Laura Annawyn Shamas was born in Oklahoma, and has lived in Tulsa, Denver, and Los Angeles (and a few other places in between). She writes in multiple genres: theatre, non-fiction, fiction, and film. Her multicultural background includes Chickasaw, English, French, Irish, Lebanese, and Scottish heritage. She is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation.
Her Ph.D. is in Mythological Studies. Her dissertation “'We Three': The Mythology of Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters,” was published in 2007. Her recent comments on trinitarian witch archetypes in pop culture were quoted in Bitch Media’s Monster Issue (Winter 2021) in Rebecca Long’s article: “Witching Hour: Divine Sisterhood Has Always Come in Threes.” Laura Shamas’ many plays include: CIRCULAR, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adaptation), PORTRAIT OF A NUDE, LADY-LIKE, CHASING HONEY, THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE, AMELIA LIVES, and WUTHERING (a new adaptation of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights). CIRCULAR was part of Spooky Action Theater’s 2020 New Works In Action Series. Her piece FOUR WOMEN IN RED was part of Native Voices 2020 Short Play Festival in November, 2020; an expanded new version will be performed by Transformation Theater in November 2021. From 2018 - 2019, Shamas was one of four playwrights in residence at AlterLab of AlterTheater (San Francisco Bay area), which produced CIRCULAR in 2019. In 2017, Shamas won the Von Marie Atchley prize for Excellence in Playwriting from Native Voices at the Autry (Los Angeles) for her short play SEEDS. In 2021, she’s an Associated Playwright at Native Voices, and an Ensemble Member at Alter Theater. Current Memberships: WGAw, Dramatists Guild, ICWP, LPTW. WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.laurashamas.com TW: @LauraShamas MORE ABOUT ME What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?* Hiking on the central coast of California. It's so restorative. I love whale watching, otter gazing, seal spotting, and listening to the waves in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. I especially enjoy visiting an elephant seal rookery there. Maybe some day I can become a volunteer docent. WHAT I'M WORKING ON An expanded version of FOUR WOMEN IN RED, turning one of my plays into a novel, and a screenplay. KEYWORDS mystery, thriller, political, nature, animals, equality, climate, environmental, historical, adaptations, fable/folktales, satire, biography, science fiction, musical, period, Young audiences, indigenous, Arab-American (Updated 4/17/2024) Lori M. Myers is an award-winning writer of creative nonfiction, fiction, and plays, a Pushcart Prize nominee, Broadway World Award nominee, and a Women in Communications award winner. She is also a professional director and actress. Lori holds a MA in creative writing (fiction and plays) from the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program (where she studied with playwright Jean Klein) in Wilkes Barre, PA and studied theater at Villanova University in Philadelphia, PA. She has studied technique with playwright Jeffrey Sweet and teaches playwriting/screenwriting at Dominican College and St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York. Her Holocaust play 91366 was produced at The Venue in Norfolk, VA. She is the author of six children's musicals performed at Gretna Theatre in PA and five 10-minute plays produced by Gaslight Theatre Company in Kingston, PA. Her play Mirror, Mirror was given a New York premiere by the Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company. A 21st Century Christmas Carol, Lori's adaptation of the Dickens classic and published by Pioneer Drama, has been produced in the United States, Canada, and abroad. Other publishers of her work include Dramatic Publishing and Blue Moon Plays. Lori's 10-minute play Sight Unseen garnered second place at the Minnesota Short Play Festival. She is also the creator/producer of That's (Not) All She Wrote, a festival at Westchester Collaborative Theater featuring women playwrights over 40. Lori is an adjunct professor of writing, literature, and playwriting in New York. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, and Westchester Collaborative Theater in NY.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.lorimmyersauthor.com FB:https://www.facebook.com/groups/LoriMMyers, FB: https://www.facebook.com/LoriMMyersauthorplays TW: @LoriMMyers IG: @lorimyers316 MORE ABOUT ME I've been fortunate to have had numerous moments in the theater which have been gratifying both on stage and off. As an actor, I've performed the very difficult lead role in the show Extremities, about a threatened rape. For research, I did an interview with one of the first rape victims in this country who took her attacker to court and publicly testified. I remember her courage in giving me the details I requested so that I could lend truth to that performance. It must have paid off. Rehearsals were difficult, and I ended up with various bruises which didn't disappear for months. I recall after one particular performance, one male audience member stopped me to say "I wanted to rush up on that stage and help you!" That's how real it was for him. As a playwright, I've been most gratified when the actors "get it." When the voices that were in my head when I wrote it are the same voices I hear when it's finally staged. I'm gratified when the director is imaginative and insightful enough to make my play better in some way, yet respectful enough to make sure all the words and intentions are honored. A creative person can't ask for more than that. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I'm currently working on a full length for which I've commissioned an original song. It's sort of about the present colliding with the past; science-fictiony in a sense, dramatic, devastating. Appropriate for the times in which we now live. KEYWORDS Jewish, Holocaust, Comedy, Drama, Dark Comedy, Children, Horror, Political, Women, LGBTQ, musical, Young Audiences, Holiday, Romance Originally trained as an actor, Brooke began performing her own work on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before receiving formal training in playwriting from the Juilliard School and Maria Irene Fornes. Her play HUNTING & GATHERING, which premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Brooke’s play A MODEL CITY was runner-up for the Trish Vradenburg prize and developed with Leigh Silverman for Stacey Mindich Productions.
