Chelsea Sutton is a writer and theatre maker of what she likes to call gothic whimsy. She’s a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a Humanitas PlayLA award-winner, a graduate of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside. Her macabre steampunk adaptation of Pinocchio, Rogue Artists Ensemble’s Wood Boy Dog Fish, appeared in the inaugural season at the Garry Marshall Theatre. Most recently, her play The Abundance, a semi-finalist for the O’Neill and developed in Moving Arts’ MADLab, was part of the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference Play Lab, and will receive development at the 2024 Kayenta New Play Lab. Her short fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, and Bourbon Penn, among others, and her first flash fiction chapbook Only Animals is now available through Wrong Publishing. Chelseasutton.com
Originally from the rural Oregon coast, Alexis Roblan was raised on dense forests, cold beaches, and an acute sense of existential anxiety. Her plays include RED EMMA & THE MAD MONK (The Tank; New York Times Critic’s Pick), DAUGHTERS OF LOT (Edinburgh Fringe), YOU FEEL SO FAR AWAY RIGHT NOW (Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), THE ANDREW PLAY (Thomas Barbour Playwrights Award), AND IT SPINS TWICE (FringeNYC), OURS (Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), LILIYA (Exquisite Corpse Company), JAVELINA (Winner: Echo Theater Company New Play Competition), and SAMUEL (The Tank; Grant recipient, NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre; Finalist, Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission; “superb” – Helen Shaw, for Vulture). Alexis has been supported and produced by theatre companies including Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, New Perspectives Theatre Company, The Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, Project Y, The Blank Theatre, and The Geffen Playhouse.
A Mexican-American playwright who creates space for marginalized, underrepresented communities, and gives them heightened poetic language and theatricality. While his work is always personal, it is aimed at reaching across socio’political boundaries, showing the ridiculous of how separate we are, and illuminating hope for future generations.
Three-time Sundance Institute Fellow/Resident, inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Fellow. Awards: Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine, Princess Grace (Playwriting), Repertorio Español Nuestra Voces. Residencies/Labs: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Center Theatre Group, Geffen Playhouse, INTAR, Echo Theater, New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop, two-time Ojai Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages. Two years at Mabou Mines (mentor – Ruth Maleczech). Drama League nominee. Selected/mentored by Taylor Mac (Cherry Lane Mentor Projec); by Sam Shepard (La MaMa Ellen Stewart EmergingPlaywright). His work is presented nationally/internationally, taught in university, and published by Concord Theatricals, NoPassport Press. He world-premiered a new work at Steppenwolf in 2024. www.matthewpaulolmos.com
Shanti Reinhardt, an actress and playwright was raised in the Hawaiian tradition of hānai by a Filipino/Hawaiian family on the island of Kaua’i. She is a graduate of The American Conservatory Theater. Her play, Yamaguchi Store is part of a trilogy set in 1970’s Hawaii. Winner, Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Hawai’i Prize, (Semifinalist) Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, (Finalist) The Leah Ryan Fund, (Semifinalist) Frank Moffet Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language. Kill ‘Em With Aloha; Or, Da Big Mouth Pidgin English Play (Finalist) Eugene O’Neill NationalPlaywrights Conference, was optioned by CBS Television Studios and is currently in
development with producer Lynnette Ramirez and Anonymous Content. Awards/distinctions, (Finalist) Ashland New Plays Festival, (Finalist) Futurefest, (Honorable Mention) Parity Development Award for her play, Otis. Plays developed/produced, Great Plains Theatre Conference, NJ Rep Theatre, Theatre of NOTE, The Road Theatre Company, Pacific Resident Theatre and Inner-City Arts.
Member, Dramatists Guild.
BONI B. ALVAREZ has written over twenty plays, including BLOODLETTING (Playwrights’ Arena; CTG/Kirk Douglas Theatre; Pork Filled Productions) AMERICA ADJACENT (Skylight Theatre); FIXED (Echo Theater); NICKY (Coeurage Theatre); DALLAS NON-STOP (Playwrights’ Arena); DRIVEN (Theatre Rhinoceros); APARTMENT LIVING (Playwrights’ Arena & Skylight Theatre); RUBY, TRAGICALLY ROTUND (Playwrights’ Arena & Los Angeles Theatre Center); and MIX-MIX: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy (Latino Theatre Company & Playwrights’ Arena).
In Los Angeles, his plays have been developed with Artists At Play; Chalk Rep; Geffen Playhouse; Moving Arts; The Blank; The Vagrancy and nationally, with InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia); Miami New Drama; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco); San Diego Rep; and Second Generation (2g, NYC).
He earned an MFA in Acting from the ART/MXAT Institute at Harvard University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the USC School of Dramatic Arts. He is currently a Resident Playwright of New Dramatists.