Emma Wood is an award winning, internationally produced playwright from Melbourne Australia. With a determination to write stories both entertaining and thought provoking, Emma’s plays have been widely acclaimed by audiences and critics in ten full length productions. Her ability to create passionate, substantial roles for men and women of all ages delights actors and audiences. Her full-length plays are very different but have common threads: engaging characters of a wide range of ages, sparkling dialogue, and a satisfying story to tell. She has been produced by professional and community theatre companies in Australia, USA, UK and Asia. Emma is the recipient of Best New Play in the City of Newcastle Drama Awards 2012 for contemporary drama Water Child, as well as a nomination in 2014 for her period comedy Mr Bennet's Bride. Her latest play, A Hit and Miss Christmas, is currently a finalist with B Street Theatre New Comedies, and was awarded semi-finalist by Creede Repertory Headwaters New Play Festival and semi-finalist by Dreamcatcher Rep 2021. Another full-length play, The Third Act, was a semi-finalist in Act Your Age Showcase (Manchester UK) 2021. She also won 'Audience Choice' award at Short and Sweet Manila 2017 for her short play 'Women of the World'. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://newplayexchange.org/users/16534/emma-wood
Instagram: emmawood_plays 
Facebook: Emma Wood Plays

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in theatre was a full house on opening night and a sold out season at Newcastle Theatre Company's premiere of Mr Bennet's Bride. It was unbelievably thrilling as it was my second play and it rocketed to top three sellers in the almost 60 year history of that company. The direction and acting were wonderful and I was immensely grateful and humbled by the enthusiasm for the play onstage and off. The play or production that changed my life was a school production of Royal Hunt of the Sun by Peter Schaffer, I was cast as the leading male role aged 15. I have never before or since had such a passion to learn and act a role, and the magnificence of the play entrusted to year 10 students by our drama teacher lit a fire that still burns. It was also the beginning of my understanding that male roles have historically been better, more magnificent, more plentiful, and led to the development of my mission to write better roles for women of all ages in more female centred stories. One change I’d like to bring to theatre: better roles for older women in particular, and better roles for all women that do not revolve around being a hot young love interest but are complex, fully developed, fun, fantastic or whatever – but where a woman has her own arc and story and is not sidelining the male hero. I try to overcome disappointment by reflecting that life will always have many twists and turns, but sometimes we learn and develop more from disappointments than triumphs. And reminding myself to play the long game, and not to let current issues obscure the bigger picture. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A 3F/1M black comedy with two friends around 60 trying to enhance their retirement savings with a mad plan that might just possibly work. 

KEYWORDS
​Period comedy, comedy, contemporary drama, holiday, Christmas, mature roles, adaptation 

Shannon Bramer is Canadian playwright and poet who writes books for human beings of all ages. She is the author of suitcases and other poems (winner, Hamilton and Region Best Book Award), scarf, The Refrigerator Memory, Precious Energy, and Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, illustrated by Cindy Derby. Her plays have appeared in juried festivals across Canada, among them: New Ideas (Toronto), the Women’s Work Festival (St. John’s), and Sarasvàti FemFest (Winnipeg). Most of Shannon's work for the stage was workshopped/developed in St.John’s, Newfoundland, thanks to the Women’s Work Festival, where she has returned with a new script-in-progress four times since 2009. TRAPSONGS: three plays, was published in December 2020, by Bookhug Press (Toronto, Canada) when all theatres were dark. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/author/shannon-bramer/trapsongs-three-plays-by-shannon-bramer/
Instagram: @shannon_bramer
Twitter: @brokencloudco 

MORE ABOUT ME
When I'm not writing I'm having an intense conversation with my seventeen-year-old daughter, picking up my son's lego, or making something vegetarian in a hurry for my middle child who is late for dance. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm working on an absurd comedy about two adult siblings who are delayed at the airport by an excessively scrutinizing airport security agent who won't let them go anywhere until they are able to properly explain why they are going. 

KEYWORDS
Comedy, drama, absurd, surreal, women, desire, debt, traps, monarita, collectors, hungriest woman in the world, Canadian, trapsongs, metaphysical 

Julie Zaffarano is a Philadelphia area playwright who believes everyone’s lives are made of a myriad of stories. Her scripts have been produced and performed throughout the United States. While her work spans multiple genres and forms, as well as varied characters, she loves creating strong roles for women, with a special focus on women of mature age. Upcoming: Above the Fold, (readings Artemisia Theatre and Allens Lane Theatre); Kentucky Lemonade (Everybody’s Theatre Company); Gamma Girls to the Rescue (New Feathers Productions and Actors and Artists of Fayette County). Most recent: Destiny is a Careless Waiter and Other Plays (Juniper Productions); The PlayMakers (Rover Dramawerks and What If? Productions and Winner in the What If? Productions Playwrights Festival Best New Work); Destiny is a Careless Waiter, (Pittsburgh New Work Festival/Winner, Best Production). Recent recognitions and readings: Semi Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Kentucky Lemonade); Winner, Maryland Ensemble Theatre (METLab) Festival; Winner Best Production, Pittsburgh New Works Festival; “Readings at the Drake” PlayPenn (Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia); Cloverdale Playhouse, Winner Page to Stage Contest; Kentucky Lemonade (reading), Town and Country Players. Recent short works have been presented by Colonial Theatre, Pittsburgh New Work Festival, RL Productions, Town and Country Players, South Street Players, Plays & Players, ReVamp Collective, Tempest Productions, and Everyone’s Theatre Company. Julie is a member of Philadelphia PlayPenn Foundry, Dramatist Guild, Witherspoon Theatre, Philadelphia Dramatists Center, Indiana Playwrights Center, and the Minneapolis Playwrights Center. She holds two master’s degrees from Villanova University. She loves spending time with her charming and supportive husband, Dave, and their growing family. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: www.juliezaffarano.com
New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/12137/julie-zaffarano

MORE ABOUT ME
Theatre storytelling is how we relate to each other on a human level. In getting to know others, our universe expands and also grows closer. Theatre has made me a better person.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
As most playwrights, I have several projects in varied states that I am excited to wake up and meet each day. I am exploring characters as they navigate their desires and fears. My play "Above the Fold" has the strongest place in my heart, as it is based on a true event that was family lore to me in my youth.

