Guest Artists

EVAN BERGMAN (Director) Over the years Evan has directed over 15 productions for New Jersey Rep, many of them world premieres. He is extremely proud of the body of work and the theaters ability to identify a wide range of talented playwrights deserving to have their plays produced. He has also directed world premieres at many other theater including Ensemble Studio Theater, The Duke, Daryl Roth, Barrington Stage, Jane Street, Playwrights Horizon, Arclight, The Tiffaney and 59E59. His film work includes the recent short film Day Zero which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was called" A cautionary tale, perfectly realized" by Oscar award winning Director James Ivory. Dig A Hole, Find A Finger, Palm Springs and Newport Beach International Film Festivals and his Documentary for Warner Music Group featuring Roger Daltry (The Who), Philip Bailey (Earth Wind and Fire). Currently he is in pre-production for a new Feature film he wrote about the life of Oyster Farmers called Life on the Flats which starts principle filming in the spring of 2023.

GAIL WINAR (Director) Gail is an Artistic Associate at NJ Rep, and has served the company as an actor, director, dramaturg, education consultant, and much more!  Directing credits at NJ Rep include the mainstage musical, Don't Hug Me; Deliver Me at Theater Brut 2017; and numerous script-in- hand staged readings.  Gail has also directed productions for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, George Street Playhouse, Kean University, LIU/CW Post, Classics on Tour, American Globe Theatre and Shotgun Productions.  She is also a Master Teaching Artist at the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway and an Adjunct Professor at Kean University's Theater Conservatory in Union, NJ.

MARC GELLER (Director) has directed ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF GRACE (2015 BroadwayWorld Award for Best Director of a Play), NOIR, MIDDLEMEN and DONNA ORBITS THE MOON all for NJ Rep. Other directing credits include: TWO-HEADED at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, SOUVENIR at StageWorks/Hudson and the world premieres of the Off Broadway shows ASCENSION (Lion Theatre), ACTS OF LOVE (Kirk Theatre) and ADJOINING TRANCES (Beckett Theatre) all in NYC. Other New York directing credits include: the world premieres of THE FABULOUS KANE SISTERS IN BOX OFFICE POISON (Cherry Lane Theatre), DAMMERUNG (Lion Theatre), MORE THAN THIS (Urban Stages) and the first New York revival of UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS... (Judith Anderson Theatre). Marc has also been seen as an actor at NJ Rep, playing Sidney Webb in ENGAGING SHAW, a role he also played in the NYC premiere ( 2010 Ab*ie Award for Best Actor). He most recently appeared as Isaac in DISGRACED at Cape May Stage, Doc in WEST SIDE STORY at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan and as The Ghost of Jacob Marley (for four years) in A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2015 BroadwayWorld Award for Best Actor in a Musical) at The Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA. He can currently be seen on THE ONION, channeling the dead, as psychic medium Kenneth Quinn. Marc is a member of The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.

JAMES HINDMAN (Playwright) After premiering his one-man show, What Doesn't Kill You, here at NJ Rep, the show was recently produced at The International Gay Dublin Theatre festival where it received a 5 Star review in the Irish Times and was nominated for three Oscar Wilde Awards. He was co-creator and director of NJ Rep's recent musical, The Pin Up Girls and his play Multiple Family Dwelling was produced here in 2018. As a writer, Off Broadway credits include: Popcorn Falls directed by Tony Award Winner Christian Borle, Pete 'n' Keely (Outer Critics Award nomination, two Drama Desk nominations), The Audience (Drama Desk nomination), Being Audrey (Transport Group, NEA Grant recipient), The Gorges Motel (NY Fringe Festival). A Terrance McNally Award finalist, his plays have been performed and developed at The Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, Long Wharf, Walnut Street, Goodspeed, Denver Theatre Center, New Jersey Rep and Papermill Playhouse. Co-Writer: A Christmas Survival Guide, The Rat Pack Lounge (Carbonell nomination) and The Bikinis. Next up: NOW COMES THE FUN PART at Penguin Rep. As an actor he's performed on Broadway in: Mary Poppins, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1776, City Of Angels, A Grand Night For Singing and Once Upon A Mattress. Some film and television: HBO's 'The Gilded Age', 'The Time Traveler's Wife', Marvel's 'Iron Fist', 'The Report', 'Oceans 8', 'The Americans', Steven Spielberg's 'Public Morals', 'Madam Secretary' and 'The Sopranos'. He is thrilled to be working with this wonderful team at New Jersey Rep!

