Jessica Chipman (she, her) is a playwright, director, and educator whose plays have been produced across the United States and Canada. A proud Heideman finalist, Ms. Chipman's retelling of the myth of Icarus received the top award at the Minnesota State High School League State One Act Play Festival in 2017, as well as the Wells Fargo Award of Excellence. Most recently, Ms. Chipman's feminist one-act adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca's Yerma earned accolades at the MSHSL One Act Play Festival. Ms. Chipman is the proud co-founder of Dynamo Creative, a female-led theatre company dedicated to amplifying the stories of women, and Chip and Jack's Theatre School, an educational comedy podcast.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.jessicachipman.info
@jesschipman

MORE ABOUT ME
My favorite thing to do when I'm not writing is to be with my husband and daughters--preferably outdoors.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
My current project is a play about a whale.

KEYWORDS
Magical realism, adaptations, Zoom plays, drama

Multiple award-winning playwright, Jeanette W. Hill, is a creative activist whose unique voice and delivery make it difficult, if not impossible to categorize her or her work.  Her courage in approaching the taboo subjects of African American community head on causes her to stand out. As the artistic director and founder of JWHill Productions LLC, her mission is to tell stories about the African American experience with ‘their’ voice.

The recipient of numerous national awards and recognitions from coveted organizations including the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, DC Black Theatre Festival, the Kingdomwood Christian Film Festival, Ntozake Shange Reading Series/Woodie King Jr.,  and New Federal Theatre, Black Pearls Magazine, and Urban Playwrights United. Her work has been included in three anthologies, When Women Become Business Owners, When Women Connect, and her fictional work When Love Comes Calling. She was featured in the documentary, Black and Write.  Jeanette continues to share and encourage others to pursue their talent and calling through her presentations and workshops.

For over fifteen years she has been awarded financial support from the City of Austin Economic Development Division, and other Arts organizations such as the Mid-America Arts Alliance and fiscal sponsorships.

Jeanette is a sought-after panelist, peer reviewer and consultant for various groups and organizations including the City of Austin Cultural Arts Program, Mid-America Arts Association, Atlanta Black Theatre Festival and the American Association of Community Theatre. She is  a  committee member of Austin’s Black Art Matters Curatorial committee as well as an advisory board member for the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival and Urban Playwrights United; she’s an Artist INC fellow and former facilitator, a member of The Dramatists Guild, and the New Play Exchange.

Contact her via social media or her website.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://jwhillproductions.com
FB:  jwhillproductions
TW: jeanettewhill
IG: jeanettewhill

MORE ABOUT ME
Why do you keep doing theater?*
Because as an African American and a woman, our stories are often overlooked, devalued or told from a perspective that does not accurately portray my race or my gender. One of my favorite affirmations/inspirations is: "As long as only the hunter records history, the lion's story will never be told." I choose to be that lion!

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am in pre-production for an audio drama series titled The Front Porch Divas.Fictional stories  highlighting the trials and triumphs of several women of color who are over forty in a gentrified community.

KEYWORDS
People of Color, social justice, radio plays, social issues, life

Jennie Webb is an LA-based playwright and dramaturg (she created the new play development program, Seedlings, at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum) with works including “Reach,” “Currency," “Yard Sale Signs,” “Smiling Cat Candy Heart,” "Remodeling Plans,” "Unclaimed Assets," "On Tuesday," "It's Not About Race," “Rebecca on the Bus,” “Brand New Script” and "Buying a House" produced locally by Inkwell Theater, Rogue Machine Theatre, EST/LA, Santa Monica Rep, Virginia Avenue Project, Road Theatre, Theatre of NOTE and La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival as well as in Canada, the UK, India and Iceland. Her plays have been developed and presented by Great Plains Theatre Conferences, The Playwrights’ Center, Moving Arts MADlab, Blank Theatre, Playground-LA, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Little Black Dress INK Festivals, Protest Plays Project, PlagueWrites, Climate Change Theatre Action, Rogue Artist Ensemble’s Rogue Lab, and Road Theatre’s Summer Playwrights Festivals and “Under Construction” Playwrights Group. National recognition includes Finalist (O’Neill Playwrights Conference, City Theatre Short Play Festival) and Semi-Finalist (O’Neill, PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus Theatre Festival) nods; she is the recipient of Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowships and a Women in Theatre Red Carpet Award. Member: the Playwrights Union, EST/LA, Honor Roll!, Dramatists Guild; co-founder: LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI). 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://jenniewebbsite.com
FB facebook.com/jenniewebbsite
TW: @jenniewebbsite
​IG: @jenniewebbsite

