Jackie got a BFA in acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. After graduating she moved to NYC where she performed Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and Where-The-Hell-Is Broadway before landing a role in the Off-Broadway production "Tony n'Tina's Wedding". She has been lucky enough to be a part of the Lincoln Center New Works Series, The Public Theatre’s Reading Series, The New York Fringe Festival and to perform at the National Theatre in Washington, DC. She’s also done commercials, voiceovers and stand-up comedy in all the major clubs before making her way to Los Angeles in 2000. In Los Angeles, she’s continued to do theatre and in 2001 she received an Ovation Award nomination for her solo show, “Last Stop: Neverland” which she wrote and performed. She also did short films, was a regular skit performer on Fox’s THE BEST DAMNED SPORTS SHOW EVER and can also be heard as the voice of Harley on the Xbox games "Outlaw Golf I and II", "Outlaw Volleyball" and "Outlaw Tennis". In 2007 she was featured on National Lampoon Comedy Radio Networks’ Comedy Countdown, the Los Angeles Comedy Festival and the Las Vegas Comedy Festival while performing stand-up in clubs in and around Los Angeles. In 2009 Jackie moved back to New York City where she continues to pursue her acting career and is a proud member of The Barrow Group/FAB (theater FOR, ABOUT and BY women).

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: http://www.jackiemaruschak.com
FB: Facebook.com/jackiemaruschak

MORE ABOUT ME
I keep doing theater because it was my first, truest and longest lasting love. It is where I feel most alive. It's been there for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health and I will love and cherish doing it until death do us part.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently playing the Nurse/Lady Montague in an upcoming production of MAD Company's Romeo & Juliet at the Abrons Arts Center (3/23 - 4/2) and writing a solo show with the working title "RAISED BY WOMEN".

KEYWORDS
​Comedy, Women of a Certain Age, Theater, Storytelling

Michole Biancosino is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Project Y Theatre Company. With Project Y, she has led various professional productions, as producer, director, creator and writer. Her credits included the long-running shows, Trump Lear (co-created and directed) and the award-winning, David Carl’s Celebrity One-Man Hamlet (co-created and directed), both of which toured regionally and performed at Edinburgh Fringe, as co-productions with Richard Jordan Productions (UK), The Pleasance, and Underbelly. Recently Michole has been devising and writing plays. Since the pandemic she’s ventured into digital theatre-making and hybrid theatre in Vermont via Tiny Barn Theatre. Recently she co-wrote the cosmic raga opera, Waves of Gravity with Neel Murgai (LaMama CultureHub) in 2021. She was also the co-creator of the award-winning “Landmarks & Transformations.” Currently, she’s co-writing and creating an app-enabled play with digital technologist, Todd Anderson. As a performer, she’s currently playing the title role in Lia Romeo’s one woman show, Yoga With Jillian, and was just featured on “All Things Considered,” Recipient: Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Sir John Gielgud Fellowship. Michole has been featured on Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls for her work with the Women in Theatre Festival.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: www.projectytheatre.org
FB:https://www.facebook.com/michole.biancosino
IG: https://www.instagram.com/projectytheatre/

MORE ABOUT ME
Many of my most successful projects come out of outside-the-box processes, where my multi-hyphenate theatre-making identity comes in handy. I am interested in playing with the relationship between the artist and the audience, reimagining what theatre is and can be. On any given new play or project, I want to find a way to surprise the audience and surprise myself as an artist. I especially love making works with a large number of writers/creators involved, bringing together a multiplicity of voices alongside my own to create both dissonance and harmony. My latest ventures are in experimental theatre-making using a combination of analog and digital technologies to form connections with the audience and test out the notion of community.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm working on putting together the annual Women in Theatre in New York City in June at ART/New York Theatres. It's an incredible celebration of new work by women+ writers and lead generative artists and I am excited about this year's lineup (as always!).

KEYWORDS
​Women, New Plays, New Works, Immersive, Hybrid, digital theatre, Historical, Experimental, Edinburgh Fringe, Writer/Director, Shakespeare

Lindsey Brown is a New Zealand writer whose passion for the performing arts started at a young age. Initially a keen musical theatre and improv performer, she then moved into the world of writing. She obtained a Masters of Scriptwriting from Auckland University of Technology, and since then hasn’t looked back. Lindsey has had pieces performed around the world, including London, New York, Hollywood, Florida, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Sydney, Dubai, Queenstown and Auckland. Successes to date include being the winner of Mixing It Up Productions New York One Act Competition 2022, 2020 recipient of the PANZ Outstanding Achievement Award, winner of the 2021 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival, California, and winner of Show Off 2022 for Camino Real Playhouse, California. Lindsey often favours comedy in her writing, believing that when we laugh, we are most open to learn. It’s also more fun to write! Her plays contain strong roles for women that like to challenge those themes that are universal to us all.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/lindsey-brown/