KEYWORDS
​Dramedy, Comedy, Drama, Relationships, Family, Sisters, Parent/Child, Death, Historical, Farce, Romance, Trauma, Age, Tragedy, Equality, Victimization, LGBTQ, Loss, Revenge

Hello! I’m Angela Iannone, and I’m 61 this year! I am currently a resident of Columbus, Ohio, but lived and worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for nearly 30 years. I am an actor, educator, director, and playwright. I did not begin writing until I was 50! I started my writing adventure as an adjunct acting instructor in need of a large cast play, based on people from American history. With deadlines for production meetings looming, I decided to write it myself. I’ve always been a history buff, and I fell deeply in love with American Shakespearean Edwin Booth, and the creators of early American theatre. My research allowed me to write four complete plays, three of which have had several complete productions, and a delightful ongoing adventure that has included a Research Fellowship at The Folger Shakespeare Library, an American Theatre and Drama Society grant, and an ongoing relationship with the The Players Library, at the home of Edwin Booth in NYC. Writing the plays has led to wonderful friendships with the creative teams on the productions, deep and satisfying relationships with Booth scholars, American theatre scholars, and other 19th century theatre practice scholars. I’ve been so thrilled to correspond and collaborate with so many brilliant creators, all because of my later- life start in playwrighting. My website has photos of some of the productions, updates, and information on my work. I am honored to be part of the Honor Roll! 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://www.angelaiannone.com
Facebook: Angela Iannone 
Instagram: angela.iannone3 

MORE ABOUT ME
​Two opening nights as a writer were completely joyful, the opening of my first play "The Edwin Booth Company Presents" at the college where I was working as an adjunct, and the opening of my second play "This Prison Where I Live" at Titan Theatre, Off Broadway. When I began my journey as a writer, I never imagined the words I wrote would fly the way they did, I never imagined the performers would have such a great time, I never imagined the audiences would like the plays the way they did. I feel most like myself when directing my own work, or when working on a really smart, graceful and generous script, with a crackerjack team of creator/collaborators. If I could change one thing about the theatre, I would remove the nastiness that happens when people seek to tear down the creative team, either through biting reviews, nasty commentary, or other barriers. I want artistic directors to know that now is the time to change the season selection barriers of the past, and I would urge them to take more chances on other stories. When not writing, I enjoy researching, and I have been a foster home for rescued German Shepherd Dogs for many years, the last few years specializing in senior dogs. The last year the question "why do I keep doing theatre" has been much on my mind. When it works the way it is meant to work, there is nothing quite like it. I enjoy the exchange of ideas with the creative team, I enjoy working with the performers to be their best creative selves, and I love it when a performance takes wing and reaches an audience. I have been working as an audiobook narrator during the pandemic, another thing I came to later in my career, and am completely enjoying it. I am hopeful that the theatre shut down has taught us all to be kinder, more generous, and more inventive than we were before.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I have two Booth plays that I am still working on. The first is a bi-lingual Italian/English play about the bi-lingual collaboration Edwin Booth did with Italian Shakespearean Tomasso Salvini, and the second play centers around one of the few times Edwin appeared onstage with his infamous brother, in a production of Richard 3. 

KEYWORDS
​Historical, Researcher, Animal-caretaker, Friend, Scholar
 

Marty Bongfeldt is a New England based playwright, director and performing artist. She is the recipient of the 2019 Denis Johnston Playwriting Prize for her full-length play, “In Session (or My Life is Hell);” and the 2018 Denis Johnston Playwriting Prize for “Four Collected Plays.” Her short play “ALWAYS” was named a winner in the 2019 Radius Festival and received a production with the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. Ms. Bongfeldt has been a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA for over 30 years. As a teacher, choreographer, and theatre director, Ms. Bongfeldt has helped develop educational theatre programs and produced theatrical productions in Texas, New York City and New England. As an actress, Marty has performed professionally throughout the United States in both musicals and straight plays, many times originating roles in new plays and musicals. Marty received her MFA in Theatre and Playwriting at Smith College under the mentorship of Len Berkman.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
https://www.martybongfeldt.com/

MORE ABOUT ME
How do I overcome disappointment? Having grown up in the theatre, I was taught early on to shake it off, refocus and keep moving; or as Dorothy Fields put it: "Pick yourself up, Dust yourself off, Start all over again"

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm working on a few projects: a "family" play; a futuristic play; and a couple adaptations and one acts.

KEYWORDS
​Comedy, Mystery, Drama, Folktales, Trauma, Childhood, Adaptations

I began writing plays about 10 years ago, after working as an actress (Broadway, Off-Broadway, L. A. theatre). I have had shows up at the Pierson Playhouse, Theatre 40, The Lounge, and the Hollywood Fringe. Two of my plays are published by Stage Rights and a third will be published by FlowerSong this spring. I am a member of the Dramatist's Guild and Fierce Backbone, a playwrights collective.

MORE ABOUT ME
I am a nicer person when I write. Writing releases my imagination, sparks my intellect, forces me to think about the Passover Question: why is this play/scene/moment different than all other plays/scenes/ moments?

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A play about Ethel Rosenberg.

KEYWORDS
​Jewish, family, political, historical, verse