MORE ABOUT ME
Yeah. Why we keep doing theater? When people ask me - but to be honest, it's usually me asking me - "Why are you a playwright?" I turn to two words: Identity and Truth. (The last from playwright Alice Tuan, when we were having this sort of conversation.) I write plays because I am a playwright; that's part of what makes me who I am. And I think that I can tell a truth in my work that's unique to me, that needs to be told onstage. That's my job. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I recently started a new full length called "Dead People's Dishes," a play about what we hang onto and what we let go of, how we get through surreal events set in different time periods in Los Angeles. I also hope to pick back up my recently completed full length, "adaptation.resilience" soon; it's a play about sustaining love and navigating grief in times of extreme disruptions, and I'm anxious to dig into re-writes in the right development situation. 

KEYWORDS
Domestic Absurdism, Women, Dark Comedy, Los Angeles

(UPDATED 1/31/22) Bonnie Milne Gardner is an award-winning playwright whose 40+ plays have been featured around the country, including Cleveland Play House, New School for Drama, San Diego Human Rights Festival, and Edward Albee Last Frontier Conference. Her scripts garnered honors from Actors Theatre of Louisville Ten Minute Plays, McLaren Comedy Competition, Writers Digest, and the Columbus Dispatch. Most recently her full-length comedy "Wedding Blisters" was selected as a Finalist in the AACT NewPlayFest 2022. But she is particularly proud of winning the limerick contest at the Southern Writers Project Festival of New Plays.

Her plays have appeared in numerous publications, including Next Stage Press, Clockhouse, and Scripts for Stage. The historical drama, THE SECRET WAR OF EMMA EDMONDS was selected for 365 Women a Year Project. Her book, THE EMERGENCE OF THE PLAYWRIGHT-DIRECTOR IN AMERICAN THEATRE, with a forward by Megan Terry, was published by Edwin Mellon Press in 2001.

Bonnie earned a PhD in theatre from Kent State University, and has worked as an educator, writer, director, and dramaturg. A two-time winner of Excellence in Playwriting by the Ohio Arts Council, she recently "ran away from home" to focus on writing. A member of Dramatists Guild and New Play Exchange, she currently lives in Asheville, NC where she co-runs the Stage Brews Workshop.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://bmgardner.weebly.com
FB: Bonnie Milne Gardner

MORE ABOUT ME
My best experiences over the years grew out of healthy collaborations where writer, performer, and director work in tandem to shape a vibrant work of art. Unfortunately, these opportunities are rare in this country. My goal is the help nurture and celebrate organizations and people that promote it.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
"Vices and Virtues," a collection of monologues which presents actions of morality. They include a young priest facing rebels in Peru, a scientist at her first NASA launch, and a puppet announcing the Great Snail Race.

KEYWORDS
women, comedy, collaboration, monologues, ten minute plays, adaptations

I write plays to change the stories we believe in because it’s the best way I know to change the world we live in. I made my professional playwriting debut at the age of twenty-four with the 1981 production of my one-act play “The Story,” a reimagining of the Book of Genesis, at the Magic Theatre of San Francisco. Since then, my plays have been broadcast on BET (“Gap,” dir. Ryan Coogler, then a graduate student) and NPR (“The Story,” dir. Martin Esslin); staged on five continents; and widely anthologized. I’ve also taught college for thirty years, raised two daughters, and co-founded a feminist theatre company in Berkeley, California.  Notable publications include “Medusa’s Tale” in Plays in One Act (Ecco Press); Persephone Underground and The Minotaur, available for licensing from YouthPLAYS; and selections from Gap in the Applause Books anthologies One on One and Duo. My recent full-length plays include The Melting Pot (Everyday Inferno, NYC, 2018) and Witch Hunt (Those Women Productions, Berkeley, 2019), which was recognized by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the “defining moments” of the year in Bay Area theater. I’m a member of the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and Honor Roll! an advocacy group for women+ playwrights over 40.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
https://carolslashof.com/
FB: CarolSLashofPlaywright
TW: @CarolLashof

