Rene Zabel (she/her) holds a BFA in Psychology from University of Arizona Global Campus. She uses her degree frequently in writing her plays, such as Evil Therapy and A Rare Case. Rene is an integration engineer in Healthcare I.T. She lives in West Virginia with her son, two cats and one dog.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://renezabel.com/
Facebook: renezabelproductions 

MORE ABOUT ME
I want to continue writing projects with strong female characters. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A Christmas musical - Mother Christmas and a musical based on the Irish Legend and entitled: Deirdre Of The Sorrows. 

KEYWORDS
Holiday, Folktales, musical. 
​

Ruth Zamoyta’s first play, "The Caregivers", won a NJ State Arts Council Fellowship in 2018, was semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) in 2018, and was given special consideration for the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award. Encouraged, she wrote another play, The Fencers, which was a semi-finalist for BAPF in 2019, had a reading at Art House Productions in Jersey City, NJ, and will have a reading at Urban Stages, NYC, in 2021/22. In 2018 Ruth was selected to participate in the INKubator program at Art House, where she wrote The Incels, which was further developed through a residency at NJ Play Lab. Urban Stages presented a live reading of The Incels in January 2020 and a Zoom production in September 2020. It was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2021. Ruth’s 10-minute comedy “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Pudding” was part of the Heroes and Villains project at Urban Stages which won a Telly Award in 2021. Her short plays “Phil Rizzuto Gives Parenting Advice,” “Baby’s First Madness,” and “Sorry Creature” were produced at theatres in NJ and NYC. Ruth is developing a miniseries about Helene Mayer, a Jewish woman who fenced for Hitler in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in addition to working on four new full-length plays. Ruth is author of the poetry collection ‘Otsu’ and Other Poems, and an e-novel, clarissa@loveless.com. She is co-editor of and contributor to two poetry anthologies, Blanket Stories and Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems. Ruth holds a BA in English summa cum laude from St. John’s University, an MA in English from NYU, and an MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. She is a member of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, the Dramatists Guild, and Honor Roll!. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: www.ruthzamoyta.com
Facebook: ruth.zamoyta
Twitter: @ruthzamoyta
Instagram: @ruthzamoyta

MORE ABOUT ME
My mantra: "Plays are about people, not issues." What I want artistic directors to know about me: Writing is fun. I do it all the time. I write a lot and I write fast. I write everything from tragedy to drama to comedy to farce to horror to the absurd. What I love about theatrical writing is collaboration. I love people and their imaginations, so love to hear what they think and feel, and invite them to become part of the process. I listen to feedback and make effective edits. Other artistic directors will vouch for that. The comment I have heard from actors most frequently after readings is: "Wow! Really strong character!" Mostly I write stories about strong women who make unconventional decisions, with the exception of "The Incels," which has women in it but they are muted--yet still very important to the story. I honor, patronize, and support theatres that take chances on new writers, recognize the gender inequity in theatre, and are trying to reverse it.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am developing a miniseries about Helene Mayer, a Jewish woman who fenced for Hitler in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in addition to working on four full-length plays: "The Suspects: A Sustainability Murder Mystery," "The Mischief Maker," "The Widow," and "The Heiress and the Dancer."

KEYWORDS
incels, misogyny, loneliness, isolation, sports, woman athlete, female athletes, Olympics, holocaust, nazi, hitler, mercy killing, eleanor roosevelt, sustainability, environmental, farce, murder, mystery, screenplay, telly
​

Penny Jackson is a playwright and a screenwriter who lives in New York City. ​ Selected plays include THE BATTLES OF RICHMOND HILL, I KNOW WHAT BOYS WANT, SAFE, and LOUISE IN CHARLESTOWN. Her play, I KNOW WHAT BOYS WANT was chosen by the theater review site "Theater Is Easy" as one of the best choices for Off-Broadway Theater. I KNOW WHAT BOYS WANT was also chosen as one of the best plays in an Off Broadway production theater by NYTHEATER.COM and was the best-selling play in 2014 for Indie Theater Now. THE BATTLES OF RICHMOND HILL was awarded best play at The Southwest Theater Productions Playwright Competition in Austin, Texas. The play is published by Next Stages Press. Applause Theatre chose Jackson’s play BEFORE as one of the best American short plays in 2016. BEFORE won first prize in the gun control play competition sponsored by The University of Illinois-Urbana, and was featured in Necessary Exposure, an exhibit at Dixon Place Theater focusing on female playwrights. Awards include The Elizabeth Janeway Prize for writing from Barnard College, a Mirrelieis Fellowship for writing from Stanford University and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She is a proud member of The Actor/Directors Unit of The Actors Studio, The Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women and The International Center of Women Playwrights. 
​
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://www.pennybrandtjackson.com
Twitter: @pennyplaywrirght
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pennyjack

MORE ABOUT ME
I keep doing theater because I love to tell stories that move people. Many of my plays deal with social issues: bullying, racism, homophobia and sexism. I want my audience to see my plays and leave with questions. As a former teacher, I particularly love talk backs with my audience. I am now fully committed to writing female characters who are over the age of 40. My last play, The Battles of Richmond Hill, had a 75 year old woman as the lead character. As a 60 year old woman, I am desperate to see more women of a certain age represented in the theater we watch. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Dramatizing a prize-winning short story about a mother and a daughter into a one woman show.

KEYWORDS
Women, Young Audiences, Elderly women, teenagers, mothers, bullying, drug addiction, alcoholism, Jewish, Irish, drama, comedy