I am a New York based writer that loves to tell stories about the strength of the human spirit.  I live with humans fighting everyday for their civil rights, the future of their children, and too often their survival.  When I write, I want to tell our stories in a way that gives us hope, and builds our resilience. I want to remind my audience that we are always stronger than we think, and that bravery comes in many forms.
 
I have an MFA in Acting from Binghamton University and studied Music at Converse College as an undergraduate. I am a proud member of The Honor Roll, The League of Professional Theatre Women, SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, NYSUT, New Circle Theatre Company, and the Bechdel Group. In my spare time I like to people watch, hang with my friends, drink red wine, and laugh as much as possible.  Life is short - choose to love.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://adriennedwilliams.com
FB Adrienne D Williams
Linkedin Adrienne D Williams
IG @adrienneadw
TW@AdrienneDWilli4

MORE ABOUT ME
The Alliance Theater's 1990 production of FENCES by August Wilson changed my life. It was the summer after my first year of Grad school. I was pretty burnt out and doubting my place in the theater. I went to Atlanta to visit friends and family. I knew the great Carol Mitchell Leon and John Henry Redwood were doing FENCES, so I went to see them work. I had read the play but thought "what's all the fuss about a man that cheats on his wife and asks her raise his girlfriend's baby".  That night I was transfixed.  The layers of sorrow, regret, and disappointment expressed by John Henry's Troy devastated my heart.   The deep mournful longing and insightful wisdom of Carol Mitchell Leon's Rose haunted me. By the third act, I was living the family's loss with them - transported to that porch, never to be the same.  I went back to school praying that I would one day be able to give an audience the gift that I received that night.  I finished my MFA in Acting, then became the first black company ingenue at the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, and funny thing,  my first AEA Regional role was Rose in FENCES.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently developing and directing a film entitled, LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO. It's a story that centers around the injustice of housing discrimination in America. And I am writing a play about my maternal grandparents.

KEYWORDS
Black, Female, Classical, People of Color, Musicals, Drama, Social Change, Family tragedy, Mystery, Justice

Kathleen Warnock is a Queens-based playwright and editor. Her work has been seen in NYC, regionally, and internationally (Ireland, England, Australia). She's Associate Artistic Director of TOSOS (NYC's oldest professional LGBTQ+ theater); and an NYC Ambassador for The Dramatist's Guild. She hosts the reading series Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB Bar (since 2004). She is a member of the Honor Roll, The Dramatists Guild, and Ambassador of Love for North America for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.kathleenwarnock.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.warnock
TW, IG: @kwarnockny

MORE ABOUT ME
I love indie theater. It's given me my best productions, experiences and friendships. It's the place where you can make anything you can think of happen...and work with people who understand how to make it so.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A lot of things. In particular, a new play called "Dirty Stories," about a woman who edits lesbian erotica.

KEYWORDS
Lesbian, Queer, Family, Women, Drama

Donna’s work has been seen in 47 states and on five continents, including at Barrington Stage, Barrow Group, Celebration Theatre, Gulfshore Theatre, Queens Theatre, The Road, Writers Theatre New Jersey, Phoenix Theatre, Atlantic Stage, Purple Rose, Skylight, Pride Films and Plays, New Jersey Rep, Hens and Chickens (London), The Galway Fringe Festival, and Actors Repertory Theatre of Luxembourg. Plays include BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART (Kilroys List), ELEVATOR GIRL (O’Neill and Princess Grace finalist), SAFE (winner of the Todd McNerney, Naatak, and Great Gay Play and Musical Contests), and TEACH (Gulfshore New Works winner). She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn, and Laura Pels prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (SEEDS, SONS & LOVERS, ONCE IN MY LIFETIME). She has also received an Individual Artist Award from the New York State Council on the Arts to develop HEARTS OF STONE, and, in its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo's Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation.