KEN WEITZMAN (Playwright) Halftime with Don, in addition to NJ Rep, is slated for productions at B Street Theatre and the Phoenix Theatre as part of the National New Play Network's Rolling World Premiere. Previous productions include, among others, The Catch (The Denver Center Theatre Company), Fire in the Garden (Indiana Repertory Theatre), The As If Body Loop (Humana Festival), Arrangements (Atlantic Theatre Company). Hominid (Out of Hand Theatre/Theatre Emory/Oerol Festival Netherlands. Plays-in- progress include Reclamation (O'Neill National Playwrights Conference), Spin Moves (New Harmony Project, Theatre Lab), and seal boy (Keen Company, Lark, Playwrights Center). National Awards include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for Arrangements, TCG Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award for The Catch, the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award for Fire in the Garden, and South Coast Repertory's Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright. Organizations who have commissioned Ken's work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Arena Stage, the Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre Emory, Out of Hand Theatre, and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Ken's is a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, a former Writer-in- Residence for Out of Hand Theatre Company, and served as a board member for The New Harmony Project. Ken's plays have been published by Samuel French and Playscripts. Ken received his MFA from University of California, San Diego and has taught at UCSD, Emory University, Indiana University (head of MFA in Playwriting) and, currently, at Stony Brook University. Many thanks to SuzAnne, Gabor, NNPN, and Wendy Goldberg.

ROBERT CAISLEY (Playwright) Robert Caisley is Professor of Theatre & Film, and Head of the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of Idaho where he oversees new play development, and teaches courses in playwriting and various topics in classic and contemporary theatre. He was named the 2011 Blaine Quarnstrom Visiting Playwright at the University of Southern Mississippi. His latest play Lucky Me has just been optioned by New Jersey Repertory Company, Curious Theatre in Denver, Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, CA and Oregon Contemporary Theatre, and will enjoy an NNPN Rolling World Premiere in the 2014-15 season. His last play Happy, presented at the 2011 National New Play Network Annual Showcase of New Plays was a 2012 Finalist for both the prestigious Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's New Play Conference and the Woodward/Newman Award for Drama at Bloomington Playwrights Project, and was selected for a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in the 2012/2013 season at New Theatre (Miami, FL), Montana Repertory Theatre, 6th Street Playhouse (Santa Rosa, CA) and New Jersey Repertory. Happy has just been nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Original Script. Other plays include Kissing (New Theatre, Coral Gables, FL; Phoenix Theatre New Play Festival, Phoenix, AZ), The Lake (Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia; Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA; Lavender Footlights Festival, Miami, FL), Good Clean Fun (Montana Actors Theatre, Missoula), Push (commissioned by Penn State University), The 22-Day Adagio (Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA; London's Royal Court Theatre, Summer Playwrights Program), Front (Sundance Institute's Playwright's Lab), Kite's Book (6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa, CA), Letters to an Alien (optioned by Flying Eagle Films, Mad Horse Theatre, Portland, ME), Santa Fe (StageWorks/Hudson, New York, which was a Finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Winter which received its World Premiere at New Theatre in Miami in 2012. His plays Front and Happy have just been published by Samuel French, Inc. His latest play & Juliet was developed this summer in residency at the Missoula Writers Colony with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Idaho Arts Commission, and received a developmental reading at New Theatre in Miami. He is currently under commission for Clarence Brown Theatre. Caisley served as Interim Artistic Director for Idaho Repertory Theatre from 2001 – 2005, where he directed such plays as Much Ado About Nothing, The Rivals, Lend Me a Tenor, Wild Oats, HUSH: Interview with America, The Underpants and Biloxi Blues. He has worked in the entertainment industry as a Creative Consultant for The History Channel, Triage Entertainment, and also for North by Northwest Productions, Netter Digital Entertainment, New Wave Entertainment and Mahagonny Pictures. Since 2007 he has been on the National Reading Panel for Native Voices at the Autry Museum of the American West. Caisley has been a guest speaker at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the University of the Arts, San Diego State University, Marquette University, Washington State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Montana, Northern Illinois University, Bowling Green State University, Denison University, University of Nevada - Las Vegas, the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Howard University, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Bradley University, Cal State - San Bernardino, Rockford College, and American University in Washington, D.C. Robert was lead teaching artist and dramaturg for the 2010 and 2011 Alaska Native Playwrights Project and production dramaturg for the Native Voices/Montana Repertory Theatre developmental co-production of Carolyn Dunn's The Frybread Queen. In 2011 he directed the Los Angeles Premiere of The Frybread Queen and directed staged readings of The Birdhouse by Diane Glancy at La Jolla Playhouse for the 2011 Native Voices Festival of New Works and at the 2012 Native Voices Festival held in Los Angeles. He recently directed the LA World Premiere of The Birdhouse for Native Voices at the Autry National Center. His work is published by Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing Company, One-Act Play Depot of Canada, the Western States Theatre Review and Mizna: A Journal of Arab-American Literature.

