Ashley Minihan's plays include Ophelia, The Sunrise Side, The Assistant, Remission, and Freedom. Her work has been produced and developed by the Actors Studio, Arizona Classical Theatre, Fault Line Theatre, the Lark, New Jersey Repertory Company, the New York International Fringe Festival, and Reign or Shine Productions, among others. Ashley was an Edward Albee Foundation Fellow in 2019. Her play The Assistant was featured in Table Works Press’s 2020 Recommended Plays list. She received an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University School of the Arts and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
FB: Ashley Minihan
TW: @Ashley_Minihan
IG: ashley_minihan

MORE ABOUT ME
I saw "Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches" produced by the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island in the spring of 1996. I had just finished my sophomore year of college and was treating myself to a seeing this play that all the smart and cool people from my playwriting classes were saying I should see. My family were regular theatergoers, but our tastes tended to run towards in the direction of musicals, Neil Simon, and A Christmas Carol. I was a child of the Reagan era, and sex, drugs, AIDS, and homosexuality all fell under the vague category of "just say no." Suffice it to say that I'd had a sheltered childhood, but I loved the theater, and being involved in my high school dramatic club had been tremendously therapeutic for me when I was dealing with a debilitating illness. From the moment the play began, I was spellbound by the honesty and courage of Kushner's writing and by the flawed, raw vibrancy of the characters. The intermingling of reality with magic, of the banal and the terrifying and the joyous, all felt the closest to the actual phenomenon of living that I had ever encountered in a theater or any other artistic space, for that matter. When the Angel crashed through Prior's ceiling at the end of Part One, something broke open inside me too, and I have been freer ever since. I will be forever grateful to Tony Kushner and his wonderful characters for showing me what human imagination is capable of. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Freedom- a play about a young secular Jewish college student who participates in the Missisippi Summer Project in 1964 and how her life changes after that summer

KEYWORDS
​Jewish, historical fiction, intersectionality, civil rights, Queer

Susan Lambert Hatem is a writer, producer and director originally from Decatur, GA now based in Pasadena, CA. Her new musical, The Flirt Bar, with songs by Amy Ray (of the Indigo Girls) and indie rocker Michelle Malone is currently in development with the Orchard Project Performance Lab. The President Carter play, Confidence (and The Speech), premiered Off-Broadway at Theatre Row in 2019 and is a SETC Ready To Publish finalist. Through her company, 134 West, Susan develops new works and diverse voices for theatre, film and TV. Favorite projects include including An Appalachian Twelfth Night, Homeward LA, O Baby Mine: Sing a Song of Shakespeare, Ty, The Pie Guy and the critically acclaimed musical Bend in the Road: The Anne of Green Gables Musical. Before starting 134 West, Susan was Director of Creative Content at Walt Disney Studios, producing over 100 digital campaigns, including Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles and The Royal Tennenbaums. She developed the first Disney Pictures mobile site and holds a patent for Disney’s first online entertainment ticketing system. Before Disney, Susan was an independent filmmaker and screenwriter. She served as Associate Editor at Boxoffice Magazine and has written for Variety and Produced By. A Clio and Key Art Award-winner, Susan holds a BA and MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Producer’s Guild, Working Title Playwrights, LAFPI, Honor Roll and ALAP. “Hatem’s actual mission is to take everything we’ve been taught to believe in, everything we take for granted, and stand it on its ear.” – Splash Magazine 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: http://susanlamberthatem.com
TW: https://twitter.com/SusanLambert
IG:https://www.instagram.com/susanlamberthatem
FB: https://www.facebook.com/swoosan/