MORE ABOUT ME
The plays/productions that changed my life: I would like to mention three. 1: Les Mis - as a performer myself, I was in constant tears of emotion the first time I saw this. It just blew teenage me away. Theatre in it's EPIC state. Oh, how I wanted to play Eponine one day....'a little fall of rain....' - still waiting for the chance (am I too old?) 2:The Play that Goes Wrong - Oh, how I laughed! It reminds us of the FUN that theatre brings, and such fabulous roles for actors! It really inspires my writing - the ridiculousness, the entertainment, the FUN. 3 - Celebrating the Musical - I was a performer in this one and met a group of women who have helped shape my world since. They are a creative rock that I was so lucky to find.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am just finishing the final editing for a piece called 'A Woman Over Forty' - Synopsis: Invisible? I don't think so. A quintet of dark comedic monologues celebrating the trials and tribulations of 'a woman of a certain age'. No matter what life throws at them, which is a lot, they remain FABULOUS! (partly inspired by Honor Roll!)

KEYWORDS
Dark Comedy - to the point of bordering farce, women centered stories

There are always stories behind the stories we get to tell. I learned this as a public radio correspondent and communications strategist for more than 30 years. As a reporter I was tasked with explaining why so many societal problems were hard to resolve. As a playwright, I continue to be drawn to life’s complexities, but now it’s the drama of it all that I hope compels the truth and our shared humanity. The COVID pandemic accelerated retirement, granting me more space to focus on ten-minute & one-act plays. My one-act play, The Last Appointment, was staged at the Vineyard Playhouse in 2011, & a monologue, Accident Report, was performed virtually by the Vineyard Playhouse in 2021. I’m a member of Playwrights’ Platform (Boston), & a regular student in Peter Littlefield’s Playwrights’ Workshop Online.

MORE ABOUT ME
I think my most gratifying moment in the theater so far was when I first listened to and watched what talented actors could do with my writing...my script. What was a bunch of words on a page, on my computer, became the ideas and feelings of people on stage. I didn't "own" the work anymore, which was absolutely liberating. The actors discovered meaning and irony in places that hadn't occurred to me. It was an amazing process to witness.

If I could say anything to an artistic director today it would be that wherever and whenever possible, look for new stories and less-explored but equally important topics among your many, many submissions. Consider plays that raise hard questions for audiences to ponder long after the curtain comes down. A good play does not, nor cannot, provide all the answers. Life isn't that pat.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm working on a series of very short (five minute) theatrical vignettes about an elderly woman and her daughter, who has become the primary family caregiver. The two have a lively relationship filled with daily adventures, frustrations, sarcasm, and deep love. I'm also working on a one-act play about the sudden death of a therapist and the challenges one of her clients faces in the immediate aftermath. The play asks this question: Was there any way to prepare for the possibility of a sudden rupture in the relationship?

KEYWORDS
Farce, Humor, Women, Family, Dysfunctional

PEPPUR CHAMBERS is an international writer/producer/educator. An alum of Moving Arts MADLab, Circle X Emerging Playwrights Group, and current Antaeus Playwrights Lab member, she uses her voice to amplify women’s issues, social justice and love. Her commissioned radio plays The Fire In-Between, (LA’s 1933 Griffith Park fire/Antaeus Theatre Company), End of the Line (human trafficking/Antaeus Theatre company) and The Boll Weevil & Chester Higgensworth (reparations/Lower Depth Theatre) can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. Her most recent play, F/K/A Meridian was a top 15% finalist for the 2022 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and a semi-finalist for the 2021 Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival. Her plays For the Love of You, House Rules, The Build UP, Dick & Jayne Get a Life and one-woman show, Harlem’s Awakening: Storytelling Live have been produced in LA and Prague. A published novella author (Harlem’s Awakening, Harlem's Last Dance), she’s also directed film and theater. Her most recent film (which she also co-wrote/produced), titled Do Something can be found on Tubi.com. As the creator of Brown Betties ™, her women’s empowerment brand, Peppur also strives to teach women how to be. Learn more at penandpeppur.com where she tells stories of heroes, including her own.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://peppurchambers.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/peppur
TW: https://twitter.com/Peppurthehotone
IG: https://www.instagram.com/peppurthehotone

MORE ABOUT ME
One of my most gratifying moments in theater was in 2009 when my friend and I produced my first play in LA. I wrote, co-produced and acted in it. It was titled House Rules about love, respect and Billie Holiday. The last performance was on my birthday; my mom came in from Arizona to watch... she dressed in vintage clothes... the audience sang to me. And someone in the audience said, "This play is as good as anything I've seen on Broadway." That was a beautiful day; and it was at The Lounge Theatre which is no more. Bittersweet. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Radio play, The Boll Weevil & Chester Higgensworth (reparations; comedy); Time Out play about women and NBA dance, releasing my second novel, Harlem's Last Dance, producing a YouTube show with my husband, Her Words His Wine, and writing a site-specific one-woman show on migration for an Arizona-based museum.

KEYWORDS
Radio play, The Boll Weevil & Chester Higgensworth (reparations; comedy); Time Out play about women and NBA dance, releasing my second novel, Harlem's Last Dance, producing a YouTube show with my husband, Her Words His Wine, and writing a site-specific one-woman show on migration for an Arizona-based museum.