KAREN RIZZO (Playwright) Karen Rizzo's stories and essays (one of which garnered a Western Publishing Association's MAGGIE award for Best Essay) have been featured in numerous publications including The Los AngelesTimes, Salon, Publishers Weekly, Beatrice, a couple Random House anthologies of women's humor, on NPR and at L.A.'s ongoing reading series Literary Death Match, Vermin on The Mount, Personal Space and True Stories. She is the author of the Los Angeles Times summer reading pick Famous Baby and Things to Bring, S#!t to Do…, a BookSense non-fiction pick of the year. Her plays have been performed at NYC's Ensemble Studio Theatre, Samuel Beckett Theatre, Playwrights Horizon's Theatre School, and in Los Angeles at Arcade and Ensemble Studio Theatre/L.A. Mutual Philanthropy was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and had it's West Coast premiere at EST/L.A. Karen lives with her husband and two children in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA.

KENT NICHOLSON (Director) New York credits include: 9 Circles (Sheen Center), Long Story Short (Prospect Theater), Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Wet (Summer Play Festival), and Marry Harry (NYMF, American Theater Group). Regional: Amadeus (South Coast Repertory), Light in the Piazza (South Coast Repertory), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory), Cubamor (Village Theatre), Lizzie (Theater Under the Stars, Village Theater), Grey Gardens, Vincent in Brixton, Ambition Facing West, and All My Sons (TheatreWorks), Saint Ex (Weston Playhouse), 9 Circles, The Good German, and Jacques Brel (Marin Theater Company), Small Tragedy and Satellites(Aurora Theater Company). He created the New Works Initiative at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and The Uncharted Writers Group at Ars Nova. He currently serves as the Director of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons.

ETHAN HEARD (Director) Ethan Heard directs plays, musicals, and operas. As Co-Artistic Director of Heartbeat Opera, he has directed Butterfly, Dido and Aeneas, Kafka-Fragments, The Seven Deadly Sins, and the drag extravaganzas Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space, Miss Handel, and The Fairy Queen. Other opera includes Empty the House (Curtis), Sisyphus (Experiments in Opera), L'incoronazione di Poppea (Princeton University), Erismena and L'Orfeo (Yale). Musical theater includes Little Shop of Horrors, Bells Are Ringing, and A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Other Room (Inner Voices), Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George (Yale), Into the Woods and The Producers (Princeton). He also served as Resident Director of Jay Chou's new jukebox musical The Secret in Beijing and Shanghai. Plays include: Partners (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), The Cat and the Canary (BTG), Lottie in the Late Afternoon and Julius Caesar (Yale), The Gay Ivy (Dixon Place), Pullman WA and in a word (Williamstown). As Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret, Ethan co-created Basement Hades and Trannequin! and began the tradition of Yale School of Drag. He is a faculty member at Yale School of Drama and Princeton and is Resident Director of Cantata Profana. BA & MFA: Yale. ethanheard.com

ALLISON GREGORY (Playwright) Allison Gregory's plays have been produced all over the country and she has received commissions, grants, and development from Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Kennedy Center, Indiana Repertory, the Skirball-Kenis Foundation, ACT, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Geva, and The New Harmony Project. Her play Not Medea (O'Neill, BAPF finalist) received a 2016 National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Motherland (O'Neill finalist, American Blues Blue Ink Award finalist) was an NNPN Showcase selection. Allison is a Core Member of the Playwright's Center and a member of The Marthas playwright collective. Her plays are published by Playscripts, Smith & Krauss, Dramatic Publishing, and Rain City Press. http://allisongregoryplays.com/

LISA JAMES (Director) Lisa is a faculty member of the USC School of Dramatic Arts. She is a multi- award-winning director whose works include Heartstopper (LA Weekly Award); Palladium is Moving, (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award); Lynn Siefert's Little Egypt; Wendy Macleod's The Water Children, Matrix Theater Company (LADCC nomination and Garland Awards); Justin Tanner's Bitter Women (LADCC Award); Bold Girls, Matrix Theater Company; and The Visible Horse (LADCC and Garland Awards). World premieres include Beth Henley's Tight Pants, Billy Aaronson's The News, ASCAP/Disney presentation Scream (music by David Foster); Justin Tanner's Oklahomo! and Little Egypt The Musical (music/lyrics Gregg Lee Henry) at both the Matrix Theater in L.A. and the Acorn Theater in NYC; Dying is Easy Comedy is Hard EST LA and NYC; End Days at the Odyssey Theater; The West Coast premiere of Smoke by Kim Davies at Rogue Machine.West Coast premiere of Punk Rock for the Odyssey Theater (Ovation Recommended). She is currently developing a new musical That Was Then.