Donna also serves on the Dramatists Guild Council, is an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions, blogger, moderator of the 12,000+-member Official Playwrights of Facebook, New York Times-published crossword puzzle constructor; children's and trivia book author; and founder/co-curator of BUA Takes 10: GLBT Short Stories. Speaking engagements include Citywrights, Kenyon Playwrights Conference, the Dramatists Guild National Conference, Chicago Dramatists, the Austin Film Festival, and a live Dramatists Guild webinar. Her commentary has been seen on #2amt, howlround, The Dramatist, the Official Playwrights of Facebook, Workshopping the New Play (Applause, 2017), and at donnahoke.com.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.donnahoke.com
FB: Donna Hoke; Donna Hoke, Playwright,
TW: @donnahoke
IG: dhokeplays
Snap: hokeplays

MORE ABOUT ME
Most gratifying moment of theater: ONCE IN MY LIFETIME (A Buffalo Football Fantasy), a commissioned play in which the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl. It was a play for and about a specific community and it brought people into theater who had never been before, had no idea what it was, but who left experiencing the magic. The sad thing? Nobody knows about it, because it happened in the regions. I wish the industry paid more attention to what happens in the regions. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A solo show called ESMERANDA'S GIFT (Or How To Make A Crossword Puzzle And Solve Your Life), a comedy called FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, an audio soap, and a screenplay because I can spare the downtime to finally learn!

KEYWORDS
comedy, holiday, seriocomedy, adaptations, LGBTQ, historic, radio plays, classic revisited, provocative, strong female leads

Sandra de Helen's (she/her/hers) dramas and comedies have entertained audiences in NYC, Chicago, LA, Seattle, Portland, and many other US cities as well as Ireland, London, and the Philippines. Her most recent work was produced via Zoom by Moxie Theatre of San Diego, and by Barefoot Theatre of NYC. With Kate Kasten, she co-founded Actors’ Sorority in Kansas City, Missouri. Later Sandra founded the Portland Women’s Theatre Company as well as Penplay. Today, she is a member of The Scripteasers of San Diego, International Centre for Women Playwrights, and the Dramatists Guild. de Helen is also a poet and novelist with several published novels and poetry collections.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://sandradehelen.com/
FB: dehelen
IG, TW: @dehelen

MORE ABOUT ME
My first production was of my first play, a comedy with music about conjoined twins (1977). With Kate Kasten, I co-founded the women's theatre Actors' Sorority in Kansas City, Mo. In 1981 I founded the Portland Women's Theatre Company in Oregon. I write at least one new play every year. My greatest joy is to see my plays come to life in the hands of a director, actors, designers, and backstage workers. I've been lucky to have that experience many times in my life, and I'm always ready for another!

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
My current play in progress is a sequel to the first play I wrote in 1976. The characters have aged forty years, and are now coping with modern life. It's a comedy.

KEYWORDS
lesbian, queer, comedy, drama

Carolyn Gage is a playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of nine collections of lesbian and feminist themed plays and eighty-three plays, musicals, and one-woman shows, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially those reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history. 

Gage’s work has won many state and national awards, including the Lambda Literary Award in Drama for best LGBT books in the US (The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Plays), nomination for the Steinberg Award by the American Theatre Critics Association (Ugly Ducklings), international finalist for the Venice Biennale (The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women), Curve Magazine’s Lesbian Theatre Award (Babe!), the Maine Literary Award in Drama from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance (Stigmata), the Oregon Playwrights Award from the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts (The Second Coming of Joan of Arc), national finalist for the Heideman Award by the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville (The Ladies’ Room), national finalist for the Jane Chambers Award by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women.), and winner of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival (Harriet Tubman Visits A Therapist.) Her work has been published by Applause Books and by Samuel French. She has written two volumes of Monologues and Scenes for Lesbian Actors, as well as the first academic manual for lesbian theatre production, Take Stage! (Rowman & Littlefield). 
 
She has taught as a year-long Guest Lecturer in the Theatre Department at Bates College and was a Landsdowne Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Maine, and has taught in their Stonecoast MFA Writers’ program.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.carolyngage.com
FB: carolyn.gage.3

MORE ABOUT ME
I love to hike, and fortunately, I live next to a national park!

WHAT I AM WORKING ON
A number of projects. Don't want to jinx them by talking about them too soon.

