Playwright, poet, and educator Candrice Jones is from Dermott, Arkansas. Candrice writes love letters for and to women of the American South. Candrice is a VONA Playwriting alum and CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient. She is the author of the full-length play Crackbaby (2010 Wasserstein Prize Nomination) and FLEX (developed at the 2020 Humana Festival of New American Plays). She has been a resident fellow at Ground Floor housed by Berkeley Rep, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts. Candrice lives and works in Minneapolis where she has received a 2019/20 Many Voices Fellowship and a 2020/21 Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center. Her plays have been developed at VONA, Ground Floor, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Recently, her plays have received readings from Theatrical Outfit, National New Play Network, and San Francisco Playhouse. She was recently awarded commissions via People’s Light Theater and Actors Theater of Louisville. She is currently developing her play, A Medusa Thread, in UC Santa Barbara’s Launchpad Series.

About FLEX
It’s 1997 and Cynthia Cooper rules the WNBA. Every player on Plainnole’s Lady Train basketball team wants to “go pro,” but none more than Starra Jones. She and her teammates, Cherise, Sidney, April, and Donna, make a pact to stick together come hell or high water. However, the realities of living life in rural Arkansas may tear them apart. Written in the structure of a four-quarter basketball game, FLEX presents a world in which a mistake on the court becomes a foul off the court. Hitting a shot on the court is a score in real life.

Keiko Green is a San Diego-based screenwriter/playwright/performer, as well as a 2nd-year MFA Playwriting student at University of California San Diego. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a bilingual household (Japanese and English). She received her BFA from NYU's Tisch School with a focus on Experimental Theatre. Keiko lived in Seattle for six years, where she is a Core Company Member at ACT Theatre and a former member of the Seattle Rep's Writers Group. Her play Nadeshiko won the Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play, as well as landing on the Honorable Mentions for the national Kilroys List. Her plays have been developed and/or produced by ACT Theatre, the Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Seattle Rep, and the Playwrights Realm. She was a finalist for both the Many Voices and Jerome Fellowships at the Playwrights Center. As an actor, Keiko has performed at the Denver Center of Performing Arts, Seattle Rep, ACT Theatre, and the National Asian American Theatre Company, among others. 

She also has a basset hound named Gus, who has quickly become her whole life. (She also has a husband. Sorry, husband.)

www.keikogreen.com

About Nadeshiko
Nadeshiko follows the story of two women: A young woman in Japan during World War II takes on the role of caregiver to soldiers soon flying to their deaths. In 2016, Risa takes on a peculiar gig from Craigslist in order to pay her rent. As personal and sexual boundaries blur, the stories of two generations of women intersect in this discovery of power within idealized Asian beauty.

Danielle Mohlman is a nationally produced playwright based in Seattle, WA. Danielle’s plays have been developed at Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Cygnet Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Field Trip Theatre, Umbrella Project, Youth Theatre Northwest, The Scratch & Really Really Theatre Group, and Seattle Public Theater, among others.

Danielle’s plays include Stopgap (Field Trip Theatre, DCCAH Larry Neal Award finalist); Nexus (Hubbard Hall, Dreamwell Theatre, The Kilroys honorable mention, DCCAH Larry Neal Award finalist, Woodward/Newman Award finalist); Dust (Dacha Theatre, The Kilroys List, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center semi-finalist, Finish Line Commission); Rushing (The Scratch & Really Really Theatre Group, Umbrella Project Writers Group); Frankenstein (Mount Vernon High School, George Mason High School, Village Theatre); Halcyon (Seattle Public Theater, Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center semi-finalist); and Rocky Road (Project 5 Commission).  

Danielle is an alumna of Playwrights’ Arena at Arena Stage, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship, and the Umbrella Project Writers Group. She is a proud graduate of both Cal Poly Pomona and Emerson College. She is currently developing multiple projects for theater and film.