CHLOÉ HUNG (Playwright) Chloé Hung is a Chinese-Canadian playwright currently residing in Los Angeles. A graduate of NYU Tisch's MFA in dramatic writing program, her first play All Our Yesterdays debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival to sold out shows and was curated in the prestigious Next Stage Theatre Festival where it received rave reviews. Her next play Issei, He Say (or the Myth of the First) was workshopped at the John F. Kennedy Center with the National New Play Network and is now receiving its world premiere production at New Jersey Repertory Company. Her play Three Women of Swatow was workshopped with Tarragon Theatre's Playwrights Unit and received Canada's RBC Emerging Playwrights Award. She developed Model Minority with Los Angeles-based Moving Arts Theater's MADlab and continues to work on it with the company. Chloé currently writes on season three of the Ava DuVernay created television series Queen Sugar (on the Oprah Winfrey Network OWN).

NADIA TASS (Director) Awarded, Screen Leader Award for Outstanding Leadership, Achievement and Services to the Screen Industry, Nadia Tass is one of Australia's most iconoclastic directors of both stage and screen, well-known Internationally, for directing films, including the Australian classicsMalcolmandThe Big Steal, Amy, and Matching Jack. She has garnered 69 awards for her body of work. Nadia has directed films and high-end television for the BBC and in the US for Universal Studios, Disney, Warner Bros, CBS, including the ratings hitThe Miracle Workerfor ABC, and threeAmerican Girlmovies. She was honoured by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles with a retrospective of her work. Nadia's experience as theatre director is extensive and diverse, ranging from improvised, classic, to contemporary, and musical theatre. 2018 she directedSex and Other Disturbancesfor Portland Stage (Maine),Sorting Out Rachelfor Ensemble Theatre (Sydney,). Amongst her extensive work in theatre, she has directed the American playsDisgraced by Ayad Akhtar,The Other Placeby Sharr White for Melbourne Theatre Company, Annie Baker playsThe Flick, The Aliensand an adaptation of Chekhov'sUncle Vanyafor Red Stitch Theatre. She also directed commercial musicalsPromises, PromisesandThe Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which toured Aust. NZ and Asia. Fern Hillmarks Nadia Tass' debut with NJ Rep.

DANIEL JÁQUEZ (Director) Daniel Jáquez is a Stage Director, Theatre-maker, Translator, and member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Jáquez is co-founder of TuYo Theatre, a new company in San Diego that creates and produces theater with a diverse Latinx perspective. Daniel served as Interim Artistic Director of Milagro Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and in NYC, Jáquez was the Director of Unit52: Intar Theatre's acting company in training; the Director-Producer of INTAR/Jerome Foundation's NewWorks Lab Festival; and an Advisory Committee member for the Lark Play Development Center's U.S./México Playwright Exchange, where he worked as translator and director. www.danieljaquez.com

MARISELA TREVIÑO ORTA (Playwright) Marisela Treviño Orta is working on her grim Latinx fairytale cycle— including The River Bride (2013 National Latino Playwriting Award Co-Winner, 2016 Oregon Shakespeare Festival world premiere), Wolf at the Door (2016 Kilroys List), and Alcira. Other works include: American Triage (2012 Repertorio Español Nuestras Voces Finalist); Ghost Limb (2017 Brava Theatre world premiere); Heart Shaped Nebula (2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist, 2015 Shotgun Players world premiere); Braided Sorrow (2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, 2008 world premiere at Su Teatro in Denver, 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama); and Woman on Fire (2016 Camino Real Productions world premiere).

E. M. LEWIS (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, teacher, and opera librettist. Her work has been produced around the world, and published by Samuel French. Lewis received the Steinberg Award for Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for outstanding writing of a world premiere play, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, and the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama. Now Comes the Night was part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival in Washington DC, and was published in the anthology Best Plays from Theater Festivals 2016. Talking to Westfield was commissioned by Premiere Stages for their Liberty Live initiative. The Gun Show premiered in Chicago in 2014, and has since been produced in more than thirty theaters across the country and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; it was published in The Best American Short Plays 2015-2016. Magellanica -- Lewis' epic Antarctic adventure story -- had its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theater earlier this year, and received an Edgerton Award from the Theater Communications Group. Other plays by Lewis include: How the Light Gets In, Infinite Black Suitcase, Reading to Vegetables, True Story (premiered at Passage Theater), and You Can See All the Stars (a play for college students commissioned by the Kennedy Center). Lewis is currently working on two opera commissions, and a few new plays, including a big new political play called The Great Divide and an intimate play about an unlikely friendship called Dorothy's Dictionary. Lewis is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, Opera America, and the Dramatists Guild. She lives on her family's farm in Oregon.

