Debra A. Cole is an award-winning playwright, director, and theatre/writing/arts educator from Kansas with degrees in journalism, education, and art history. Her one act play THE WRINKLE RANCH took AUDIENCE FAVORITE at Short + Sweet Perth, Australia. Her one act play Cold War can be found with Off The Walls Plays, and one act play SMALL TALK can be found at Heuer Publishing. Debra is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and an active member of a playwriting group for Kansas City area playwrights as well as The Literary Discourse Society out of Devon, England. Adult One-Acts: Performances/Recent Staged Readings/Conference Selections: Short + Sweet Dubai Endeavour Theatre, Perth, Australia Short + Sweet, Perth, Australia Short + Sweet, Sydney, Australia Short + Sweet, Illawarra, Australia The Talisman Theatre Group, Midlands, United Kingdom Whiskey Theatre Factory, Orlando, Florida The Secret Theatre - Long Island City, NY Potluck Productions, Kansas City, MO Midwest Dramatist Conference, Olathe, KS Herald of the Hope Theatre Company, Washington D.C. The Playground Experiment - Faces of America Monologues, NYC Grand Rapids Civic Theatre - semi finalist and finalist Mad Lab Theatre Roulette, Columbus, OH Crafton Hills College’s New Works Festival for 2022 Gi60: The International One Minute Theatre Festival - UK Live Edition 2022 Theatre Lawrence, Lawrence, KS Gi60: The international One Minute Theatre Festival - Houston, TX 2022 Debra has over 70 Children's One Act Plays Available on www.dramanotebook.com, and 4 full length children's plays, 1 children's musical, 12 monologues, and 10 adult one act plays ready for any interested company/director. She is flexible and willing to work with any company/director.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://newplayexchange.org/users/30609/debra-cole

MORE ABOUT ME
I adore telling stories that challenge everyday thought.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I write daily. THAT is my current project outside of running productions.

KEYWORDS
​Humor, dark comedy, youth audiences, drama, equality, tension, one minute plays, 10 minute plays 

I had a very well spent misspent youth, thanks to my uncle, a poet. He lived on Leonard Cohen’s couch when he wasn’t homeless, and when I saw what writing did to him I vowed to flunk English. But oh, the specificity of words! I went to art school and for a decade was a painter who wrote. I became a writer who painted. Most of my writing has been original content for TV, film and stage. I’ve had TV pilots packaged with 20th Century Fox and others; a feature script was selected for the 2017 Writers Lab, funded by Meryl Streep, Oprah and Nicole Kidman; I’ve been awarded fellowships from Jentel Arts and Stowe Labs; I’ve written for an Oxygen series, LIFE ON THE LINE; I’ve been nominated for the New York Stage and Film Filmmakers’ Workshop; and in 2020 I was nominated, then a finalist for the FilmNation/WGA Fellowship. In 2016 I was a sit-in director for Wynn Handman and wrote my first play, NO LAUGHING MATTER. (In his honor I frequently name a character ‘Wynn.’) In 2017 I directed and co-wrote a short film, EN ROUTE, that played many festivals including Adirondack, Soho International, Big Apple, Lighthouse, and others. As a visual artist I’ve exhibited extensively, and after my first solo show I was interviewed for Oprah’s ‘O’ Magazine for the article, ’Make Your Dreams Come True,’ by Phoebe Kest. ​

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://pamelaharrisart.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pamela.harris.33821/
TW: @PamelaHarris33
IG: @pamelaharris339 