KEYWORDS:
lesbian, feminist, women's history​

Sue Yocum spends her time pursuing two passions: animal welfare and theater. In January 2005, she created Playwrights for Pets, which has so far produced more than 20 benefits for animal welfare organizations! As a volunteer at the New York Foundling Center, Sue formed a writing/performance workshop with teens and directed their variety show performed for clients and staff. Having begun her life in the theater as an actress, Sue chose to focus on writing and directing after years of performing, writing, and directing sketch comedy. Recent New York City productions include All in a Day’s Work, Mates, Between Us Gals, and The Ultimate Redemption Plan as playwright; and Camera-Ready Art, Audience, and Herstorical Figures II as director. Proud member of Dramatists Guild of America, Actors’ Equity, SAG-AFTRA, Charles Maryan’s Playwrights/Directors Workshop, the Barrow Group’s FAB Women, and Honor Roll! (an advocacy and action group of women+ playwrights over 40). Born in Philadelphia, PA, Sue grew up in Edison, NJ. After graduating from Temple University, she lived in Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey, and has lived in her adopted hometown of Brooklyn, NY for more than 30 years. Sue thanks all past, present, and future supporters of Playwrights for Pets. You rock!

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.playwrightsforpets.com

MORE ABOUT ME
*Why do I keep doing theater?
I chose this question because part of me believes the answer is obvious (I love it!), but another part of me isn't sure I really know the answer. What I do know is that during those times of my life when I was unable to create as a theater artist, there was a huge hole in my life. And I realize that making theater is something I need to do as well as something I love to do.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
365 Women A Year plays/monologues, producing the next Playwrights for Pets benefit, directing a friend's play, and writing a triptych about murder.

Been creating Theatre for Social Change for 30 years in New York City. 3 Artistic Director positions and extensive work for both large institutions (The United Nations, NYS Attorney General’s Office under Andrew Cuomo, World AIDS Day at Cathedral of St John the Divine, among others), Community Based Audiences and Commercial runs. Currently Program Director for WPArts of The Women’s Prison Association and Co-Writer and Director of the musical: RED SKY. I’m not big on social media but do post on FB and Liker.

MORE ABOUT ME
We are living through an unprecedented time of reckoning right now and while “art for art’s sake” has it’s own place, if we choose to tell the tale of our times, I believe we must take a step back and examine how we got here and how we choose to emerge. We, as theatre makers, will tell the tale for those who look back on this dark era. It’s a complex mosaic with tentacles of oppression that have the power, when faced, to bind us together.  Creating a theatre that authentically meets this challenge must include writing characters in our plays for Black and Brown People, Indigenous, LGBTQ and Trans. And.. if we are Caucasian, we owe it to ourselves and our art to form coalitions and artistic partnerships with the artists that represent the communities we seek to dramatize. It’s not enough to “sympathize” and risks doing damage by creating a patronizing and inauthentic outcome. A lot to digest here but there are countless stories to tell. It’s a daunting and exhilarating task.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
​A full scale musical, RED SKY: A Parable for Our Times. Co-written with Chuk Obasi and music by Don Rebic. Sidelined by Covid and using the downtime to edit, and working with Producer Katherine Nephew and a coalition of support to have this in the right hands when we can work again. I also have programming (now sadly, mostly remote) with my wonderful crew of artists at WPA for the women of WPA’s 2 homeless shelters.

KEYWORDS
Mother, Writer, Director, Activist, Political, Jewish

I am a writer and actor based in Norfolk in the United Kingdom. I write for the stage and screen. I am an actor and began writing initially, as many actors do, to write myself a decent part. There didn't seem to be many challenging and satisfying roles for a woman my age. But as I wrote, I found myself increasingly enchanted by my characters, who were more than happy to take over my attempts at writing myself into my work. I am yet to achieve this, other than in monologue form, but I have found myself enraptured into a life of writing. I saw my first work performed on stage for Scratch in 2018 at The Garage Theatre. My scene, 'Abandoned Places', was included in the promenade play 'Spirit of the Place' by The Slow Theatre Company later that year. I was privileged to receive an Arts Council England award for a Literacy Consultancy Free Read of my first full stageplay in 2019. I wrote and saw my short play "Cat Sick' read by the Sewell Barn Theatre Company in September 2020. I completed my full stage play during the UK Covid lockdown 2020. I recently submitted it to be read for review by a London theatre.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.mariecooperactor.com
FB: @mariecooperacting
TW: @marie_cooper
IG: @mariecooperactor