Brooke's plays have been produced and developed at theaters including: Steppenwolf, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, Naked Angels, MCC, Primary Stages, The Humana Festival, and The Bay Area Playwrights Foundation. Internationally, her work has been developed at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre Studio and Pentabus and produced at Red Stitch Theatre in Australia. As a filmmaker, Brooke wrote and directed UGGS FOR GAZA which premiered at the Aspen International ShortsFest where it won Audience Special Recognition. ALL SAINTS DAY, a short film Brooke wrote, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Brooke adapted her play SMASHING for Natalie Portman and has written features for The Mark Gordon Company, Vox Films and Fugitive. She is currently in development for two features: RAMONA AT MIDLIFE and POLLY FREED. PF was developed at New York Stage and Film’s Screenwriters Lab and selected as part of the MOME inaugural finance lab for female filmmakers and NYWIFT From Script to Preproduction lab. PF has made it to “second round” for Sundance Screenwriting Labs two years in a row and won Best Screenplay at the Toronto Independent Film Festival in 2020. Brooke is the author of three nonfiction books including the memoir, No Place Like Home, published by Random House. Education: The Juilliard School.Barnard College. Alumna: New Dramatists. WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.brookeberman.net FB: brooke.berman TW:@berman_brooke IG:brookebermannyc MORE ABOUT ME I got chills watching a production of Irene Fornes's MUD in 1988 starring Lili Taylor. I wasn't yet a writer. But this was the first step in becoming one. Similarly, I was thrilled by the NYU Grad School production of ANGELS IN AMERICA and by watching solo work -- Holly Hughes's Meat, Spalding Gray's Monster In A Box, John Leguizamo's SpicORama. I wanted to do that. And so I did. WHAT I'M WORKING ON Setting up an indie feature, Ramona At Midlife, about a middle aged working mom and writer who discovers that she and her work are the subject of a male filmmaker's new project. KEYWORDS feminist, Jewish, romance, screenwriter, satire, female friendship, women over 40, young women finding a voice Janis Butler Holm has served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems, and performance pieces have appeared in small-press, national, and international magazines. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA https://www.janisbutlerholm.com FB: janisbutlerholm MORE ABOUT ME When I'm not writing, I'm marketing my work. The competition is fierce, but I've been very lucky. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I'm currently working on collaborative videos, contributing my sound poems to work by visual artists and musicians. KEYWORDSExperimental, Satire, Political, Author, Playwright, Short Plays, Monologues The daughter of Congolese immigrant father Guyanese immigrant mother, June Carryl grew up in Montbello in Northeast Denver, Colorado. She studied Political Science and English Literature at Brown University. June's plays include CONSORTIUM (LDTE BIPOC Short Plays), TOW (Coerage Theatre Company'a NOMAD Project), and THE GOOD MINISTER FROM HARARE (ADAA Saroyan/Paul Award). A director and actor as well her recent directing credits include Chandra Thomas' Untitled Circus Play and Phanesia Pharel's BLACK GIRL JOY (Echo Theater Company's Young Playwrights) and Jaisey Bates' WHEN WE BREATHE (Vagrancy Theatre's Blossoming Project); favorite acting roles include Frauleing Schneider (CABARET, Celebration Theatre), Gerty Fail (FAILURE: A LOVE STORY, Coeurage Theatre), the Nurse (ROMEO AND JULIET, A Noise Within), Camille Bell (MINDHUNTER, Netflix) and Dr. Louise Hastings (Hulu's HELSTROM).