MORE ABOUT ME
The piece of theatre that changed my life is also my most gratifying moment in theater. I've been lucky to have other moments, but none as precious. I was asked to direct An Appalachian Twelfth Night, adapted by my friend Robert Williams. It was a critical and financial success - but more importantly it was one of those productions which makes you believe in the absolute magic of theatre. I came back for closing night. It was sold out, so I sat on a bucket, squeezed into edge of the balcony of the Globe Playhouse. I could see everything: our incredible cast prepare backstage, perform onstage and could watch the entire audience lose their minds with joy. It was the moment I knew I had to continue to create in theatre as well as film and the moment which set me on an incredible path. I write and produce across a lot of fields, but I feel theatre is more important than ever - I am especially interested in new interpretations of old stories and entirely new stories from traditionally marginalized voices. Almost 20 years ago, I wrote this in the program notes for that show. Stunningly, still how I feel: "Currently in America fear persists, paranoia reigns, darkness rises and we face a world that sometimes feels it may break apart at its economic and political seams at any moment. So what does theatre, or Shakespeare for that matter, have to offer us? Our hope is that art and music can be light in the darkness. And that theatre, as it evolves and grows, can become a vital part of every community and help us find our way in the world --- lifting us up across time to bring diverse peoples to a universal understanding." 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
For 2022: The Flirt Bar, The Perfect Remains and a New Works Festival

KEYWORDS
​Equality, Historical, Adaptations, Climate, Romance, Science Fiction, Musical, Family, Children, Satire, Women, Immersive/site-specific

Tori King Rice is a California-based playwright, teaching artist (Playwrights Project and CoTA) actress, and co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright. She has enjoyed collaborations/productions/readings with Dragon Productions/Dragon Eggs; The Magnetic Theatre; Rainy Day Collective; Scripps Ranch Theatre, New Play Café; San Diego Fringe Festival; SMoCA's Lit Lounge; Spark! Powerhouse Theatre; New Perspective Festival, as well as site-specific and immersive theatre in cafes and courtrooms. Contests: New Village Arts Final Draft New Play Festival (BOX OF TEETH); Scripteaser's Script Tease of Short Plays 2021 (BOX OF TEETH, Honorable Mention), 2019 (DEVIL-IN-A-BOX, First Place) and 2018 (LIKE IVY, First Place); SRT's Out on a Limb 2019 (THE HUNT(s), 2nd place audience favorite) and 2014 (TINY); New Perspective Play Festival  (BOTTLED IN, BABY). SISTERS IN THE SYSTEM, her interactive play of two young women in foster care, was commissioned by Playwrights Project and has been performed at the California Western School of Law courtroom, SDSU, Cal-State San Marcos, San Diego Mesa College, and Palomar College. She is a founding member of the San Francisco-based Club Solo, as well as a former ensemble member of the groups New American Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) and Aurora Mime Theatre (Tempe, AZ). Favorite acting roles include her critically acclaimed one-person show, THE MORE MEN WEIGH (Edmonton Fringe); STRAIGHT TALK (LA, Odyssey Theatre); THE HAMLETMACHINE (ASU and Emporia State University); and STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Winterstock Regional Theatre, AZ, Best Supporting Actress). She has appeared in dozens of commercials and films.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: http://www.toriking.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/tori.rice.543 and https://www.facebook.com/heyplaywright TW: @toririce and @heyplaywright
IG: @kibosh94 and @heyplaywright 

MORE ABOUT ME
My theatre-making explores the connection of the individual to the community, inviting audience and fellow collaborators to challenge beliefs/biases, and seek understanding through the lens of identity, mental health, addiction, social injustice, resilience and hope. Some of my most gratifying moments have been in the classroom. As a teaching artist, I primarily work with individuals impacted by the justice system and seeing them make discoveries about characters and realize their power as playwrights is magic! Other standout moments have come in the rehearsal room, sharing space with other people, creating the community that only theatre can. My heart project is the podcast I co-host with Mabelle Reynoso, Hey Playwright. I love to talk story and process. Having the opportunity for conversations with fantastic theatre-makers, all of those who make the magic happen, is truly a dream come true. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently expanding my 10-minute play, "Box of Teeth," into a full length. 

