Ben H. Winters

Ben H. Winters is the author of eight novels, including the Edgar-award-winning The Last Policeman and its two sequels, the New York Times bestselling Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and a novel for kids called The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman. As a librettist and/or lyricist his work includes the Off Broadway musical Slut (with fellow DG Fellow Stephen Sislen) children’s musicals The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and A (Tooth) Fairy Tale, and the jukebox musical Breaking Up is Hard to Do. He currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife and three kids.

UPCOMING WORKS

Ben’s new novel, Underground Airlines, will be published by Little, Brown in 2016.

CREDITS

plays & musicals:
Slut
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
A (Tooth) Fairy Tale
Uncle Pirate

Novels:
The Last Policeman
Countdown City
World of Trouble
Bedbugs
Android Karenina
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

for young readers:
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman
The Mystery of the Missing Everything
Literally Disturbed (Tales to Keep You Up at Night)

Website: http://benhwinters.com/

Twitter: benhwinters
Facebook: Facebook

Robby Stamper

Robby is an award winning composer and alumni of the Tony award-winning BMI Musical Theater Workshop. He has written Miss Buttercup is Missing, The Tale of Ganesh The Elephant Prince, and The Frog Prince, Bugtown, Sunset Park and Moonlight (book and lyrics by Nicole Kempskie). His shortsPicture Perfect and Dream Teen, (book and lyrics by Arianna Rose), and Mother of the Year, (book and lyrics by Nicole Kempskie) have been produced at The York Theater-NYC as part as their 4@15 series. He is also composer of the shortsWild Roses and Sister Aimee: Live at the Capitol Theatre, (book and lyrics by Andrea Frierson). His musical, Helen on 86^th St., (book and lyrics by Nicole Kempskie), had it’s highly praised New York premier in April of 2011 and is published with Playscripts Inc. His newest musical “The Order Of Things”(with lyrics and book by Nicole Kempskie) is currently in pre-production stages.

Robby has been a musical director, composer and performer with Walt Disney Entertainment since 1991. Since moving to New York from Orlando Florida in 1998, he continues to contribute his talents to Disney. He served as musical director for Disney Theatrical’s Cub School. Cub School works with children, preparing them for young roles in The Lion King and Mary Poppins on Broadway.

CREDITS

The Order of Things

It’s About Time

Helen on 86^th St.

The Princely Frog

Moonlight

Bugtown!

The Elephant Prince

Sunset Park

Website: http://www.robbystamper.com/

Stephen Sislen

Stephen Sislen wrote the music and additional lyrics for Slut (book and lyrics by Ben H. Winters), which enjoyed an Off-Broadway run (James Hammerstein Productions) after premiering at the New York International Fringe Festival. Stephen is the composer and co-lyricist of TheatreWorksUSA’s The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, also with book and lyrics by Winters, now available for licensing from by Samuel French. On televisionStephen’s work has been featured on the Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites, starring John Tartaglia.

Stephen was awarded the 2008 BMI Harrington Award for outstanding creative achievement in musical theatre and a 2009 Dramatists Guild Fellowship. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Randomly, Stephen also appeared on season 5 of NBC’s 30 Rock as Keyboard Guy, and also in a reenactment on an episode of Real Stories of the Highway Patrol. Seriously, it was awesome.

CREDITS

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Slut

Room 16

Website: http://stephensislen.com/

Twitter: @stephensislen

Michael Heitzman & Ilene Reid

Heitzman and Reid are the Grammy-nominated songwriters of “Throw That Girl Around” from the Broadway musical Swing! Their musical Bingo (The Winning Musical) had a successful Off-Broadway run and was honored with the 2007 Bay Area Critics Association Award for Best Musical. Their musical, Vices: A Love Story, was nominated for eight 2010 Carbonell Awards including Best New Work and Best Musical. Their newest original musical, Solana, will receive a NYC workshop in the spring of 2015. They are both proud members of The Dramatists Guild (2008-2009 Fellows), BMI and the WGA, East.