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.jcarryl.com FB: June Audrey Carryl Lomena IG: @junecarryl MORE ABOUT ME What was your most gratifying moment in the theater?* My most gratifying moment in the Theatre remains being onstage during JULIUS CAESAR (I was playing Cassius) and watching the white handkerchief an actor accidentally dropped. This was a on a black stage in a microscopic black box and no one had picked it up for ages. So during my speech to Antony (it was the meeting prior to battle) who was wearing war paint I wandered over, squatted and picked it up and offered it to him to clean his face. My friend Rhonda said all she could think about was how are they going to deal with it and that it meant something to her that I did and made it the story. What play or production changed your life?* When I was in third grade my school went to Denver Center to see THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Katherina was wearing this long blood red gown. I sort of understood it, but I thought, "People DO this?!?" It would be years before I got brave enough to pursue it, but my brain was cracked wide open. How do you overcome disappointment?* I don't know that I do deal with disappointment. It's just not a luxury for me. I finally learned to keep it moving. I used to pillory myself for every failure and I still get deeply fixated on things--failures with people mostly. Everything else? Meh. Keep it moving. If you could bring one change to theater, what would it be?* More black and brown people, especially women telling our stories. What do you want artistic directors to know?* Get used to discomfort. People of color live with it all day every day. It's your turn. What’s the one thing nobody knows about you that you’d like them to know?* I still want to play Hamlet someday--like do the whole play. What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?* My favorite thing when I'm not writing is watching THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL. Why do you keep doing theater?* I keep doing theater because there is just so much to say that gets lost when you're talking through a TV screen or a projector. How do you imagine telling stories in these times? * I can't think how one wouldn't imagine telling stories in these times. There is literally everything still to say and everything on the line. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I am currently working on a new play for the Vagrancy's Blossoming Development program. KEYWORDS BIPOC, dark comedy, fables, Young Audiences, drama (updated 5/24/2024) Germaine Shames, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Nat’l Fellow, Kilroys List playwright, and recipient of her state’s Literary Fellowship in Fiction, is author of the award-winning novels, Between Two Deserts and You, Fascinating You. Writing under the pen name Casper Silk (Hotel Noir, Echo Year), she has been compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, and P.D. James “on steroids”. After covering world conflicts as a correspondent and witnessing firsthand the gamut of senseless tragedies behind the headlines, she realized that hard news could never convey an iota of the deeper story she was gleaning. She turned to fiction writing, learning that she can find light in the most horrific situations and leave readers (and now an audience) with hope. As a playwright, Shames has celebrated premieres across the U.S. as well as abroad and been recognized in a number of festivals, including Women’s Voices 2024, Fulton Theatre’s Stories of Diversity 2023, Pegasus Theatre’s Fresh Reads 2023 (First Place), Page to Stage 2023, ThinkTank TYA’s inaugural Playwrights Festival, Cimientos 2019, and Festival of New American Theatre 2018. As a librettist-lyricist, Shames collaborates with world-class composers in musical theatre, opera, choral and popular music. Her eco-opera The Bird Lady previewed in 2021 at the National Opera Center. Her immigration musical, Capri, won Skyline Theatre’s new musical search and was their singular offering at the 2022 NJ Theatre Alliance Festival. In 2019 and 2020 respectively, Theatre Elision produced her musicals If the Spirit Moves and The Manifesto. Later this year, she looks forward to the NYC concert premiere of her operatic Edith Wharton adaptation, In Venice. Shames holds a Master’s in Intercultural Studies. She writes from a global perspective with the conscious aim of fostering interethnic, intergenerational and cross-gender understanding. It’s all about love