KEYWORDS
​Thriller, dark comedy, fantasy, satire, family dynamics, addiction, foster care, incarceration, mental health, social injustice, ambiguous loss, immersive/site-specific, neurodiversity, desperation, Bigfoot, mother/daughter, supernatural 

Mabelle Reynoso is a Latinx multidisciplinary storyteller and teaching artist whose work has been performed in traditional and non-traditional theatre spaces, including classrooms, community centers, and correctional facilities. Her art is largely informed by her work with underserved and marginalized populations, including non-English speaking immigrants, expectant teens, foster youth, and justice-involved youth and adults. Mabelle is a recipient of the 2021 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA grant for her play, "¡Lotería: Game On!" and was workshopped at Teatro Bravo in Tempe, Arizona in October 2021. Her play “Remember That Time” about a young girl grappling with her father’s incarceration was performed at the 2021 San Diego Rep Latinx New Play Festival local panel. Her short play, “Better Living Through Albondigas” was featured in “Ofrendas en Pandemia: A Día de Muertos Anthology” – a virtual filmed theatre experience centering Latinx stories in the age of Covid-19 (Tuyo Theatre, 2021). Mabelle penned the script for the San Diego Symphony's 2021 holiday show, Noel Noel. One of Mabelle’s greatest collaborations was “The Scariest Movie” – a 10-minute play she co-authored with her 11-year old son, featured in the anthology “I Have a Story” (Dramatic Publishing, 2021). In addition, Mabelle is a member of TuYo Theatre where she leads Pa' Letras, a workshop for emerging Latinx playwrights. She is also the co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright. Mabelle has a BFA from New York University, an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. Mabelle is a member of the Dramatists Guild, TYA/USA, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She was proudly born in Tijuana, Mexico.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: http://mabellereynoso.com
IG: @mabellodrama

MORE ABOUT ME
My favorite thing to do when I’m not writing is to get people excited about their own writing. That’s why I love being a teaching artist. I especially love working with writers who are new to playwriting, particularly folx who have not had many opportunities to engage with the arts. One of the greatest joys I have experienced has been to bear witness to those moments when a new writer discovers the potential and power in their own words. This is especially powerful when the writers have felt, before that moment, that they did not have anything to say or that nobody cared. When a new writer sees, for the first time, an audience connect with their work – that is pure magic.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently splitting my time between TYA projects and a full-length play for grown-ups, all centering strong Latinx women and girls!

KEYWORDS
​Latinx, Mexican-American, Chicana, holiday, young audiences, TYA

Dr. Hortense Gerardo is a playwright, filmmaker, and anthropologist, and serves as the Director of the Anthropology, Performance, and Technology (APT) Program at the University of California, San Diego. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally, including: LaMama Experimental Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston, the International Performance Art Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Nuit Blanche Festival in Toronto, and The Fence International Playwright Network. Hortense was the Artist-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) where she created the audience-interactive, site-informed play, THE MEDFIELD ANTHOLOGY, and the award-winning documentary films, THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC: A MOTHER’S RECKONING and SMALL STEPS: DANCES OF RESILIENCE, recipient of award for Best Environmental Film at the 2021 Vancouver Independent Film Festival, and Best Dance Film at the 2021 Rome Film Awards. She received a 2021 Artist Fellowship in Dramatic Writing from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Leighton Artist Residency at Banff, and was a Company One Theatre Playlab Unit Playwright, a New World Theatre Masterclass Playwright Fellow, and a Dance Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. She will have a World Premiere of her play, MIDDLETON HEIGHTS in March 2022 by Umbrella Arts Center Dr. Gerardo is a co-founder of the Asian American Playwright Collective (AAPC) and currently serves on the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Council and on the Board of Directors of the Woods Hole Film Festival leading the Screenwriting Competition. Dr. Gerardo received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Anthropology and Performing Arts from Boston University. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://hortensegerardo.com
TW: @hfgerardo
LI: Hortense Gerardo

MORE ABOUT ME
If I could change one “thing” about theater, it would be the perception of it among people outside of the theatre community as a frivolous, expendable, somewhat fusty form of entertainment engaged in by the very wealthy, elite and/or deluded. Of course, this “thing” is a complex, systemic hydra, and addressing its many heads would involve a paradigmatic, cultural shift in the way we perceive the significance of live performance. But some of the answers may lie in the economics of providing theater work that is relevant to diverse audiences, and one way to do that, is to present work by a diversity of writers. There has been a cultural shift in recent years that has allowed a diversity in playwrights’ stories reaching the stage, and this has been very promising. It seems that the “final frontier” of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the theatre has to do with ageism, particularly against women. So I am very thankful for projects like Honor Roll that are raising awareness of the need to produce more stories from this particular demographic not out of a desire to meet quotas, but out of a genuine recognition of the relevance of stories from people with lived experience. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I’m always juggling several projects in different media at once, for better or worse. Right now I’m: 1. Writing a dramedy TV pilot 2. Revising a commissioned full-length work 3. Editing a short documentary film about an anthropology fieldwork project 4. Storyboarding a new media project based on an ancient text 