MORE ABOUT ME
In the winter of 2007, I was invited to spend 10 days in residence at Peking University in Beijing. The students in the English Drama Society were staging a double bill of my one-act plays "Medusa's Tale" and "Persephone Underground," performing in English with Mandarin subtitles. It was wonderful to see how these plays - inspired by Ancient Greek mythology and written by me, an American woman born in 1956 - captured the imaginations of young Chinese men and women in the 21st century. Some elements did not cross cultures well. For example, in "Persephone Underground," the teenaged Persephone yearns to break away from the influence of her powerful mother; the PKU students did not particularly relate to that desire. But they connected very powerfully to my portrait of the young Medusa and her discovery that she cannot trust the goddess of justice to protect her. After each performance, there was a talkback and the students became intensely engaged in discussing the issues raised by the plays - questions of justice and authority, love and betrayal, gender and power. It seemed that they were freed by these mythic stories to talk about matters (for example, rape) that were ordinarily cloaked in silence. That was my most gratifying experience as a playwright.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
My most recent full-length play in progress is Doing School:

Spring 2019 at a high school near you: the students are stressed and chugging Dayquil. Or they’ve withdrawn in the face of stereotypes and prejudices. The teachers? Pretty much the same. DOING SCHOOL (formerly titled GAP) tells the stories of four high school juniors and their teachers, affected in different ways by their class, race, and gender. They are going through the motions at a diverse public high school in a progressive American city, a microcosm of the speeded-up world beyond the school bounds. Interrupted by bells and buffeted by competing demands on their time, they strive to live up to – or sometimes down to – the expectations of others. As they navigate an uneven playing field, they risk losing themselves. What will save them? Better “Time Management”! … Or maybe not. Maybe there’s another way to close the gap between who they wish they were and who they have time to be. Maybe there's a way to rescue each other?
Cast: 4W, 3M. Run time: about 90 mins.

KEYWORDS
Mythology, Justice, Equality, Gender and Power, Jewish, American History, Teen Performers

Playwright Deb Hiett’s most recent play, "90024 Westwood: The Information Herein is Classified" was commissioned by Antaeus Theatre Company, Los Angeles, as an audio play, and has had over 40,000 downloads after being released in November 2020. Some of Deb’s other full-length plays include “The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!” (premiered at Rogue Machine Theater, Los Angeles), “Miss Keller Has No Second Book” (premiered at Gulfshore Playhouse, Naples, FL), “The Escape Thingy” and “The Clearing in the Jacoby,” (both Finalists for the Reva Shiner Comedy Award).  Her short play “The Presentation” was in the 2017 Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, and was a Finalist for 2017 Heideman Award.

“Gratitude Jar Time Capsule” – a short comedy film co-written by and co-starring Deb – won “Best Comedy Television Pilot” in the 2020 Atlanta Comedy Film Festival.  Deb’s short film “Open House” won Los Angeles Film Festival/FunnyorDie’s “Make ‘Em LAFF” Showcase, Best Comedy Short at the Women in Comedy Festival Film Night, and Best Video Short at iOWest’s Funny Women LA Festival. Her short film “A Bit of Counseling” (co-written with Richard Kuhlman) won the Audience Awards at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival.

In addition to being a proud member of Playwrights Union, Dramatists Guild, and Antaeus Playwrights Lab, she’s also an actress, musician, and regular panelist on the NPR comedy/quiz show “Says You!”  More at DebHiett.com.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.debhiett.com
FB: debhiett
TW: @DebHiett
IG: @debhiett

MORE ABOUT ME
I keep doing theater because storytelling is important and fun and weird. It's both temporary and permanent. It's uplifting but it can grind you to dust along the way. Doing it almost kills me, but I have tried not doing it, and that almost killed me, too, with a lot less to show for the struggle. I like the surprises along its predictable path. Ultimately it connects me to both the earth and to the universe, and what's better than that?

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
My newest play "Circle Forward" as part of the Playwrights Union New Play Challenge, an adaptation of my play "Call Time" into a pilot, and a new screenplay. I'm also working on beating Resistance, aging joyfully, and re-interpreting a post-Covid wardrobe (spoiler alert: it's loose-fitting).