Melissa Jordan Grey is a multifaceted artist, entrepreneur, and changemaker based in San Diego, California. A passionate polymath forever locked in a battle between the creative and logical, she tells vibrant stories through music, motion, paint, and pen——weaving pathos with absurdity along the way. A winner of both the 2021 and 2022 International Memoir Writer’s Association’s Memoir Showcases, her original pieces, “Trial and Error” and “A Walk in the Park”, were featured onstage at La Jolla’s Conrad Performing Arts Center. She most recently finished "Cringe", which explores themes of gender expectations, intergenerational language, and the impact of our digital landscape wrapped in a one-hour highbrow comedy.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://www.melissajordangrey.com
TW: @mindsiight
IG: mindsig.ht

MORE ABOUT ME
I feel most like myself when I am creating. It could be composing music, recording a song, performing comedy, painting in my studio, exploring memoir, photographing expected finds, or writing an essay, play or poem. Creativity is my solace, oxygen and hope.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Currently, I am working on a play about the invisibility of women over 40.

KEYWORDS
​Comedy, humor, satire, equality, feminist, musical.

Virginia-born and Chicago-based, Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend is an award-winning playwright, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and President of the Board of Arts For All, a NYC-based nonprofit bringing accessible artistic opportunities to children who face barriers to exploring the arts. She has a BFA in Film & TV from NYU and two kids who are disappointed that she doesn't write plays about dinosaurs.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/38716/lisa-dellagiarino-feriend
FB: Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

MORE ABOUT ME
These times fill me with rage and anxiety, and I imagine that the best way to tell stories right now is through comedy. I've started taking my lectures on topics I feel passionately about and wrapping them in comedy like a heartworm pill in a slice of cheese. It goes down easier, and sometimes folks don't even realize they're being preached to. (And even if they do, it's hard to shut your mind when you're laughing.)

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm currently doing rewrites on my comedy about reproductive rights, "Abort: The Mission," and a gun control comedy is germinating in my head slowly.

KEYWORDS
​Comedy, political, historical, farce, faith-based

Malini Singh McDonald is a native New Yorker who has been involved in the arts for her entire life. She has an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School; an MPA and BA in Theatre Arts and English Literature at Baruch. Select theatre credits include the revival of Godspell (Producer, Broadway Revival); The Colored Museum; The Year of Living Dangerously (Publicist, 54 Below); Whiskey Pants: The Mayor of Williamsburg (Publicist, HERE Arts Center); From Ship to Shape (Publicist, Winner of Two United Solo Awards); The Eternal Space (Associate Producer & Marketing Director, Theatre Row); The Wiz (Director, Matsiko World Orphan Choir, Liberia); Torch Song Trilogy (Director, ATA). Malini is also the founder of Theatre Beyond Broadway which provides a platform to promote and support independent artists beyond the bright lights of Broadway. TBB represents a broad range of artists through producing, publicity, education, an online community and a podcast. She is the Executive Director of Black Henna Productions, a boutique theatre company producing original and classic works throughout the five boroughs. Productions include Deserters (Altered Stages), Naughty Prep School Stories (2006 New York International Fringe Festival), Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet: The Viking Prince of Denmark (NYC Parks). Malini is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. She has collaborated with The Anthropologists, Broadway Artists Connection, Non-Disposable Productions, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Mind the Art Entertainment. Malini has been recognized for her role in the community with the Woman of Distinction Award for her contribution to Media, Arts and Culture from the City of New York. She is also the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer of a NYS agency where she was recently recognized for her dedication to Diversity and Inclusion.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://malinism.com/ and https://theatrebeyondbroadway.com/
FB: Malini S. McDonald
TW: @malinism
IG: @malini_sm

MORE ABOUT ME
Here are two things about me: I believe that everyone has a voice and I advocate for those who have not found theirs yet. Pondering and expressing innovative ways to connect with others has given me the opportunity to advocate for artists through producing and directing. My writing includes my personal narratives on genealogy, epigenetics, a woman’s right to choose, and the intersectionality of being a woman and a woman of color. It also includes the many interviews I have had with artists in the independent, regional, and commercial arenas. This has allowed me to connect with other people on their own journeys. It is also the only reason that I am still doing theatre. When I am not doing theatre or writing, I am of service to my community as needed and wanted.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
During the summer of 2020, amidst the trifecta of social injustice, economic distress and a global health crisis, four friends and artists came together to connect and create. We were already on a personal journey of ancestry but had either paused or hit the proverbial brick wall. However, together we were able to support each other in the exploration of our history through DNA and genealogical research. The four of us identified at that time as Caucasian, African-American, and Indo-Caribbean. During the process, other identifying markers were presented defying these labels. We learned through using the basic principles of genetics and the social structures that our families encountered based upon their DNA that we were not our labels. We were actually more complex people through epigenetics and generational trauma. The themes of the piece are conflict, identity and culture. The overall storyline is about wanting to know where one comes from and from whom one descends.

KEYWORDS
​New Yorker, Indo-Caribbean, Trini-American, Woman of Color, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Interfaith, Gender Parity, International Women Artist, Biographical