KEYWORDS
​Asian American Pacific Islander, Comic Tragedy, Tragicomedy, New Media, Site-informed Work, Allegory, Metaphor Social Consciousness

Jan Probst is an actor, writer, and filmmaker. Striving to put women’s issues center stage, she jumped headfirst onto the stage in 1976, as a writer-performer and founding member of The Whole Works Women’s Theater Collective. A decade later, she combined art forms with the performance troupe Streetwise Women’s Martial Arts Theater. Her plays have been on stage at numerous venues in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the Midwest and Alaska, and have recently reached a broader audience via publication and online production. Nearest to her heart, was her mother playing the lead in a reading of her play The First Page, at a retirement center in Indiana. Jan has been an Artist in Residence at Z Space Studios, Playwright of the Month at Off-Market Theater, guest artist for the ATHE Annual Conference, and while earning her MFA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University, she was a national finalist for the American College Theater Festival. In 2021, after a pandemic cancellation, her play Bird on a Tree Branch premiered online via zoom production by Phoenix Arts Association, received commendation from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and is now published by Next Stage Press. As a longtime member of Barewitness Films, an award-winning film company, Jan has helped create several short films, shot script-less from improv. In addition to Honor Roll, Jan is a member of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, Theatre Bay Area, Theatre Communications Group, Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://newplayexchange.org/users/27880/jan-probst
FB: https://www.facebook.com/janny.probst/
IG: @pratsis

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in theater was at the Valdez Theatre Conference in 2019. My play Road Trip closed the show for the Ten-Minute Play Slam, and the audience laughed long and hard. I was on stage reading stage directions and was in such shock at the end of the play, I nearly forgot to join the other playwrights for our final bow. I strive to broaden my playing field as I tell stories in these challenging times. I had to be convinced something good could happen when my world stage premiere became a zoom production instead. And good things did happen! While I look forward to fully returning to the stage, I am exploring radio plays and podcasts as storytelling mediums. And I will continue to write older women characters. They have a lot to say.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Given my comments above, I might want to focus on comedy! And we certainly could use some laughs. I am exploring a historical character, and continuing my love affair with ten-minute plays. Who doesn't have a short attention span?

KEYWORDS
​plays, radio plays, social commentary, historical play, women of color, older women, disability, comedy

Mary Goggin (actor, writer, self-producer) AEA-DG-SAG/AFTRA award winning solo show “Runaway Princess, a hopeful tale of heroin, hooking and happiness” Wrote the spellbinding, riveting, autobiographical Runaway Princess (directed by Dan Ruth) in 2017. Her gut told her of her responsibility to use talent and bravery to tell it and use it for the good. A survivor of alcoholism, heroin, meth addiction, prostitution, domestic violence and the horror and shame of being incapable of caring for her baby she provides hope, and takes us on a spellbinding journey to humanity. The mission being to normalize emotions. Her story has been impacting audiences with its universal message of empowerment. Runaway Princess has been accepted into 12 play festivals in 3 years’ time, has performed over 50 performances worldwide (including Ireland), and garnered rave reviews, winning several awards.” Her parents emigrated from Ireland to the Bronx, she is a successful NY actor for 25 years. www.marygoggin.com and sober for 34. Her favorite roles include “Ella O’Neill” (mother of Eugene O’Neill) in Ann Hansen’s “Road to Babylon,” in the Broadway Bound Festival. A joy being directed by Cyndy Marion in numerous Tennessee Williams works: Cavalier for M’Lady, Clothes for A Summer Hotel and A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot. Mary appeared in PB & J for the NY Fringe Festival and Born to be Blue, a winner in the Samuel French Festival. Her favorite TV roles include spots in Broad City, Law and Order, Guiding Light, The Grind (Amazon). Favorite film roles include Little Children, MAD? The Trouble with Bliss, Gasoline, Bronx Paradise. The recent winner of Best Actress Award. The NJ Freeway Film Festival for her role I Reservations”, a film by Jeanine Flynn, directed by Neal Hemphill. Mary also uses the Show to raise Awareness of Human Trafficking, utilizing powerful talkbacks. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: http://runawayprincessplay.com
Facebook: Runawayprincessplay
Twitter: @marypat218
Instagram: marypat218-runawayprincess