ERIC ROSEN (Director) Eric Rosen recently concluded his decade long tenure as artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre and previously was co-founder and artistic director of Chicago's About Face Theatre for 13 seasons. He recently directed the acclaimed tour of Paula Vogel's Indecent at Arena Stage, KCRep, and Baltimore Center Stage. World premieres under his direction include Venice (named Best Musical of 2010 byTIME), Clay, Roof of the World, A Christmas Story: The Musical, M. Proust and Theater District. Other directing credits include Baltimore Center Stage (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike), Goodman, Hartford Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Melbourne Theatre Company, the O'Neill and Sundance. Highlights of his tenure at KCRep include reimagined productions of classic musicals including Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, Hair: Retrospection, and a punk rock Pippin, along with classics from Romeo to Death of a Salesman. Rosen helped develop and produced the original production of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife. As a playwright, his work includes Lot's Wife, Dream Boy, Winesburg, Ohio, and Venice. Rosen served on the Board of Theatre Communications Group, was inducted into Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and was a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He holds a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University and a BA in performance studies from UNC-Chapel Hill.

YUKIO TSUJI (Composer and Performer) Yukio Tsuji (shakuhachi, percussion) has collaborated on more than 200 productions over the years. Throughout his career, he has worked with many major theater directors including Estelle Parsons, Ellen Stewart, Jerome RoBbins, Julie Taymor, Sir Peter Hall, John Dexter, Andre Serban, and Elizabeth Swados. Yukio's Broadway credits are extensive,(featuring Al Pacino): OEDIPUS, FATHER, and SALOME (directed by Estelle Parsons). A frequent collaborator with Estelle Parsons, he also composed and performed music for her productions of MACBETH, NIGHT OVER TAOS and LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. Yukio was a co-arranger and performer on the Broadway production of M.BUTERFLY. He also created original music for TRANSPOSED HEAD (directed by Julie Taymor), "Window of The City" for the Shanghai Expo. 9 Acts production of TANTALAS (directed by Sir Peter Hall with The Royal Shakespeare Company), the New York City Ballet production of WATERMIL (directed by Jerome Robins). He composed and performed the title music for the film YEAR OF THE DRAGON, and created more than twenty-five hours of music for Kei Takei's Moving Earth Dance Company. Yukio is also a founding member of the New York-based Sara Galas Band with Sara Galassini.

SARAH NORRIS (Director) Sarah Norris is the Founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project. Her directing work has been seen around the country (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Fresno, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Maine & Alaska) and around the world (Australia, Scotland, England, & Ireland). Select NYC: Playwrights Horizons, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), LAByrinth Theater Company, Disney Theatrical Productions, 59E59 Theaters, The Flea Theater, Gallery Players. MFA in Directing from UNLV; BA in Theatre from UA. Proud member of SDC and AEA, She is a volunteer with i-Mentor and serves on The Artist Co-op Artistic Board. For more info: NewLightTheaterProject.com

JARED MICHAEL DELANEY (Playwright)
Full productions: The Hand of Gaul, 2013 Inis Nua Theatre; Noli Timere (Don't Be Afraid) 2017 Theatre Conspiracy; Voyager One, New Jersey Repertory Company, 2019; They've All Gone & We'll Go Too, Jersey Fringe, 2019. Readings: Paint It Black,You Devil, Strange Sun Theatre, Best Medicine Rep; Child of Lions, HRC Showcase Theatre, "Honorable Mention"  New Works of Merit; The Cannibal of Ajax, Best Medicine Rep., Vintage Theatre Comedy Festival; Voyager One, N.J. Rep., Khaos Theatre Co., 5th Wall Productions; Short Plays:  Fortune's Fool, Aberrant Theatre, NJ Rep's Theatre Brut (published, related anthology); Pontiff Blues; The Shoes; RGDG?, FringeArts

M. GRAHAM SMITH (Director) is a San Francisco-based Director, Educator and Producer. He is an O'Neill/NNPN National Directing Fellow, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Fellow and a proud Resident Artist at SF's Crowded Fire. He grew up outside of New York City and has been based in San Francisco for the last fourteen years. He's directed in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, Washington DC, and venues in San Francisco. He directed the West Coast Premiere of JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA in SF and TRUFFALDINO SAYS NO at Shotgun Players, winning Best Director for the Bay Area Critics Circle. Recent credits include the World Premiere of Obie winner Christopher Chen's HOME INVASION in SF, DEAL WITH THE DRAGON at ACT's Costume Shop & Edinburgh Fringe, Mia Chung's YOU FOR ME FOR YOU at Crowded Fire, and James Ijames' WHITE at Shotgun. He spent five years as Producer of Aurora Theater's new play development program and festival The Global Age Project. He teaches at A.C.T.'s actor-training programs, Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and at Barcelona's premiere Meisner Technique program in Spain. You can visit him online at www.MGrahamSmith.com

MARYLOU DIPIETRO (Playwright) is a prize-winning playwright whose plays include The Anatomy of Shame, Black Butterflies, Bone on Bone, Cold Water Flat, Finish Line, Goodwill, In Love with Cancer, and Sweet & Low. Her work has been produced and/or developed by the Abingdon Theater, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, Manhattan Rep, the Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, the Road Theatre, and the United Solo Festival. She has a M.A. in Theatre Education from Emerson College and is a member of the Dramatist Guild. Marylou is thrilled that NJ Rep is producing the world premiere of her play, Bone on Bone.

