proud member of Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theater. His plays include Family Sideshow (Playwrights’ Center Venturous Prize Nominee, O'Neill Conference Semi-finalist, 2022 Juilliard Finalist, Winner of KC-Melting Pot National New Play Competition), Closing Costs on 6101 Nyanza (Blue Ink Award Semi-finalist, Kennedy Center Short Play Semi-finalist) and others. His work has received support from Tin House, The Kennedy Center, Sewanee Writers Conference, Columbia University, Napa Valley Writers Conference, Kansas City Melting Pot, Seattle Playwrights’ Saloon and others. His nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Florida Review, Orca: A Literary Journal, and others.

Having come to playwriting and creative nonfiction in undergrad by way of his first love, TV, his goal in life is to write stories that make others feel as excited as 9-year-old him felt when watching David and Keith on Six Feet Under. Writing means everything to him—second only to his miniature wiener dogs, Simon and Alvin.

B.A., Boston College MFA., Columbia University

Influenced by: Neil Simon, David Auburn, Katori Hall.

Andrea Coleman is a Brooklyn based writer, performer and lawyer originally from Virginia. She is a member of the 2021 Fresh Ground Pepper Playground Playgroup. She was a finalist for the 2021 Women’s Work Short Play Lab and ArsNova’s 2022 CAMP Residency. Andrea was a member of the 2020-2021 Art House Productions INKubator Playwrights Cohort and The Chain Theater’s 2019 New Play Development Program. In 2019, Andrea was commissioned by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. Her one act plays have been produced at The Manhattan Repertory Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Firecracker Productions and Hot Metal Arts Collective. She’s performed at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival where she also interned for the Director of New Play Development and acted at The Shakespeare Theatre Company where she performed opposite Kelly McGillis under the direction of Michael Kahn. www.andreacolemancomedy.com

Influenced by: Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Mart Crowley.

Evan Edwards is a polyonymous multi-ethnic, multi-hyphenate theatre professional and member of DGA, AEA and AGVA. As Steven Hamilton, he earned a BA in English and Theatre from Niagara University. His works include the full-length book musical “McGurk’s Suicide Hall,” a fictional account of actual events, for which he won the Great Performances Fellowship and the Playlight Featured Musical Award. His play “Members of the Choir “ was chosen for the Broadway Inclusion Project, NYC; “Ready for my Close-up” premiered at London’s AAUK E-plays Vol 3: Renewal; “Falling” was seen at WildFlower Theatre’s virtual opening gala and two of his monologues “Tonsil Hockey with the Help” and “Independent Thinking” were featured at the Prince William Sound College Monologue Workshop. His full-length drawing-room farce, “Mixed Messages,” is currently in development with American Theatre Group PlayLab. EvanEdwardsAEA.org

Email: EvanEdwardsAEA@gmail.com

Influenced by: James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, David Mamet, Michael V. Gazzo, Tracy Letts

Queen Esther is a solo performer and theater + film actor, songwriter, musician, playwright and librettist. She has written four one person shows, including The 'Moxie' Show, Queen Esther: Unemployed Superstar and The Big Payback. Her latest solo project Blackbirding premiered at Royal Family's Female Forward Festival in February 2020. Created to entertain the volunteers in the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster, Queen Esther’s Stagedoor Canteen received a special Drama Desk Award for Tribeca Playhouse. Her libretto The Billie Holiday Project was a part of the Dixon Place Performance in Development series and Harlem Jazz Shrines at Lenox Lounge, and received a performance residency from The Apollo Theater.

A member of the Dramatists Guild, Queen Esther was a member of Liberation Theater Company's Black Playwright's Group, The Field's Summer Writing Intensive and New Perspectives Theater Company's 2021 Short Play Lab and has had her work read at Classical Theater of Harlem's Playwright's Playground. A member of Actors Equity, SAG/AFTRA, the Recording Academy, Esther is also a board member of Jalopy Theater and School of Music. http://queen-esther.com

Influenced by: Aleshea Harris, Loy A. Webb, Annie Baker, Ntozake Shange

Onyekachi Iwu is a Nigerian-American playwright, filmmaker, and poet based in Harlem, New York. Her most recent piece, “Where is Nina Mae?,” was showcased at the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Harlem Renaissance in Motion series. Her work has also been featured with the Eden Theater Company Playlab (Blood, Pink Lemonade), Two Strikes Theatre Collective (Georgia Rose), Conchshell Productions (Ants and Garlic), and Columbia University (Cotton Harris). Her play, “The Magical South,” was a finalist for the Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers in 2020. Iwu's plays often involve themes related to black love, womanhood, healing, and escapism.

A. Emmanuel Leadon is a comedian, author, and draftsman from the remote island nation of South Oak Cliff, whose writing for the page, stage, and screen approaches current events with surrealism, hyperbole, and a distorted sense of language. His work has been presented, developed, and/or funded by Arts Mission Oak Cliff, Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop, the National New Play Network, the Play Penn Conference, the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Yale Department of Theater Studies, and the Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.

Tracey Conyer Lee is a member of the inaugural cohort of ATG's PlayLab. Ms. Lee has been a finalist for the 2021 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival, the 2021 Circle Of Confusion Discovery fellowship, the 2019 Lark Playwrights Week, the 2018 Princess Grace Award, the 2016 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award, Live & In Color's 2018 Bingham Theatre Camp and a semi-finalist for the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has been a National Black Theatre I AM SOUL playwriting fellow and is a winner of the 2021 Florida Theatricals Discovery musical series. Ms. Lee’s work is currently in development with Boomerang Theatre Company (NYC) and Redtwist Theatre (Chicago). She’s been produced at Redtwist Theatre (Chicago), in the New York International Fringe Festival (NYC), the Women's Voices Festival with Ally Theatre Company (DC), The Fire This Time Festival of short plays (Boston & NYC), Harlem 9’s 48 Hours In...Harlem. Ms. Lee received her MFA in Writing For the Stage & Screen as a merit scholar at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in 2018.