MORE ABOUT ME
As a former black sheep telling my side of the story is gratifying. I feel most myself when, after a performance of Runaway Princess, audience members approach me with their their secrets. "I worked in a brothel, I am in the life, I drank when I was pregnant, My baby was taken away, I am a battered woman." It is an honor.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Edinburgh 2022, raising awareness booking shows, kicking some ass

KEYWORDS
​stigma; addiction; irishfamine; domestic violence; humantrafficking; recovery; empowerment; humanity; bullying; normalizeemotions

Louise Schwarz is a New York-based, Virginia-raised playwright and educator. Her plays have been produced and developed all over the country, including The Fair Hope Memorial (Mark Taper Forum, Stage Left Theatre, Pandora’s Box PlayRites of Spring Festival, Horizon Theatre’s New South for the New Century Festival, Trilogy Theatre), August November (Pulse Ensemble Theatre), After Wednesday (New York International Fringe Festival/Theatre for the New City, Neo Pack Productions/Trilogy Theatre), This Is Not A Project (Railroad Playhouse, Producer’s Club), Floor Show In The Sweet Life (Cherry Lane Alternative, Oscar Hammerstein Center, New Perspectives Theatre, recipient of the John Golden Award), The Nostalgia Cure (Railroad Playhouse Annual One-Act Festival), Pluses and Minuses (ANDTheatre’s Eclectics Festival, Playwrights’ Round Table Summer Shorts Festival), Like A Glove (RAL Productions/Museum of Sex), Next Time On Spring Valley (ESPA Drills/Primary Stages), Why Summer Is A Lie (Dramatists Guild Friday Night Footlights), The Tragicomedie of Antony and Cleo (Shakespeare on the Sound Short Play Festival), She’s Got A Nice One (Rainy Day Artistic Collective), among others. Her monologues and ten-minute plays have also been seen at dozens of festivals and late-night pub showcases, and her short play Into the Confines of Paradise is published with Smith Scripts UK.

Fellowships and residencies include Blue Mountain Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Railroad Playhouse, the Hambidge Center, and the Edward Albee Foundation. She has taught playwriting at Oklahoma State University and at Hofstra University, and headed the Theatre Department at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center where she taught, wrote, and directed for ten summers. She was an instructor and the coordinator of Project Playwright at Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vermont, and is a member of the Dramatists' Guild. M.F.A. Playwriting, Columbia University.  B.A. Drama, University of Georgia.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://louiseschwarz.org
FB: https://www.facebook.com/louiseschwarz
TW: @LouiseSchwarz1

MORE ABOUT ME
My favorite thing to do when I'm not writing is obsess over other stories. Plays, novels, TV shows, nonfiction essays, documentaries, films, the stories of songs or history, the way people informally tell their own stories, and how to draw out people's stories directly from the source.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently working on a play about a group of therapists who share a practice, compete for clients and clout, and take their work home with them in dark (and hilarious) ways.

KEYWORDS
Lesbian, Queer, Equality, satire, tragicomedy, mystery, dark comedy, dramedy, bisexual, female adolescence

Stephanie Satie is an actor/playwright who often writes plays that explore the way refugees and immigrants respond to disruption and relocation. She’s written and performed three critically acclaimed solo plays – “Refugees,” published by Samuel French, “Silent Witnesses,” based on interviews with child survivors of the Holocaust (multiple award winner) and “Coming to America,” monologues of 10 women asylum seekers. Other plays include “Leon’s Dictionary,” that was a semifinalist in 2006 at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and a finalist at Ashland’s New Play Festival, Icicle Creek and the Princess Grace Award. It is set in the early 1990s in Ukraine as the Soviet Union crumbles. Stephanie divides her time between writing and performing. Other plays include “Say Goodnight George – the Final Episode,” inspired by George Burns and Gracie Allen, and a departure from her usual subjects. Her most recent play is “The Martyr of Moscow,” propelled by the assassination of independent Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya.