KEYWORDS
Comedy, women-centered, older actresses, coming-of-age, family, love, breakthrough

Linda is an award winning playwright, screenwriter, and actor. Her solo show, "Perfect Love", premiered at the United Solo Festival in NYC 2018 directed by Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Gretchen Cryer and has also been performed at Dixon Place and the Poor Mouth Theatre Company. She has written five full length plays: "Bite the Apple" (2019 Finalist for the Kentucky Women Writers Prize); "There Is No You and Me" (2017 Finalist New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest); "GUY" (semi-finalist for the O'Neill National Playwriting Conference 2007); "DO SOMETHING WITH YOURSELF! The Life of Charlotte Brontë" produced by The Invisible Theatre, NYC and published by Smith and Kraus; adaptation of "The Fall of the House of Usher" produced by The Invisible Theatre, NYC.

She has also been published in The Dramatists Guild Blog and writes her own blog on her site.

Linda co-wrote and acted in two short films, "Wake Up" and "Ghost Ride". She has written three full length screenplays: "Learning to Drive" (Grand Prize in the 2013 StoryPros Awards Screenplay Contest), "Charlotte" (second round of competition for the 2016 Sundance Screenwriters Lab), and "Divine Food".

Linda has performed in theater productions regionally (Trinity Repertory Company, Cleveland Public Theatre, Germinal Stage Denver, The Changing Scene) and in New York (Dixon Place, United Solo, NY Intl. Fringe), and she has had featured roles in numerous independent feature films. Linda has worked as a teaching artist for Red Bull Theatre, Hour Children, Horace Mann School, and in NYC public schools. She has also taught master classes in screenwriting through the Bronx Council on the Arts. Linda has a Masters Degree from Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Bachelors from the University of Colorado. LindaSManning.com

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.lindasmanning.com/
FB: Linda Manning
TW: @LindaSManning
IG: @lindasmanning

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in the theater was probably when I was in college and stood up on stage for the first time doing a monologue from "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" and felt like myself in a way I never had, and felt what was possible. I never looked back.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm working on a new play because I love theater and I love what is possible on a live stage that is not possible anywhere else. I'm also writing and filming a series of monologues based around desire.

KEYWORDS
love, legacy, drama, romance, motherhood, feminism, woman over 50, family trauma, sexuality, the shadow self

A.R. Nicholas (she/her) is the author of over 36 plays, several of which have been performed all over the U.S. Her work has won/achieved finalist status/had developmental readings at the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, Lila Acheson Wallace, Sundance Theatre Lab, Mach 33 Science Play Prize, LaBute Festival, Ebell, Susan Glaspell Prize, American Blues, Int'l Womens Playwright Conference and more. She writes and directs microbudget films, including UNIVERS'L and FAMOUS AGORAPHOBIC WOMAN TELLS ALL! Her newest film, OLD LADIES FIND MONEY, will be shot in early 2022. She's a member of the Dramatists Guild and several theatre companies, is on the Odyssey Theatre's board of directors, produces plays for others and coaches other writers. And, whenever she can, she rides a dark horse named Xochitl. For more see arnicholas.com, or https://newplayexchange.org/users/10901/ar-nicholas

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://arnicholas.com
@tryharddontquit

MORE ABOUT ME
I feel most like myself in the midst of a group of people not like me who have gathered together to create something that we'll share with others. Through the combined minds of this disparate collection of collaborators, we find the way to tell a story to illuminate the world, for ourselves and others, even if it's just a tiny corner of it.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Always too many things because everything people do is interesting. At the moment, I have the big play I'm pondering, the little play I might be able to produce and in fundraising mode for a darkly comic film starring older women who turn the tables on those who discount them.