LIA ROMEO (Playwright) Lia Romeo is a playwriting fellow at the Juilliard School. Her play The Forest was developed at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Her play Sitting and Talking, starring Dan Lauria and Wendie Malick, premiered at Mile Square Theatre, and has subsequently been presented by Laguna Playhouse, New Jersey Rep, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and other companies. Other plays have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and regionally around the country. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. She was the winner of City Theatre's National Short Playwriting Award, and has been a nominee or a finalist for the Heideman Award, the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kesselring Prize, and the Steinberg Award. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith Kraus. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company, and she teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She earned her B.A. from Princeton and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Rutgers/MGSA.

JOE GIOVANNETTI (Playwright) Joe Giovannetti is a theatre- and film-maker from Chicago, IL. He has worked on or behind Chicago's stages for over a decade as a writer, technician, designer, actor, and director. His plays include The Promotion (National New Play Showcase 2019, developed at NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop and at Steep Theatre in Chicago), Kung Fu Suburbia, Lilith, Kung Fu Suburbia 2: Cul du Sacrifice, and Welcome to Earth. Joe holds a BA from North Park University in Chicago and an MFA from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

LEE BLESSING (Playwright) is the author of A Walk in the Woods, Two Rooms, Eleemosynary, Going to St. Ives and other plays which have been performed throughout the U.S. and worldwide. Awards his plays have earned include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association and L.A. Critics Association among others. A Walk in the Woods was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and nominee for Tony and Olivier Awards. Blessing lives in Los Angeles. He's married to playwright and TV show-runner Melanie Marnich.

JEFFREY LODIN composed the score for James Hindman's Popcorn Falls (Off-Broadway, 2018). Other Original Scores, with longtime collaborator William Squier: Merrilee Mannerly (Playhouse on Park 2019, Off-Broadway Fall 2020), Disney's Doug Live!, first original book musical produced in Disney World's history (songs featured at the 1998 International Children's Festival and in the soundtrack for the Disney animated feature, Doug's First Movie; They've also written songs for the Disney Channel's P.B. & J. OTTER), 100 Years into the Heart (Spirit of Broadway, winner of 7 Spirit awards including best score and new show), and others. With John Allen: Young Abe Lincoln (Theatreworks), and others. Jeff is a Music Director & Arranger – A Letter to Harvey Milk (Off-Broadway), Liberty (Off-Broadway), and others. As Pianist & Conductor: Chita Rivera, Andy Gibb, Others. Faculty – American Music and Dramatic Academy, NYC. Member- Dramatists Guild, BMI, AFM. www.lodinandsquier.com

GARRET JON GROENVELD (Playwright) is a poet and playwright living in San Francisco, CA with an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University. He also studied with Edward Albee at the University of Houston. He's a founding writer of PlayGround and an inaugural member of the Writers in Residence program at the Playwrights Foundation. His play MISSIVES had well received productions in San Francisco and New York. His play, THE HUMMINGBIRDS, is a winner of the 2012 GAP Festival from the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley and the winner of the Internationalists Global Playwriting Prize. This prize included six presentations in six countries (including New York, Berlin and the Netherlands) and has led to productions worldwide, including an ongoing tour of Romania and an extended run in Mexico City, Mexico. THE HUMMINGBIRDS had a workshop with Olympia Dukakis at the Lark and was in the Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) Reading Series in 2015 (with Ellen McLaughlin). His play, THE EMPTY NESTERS was in 2014's Theatre Resources Unlimited Reading series and had a production workshop in San Francisco in 2015. An open ended tour of the show premiered in San Francisco in 2016 and a tour is planned for 2019 with stops in LA, Chicago and New York.

