Aaron Coleman is a New York City-based playwright and lyricist from Los Angeles. He is a ’22-23 Dramatists Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow and First Year Member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. His plays include TELL ME I’M GORGEOUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD: THE LAST GAY PLAY (2023 O’Neill Finalist, 2022 Yale Drama Series Prize Shortlist, 2023 Blue Ink Award Semi-Finalist), UNCLE REMUS, HIS LIFE AND TIMES, AS TOLD TO AARON COLEMAN (The Old Globe’s 2023 Powers New Voices Festival), and WHERE HAVE ALL THE FAIRIES GONE? (2022 Reading with Brave New World Repertory Theatre). His original short YA musical LEO’S BIG DAY OUT (music by Chuck Pelletier) was commissioned and virtually staged by Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Over the past couple years, Aaron has also been a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award, a two-time Finalist for the Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center, a Finalist for New York Theater Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, a Finalist for The Civilians’ R&D Group (in 2020 and 2021), and a Finalist for the 2019 Playwrights’ Week at The Lark. Essentially, he’s been a finalist for everything.

He wrote lyrics for the Off-Broadway musical IMELDA written with East West Players and New Musicals Inc. (Pan Asian Rep, David Henry Hwang Theatre). As a lyricist with New Musicals, Inc. in Los Angeles, Aaron has developed musicals for McCoy Rigby Entertainment, the Celebration Theatre, and American Folklore Theatre. MFA: Writing for Screen and Television, USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Gloria Oladipo is a playwright based in New York, proudly hailing from Chicago, IL. She writes dark comedies about Black women, exploring themes of caregiving, mental health, and trauma through a mix of realism and absurdism.

Gloria is a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow and 2023 Seven Devils New Play Conference resident, where her play The Care and Keeping of Schizophrenia (and Other Demons) is in development. She is a 2023 Gingold Group Speaker’s Corner fellow, with her play I Wanna Kill, Annie G. Gloria is 2023 artist-in-residence with New York Stage and Film in Poughkeepsie, New York. Gloria is also a Velvetpark Writers Residency finalist.

Gloria’s other plays include The Good Victim (Cornell University reading/development), The Forever War (Heermans-McCalmon Competition for Dramatic Writing 2nd Place), and other works.

Gloria is also an award-winning cultural critic and journalist. She is a 2022 National Critics Institute fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, an opportunity she was selected for via the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy. Gloria’s work has appeared in Teen Vogue, the Guardian, Bitch Media, and other publications.Bachelor of Arts and Sciences: Cornell University.  gloriaoladipo.com

Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. His play DATA won the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, and was adapted as a digital production presented by the Tony-winning Alliance Theatre in May 2021, a production featured in a New York Times review of virtual theatre works that “clear a path toward continued innovation and growth of the form.” Matt is a two-time Princess Grace Award finalist, two-time O’Neill Playwrights Conference semifinalist, and Blue Ink Playwriting Award featured finalist, and his work has been produced and developed by theaters across the country, including Alliance Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Theater Masters, The Barrow Group, The Road Theater Company, WNYU’s Theatre-in-the-Sound, and others. With Stanford Repertory Theater, he helped devise and acted in THE MANY FACES OF FARCE, which was nominated for a 2018 Bay Area Critics Award for Best Production. As a TV writer, he is developing projects with eOne, Beau Willimon’s Westward Productions, and Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, and his screenwriting work has been recognized by The Black List and Script Pipeline. Matt studied cognitive science and creative writing at Stanford University, and received his MFA in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was awarded the Chair’s Award for Distinguished Achievement. He is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild of America. https://www.matthew-libby.com/

SMJ (they/them) is an NYC-based, mixed-Latiné, and Trans non-binary playwright, educator, & theatermaker originally from Mount Vernon, OH. They are a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. Currently, SMJ is creating work with Ars Nova, The Road Theatre Company, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, The Orchard Project, American Theater Group, CRY HAVOC, The Actors Studio, PlayGround-NY, and The Uptown Collective. Their work has been seen in various forms throughout the US including the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, Lincoln Center, National Queer Theater, Carnegie Mellon University, Otterbein University, Wright State University, Art House Productions, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, The Workshop Theater, The 24 Hour Plays, The Fled Collective, Live Arts, Philly Theater Week, The Tank, and DR2 Theatre. SMJ also writes for the serial podcast, University Radio. SMJ has been a semifinalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference, Princess Grace Award at New Dramatists, Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, and The Civilians R & D Group as well as a Finalist for the 2023 Parity Development Award, Write Out Loud Contest, 5th Avenue Theater’s First Draft Commission, and the Doric Wilson Playwright Award. SMJ is a graduate of Otterbein University and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. They’re a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys. www.smjwrites.com

Zizi Majid (she/her) is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. She is the inaugural recipient of the Julia Miles Playwriting Residency (WP Theatre), a 2022-23 Playwriting Fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation and a proud alumni of the WP Lab. She won the Pacific Rim Prize for Playwriting (Kumu Kahua / UHM Theatre Playwriting Contest); has been a finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival; a twice semi-finalist for the O’Neil National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Plays include They Came in the Night, Return to Fall, The Rejects and How to Gild an Eagle. For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) garnering multiple awards during her tenure. She teaches playwriting and drama in context at Syracuse University. MFA: Columbia University