Paulo K Tiról

Paulo K Tiról is a musical theatre composer, lyricist and bookwriter originally from Manila, Philippines. He was a Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow and an artist-in-residence at Access Theater. Projects include music and lyrics for On This Side of the World (NAMT Festival 2020, concert staging by Prospect Theatre Co., workshop production at Access Theater, all dir. Noam Shapiro); book, music and lyrics for Called (DGF Fellows 2020 showcase and virtual reading, both dir. May Adrales); and orchestrations for the off-Broadway musical Felix Starro (Ma-Yi Theatre Co.). His work has been featured at Joe’s Pub, Barrington Stage, and more. Training includes Berklee College of Music, NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (full tuition scholarship), and BMI. Paulo is thrilled to have been a Filipino-American immigrant voice in the 2019-20 class of DGF Fellows. More at www.paulophonic.com.

Nolan Doran

Nolan Doran is a Collaborative Theatre Artist (writer, director, and producer) who creates new works across theatre and film and is a 2019-2020 Dramatist Guild Foundation Musical Theatre Writing Fellow.

He is currently the Co-Writer of the new musical, “The Lesson” with Avi Amon and Ty Defoe. Recent works include, “My Eclectic Life” (HERE), “Woody – A New Fairy Tale” (Main Street Musicals winner), “The Spectrum” (Azalea Film Festival winner), “The King” (L.A. Indie Film Festival winner) and music for Ayodele Casel’s, “While I Have the Floor” (Spoleto Festival).

Broadway and Off-Broadway credits: Co-Producer and Assistant Director for, “Head Over Heels” with songs of the Go-Go’s, Associate Director for Michael Moore’s, “The Terms of My Surrender”, Assistant Director of the star studded one-night concert, “Stronger Together: Hillary on Broadway” and Assistant Director of “Jamboree” at City Center.

Doran is an Executive Producer alongside Liesl Tommy, Halle Morse, Julie Boardman and Jennifer Mudge for Broadway For Biden’s, “In Our America” Concert streaming now on Facebook. Recently: Executive Producer of “Artists For Change” for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Producer for #Arts4America in collaboration with Arts For Biden-Harris, Co-Producer of “The Secret Life of Bees”, Executive Producer of “The Golden Girls Musical Parody – Pride Edition” for World Pride at HERE and is the Co-Producer of, “The Museum of Broadway” coming in 2021.

Doran holds an M.F.A. from The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch.

Nikhil Mahapatra

Nikhil Mahapatra is a writer from India/Singapore. They are an inaugural member of the Lit Council at the Tank, led by Akin Salawu and Beto O’Byrne, a 2018-2019 Gingold Theatre Company Speaker’s Corner writer, and now delighted to be a 2019-2020 Dramatist’s Guild Foundation Fellow. Latest works include CARNAL, The Fields and the short film SPF, which recently had its premiere at The New York Indie Theatre Film Festival (NYITFF).

Melis Aker

Melis Aker is a writer, actor, and musician from Turkey. Her plays have been commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre, Ars Nova (Play Group member), NYTW (2050 fellow), New Group, Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF Fellow), Roundabout Space Jam, LaMaMa, The Lark, The Flea, Noor, Golden Thread Productions, 24 Hour Plays, Corkscrew Festival and BRIC in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in London.

Melis’ plays include: Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy’s List, Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Sundance final-round, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor final-round, Playwrights Realm finalist); Dragonflies (2019 Sundance final-round); Scraps and Things (Playing on Air, starring Carol Kane); Azul (O’Neill NMTC); When My Mama was a Hittite (Columbia@Roundabout finalist); Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox); Manar (Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Theatre503 Playwriting Award semifinalist); 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter (Jerome NY Fellowship final-round); OPET Diaries; and Gilded Isle. Her screenplay “ARI” (“Bee”) was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as part of Maison des Scenaristes, and her pilot of “MANAR” was accepted to Orchard Project’s Episodic Lab, Trans Atlantic Partners, and IFP week. She has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment, headed by Lori McCreary and Morgan Freeman.

Selected acting credits include: “The Blacklist: Redemption” (NBC), “Seneca” (HBOMax), Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage & Roundabout), We Live in Cairo (NAMT, New World Stages), Proof (Edinburgh Fringe). Her song “The Unknowing” was in the final reel of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk contest. Melis has worked as Ayad Akhtar’s assistant, and given a StoryCorps and TEDx talk. She is a proud member of The Lark’s Middle East America writers room.

Upcoming: Melis is developing a musical play with Benjamin Scheuer and Jemma Williams based on their illustrated book Hundred Feet Tall, and working on a new play commission from Ars Nova. Her play Field, Awakening will receive its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre directed by Rory McGregor (covid-19 pending). Training: Columbia (MFA), Tufts (BA), RADA (Acting). Representation: CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.melisaker.com

Kyoung H. Park

KYOUNG H. PARK was born in Santiago, Chile and is the first Korean playwright from Latin America to be produced and published in the United States. Kyoung is author of DISORIENTED, TALA, PILLOWTALK and many short plays including MINA, which is published in “Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas” by Duke University Press. Kyoung writes and directs his own work as Artistic Director of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theater company, and has been a resident artist at the The Tank, New Ohio Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, BRIC Arts Media, Performance Project @ University Settlement, HERE and La MaMa. He is co-founder of The Sol Project, a member of Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab, NYTW Usual Suspect, and serves on the Board of the Indie Theater Fund. He’s currently a 2018-2020 APAP Leadership Fellow and 2018-2019 ILI Fellow and has been a grant panelist for the NEA, TCG, NALAC and ART/NY. MFA: Playwriting (Columbia University).

