Stacey is a proud Black woman, daughter, sibling, and mom. Her work celebrates and explores Blackness, Black identity, Black history, body politics, and the dilemma of life as “other.” Stacey’s work has been presented at: The Fire This Time Festival, The Lark, The Amoralists Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, National Black Theatre, and Pillsbury House Theater. Stacey has held fellowships/residencies with The Dramatists Guild, the Playwrights’ Center, Sundance Theatre Lab, and The Goodman Theater. Stacey’s play AMERICA v. 2.1, winner of the inaugural Burman New Play Prize, will world premier at Barrington Stage Company in June 2019. Her play Legacy Land, developed at the Playwrights’ Center, will world premier at KC Rep in February 2020..

Patrick Gabridge is a Boston-based playwright, producer, screenwriter, and novelist. His plays include Mox Nox, Drift, Blood on the Snow, Chore Monkeys, and Blinders. He’s been a Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company and is the artist-in-residence at Mt. Auburn Cemetery. He’s the author of four novels, most recently The Secret of Spirit Lake. Patrick co-founded the Rhombus playwright’s group, the Playwrights’ Submission Binge, the New England New Play Alliance, and is the Dramatists Guild’s New England Regional Rep. He is producing artistic director of Plays in Place, which creates site-specific work for museums and historic sites.  www.gabridge.com

Alexandra Espinoza is a theatre artist whose work aims to connect creative power to community voices. As a dramaturg, Alexandra practices dramaturgy as community engagement and served as the inaugural “communiturg” on Simpatico Theatre Project’s production of Red Bike. Additional dramaturgy and directing credits include work with Azuka Theatre, Inis Nua Theatre, the National Constitution Center, and PlayPenn. As a playwright, she is a first-year member of the Foundry at PlayPenn and her short play Delivery has been produced by Juniper Productions. She has a BA in History from Harvard and is a proud member of Villanova’s MA in Theatre Class of 2018.

I am a woman, I am Black, I am an American of Jamaican descent, I am single, and I am not a mother. I am a daughter, a sister, a friend, a teacher and a student. Sometimes I am an actress. I am most particular; I have a history that is wholly mine. Therefore, in my work, just as I am working outward with a metaphorical pick and shovel, I am also working inward, exploring what’s there. I would never claim to present the truth in my work, I present the “truth” as I see it at a particular moment in time from my particular perspective. My plays tend to explore gender, race, class, nationhood – all of the things that make up “identity”. They also explore exploitation and how hurt occurs. And how do people survive the hurts that have been inflicted upon them?

Brenda Withers is a writer, actor, and founding member of the Harbor Stage Company. She is a former playwriting fellow of the Camargo Foundation, the co-writer of “Matt & Ben” (PS 122), and 2014-15 New Georges Audrey Resident. Her plays have been developed and produced at places like Portland Stage, Square Product Theatre, Spartanburg Little Theatre, HERE, Dixon Place, Chashama North, and Amphibian Stage Productions. Ms. Withers studied drama and religion at Dartmouth College

Jessica Huang is a Twin Cities-based playwright, recipient of the 2014 Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s Next Step Grant and a 2012 Many Voices Fellowship, and co-founder of Other Tiger Productions. Her plays have been developed and/or produced in the Twin Cities at Mu Performing Arts, History Theatre, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and Pillsbury House Theatre; nationally at A-Squared Theatre Workshop (Chicago), 2nd Generation (NYC), the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (D.C.), and the Source Festival (D.C.); and internationally at Yellow Earth’s Typhoon Festival (London). In 2014, her play Purple Cloud was nominated to The Kilroys List. 

Alex Rubin’s work has been featured at The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 54 Below, Samuel French OOB Festival, the Drama League’s DirectorFest, American Stage’s 21st Century Voices, and more. She is the recipient of the Francis Ford Coppola Award, a SPACE on Ryder resident, National Winter Playwrights Retreat resident, 2013/14 Big Vision Empty Wallet Playwriting Fellow, member of The Creators Program, and winner of The 85th Annual Writers Digest Award in Playwriting. Alex is currently an MFA candidate at the John Wells School for Film & TV Writing at the University of Southern California. www.AlexRubinWrites.com

Isabella “Izzi” D’Esposito is a New York based playwright, and songwriter.  Her work has been produced or developed at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Ars Nova, Arts Tristate, Carnegie Mellon University, Horizon Theater, Boise Contemporary Theater and more; she was also recently a writing fellow at Playwrights Realm with her play Albert County Public Library System; Lakeside Branch.  Isabella received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University, studying under Rob Handel, and a degree in Playwriting and Screenwriting from Purchase College, studying under Christina Anderson and Sylvan Oswald.

Lia Romeo’s plays have been developed at the O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, the Lark, and elsewhere, and produced at 59E59, Project Y Theatre Company, Unicorn Theatre, and many other companies.  She has had two plays recognized by the Kilroys List, and has been nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg Award for best new play and the NYIT Award for outstanding full-length play.  She was the 2019 winner of City Theatre’s National Short Playwriting Award, and a 2018 fellowship winner from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts.  Her work is published by Playscripts, Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith & Kraus, and she teaches in the MA program in creative writing program at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  BA: Princeton; MFA