MORE ABOUT ME
A MEANINGFUL MOMENT IN THE THEATER: My mother wanted to be a Broadway star. When I was eight she took me to see Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ at our local community theater. I didn’t understand what the play was about, but sitting in that dark theater, I knew I was home. I moved to NYC the second I could, and as the decades passed my mother wanted to hear about every play I saw. Her idol was Patti LuPone, but I had yet to see her on stage. When my mother passed I held on to the black mourning ribbon from her funeral. It didn’t feel like something I wanted to keep, but throwing it out felt wrong. A few months later my aunt invited me to ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ on Broadway. It starred Patti LuPone, and going to see her made me want to bring my mother in my pocket. That’s when I knew what to do with the mourning ribbon. My aunt gets house seats, so we sat a few rows back from the stage, on the aisle. At the end of the show there was a standing ovation and I stood and flipped my seat up. The underside was hard plastic, but the edges were fabric. When I pushed on the fabric it gave slightly, just enough to pin my mother's funeral ribbon to. My mother always wanted to be on Broadway. Pinning her there was the least I could do. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm wrapping up 'Will Life,' a new full length play about a traditional wife who must learn to advocate for herself when her dying husband's Will comes into play and she's about to get cut out of it. (It's about the fall of democracy, but in an intimate setting.) I'm also working on 'Wicked Hot,' a musical about a princess who wakes after a thousand years, and with no prince around to rescue her must learn how to rescue herself. A feature I wrote, 'Joyville,' about a scientist who's devoted her life to saving mankind and now must decide, are we worth it? is bouncing around with production companies. And lastly, art-wise, I'm working on a large-scale art installation, 'We're Very Sorry,' inspired by a proposal Bruce Nauman made for a German Holocaust memorial but chose to not create. 

KEYWORDS
​comedy, drama, Jewish, non-denominational, science-fiction, mythic, musical, political, equality, environmental, class, female-centered, avant-garde, multicultural, nature, art

Jessica is an Assistant Professor of Theater at the University of Miami, where she teaches acting and theater creation. She was the Artistic Director and co-founder of Strange Sun Theater, a company in New York City dedicated to creating magical new theater that ignites in audiences and artists, the power of possibility. In addition, she was the Consulting Artistic Director of the Sheen Center, when it opened in downtown Manhattan, curating a full season for 2 theaters. Before that she served as the Artistic Director of Wingspan Arts, an arts education company in New York City. Jessica works primarily as a freelance theater director specializing in new play and musical development, her favorite credits include; Pride and Prejudice (A new musical), What Kind of Woman (American Theater Northwest),Loving Repeating (NYC Premiere), Life of the Party (NYU-Premiere Production of Larry O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin’s new musical), at NYU Steinhardt Gypsy, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, with Strange Sun Closer Than You Think (World Premiere), The Drowning Girls (NYC Premiere). Jessica began writing plays a few years ago. her plays include: "Wickedest Woman"; The story of Ann Lohman, midwife and abortionist in the 1800’s in NYC. Finalist, Scrap Mettle Arts Playwrights Festival, Production January 2019 NYC, published by Next Stage Press. "Garden of Memories" the story of siblings dealing with the loss of their mother and the acceptance of their past. Runner Up W. Keith Hedrick Award at HRC Showcase Theater and Semi-Finalist, Trustus New Playwrights Festival 2016. "Zoe", a modern retelling of Aeschylus' Oresteia, if Aeschylus cared about women at all. Jessica has a BFA in Acting from Boston University and an MFA from Goddard College, she splits her time between NYC and Miami, with her teenage child, a crazy chihuahua and a cat names Wadsworth. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://www.jessicabashline.com/
IG: @jessbash
FB: @jessicabashline

MORE ABOUT ME
Why do I keep doing theatre? That’s the question I ask myself every time I check my Facebook and see someone I went to high school with retiring from Goldman Sachs and I think, man—I am smarter than that guy—where did I go wrong? And then I show up in rehearsal. And the creation starts, and I cannot stop smiling. I make theater because there is nothing more incredible than being in a room of smart people trying to figure out the best way to tell a story—for a group of people who will eventually be sitting right in front of you. And they will walk away, and head down the block, and talk about that story—and if you did it right something in them has changed. Something in the audience and the actors will never be the same because of that specific story. Then I go back to FB and realize... I am so much damn happier than people who are retiring tomorrow. Because I don’t want to retire tomorrow. I get to tell stories and change lives for a living. That’s why I do it. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
As a playwright, I am currently working on a one-woman play about abortion. It is a way for me to make the story I told in WICKEDEST WOMAN more accessible. One person shows are easy to program. As a director, I am working on a few new plays and musicals. 

KEYWORDS
​Historical, feminist, site-specific, biography, family, adaptations