MAT SMART (Playwright) Mat Smart has written 25 full-length plays that have been produced around the country and he currently has several television and film projects in development. The Agitators, his play about the true, untold friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, has been produced at 20 different theatres from Maine to Seattle. He recently adapted The Agitators into a podcast hosted by Ashley C. Ford and produced by PRX, the National Park Service, and the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission. Select plays include: Kill Local (La Jolla Playhouse, nominated for Outstanding New Play by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle; recently translated into Korean and produced in Seoul), The Royal Society of Antarctica (Gift Theatre, recipient of the 2015 Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago), Samuel J. and K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Steppenwolf for Young Adults), and Tinker to Evers to Chance (Geva; Merrimack Rep). An avid traveler and baseball fan, Mat has been to all of the states, all of the continents, and all of the current MLB stadiums. A native of Naperville, Illinois, he currently lives in Brooklyn. Undergrad: University of Evansville. MFA: UCSD.

JOHN JILER is an actor, and a writer of both drama and prose. He won the Weissberger Prize from New Dramatist for his very first play, SOUR SPRINGS. He was the recipient of both the Richard Rodgers Award and the Kleban Librettists; Award for AVENUE X, which played in New York at Playwrights; Horizons and in some fifty cities around the world. His work has been seen coast to coast, from the Labyrinth Theatre to the Eugene ONeill National Playwrights Conference to the Kennedy Center to Seattle Rep and many places in between. His first non-fiction book, Dark Wind, was published by St. Martin's Press. His most recent, Sleeping With The Mayor, was named a New York Times Notable Book Of The Year. As an actor he has performed at New York's Public Theatre, the Hartford Stage Company, and has been the winner of the Chicago Drama Critics Best Actor Award. His first one-man show, EXPLICIT VOWS, was seen at both Playwrights Horizons and the Flea Theatre; his second, RIPE, was hailed by the New York Times as "a classic", and he is VERY proud to be presenting his third, THE ROSENBERG\STRANGE FRUIT PROJECT, at New Jersey Rep!

MARGERETT PERRY (Director) is an award-winning director of new plays and has directed and developed new work Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country and in the UK. She directed John Jiler's Half Moon Bay for Nylon Fusion at the New Ohio Theatre in NYC. Recent world premieres include: Born in East Berlin by Rogelio Martinez and Seared by Theresa Rebeck (both at San Francisco Playhouse), The House by Brian Parks (US, London & Scotland), Education by Brian Dykstra (59E59) and Banned from Baseball by Patricia O'Hara (Human Race). Margarett was the Resident Director at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca where she has directed over 25 productions including Private Lives, Cock, Old Times, Clean Alternatives and most recently The Thanksgiving Play. Other recent favorites include: Shrek the Musical (Connecticut Rep), Used to Was/Maybe Did (Center Theatre Group), The Revolutionists (Human Race) and A Doll's House, Part 2 (Hudson Stage). During the shutdown, she ventured into the short film and music video world for passion projects such as #Hashtag That-Say Their Name (from the musical Crazy Make Crazy), This Doesn't Work written & performed by Darian Dauchan and Brian Dykstra and Time Passes for the Resident Acting Company. She also began exploring watercolor and her work is licensed by the New York Historical Society and was a finalist in 2020 Brush & Lyre Prize. Margarett was an Artistic Fellow with the Lark for years and considered it her theatrical home base. www.margarettperry.com

LEE ODOM is a composer, band leader whose musical spectrum includes gospel, free-improvised music, jazz, R &B, Hip-Hop and classical. instrumental spectrum includes the clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone, flute and oboe. A native of North Carolina, studying clarinet performance at Appalachian State University, Boone NC, Lee later moved to New York City where she decided to pursue her musical career. Lee has performed with many outstanding groups such as the Western Piedmont Symphony, Hickory NC, various theatre musical productions throughout NC and New York, The Karl Berger Improv Orchestra, Canaan Baptist Church Music Ministry, Matt Lavelle's 12 Houses Free Improv big band, the Makanda Project Boston, MA, UpSurge NY poetry ensemble, also with Keith "The Captain" Gamble and the Nu Gypsies, the Zodiacs Saxophone Quartet, and with many outstanding musicians such as Don Byron, JD Parran, Warren Smith, Craig Harris, and David Murray. Lee Odom also performs as band leader, as Sweet Lee Music, performing at various venues and festivals throughout New York, Boston, & Connecticut. She has been featured artist for Craig Harris' Harlem Jazz Box, and also participated in " Women Composers"produced by Abby London, where she featured original compositions. And also appeared as a guest artist with artists through the Jazz Foundation NY. Lee was also the featured alto saxophone player for Bang on A Can "The Shape of Jazz to Come" The New York Times described her sound as "prayerful and ever searching". Lee was honored to be an Artist-in-Residence at Holmes Presbyterian Camp, Holmes, NY and at Art Omi in Hudson NY, where she created and cultivated many musical experiences, and Teaching Artist for Poly Prep Summer Art Camp. Lee is currently a Teaching Artist for the Jazz House Kids in Paterson NJ. The music by Sweet Lee and her accompanying bands has been sending lighting vibes throughout the boroughs of New York. With a fusion of Gospel, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Classical, and free improvisation, "Sweet" Lee keeps the groove groovin'.