Ms. Lee has originated roles Off-Broadway and regionally, performing in over 80 professional productions around the globe, yielding Carbonell, NAACP and Barrymore Awards. Highlights include her role as Billie Holiday in five productions of “Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill” and service through song with the 2019 Tony Award-winning choir, Broadway Inspirational Voices. Her appearances on the small screen include the current season of FBI on CBS. www.traceyconyerlee.com

Nikhil Mahapatra is a writer from India/Singapore. They are an inaugural member of the LIT Council at the Tank, a 2018-2019 Gingold Theatre Company Speaker’s Corner writer,a 2019-2020 Dramatist’s Guild Fellow, 2021 SPACE at Ryder Farm Creative Resident and a finalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center. Latest works include American Hunger, CARNAL, Lost in the Fire, The Fields and Bali Babes. Other media includes the short film SPF, which had its premiere at The New York Indie Theatre FilmFestival (NYITFF), and select short stories and poems published in America and Singapore.

Julia Rae Maldonado is a Bronx based dramatist whose work has been developed & produced in NYC by companies including the LAByrinth Theatre & Theatre East and internationally (MUT! Theatre, Hamburg & Interkultural Festival, Stuttgart). Her play Juntos was a finalist in the 2021 Samuel French OOB Festival and her play Buskers! was a finalist for the Heideman Award (Actors Theatre Louisville). Her work, Real Life, is included in Gary Garrison’s A (More) Perfect 10 & A Younger 10. She is also the author of a collection of short plays for teens commissioned and produced by the Stella Adler Studio. Julia is a founding member of the GirlSOUP Collective and currently a faculty member at the Actors Studio Drama School & Writer’s Room Facilitator with Theatre East. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild and earned her BFA from NYU/Tisch and MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School.www.juliaraemaldonado.com

Influenced by: Annie Baker, Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh

Jonathan Kim Phillips (he/him/his) is a Korean-American playwright based in Queens, NY. His plays include “Rich Fucks and the Shit They Do Behind Closed Doors,” “Sedona, Scylla + Charybdis,” “The Desired Effect,” and “Causality.” His work has been developed/presented at Theater for the New City, New Light Theater Project, Primary Stages ESPA, Larry Singer Studios, and The Fishbowl Collective. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ATG PlayLab, was an inaugural participant in The Playwrights Realm’s Script Share program in 2020, a writer for Pride Play’s virtual Pride Series in 2020, and most recently, a recipient of the Mary Louise Rockwell Scholarship at Primary Stages ESPA for 2021-2022 . Prior to pursuing playwriting, he had a career in stage management. BA: Muhlenberg College. www.jonathankimphillips.com

Influenced by: Tennesse Williams, Maria Irene Fornes, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Miquel Pinero, Lynn Nottage, Jose Rivera, Simon Stephens and Dale Orlandersmith.

Andres Pina is an actor and writer. Acting credits include: “Comedy of Errors” (The Shakespeare Theater of NJ), “La Puta Vida” (La Tea), “The Seagull “(Circle in the Square Theater School), “Tracks “(Davenport Theater), “Othello “(St. Katherine Theater), “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” (St. Katherine Theater), “Balm in Gilead” workshop (The Labyrinth Theater Company), “Medea“ (American Theater of Actors), “Hamlet” (St. Katherine Theater), “Life is a Dream “ (The Inner Circle Theater),” In the Red and Brown Water “(Columbia University), “Miss Julie” (Columbia University) and “Romeo and Juliet” (Columbia University). Andres is a recent graduate of the Columbia University M.F.A Acting Program and recently worked on SHOTS by Reggie Gaines. He's currently developing a short film, plays and a T.V pilot about Harlem Hospital.

Juan Ramirez, Jr. is a Borinquén-Chapín-Bronx playwright, monologist, director, screenwriter, filmmaker, poet and producer. Notable works include “Calling Puerto Rico” (Miranda Family Voices Latinx Finalist with Repertorio Español, 2020 BAPF Finalist and a recipient of the 2019 BRIO Award), “Ridin‘ Shotgun” (Best Play Downtown Urban Arts Festival), and “The American Dream” (NAV Playwrights Festival, BBTF). He’s a founder of The PlayPen Collective and R&R Productions with his wife Cristy Reynoso. Juan is a Dramatist Guild member, 2020-2021 Dramatist Guild Fellow, and a teaching artist with Art Defined. He received his BA from Lehman College and MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch. www.JuanRamirezJr.com

Ted Sod was dramaturge for the education department at Roundabout Theatre Company from 2002-2022. His written work includes: Sand Niggers, Lucky Star, Papa’s Prince, The Cousins Grimm (workshop: The Bailiwick Rep/Chicago; readings at NYMF, York Theatre and Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center); 27, Rue de Fleurus (Urban Stages, NYC/Published by Samuel French); Satan and Simon Desoto (Cal Arts Theatre School/Published by Heinemann/made into the film Crocodile Tears); The Lost Art of Conversation (Readings at Theatre for the New City, Abingdon Theatre Company/NYC and Lavender Footlights/Miami). His acting credits include: That Damn Michael Che, Bored To Death, Nurse Jackie, Ugly Betty; Urge for Going (Public Theatre). His directing credits include: The Ocean All Around Us (Portland Center Stage); How To Be A Good Italian Daughter In Spite of Myself, (Cherry Lane Theatre); Blood Type: Ragu (Actors’ Playhouse); By Jupiter (York Theatre Co.) www.tedsod.com