CREDITS

Throw That Girl Around, Broadway Musical, SWING!
Bingo (The Winning Musical) – www.bingothemusical.com
VICES: A Love Story
Solana

Website: http://www.heitzmanreid.com/

Twitter: @HeitzmanReid

Andrea Frierson

Andrea Frierson is currently the author and star of Me & Ella, which tours, nationally. Andrea is a recipient of the Library of Congress’ Parsons Fund Award for her musical Soon of a Mornin’, an invited show in the 2005 NYMF Festival- and is also a NYSCA grant recipient for her musical, Lady Be Good, produced by Lincoln Center Theatre in a five-day workshop. Andrea was a staff writer for the Nickelodeon TV series, Allegra’s Window. A Helen Hayes Award winner, she has performed leading roles in numerous Broadway and regional theatre productions.

UPCOMING WORKS

www.meandella.com

Andrea is also working on a one-act play, Voice Lessons.

CREDITS

Currently working on an illustrated memoir entitled, How NOT to Fall off a Broadway Stage. You can view an excerpt here:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/andreafrierson

Her published essay was featured in magazine, The Dramatist

Website: http://www.andreafrierson.com

LinkedIn: LinkedIn

Lauren Yee

Lauren Yee’s plays include CHING CHONG CHINAMAN (Pan Asian, Mu Performing Arts, SIS Productions, Impact Theatre), CREVICE (Impact), THE HATMAKER’S WIFE (Playwrights Realm, The Hub, Moxie Theatre, AlterTheater, PlayPenn), HOOKMAN (Encore Theatre, Company One), IN A WORD (SF Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, Strawdog, The Hub), KING OF THE YEES (Goodman Theatre – New Stages), SAMSARA (Victory Gardens, Chance Theatre, O’Neill Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and THE TIGER AMONG US (MAP Fund, Mu).

Her work has also been developed at Lincoln Center/LCT3, The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Kitchen Dog, the Magic Theatre, and others. Former Dramatists Guild fellow, MacDowell Colony fellow, Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member, Women’s Project Lab playwright, Second Stage Shank playwright-in-residence, and Playwrights Realm Page One resident playwright.

Her play SAMSARA has been a nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Her play THE HATMAKER’S WIFE was an Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award for best play by a new American playwright.

She is currently a member of the Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab and a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer. Lauren is also under commission from the Denver Center, Lincoln Center/LCT3, Mixed Blood, New World Symphony, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Rep, and Trinity Rep. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD.

UPCOMING WORKS

in a word

NNPN rolling world premiere

Directed by Jess McLeod

Strawdog Theatre Company (Chicago)

February 5-March 19, 2016

in a word

Directed by Michael Bernard

Elements Theatre Collective (Santa Barbara, CA)

Spring 2016

in a word

Directed by Matt Bassett

The Hub Theatre (Fairfax, VA)

April 1-24, 2016

Stereo | Blind

a commissioned play with music

Curated by Michael Tilson Thomas

Music by Amy Beth Kirsten

Directed by Mary Birnbaum

New World Symphony (Miami Beach, FL)

April 30, 2016

CREDITS

King of the Yees

as part of the New Stages Festival

Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody

Goodman Theatre (Chicago)

November 1-15, 2015

King of the Yees

as part of the Construction Zone Reading Series

Directed by Desdemona Chiang

ACT Theatre (Seattle)

August 25, 2015

Samsara

West Coast premiere

Directed by Benjamin Haber Kamine

The Chance Theatre (Anaheim)

April 30-June 7, 2015 – EXTENDED

Hookman

World premiere

Directed by Becca Wolff

Encore Theatre Company (San Francisco)

May 6-30, 2015

in a word

NNPN rolling world premiere

Directed by Beth Wood

Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland)

April 16-May 2, 2015

in a word

National New Play Network rolling world premiere

Directed by Giovanna Sardelli

San Francisco Playhouse (San Francisco)

April 2-25, 2015

Samsara

World premiere

Directed by Seth Bockley

Victory Gardens Theatre (Chicago)

February 6-March 8, 2015

The Tiger Among Us

Directed by Lavina Jadhwani

Timeline Theatre Company (Chicago)