During the pandemic, she completed a quasi-memoir, “Postcards from the Old Country, Brooklyn,” several essays and stories that appeared in anthologies, and wrote a short film that was a semi-finalist at the Prague short film festival, “Ukrainian Railroad Ladies Waiting for the Call,” and a short play that will be read in March in N.Y.C. by Women in the Arts and Media Coalition.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.stephanie@refugeestheplay.com
https://www.facebook.com/silentwitnessesthesoloplay
facebook.com/stephanie.satie
@stephsatie
@comingtoamericasoloplay

MORE ABOUT ME
As I’ve been going to the theatre since I was a very young girl, I think seeing “West Side Story” first blew me away. Then several years later, maybe just a few years after my father had died, I saw George C. Scott in Death of a Salesman and found myself lost in grief, remorse as animal noises burst out of me. Then seeing Helen Mirren, Joan Plowright and Frank Finley in the Seagull my first time in London. I think seeing For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf changed the way I saw theatre, what was possible how one could merge movement and words in a new way. And Company – how could he say those things we all feel? How audacious.

I think I overcome disappointment by returning to the work, whether it’s acting or writing or getting deliciously lost in research for a new project.

My favorite thing to do when I’m not writing is studying other languages and traveling and of course, visiting my friends, the paintings in museums all over the world. I also love hiking with my husband and our dog and going to see theatre, film and dance.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A Flamenco-Jewish tragic love story

KEYWORDS
solo plays, documentary theatre, refugee and immigrant women, Jewish, Russian interest

Aleta Barthell is a playwright/screenwriter/teacher.  Aleta is the recipient of a grant from California Humanities for a project called SAVING STORIES: A Toolkit in the Age of Covid-19. Her play, WINDOW OF SHAME, was a finalist for the 2021 National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center. The same play was also a finalist for the 2016 HUMANITAS/CTG Playwriting Prize. Her play, NIGHT WITCHES: Flight into Fantasy, was a part of the New Village Arts Theatre’s “2019 Final Draft Festival.”

Aleta is currently developing a television series about the 12th century queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for which she received a grant to study source material in Paris through the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Aleta is a teaching artist with Playwrights Project and founder of the youth theater education program, Kids Act, at New Village Arts Theatre.

She holds a Bachelor in Science from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and has trained at British American Drama Academy (Oxford, England); and Shakespeare and Company (Lenox, MA). She studied playwriting and screenwriting at UCSD.

Aleta serves as an Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild in San Diego.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.aletabarthell.com

MORE ABOUT ME
I have to say that the last project that I worked on, SAVING STORIES, has felt like an endeavor where I “met the moment” of our time through my work. I received a grant from California Humanities to interview individuals isolated in assisted and skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic. I was able to hire four other writers to do the work with me. The writers created a monologue based on those interviews. We had professional actors perform the pieces virtually via Zoom and we shared them through New Village Arts Theatre's Virtual Arts Program.

A member of our team had been a hospital chaplain for years. He talked about the significance of allowing someone to voice the meaning of their life through this process. This is indeed what happened. We had a Black woman with dementia who was able to talk about her life and family's struggle during the Civil Rights Movement with absolute clarity. We had a woman who thanked us for bringing her story to life and told us that many people in her facility treated her with more respect having learned about her life and accomplishments. I also had a writer turn in her finished monologue to me on a Tuesday, and we learned that following Wednesday that her storytelling partner had died. The family was so grateful to have that memory of their mother and grandmother.

We all felt so honored to have these storytellers share themselves with us in this project. It also provided such a meaningful way for various artists to use their talents to connect with their community during this time.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I've been commissioned to write a play, a comedy, for eight actors over the age of 60 and it's an absolute blast! I'm calling it THE DOWAGERS.

KEYWORDS
Political, Supernatural, Historical, Pandemic, Fable/folktales, Young Audiences, Horror