MORE ABOUT ME
*What play or production changed your life? 
A performance called 'Wolf's Child'. It was a promenade theatre piece performed in the grounds of a stately home in Norfolk. The beautiful surroundings made the story come alive. I was a magical experience, from arriving in daylight to the story moving throughout the grounds as dusk fell and a choir sang. There were characters purely there to interact with the audience and guide them around the "stages". The stages included the base of a tree, the front of the stately home, the woods, and paths in between. There was even a point where two of the characters rode horses whilst the audience followed along, observing the story in real-time. The audience at the start was split into groups by performers dressed as crows who gave them a playing card that designated to which group they would belong. I have seen many performances, but this one has always stuck with me emotionally. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A stageplay. The first draft is being read at the moment and I am waiting for the initial review.

KEYWORDS
Historical, Political, Thriller, Social Commentary​

Christine Toy Johnson is an award-winning writer, actor, director and advocate for inclusion. Her written works have been produced and/or developed by the Roundabout, Village Theatre, Barrow Group, Prospect Theatre, Weston Playhouse, O’Neill, CAP 21, Abingdon Theatre Company, Greater Boston Stage Company and more and are included in the Library of Congress’s Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection (Playwrights Division). She is an alum of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, co-founder of the Obie Award winning Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), founder of the Asian American Musical Theatre Writers Project, a 2016 fellow of The Writers Lab (supported by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey), the 2013 recipient of the Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors' Equity for “artistic contributions to the universality of the human spirit in the American Theatre”, serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild and is host of the Guild’s podcast "Talkback" on Broadway Podcast Network. 

As an actor, Christine has appeared extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres across the country and nearly 100 television and film appearances including recurring guest star roles on Marvel’s “Iron Fist”, “The Americans”, “You”, “Law and Order: SVU” and more.  Christine is on "extended intermission" from the North American tour of COME FROM AWAY. For details, please visit www.christinetoyjohnson.com

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.christinetoyjohnson.com
TW: @CToyJ
IG: @CToyJ

MORE ABOUT ME
I was once asked "how would you like to be remembered?" And though I believe there is so much more of my potential yet to be discovered, today I would say that I would be very happy if people remembered me as someone who loved the theatre with all her heart and soul and worked really, really hard to make it a more inclusive place.

KEYWORDS
Asian American, inclusion, equality, magical realism, lyricist, librettist, musical theatre, comedy, zoom plays, radio plays

Sally Nemeth is an award winning playwright and screenwriter.  Her plays have been produced by theaters throughout the English speaking world.  Published plays include "Holy Days," "Mill Fire," "Water Play," and "Sally's Shorts."  Since beginning her television career writing for the hit NBC TV show "Law & Order," she has written for every major television network, and produced the documentary film "Long Story Short.”  Her novel for young adults, "The Heights, the Depths and Everything in Between," is published by Knopf/Yearling.  She also teaches screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University. You can visit her at www.sallynemeth.com

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.sallynemeth.com
FB: Sally Nemeth
IG: salgalnemeth

MORE ABOUT ME
*How do you imagine telling stories in these times?
I think this question is the most critical right now.  I teach screenwriting and when the pandemic lock down happened, my students despaired. They wondered who would care about their current work, and whether they should drop everything and address what was going on now.  But I told them that a) when this is over, people will want stories that have little or nothing to do with what we've just gone through and b) that it will take years to synthesize what we've all experienced. For myself, after years of writing for the screen and writing novels, I'm writing a play because I feel that when we can gather again, after months of nothing but screens, nothing will feel more powerful than live performance.  And I desperately miss the rehearsal room, the collaborative experience, the magic of the moment.  I miss the theater.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am working on a new play - my first in years. It is in an early phase and I'm not talking about it specifically yet. My past ten years have been largely focused on writing novels - a solitary experience - and I cannot wait to be back in a room with actors, a director, a stage manager.  I long for it. Having said that, I'm also revisiting a half-finished novel on which I've gained a new perspective. 

KEYWORDS
Plays, novels, screenplays, equality, climate, environmental, social justice, dystopian, young adult, animals, adaptations, historical, family, the full human condition, politics.