February 17, 2015

King of the Yees

as part of the Play Labs Series

Directed by Gavin Witt

Center Stage (Baltimore)

Nov 21-23, 2014

King of the Yees

closed workshop

as part of Next Edition Festival

Directed by Kent Nicholson

Playwrights Realm (New York City)

Nov 11-15, 2014

in a word

as part of PLAY/ground

Directed by Casey Stangl

The Theatre at Boston Court (Pasadena, CA)

Nov 8, 2014

The Tiger Among Us

as part of the Lark Playwrights’ Week

Directed by Shelley Butler

Lark Play Development Center (New York City)

September 24, 2014

The Hatmaker’s Wife

Directed by Rachel Chavkin

Playwrights Realm (New York City)

August 27-September 21, 2013

Samsara

as part of the National Playwrights Conference

Directed by Seth Bockley

The O’Neill Conference (Waterford, CT)

July 5-6, 2013

Website: http://laurenyee.com/

Twitter: @Laurendyee

Chris Weikel

Chris Weikel, a 2008-09 Dramatist Guild Fellow, is the 2007 recipient of the Robert Chesley Award for emerging gay playwrights and his play PIG TALE was the 2008 recipient of the Irv Zarkower Award from Hunter College. His Penny Penniworth, which according to The New York Times “deserves to become a staple” was recently produced Off-Broadway by Emerging artists Theatre Company (EAT). Weikel is a founding member of TOSOS which recently presented his Pig Tale: An Urban Faerie Story in New York as well as at the Absolut Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival. TOSOS also produced an evening of one-acts called WeikelWorks, as well as Weikel’s Speaking Parts, Gareth and Lynette, and the original production of Penny Penniworth (“must see” show – 2003 FringeNYC Festival). EAT workshopped his The Way-Weary (Kennedy Center Finalist, Playwright’s First Semifinalist) and produced the premieres of his Lost Boys, Dansport, Gareth and Lynette, and Faithfully Presented. Weikel was commissioned by American Stage Company (St. Petersburg, FL) to write an adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales for the company’s 2000 season. Chris is a judge-at-large for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards and a regular contributor to Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB. Penny Penniworth, Gareth and Lynette, and Dansport have been published by United Stages. Weikel was a member of the first class to graduate with an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College, studying under Tina Howe and Mark Bly. He was honored to have been selected to participate in the 2012 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival/ National New Play Network MFA Playwriting Workshop with his play Embrace, and his play Secret Identity were included in Playwright’s Week at The Lark in the Fall of 2012. Penny Penniworth is available from Dramatic Publishing.

Lori Fischer

Lori Fischer is a 2008 N.Y.U Harry Kondoleon Graduate Award in Playwriting recipient and 2008-09 Dramatists Guild Fellow. Her (and Don Chaffer’s) musical The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers was produced at Capital Repertory Theatre, 2013. Starving Artist Productions produced her play Petie, 2013. Her musical Barbara’s Blue Kitchen played Off-Broadway in 2006/published by Samuel French in 2007. Her movie Chasing Taste won Best Feature Comedy/Manhattan Film Festival, 2014. Lori received her M.F.A. from N.Y.U.’s Dramatic Writing Department. Lori teaches “Writing Great Characters” and “Getting into the Writing Habit” at NYU.

UPCOMING WORKS

Barbara’s Blue Kitchen currently playing at The Cumberland County Playhouse
Reading of my comedy Greener Pastures on 2/16/15 in NYC
Movie Chasing Taste Official Selection Sedona International Film Festival 2015

CREDITS

**Barbara’s Blue Kitchen
Book, music and lyrics by Lori Fischer
A slice-of-life musical comedy produced Off-Broadway at the Lamb’s Theatre in 2006
Published by Samuel French, Inc. in 2007
Produced and starred in regionally:
At Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Spring 2002
The Adirondack Theatre Festival, Summer 2000
Bongo Java Upstairs Theater, Summer 2014
Also included in the 2000 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, E.S.T Octoberfest, York Theatre Developmental Play Reading Series, Florida Studio Theatre Playwriting Festival
Currently playing at Cumberland County Playhouse through March 2015