About Rushing:
Russell and Mia meet minutes before the first football game of the season. He's the star running back, she plays the sousaphone in the university marching band. No one ever pictured them together. But they are. And in a weird way they're good for each other. Until they're not. Rushing explores the culture of violence, the fanaticism surrounding Division I sports, and rape on college campuses nationwide. This play takes place in your town. The team is wearing your colors. And yes, there's a live marching band scoring this entire world. CONTENT WARNING: Sexual assault.

Marisela Treviño Orta is an Iowa Playwrights Workshop alumna, a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer, and a Steering Committee member of the Latinx Theatre Commons. Her plays include: A Place To Belong (2018 A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory); Braided Sorrow (2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama); Ghost Limb (2017 Brava Theater); Heart Shaped Nebula (2015 Shotgun Players); Return to Sender (2019 Nashville Children’s Theatre); Shoe (2019 Kendeda Finalist); Somewhere (2020 Temple University); The River Bride (2016 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2013 National Latino Playwriting Award); Wolf at the Door (2018 National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere); and Woman on Fire (2016 Camino Real Productions).

Currently, Marisela is working on her new play December, as well as an epic adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit. She is also under commission with Audible to develop her play Nightfall for their platform.

About Heart Shaped Nebula:
"Your love is an anomaly. It defies logic, time, and space." On the anniversary of a tragic accident, Miqueo travels to the desert town of Tonopah, known for having the darkest skies with an abundance of stars. He has come to let go of his grief, but the Universe seems to have other plans. In comes Amara, a rebellious teenager who is more than she appears to be. With an aura of magical realism, Heart Shaped Nebula, explores the mysteries of the universe and the human heart.

MJ Kaufman is a playwright and television writer from Portland, OR. Their plays include: Whisper’s Gone (Theatre Exile), Double Atlas (workshop at Playwrights Realm), Masculinity Max (Public Theater Studio production, Pride Plays ’20 reading), Sensitive Guys (InterAct Theater and numerous theaters and schools around the country), and A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile (Clubbed Thumb). Their work has also been produced and developed at WP Theater, Huntington Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the New Museum, NAATCO, Playwrights Realm, Colt Coeur, Yale School of Drama, and the Lark Play Development Center, as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia.

MJ received the 2017 Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award, 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the 2013 Global Age Project Prize, and the 2010 Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists. MJ has been a member of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers’ Group, WP Theater Lab, a core playwright at InterAct Theatre, and a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theater.

MJ curated the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Trans Theater Fest at The Brick and, along with Kit Yan, founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists. They have worked as a writer for two seasons for Netflix. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, MJ has written zoom plays for New Dramatists and Play at Home, adapted their play Sensitive Guys for the internet, and worked on an audio piece for New Dramatists Plays for the Ear initiative. An alum of Wesleyan University and Yale School of Drama. mjkaufman.com

About Sagittarius Ponderosa:
Archer (still Angela to his family) returns home to the forests of eastern Oregon to care for his sick father. At night under the oldest Ponderosa Pine, he meets a stranger who knows the history of the forests.

Madhuri Shekar was born in California and grew up in India. She is currently based in the New York region, having recently graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Julliard. She writes on themes of love, relationships, and sexuality inspired by her cross-cultural background.

Madhuri’s plays include Dhaba on Devon Avenue (commissioned by Victory Gardens); House of Joy (California Shakespeare Theatre, San Diego Rep, developed at South Coast Rep, Juilliard, Atlantic, NY Stage and Film); Queen (Victory Gardens—2017 Jeff Award for Best New Play; APAC—NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full Length Script; Geva Theatre Center); A Nice Indian Boy (East West Players, Rasaka Theatre Company, EnActe Arts); In Love and Warcraft (Kendeda Graduate Playwriting contest winner); Antigone, Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine’s (Alliance Theater); and Bucket of Blessings (Alliance Theater). She is also working on a new play commission about hockey culture for South Coast Rep.

Madhuri was one of the first recipients of Audible’s new commissioning program for emerging playwrights. Her audio drama, Evil Eye, debuted at #5 on Audible’s bestseller list, and won a 2020 Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association for Best Original Work. The film adaptation is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime. In Hollywood, Madhuri was a staff writer on HBO’s "The Nevers" and is currently at work on a film to be announced soon.