MICHELLE JOYNER (Director/Dramaturg) has been at the helm of The Shot from its earliest development phase at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She currently lives in The Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, and has helmed plays there with Shakespeare and Co., Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Great Barrington Public Theatre and Theatre Fest. West coast: Center Stage, Santa Monica Rep, Greenlight Productions, and LA Women's Shakespeare Co. Internationally: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has also directed a short film and leads The Long Table, a women's writing group. Michelle is an accomplished stage and screen actor with a long career and has written ten studio screenplays. She is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, WGA, and DG. Her first full-length play Iodine will have a reading later this year in the Berkshires. www.michellejoyner.com

ROBIN GERBER (Playwright) The Shot, Robin's first play, was selected for the 2017 Ojai Playwrights Conference. After a well-spent youth involving drugs, sex and feminist activism, Robin took the next logical step and became a Washington, D.C. lawyer. She worked on Capitol Hill for a legendary leader of the House of Representatives, before leaving to be a union lobbyist during the Clinton years. Robin's post-politics writing life includes: The bestselling advice book, Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way (Penguin), Katharine Graham (Penguin), Barbie and Ruth, about the founder of Mattel (HarperCollins), and the novel Eleanor vs. Ike, which imagines Eleanor Roosevelt running for President in 1952 (HarperAvon). Robin has toured the professional speaking circuit, motivating audiences at many Fortune 500 companies with stories from the lives of great women leaders. She has also appeared as a guest historian for the Biography and History channels and as a featured historian on the CNN documentary series First Ladies speaking about Eleanor Roosevelt. She dedicates this performance to Sean Daly who reminded her to write what scares her before he left this earth. robingerber.com

INDA CRAIG-GALVÁN (Playwright) Inda Craig-Galván writes stuff – mostly plays and TV. Her work often explores intra-racial conflicts and politics within the African-American community. Grounded in reality with a touch of magical realism that fucks with time & memories. Inda's currently developing new works of theatre on commission with The Old Globe and Round House Theatre. Produced plays include a hit dog holler (Skylight Theatre & Playwrights' Arena co-production, Los Angeles), Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles) I Go Somewhere Else (Playwrights' Arena, Los Angeles). Inda is the recipient of the Kesselring Prize, Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting, and Stage Raw Best Playwright Award. Inda's plays have been included on the Kilroys List (twice) and Steppenwolf Theatre's The Mix. Inda has developed & presented work at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, NNPN Showcase, Ashland New Play Festival, Orlando Shakes, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Lab, The Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival, Black & Latino Playwrights Conference, WomenWorks, Humanitas, Chalk Repertory Theatre, Skylight Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Intiman, and others. Aside from theatre, Inda is a TV writer on the upcoming series: Will Trent (ABC). She previously wrote on the JJ Abrams series Demimonde (HBO), the upcoming Happy Face (Paramount+), How to Get Away with Murder (ABC), and The Rookie (ABC). She is in development with Universal TV Studios to write and executive produce Cotton Club Princess, adapted from the novel by Karla Diggs. a hit dog will holler, Inda's 4-episode fiction podcast adapted from her play, was produced by Radiotopia.fm and is available now wherever you get your podcasts.

D. W. GREGORY (Playwright) D.W. Gregory's plays frequently explore political issues through a personal lens and with a comedic twist. The New York Times called her "a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke" for her most-produced work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of industrial poisoning. Other plays include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere (Contemporary American Theater Festival, Shadowland Stages, New Jersey Repertory Company); Molumby's Million (Iron Age Theatre), nominated for a Barrymore Award by Theatre Philadelphia; A Thing of Beauty, winner of the Southeastern Theatre Conference's 2023 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award; The Good Daughter and October 1962 (New Jersey Repertory Company); and a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking Play, with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp. Her plays have been developed through the support of AATE, the National New Play Network (NNPN), the Playwrights' Center, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the HBMG Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Gregory is an affiliated writer with the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN. Gregory also writes for youth theatre (Salvation Road and Penny Candy) and makes occasional appearances as a teaching artist. For five years in a row, Dramatics magazine named Radium Girls among the 10 Most-Produced Plays in American High-School Theatre.

DAWN MONIQUE WILLIAMS (Director) Dawn Monique Williams (she/her), served four years as the Associate Artistic Director at Aurora Theatre Company and was the Artistic Associate and a resident artist at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for six seasons before that. Williams is a nationally celebrated director with an MA in Dramatic Literature and an MFA in Directing. Dawn is a proud member of SDC. www.dawnmoniquewilliams.com