Kate Douglas

Kate Douglas is a writer, composer and performer. Recent work includes THE NINTH HOUR, her operetta with Shayfer James at The Met Cloisters (the first performance of its kind in the Fuentidueña Chapel), her immersive play EXTINCT (produced with support from a LMCC Engagement Grant) and her audio experience DANDELION STORY, which received an Honorable Mention from SPACE on Ryder Farm’s CSArt Program. Her work has been developed at SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Orchard Project, New Victory Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, Rhinebeck Musicals and the Writer’s Colony at Goodspeed. She has over eight years of experience creating, writing and directing immersive events as Associate Artist at The McKittrick Hotel, home of SLEEP NO MORE, where she was also a performer. As a complement to her artistic practice, she is a Master Naturalist and student herbalist. She is currently working towards her Horticulture Certificate Sustainable Garden Design with the New York Botanical Garden.
www.kate-douglas.com

Jessica Kahkoska

Jessica Kahkoska is a writer, dramaturg/researcher, and performer. Projects include AGENT 355 (with Preston Max Allen, 2019 Chautauqua Theater Company, 2017 Marion International Fellowship Recipient), IN HER BONES (2020 Colorado New Play Summit, Denver Center for the Performing Arts) THE DEATH OF DESERT ROSE (with Elliah Heifetz, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, 2019 SBR Productions Commission), LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (dir. Michael Bello, The Great Hall at Cooper Union), Wild Home (Notch Theatre Company). Her work has additionally been developed/presented at the Roundabout Theatre Company, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, Village Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre, the America Musical Theatre Project (AMTP), and the Drama League. Dramaturgical work includes new play/musical development Off-Broadway and regionally at the Athena Project, Creede Repertory Theatre, and others. She is currently a Regional Vice President for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (LMDA). Graduate of Northwestern University. www.jessicakahkoska.com.

Elliah Heifetz

Elliah Heifetz is a first-generation American composer, pop songwriter, and folk singer. Theatrical works include Dust Bowl-era folk romp DUST CAN’T KILL ME (NYC Fringe 2014 – Best Music & Lyrics, NYMF 2016 – Best Music); WE ARE PILGRIMS, a Coachella-esque retelling of the Canterbury Tales (ASTIR Lab Series, Barn Arts Collective); and WILDWOOD, a punk-infused 50’s musical (54 Below), among others. Published by The Brain Music, Elliah has collaborated with hit pop songwriters and producers like Freddy Wexler (Kanye West, Selena Gomez), Dave Kuncio (Dierks Bentley, Steve Aoki), Corey Sanders (Chainsmokers, Callum Scott), and Neff-U (Dr. Dre, Justin Bieber). Elliah also releases and performs his original Americana songs, which have been featured in curated playlists (including TIDAL’s 2018 Best Of: Rising Folk/Country) and heard live from New York to Nashville. The son of political refugees, Elliah strives to write songs that are at once accessible, meaningful, and radical.

Avi Amon

Avi Amon is a Turkish-American composer, sound artist, and educator. Recent credits include: THE COPPER CHILDREN (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), STEW (SoHo Rep/Page 73), THE FISHERMAN (HBO Films), THE BLACK HISTORY MUSEUM with Zoey Martinson (HERE Arts Center), WE WERE EVERYWHERE with Shariffa Ali (Princeton), SALONIKA (Berkeley REP) and THE WHITE CITY with Julia Gytri (Yale Institute, O’Neill NMTC), RATED BLACK with Kareem Lucas (New York Theater Workshop). His sound installations in a 100-year old grain silo with Buffalo, NY-based Torn Space Theater were featured at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial. In development: HEROINE’S GUIDE with Claire Kiechel (Spotify), INSHALLAH/MASHALLAH: a 3-D-audio opera re-imagining of the 1,001 Nights (Target Margin Theater), and scores for several films. He is a Jonathan Larson Grant and New Music USA Grant winner, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, and has been an Artist in-residence with Exploring the Metropolis at JCAL, Hi-ARTS, Judson, New Dramatists, and Weston Playhouse. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project and teaches a variety of collaborative art-making courses at NYU Tisch. www.aviamon.com

Andy Roninson

Andy Roninson is a composer-lyricist, orchestrator, and music director in NYC. He is a 2019 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient and a 2017 Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project participant. In the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, he was awarded the Harrington Award for Creative Excellence and the Robert B. Sherman Scholarship. He is the creator/host/cowriter of the all-original ten-minute musical podcast TAKE A TEN, featuring Broadway talent like Laura Osnes, Rob McClure, Nick Blaemire, and George Salazar. Episodes of the podcast have been produced around the world and have won numerous awards, including the top prize at the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, the 2016 City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting, and Best Musical (2x) at the Sound Bites festival in NYC. TakeATenMusicals.com. He orchestrated and music directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Wonderland: Alice’s Rock and Roll Adventure at the Atlantic Theater. AndyRoninson.com