Madhuri is a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists. She has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC, and a dual Master’s degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and USC. madhurishekar.com

^{Photo by Ganesh Toasty.}

About House of Joy:
Set some time like the 17th century, in some place like Delhi, India, House of Joy tells the story of Hamida, an elite female bodyguard in the Emperor’s Imperial Harem. Faced with an impossible ethical quandary, Hamida tries to help an abused Queen escape the heavily guarded harem, thus risking her life and going against everything she was raised to believe. A swashbuckling action-adventure romance inspired by the legends of Indian history.

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include Wish You Were Here (Williamstown Audible; Playwrights Horizons 2021) and English (Roundabout Underground 2021; Weissberger New Play Award; Kilroys List 2019). She is currently under commission at the Atlantic Theater (Launch commission; Toulmin grant), Williamstown Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory, IAMA Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow. MFA: NYU Tisch. Sanaz is a proud child of immigrants.

About English:
“English, always.” That’s the motto for one classroom in Iran, as a group of students struggles to learn a new language. If only they can conquer this mysterious tongue, doors will open to new jobs, deeper family connections, and boundless opportunities. But as they practice, practice, practice, desperate not to fail (or, worst of all, sound like Borat), understanding a new world might also mean leaving their old one behind.

Larissa FastHorse is an award winning playwright, director, and choreographer. She was awarded the NEA Distinguished New Play Development Grant, Joe Dowling Annamaghkerrig Fellowship, AATE Distinguished Play Award, Inge Residency, Sundance/Ford Foundation Fellowship, Aurand Harris Fellowship, numerous Ford and NEA Grants, and recently named a 2020 MacArthur fellow. Larissa's produced plays include The Thanksgiving Play, What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Urban Rez, Landless, Average Family, Teaching Disco Squaredancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation, and Cherokee Family Reunion. She has written commissions for Cornerstone Theatre Company, Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, AlterTheater, Kennedy Center TYA, Native Voices at the Autry, Artist’s Rep, and Mountainside Theatre. She developed plays with Kansas City Rep, Artist’s Rep in Portland, Arizona Theater Company, the Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor.

About What Would Crazy Horse Do?:
What Would Crazy Horse Do? examines the lives of Calvin and Journey—twins who are the last two members of Marahotah clan. Floundering after their grandfather’s passing, they form a suicide pact in case their lives on the reservation become too hopeless. However, when two white strangers arrive claiming their families have a shared history, the twins’ world is torn wide open.

^{Photo by Conor Horgan.}

Philana Imade Omorotionmwan (o-more-o-tune-wah) was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her plays include Before Evening Comes, Fireflies, Strong Face, and The Defiance of Dandelions. She appears on the 2019 Kilroys List, was a 2018-19 Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow, and the recipient of Marin Theatre Company's 2018 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize. Her work has been developed and/or presented by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Br!nk New Play Festival, La MaMa, Athena Project, Geva Theatre Center, and TDPS at UC Berkeley. Her short plays have been commissioned and/or produced at Pillsbury House + Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ohlone College, Manhattan Theatre Source, and 20% Theatre Chicago, while her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review. She has been a semi-finalist for the Relentless Award, P73 Fellowship, and Many Voices Fellowship; a finalist for the Theatre503 Award, Princess Grace Award, and Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series; and a two-time finalist for the Heideman Award. She has also been a recipient of residencies at Djerassi and the Atlantic Center for the Arts and received scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center and Naropa University. Philana holds a BA in English from Stanford University. She completed an MFA in Playwriting elsewhere in May 2018 and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

About Before Evening Comes:
With his 13th birthday around the corner, Totome is excited to meet “the butcher” and finally become a man. His mother, however, hopes to keep him whole for just a little while longer. Set in a dystopian future, Before Evening Comes explores what becomes of black boys, men, and women in an America rooted in the founding myths that the black male body is either a commodity or a threat.