KEYWORDS
socio-political, dark comedy, humanist, environmental, women, historical, mystery, damage, food, farce, musical, biography, money, animals, the brave, metaphoric

(Updated 1/3/22) Margie Castleman’s career began as a dancer, segued into acting, choreography, and now works as a playwright. Her three plays, CLOSING THE CHANDLERY, BLEND, WE CAN EAT LOVE, were all semi-finalists in the O'Neill Theatre Conference, and LARK development. WE CAN EAT LOVE was produced at Portland Stage (Studio Series), Maine (2019). Public reading SQUIRREL, Round The Bend Theatre, and ShoutOut Saugerties, 6/26/21 Other production credits, THE SWIM MEET, 78th Street Theatre Lab, SheWrites Festival, finalist 10 Minute Plays, Humana Festival, NBC daytime TV. She holds a BA in acting, from Bard College, and a MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College (Mac Wellman, chair). She is a Lifetime member of DRAMATISTS GUILD, currently developing work with HOWL Playwrights (Rhinebeck, NY), and is a member of HONOR ROLL.

MORE ABOUT ME
Most gratified and floored to watch/hear a my playwriting (at risk) students preform their own plays. Getting Out by Marsha Norman shot a catharsis thru me I'll never forget. I think and hope I'm always myself, other wise who am I? I give most disappointments 24 hrs. I hope artistic directors/literary managers cast aside all aspects of ageism. I'm pretty darn shy, don't like being spotlighted. I read and watch old movies, observe wild winter birds feeding, long for two new kittens. Theatre is my life, sigh. I try to tell true stories wrapped up in imagination.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
a new play:' 1,000 FEET'

KEYWORDS
Dancing writer working with real honesty

Studying in college Directing and Acting with the incomparable Lloyd Richards set the bar high and I have been challenged to meet that bar ever since. Born and raised in New York City is a great responsibility also, “one must represent” and the theatre and the world of the Arts presented a platform to do just that. Singing, then acting and directing came first and producing was a welcome challenge to expand the career. For musicals: I am the recipient of a Drama Desk Nomination for my Broadway debut in EUBIE! and the AUDELCO Award. For Acting and Producing: the NAACP and DRAMALOGUE Awards. For Directing: the Tyrone Guthrie Award for Excellence, among others. As a writer there is  my book: Lynnie Godfrey: Sharing Lessons Learned While Seeking the Spotlight. I am the Founder and Artistic Director of the non-profit acting ensemble Essence of Acting, Inc.

My directing and acting range go from traditional American musical  theatre SHUFFLE ALONG, DAMN YANKEES, CINDERELLA, to contemporary new plays GREENWOOD: AN AMERICAN DREAM DESTROYED by Celeste B. Walker and  UNENTITLED  by Charles White; as well as Athol Fugard’s BOSEMAN and LENA. Television and film work included a sequel to Norman Lear’s ALL IN THE FAMILY called 704 HAUSER. The Brewster Place series with Oprah Winfrey, 227, Frank’s Place, LA Law, AMEN and many more.

I am proud to be an  (directing and producing) ally in HONOR ROLL! as well as member of NAG (Negro Actors Guild),  LPTW (League of Professional Theatre Women), the Broadway Drama Guild and SDC (Stage Director’s and Choreographers’ Society).

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://lynniegodfrey.com
FB: Lynnie Godfrey, GodLee Entertainment, Inc.

MORE ABOUT ME
What was your most gratifying moment in the theater?*
I was portraying Lola in DAMN YANKEES  a young BIPOC came up to me backstage asked if the original Lola was Diana Ross. I was gratified to think that anyone had a shot at portraying Lola.

What play or production changed your life?*
The production that changed my life was seeing James Earl Jones in GREAT WHITE HOPE as a high school student.

I feel most like myself when I …. *
I feel most like myself when I am doing the ARTS…

How do you overcome disappointment?*
My faith gets through disappointment…teaching me I must not worry about what I cannot control.

If you could bring one change to theater, what would it be?*
Change is coming to the theatre now with the independent artists have a stronger voice as the independent artist should have.

What do you want artistic directors to know?*
I want the artistic directors to come out of their strategic artistic boxes they create to protect their theatres. They need to open their minds and expand their perimeters of thought.

What’s the one thing nobody knows about you that you’d like them to know?*
People do know how much the Arts means to me…it is the air I breathe.

Why do you keep doing theater?*
I must do theatre there is no choice…none.

How do you imagine telling stories in these times? *
Telling stories can be done so many ways…visually…visual aids, through spoken word, musically with lyrics…through music. We must be open to new methods.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am working on an American History story of a Black American soldier and his treatment during  the World War II era.

KEYWORDS
History, Animals, Hunger, Children, Equality, Inclusion, Queer