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA https://germainewrites.wixsite.com/buzz FB: @germaine.shames TW: @GermaineWrites MORE ABOUT ME As a former novelist, story is at the core of all I create. I write listening for the still, small voice and trust it to deliver a message at once gut-honest and ennobling. I tell stories that open hearts and minds, make issues achingly and inescapably personal, and don’t let go. This has been true the whole of my writing career, whether reporting from a combat zone, crafting a song, or writing for the screen. Theatre has given me a creative home and caring community where I may realize my vision of a possible world. Nothing stirs me as deeply as the current of shared excitement that runs through a live audience when a play, musical or opera is working its magic. WHAT I'M WORKING ON A play about three generations of women who stake their all on the fast-receding hope that the youngest among them, rendered paraplegic by a deadly explosion, might one day rise from her wheelchair and dance; a musical that explores anthropologist Margaret Mead's maiden voyage to Samoa though a post-Colonial lens; a Holocaust-themed opera celebrating the power of a remarkable interfaith friendship... I could go on. The well is deep. KEYWORDS social justice, environmental justice, musical, opera, site-specific, historical, adaptation, coming-of-age, coming-to-terms with age, gender parity, strong women's roles, over-40 roles, multicultural, family, political, female friendship, animal rights, women in science, life affirming Diana Yanez is the creator, co-writer and co-star of the Off-Broadway hit LATINA CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. This masterful retelling of family antics around the holidays has been chosen as Los Angeles Times "Critic's Choice" since its inception in 2015. Her first one-woman show, VIVA LA EVOLUCIÓN, about growing up Cuban and queer in Miami, won the New York International Fringe Festival “Overall Excellence Award for Solo Show” in 2010. With co-writer, Marjorie Duffield (Netflix OVER THE MOON) she wrote, performed and produced THE PIP AND PEN SHOW, a YouTube micro-series. It’s the feel-good middle-aged lesbian almost British comedy you’ve been waiting for! She has appeared on TV shows including CRIMINAL MINDS, THE SHIELD, BOSTON LEGAL, and many more. As a comic and comedy writer, Diana has created characters as well as performed and written for Margaret Cho's SENSUOUS WOMAN SHOW Off-Broadway. She toured with Cyndi Lauper on the TRUE COLORS TOUR as a comic, writer, and performer. She has created original characters that are in various viral videos including SPANISH FOR YOUR NANNY, LET ME BORROW THAT TOP (with Liam Sullivan) and MY PUSS (with Margaret Cho). Together these videos represent over 30 million views. A writer and out stand-up comic, Diana has performed at The Groundlings, The Improv, The Comedy Store and many others. Her improv groups include THE GAY MAFIA, COMEDY SMASH, and QUEER ON YOUR FEET. Diana hails from Miami, Florida (the "Other Cuba") and is first generation Cuban-American. She studied Fine Art in Berlin, Germany and is fluent in three languages. A passionate storyteller and performer, Diana intends that her pieces shed light on the universal truths of being human, regardless of one's color, gender, heritage or sexual orientation.
SAG-AFTRA Dramatist Guild WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA https://www.dianayanez.com FB: dianayanezshow TW: @dianayanezshow IG: @dianayanezshow MORE ABOUT ME “Ironically, some of my happiest childhood memories often started with a bad dream. I’d have one, wake up and go to my parents bedroom. ‘I had a nightmare,’ I would tell them. Every single time, Mom and Dad would make space for me on their bed. They would embrace me and then set about calming me down. Naturally and without judgement or pressure, in the most genuine and vulnerable way, my parents would share with me the stories and tall tales of their lives before I came along. I was always completely amazed, transported and ultimately soothed back to sleep. I know that when I told them I wanted to pursue a creative career that it scared them but little did they know it was those very stories that inspired me to pursue the magic they had shown me.” WHAT I'M WORKING ON LATINA CHRISTMAS SPECIAL continues to grow and glow. Now available as a downloadable audio album, it is quickly becoming a tradition for many Latino, as well as non-Latino families. Please visit www.LatinaChristmasSpecial.com for more info and show dates. In process: the stage play, THE DEUCE. It’s 1987. Ariana, a big haired loud-mouthed Cuban-American