**The Sparkely Clean Funeral Singers
Book by Lori Fischer, Music and lyrics by Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer
Produced and starred in regionally at Capitol Repertory Theatre, Summer 2013
2012 Richard Rogers Award Finalist
2012 Semi-finalist Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference
Included in The York Theatre Reading Series, Feb. and Sept. 2012

**Petie
Produced and starred in regionally at Duke Energy Theatre, Starving Artist Productions, Spring 2013
New York University Goldberg Playwriting Award Runner-up
Nominated for the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award
Kennedy Center ACTF Region II Festival, January 2008
KCACTF Region II Certificate of Merit recipient, 2008

**Real Life Drama
Kennedy Center, 2008 M.F.A. Playwriting Workshop
2009 Word Bridge Semi-Finalist
Included in Theatre for the New City’s Scratch Night Reading
Series, 2009

**The Burning
Produced in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival, NY
Also, received a reading in the 2010 SWAN Day, Washington DC
Originally commissioned by Theatre C/Carlos Armesto New York

**Is This Heaven, Evan?
Produced in the BeSpoke One-Act Musical Festival at the York
Theatre Company, 2013
Book by Lori Fischer, Music and Lyrics by Lori Fischer, Don Chaffer
and Lori Chaffer

**Displaced
Commissioned by Theatre C/Carlos Armesto New York, NY
Received the 2013 A.R.T. Alumni Lab Grant

**Greener Pastures
NYU Thesis Professor Marsha Norman
New York University, M.F.A. Thesis Reading, Public Theatre
Starring: Lois Smith, Lynn Cohen, Roberta Maxwell, Peter Francis
James

**Clean Up Your Shit
A ten-minute play by Lori Fischer
Included in the Kennedy Center Regional Play Festival in 2007

**Thoughts of Rome
Semi-finalist for a NYCWAM grant
Originally commissioned by Georgetown Theatre Company as a part
of the Belle Parricide project, which was included in the 2010 SWAN
Day and was produced in the 2011 Capitol Fringe Festival
Thoughts of Rome by Lori Fischer is particularly good. I was so
interested that I was sorry to see it end. Kate Sheperd, DC Theatre
Scene
They start with the strongest of the five, Lori Fischer’s Thoughts of
Rome. Fischer deftly illustrates the cycle of abuse. Ian Buckwalter,
Washington City Paper
“Consistently intriguing” “Perfect” “Enthralling” Stephanie Merry,
Washington Post
“Four Stars, Brava!” Erica Laxson, MD Theatre Guide

**The Water Knows My Name
Produced in 2010, Perry-Mansfield Steamboat Springs, Colorado

**The Memory of Damage
Full-length play, received a reading at SWAN Day ’08, Washington,
DC

**Leap and Annette Will Appear
Ten-minute play, performed at SWAN Day ’09, Washington, DC

**Jumping Up and Down Happy Town and Surprise Destination
Two ten-minute plays, performed on election night 2008 at The Theory
of Everything Presents: The 50 State Response at The Horse
Hospital, London, England

Website: http://www.lorifischer.net/

Twitter: @Laf202Lori
Facebook: Facebook

Delaney Britt Brewer

Delaney Britt Brewer is a writer & performer living in New York. She was a 2008-9 Dramatists Guild Fellow, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s playwriting group Youngblood, and currently an affiliated artist of New Georges Theater Co. and the literary manager of Firework Theater. Her work has been produced and work shopped at 59e59, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, the APAC, PS122, Center Stage, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theatre at St. Clements (for the New York Musical Theatre Festival), Theatre Row, The Abingdon, Collective Unconscious, The Chernuchin at the American Theatre of Actors, and The Wings Theater. She is a member of the video art ensemble OtherPeople. OtherPeople are recent recipients of a grant from the Experimental TV Center and residencies at both Art Farm and LKV in Norway. A freelance writer, her music reviews and pieces can be found onmulevariations.com

CREDITS

Suffer the Brink of Us

Wolves

We are Being Held

Lake Water

It’ll Soon Be Here

An Octopus Love Story

Website: http://www.brittbrewer.com/