from New Jersey and Gustavo, a cute gay Puerto Rican with a secret meet at a legendary dive bar in Miami Beach. Despite all their experience partying, nothing has prepared them for what happens at this bar when it closes. In process: the feature-length screenplay co-written with Marjorie Duffield (Netflix OVER THE MOON), SCARY-ETTA. When Etta decides she must liquidate her famous horror-movie-star’s estate in Iceland, a stranger and her son arrive claiming to be her long lost Latino family - and by the way, they’re on the run from notorious cartel boss. It’s ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS meets ADDAMS FAMILY with a spicy splash of JANE THE VIRGIN. KEYWORDS Latina, Latinx, Latino, Comedy, Comic, Cuban, Miami, Florida, LA, NYC, Speaker, Storyteller, feminist, LGBTQIA, Lesbian, Queer, Family, Anti-Racist, Diversity Marjorie Duffield is a lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter. She is one of the songwriters on OVER THE MOON, an animated feature-length musical from Netflix/Pearl Studios, written by Audrey Wells (THE HATE U GIVE, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN) and directed by Oscar winner and Disney Legend Glen Keane (October 2020). As a writer for the stage, her play ICE ISLAND: THE WAIT FOR SHACKLETON was produced off-Broadway by The Melting Pot Theatre Company. She wrote book and lyrics for SIT-IN AT THE FIVE & DIME with composer Janice Lowe (New Harmony Project, Voice & Vision, Dixon Place), LUCKY HANS (White Bird Productions, music by Danny Ashkenasi), CYBER-ALICE (Lincoln Center Directors Lab at HERE, music by Sunmee Cho), IN A LAKE OF FIRE (Williamstheatre, music by Greg Pliska – Winner, Moss Hart Award and Finalist, Richard Rodgers Awards), TIT TALES, A BODY POLITICS CABARET (WOW Café and Williamstheatre, music by Greg Pliska), PRESENTING OLIVIA JAMESON (music by Robert Waldman), and lyrics for SOMEDAY (music by Chris Curtis). Other plays include ON THE ROAD TO LAST CHANCE (Theatre 333, Dixon Place) and FEVER (Women’s Project & Productions at La Mama Galleria). Screen credits include the feature-length screenplay for BETTERTHANDEAD (2012), and episodes of the TV series CAGED (2016). With Diana Yanez, she wrote the feature-length screenplay SCARY-ETTA and created the comedic web series, PIP AND PEN SHOW. She also directed Diana’s solo piece VIVA LA EVOLUCION (Time Out NY Critics’ Pick – 2010 New York International Fringe Festival). Marjorie is a graduate of Williams College and a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll!, and Society of Composers and Lyricists. She received an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where she was a Jacob Javits Fellow. She was also a recipient of the Dramatist Guild’s Jonathan Larson Memorial Musical Theatre Fellowship.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA http://www.marjorieduffield.com FB: Marjorie Duffield IG: @MarjorieDuffield TW: @MargieWrites MORE ABOUT ME How do you overcome disappointment?* Chardonnay. If you could bring one change to theater, what would it be? * Radical diversity and radical joy. What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?* I love planting, tending flowers, and growing seasonal vegetables – especially lettuces in my ½ wine barrel “salad bowl.” When gardening is out of season, I watch the sky, the moon, and the changing daylight as much as possible…and our cats of course. Why do you keep doing theater?* As Dietrich sang, “can’t help it….” I feel most like myself when…* writing lyrics or pointed dialogue. The journey of life seems to be that you don’t feel like yourself more and more often – so it is wonderful when your characters feel like you. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I am currently working on the lyrics and story of an adaptation of Jean Renoir's film FRENCH CAN CAN with Chris Curtis and Poppy Burton-Morgan, and the libretto of VIRAL with Xander Green. KEYWORDS Storyteller, Musicals, Songs, Plays, Adaptations, Queer, Lesbian, Anti-Racist, Diversity, Feminist, Family, Friendship, Film, Historical, Comedy, Young Audiences, NYC, LA, Tucson, Nature-Lover, Animals. Gina Schien is an Australian playwright whose work has been produced in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, New York, Chicago and Italy as well as the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals in the UK. Full-length plays include RELATIVE COMFORT (New Theatre, Sydney; Bailiwick Theater, Chicago); MORGAN STERN (Belvoir St, Sydney; Edinburgh Fringe) and A POISON CROWN – THE TRIALS OF LOUISA COLLINS (Rocks Discovery Museum, Sydney).
Honors include a MacDowell Fellowship and an Australian Writers Guild award for her radio play THE CLERK ASCENDING. Gina directed, performed in and produced her one-woman comedy THE PUNTER’S SIREN in 2020 at the Adelaide Fringe. She probably won't wear those three hats again though, thanks very much all the same. Gina had written a novel and short stories but was inspired to start writing plays at the age of 38. Now at 60, she’s trying to maintain the rage on stage. Her writing has been described by critics as ‘wonderful, poetic and beautiful’ and ‘side-splittingly funny’. WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA @Ginaschien MORE ABOUT ME I feel most like myself when I ….* When I’m completely unsure. What was your most gratifying moment in the theater?* When I first heard an audience laugh at a joke I’d written. Who does not feel loved in that second? Why do you keep doing theater?* Because sometimes, just sometimes, when I’m watching a performance, every word in that script and every actor and every moment becomes one beautiful flowing thing. And it might be during a play of mine or a play written by someone else. I’m feeling that flow and thinking, ‘ah, yes, that’s why we write this stuff!’. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I’m trying to write funny again, after this quite extraordinary year of fire, floods and virus. But how to make it feel relevant? I love humour as a guerrilla tactic - a kind of gentle grenade. You can sneak in the hard stuff while the audience enjoys the gags (hopefully). Then later they might think, 'hang on a second...' KEYWORDS Love, environment, lesbian, Gothic, humour, thriller, music. I use my platform as a Creative to publicly serve human transformation, to inspire social change, and to raise awareness through entertainment.
Plays include DANCING ON EGGSHELLS (The Billie Holiday Theatre); PEOLA'S PASSING (Samuel French Off Off Broadway Theatre Festival; New Perspectives Theatre Company; Festival de Teatro Alternativo, Bogota, Colombia); WHEN NIGHT FALLS (Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist; Developed at Rising Circle Theater Collective/INKtank Play Development Lab); GOLD STAR MOTHER (EstroGenius Festival); Ascension (National Black Theatre Festival; New York International Fringe Festival); THUNDER: A MUSICAL MEMOIR (New York International Fringe Festival); NIGHTFALL (The Fire This Time Festival); ROME IN LOVE (48 Hours in…Harlem, The National Black Theatre); FREEDOM SUMMER (World Premiere-North Carolina Black Repertory Company); IN THIS LIFE (in development) ; WHAT IF...? (Conch Shell Productions; The Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival); ROSES OF THE WILLAMETTE: A MUSICAL (in development). Awards and honors include: Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Playwriting Conference (Semi-finalist); The Rivers Writers Unit at The Lark; Playwrights of Color Summit/Quick Silver Theater Company; Rising Circle Theater Collective/INKTank Residency; AUDELCO Award for Excellence in Black Theatre (Nominee); Final Forty Playwright, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play (Finalist); Tribeca All-Access Open Stage Inaugural award winner; Best New Play IRNE (Nominee); Thomas Barbour Memorial Playwright’s Award (Finalist). Publications include : SHE PERSISTED. Monologues from Plays by Women Over 40 (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books); The Book of Estrogenius 2012: A Celebration of Female Voices (Gold Star Mother). I serve as Co-director of The Fire This Time New Works Lab, am a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., and Honor Roll. WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA https://www.cynthiagracerobinson.com/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/crobinsonwilliams/ TW: @CynGRobinson IG: @cynthiarobinson MORE ABOUT ME My favorite thing to do when I'm not writing, (no matter what season), is to be at the ocean. Sitting quietly at the water's edge, inhaling the salt-filled air, listening to waves crashing and seagulls "mewing" in the distance brings me tremendous peace and clarity. I keep doing theater and telling stories because it reminds me of my own humanity. My creative life serves me in so many vital ways that are invisible through my public persona. My mother raised me with the belief that everyone needs to have something in their life that is just for them. She said that no matter what I do in life, I need to "keep something for myself,” something that is dear to my heart, fills my spirit, and brings me joy and satisfaction. My mother believed that it should be something that grows you as a human being, that does not require accolades, and that I value even when no one is looking. Writing is that "thing" for me. I feel most like myself when I am working on a creative piece, or writing in my journal, or composing a letter to a friend. I try not to think about the future of the words I've composed. The process of writing is nourishment for me to keep going...and it gives me HOPE. WHAT I'M WORKING ON I am working on writing my first TV pilot. It is a "dramedy" based on my experience as a daughter with aging parents. I am finishing up a full-length piece (with music) titled IN THIS LIFE. The play is about a passionate romantic relationship that spans four decades, taking the couple on a journey of friendship, fame, aging and loss. KEYWORDS People of Color, Romance, Aging, Political, Equality, Historical, Radio Plays, Period, Family, Women, Grief, Loss, Dramas, Women, Music, Social Issues. |
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