VICTORIA ABRASH has worked as a dramaturg on productions ranging from classics to new plays to performance art for the Mark Taper Forum, Ping Chong and Co., the Acting Company, the Public Theater and elsewhere. She has been a staff dramaturg at The Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, the Women’s Project and Productions, and the Philadelphia Drama Guild. She writes study guides for Lincoln Center Theater and is director of the ongoing multi-discplinary work of the National Performing Arts Convention. She has led arts conferences for Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the National Arts Journalism Program and others, and worked on the recent Theatre Development Fund new play production research project which culminated in the book Outrageous Fortune. She was a longtime site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and has been a script evaluator and award panelist for the NEA, TCG, McKnight Foundation, New Dramatists, Lincoln Center Theater, and O’Neill Playwright’s Conference. She is a past president of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and has taught widely.

JESSICA ALMASY Tisch BFA in Drama 2002. 2008, 2010 Audie Award Recipient.  With the TEAM: [www.theteamplays.org], Hamlet in A Thousand Natural Shocks, Nixon /  The Experiment in Give Up! Start Over! (In the Darkest of Times I Look to Richard Nixon  for Hope), Dorothy in Particularly in the Heartland, Margaret Mitchell in Architecting, and  Joan in mission DRIFT. With Play Company: Toshiki Okada’s Enjoy / dir by Dan  Rothenberg. Film: Noise; Unconscious. TV: Law and Order: SVU: “Avatar.” Audiobook  recordings with Recorded Books and Audible [www.audible.com]. My Therapist Said  This is a Good Idea, a cover band concert of the existentially awkward – with talking, conceived and performed with Dorian Davis, premieres at Joe’s Pub August 29, 2010.  Writer for Marriage:1 an installation project at HERE with Nick Vaughn and Jake Margolin.

TELA ANDERSON is originally from Pennsylvania and began her formal dance training at the Lehigh Valley Ballet Guild where she studied under Alexi Ramov, former dancer with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. At the age of 15 Tela was awarded a scholarship to the North Carolina School of the Arts High School Ballet program and went on to tour with the school around the country and also to Hungary where she was able to study and perform with the Hungarian National Ballet. After being awarded a scholarship to the Ailey School, Tela moved to New York and attended the Professional Children’s School and studied ballet and modern dance. In 2000 Tela was awarded the Judith Jamison Scholarship at the Ailey School and performed with the company at Lincoln Center and City Center during their 2000 and 2001 season. Tela went on to Dance with Rituals, performing choreography by Nathan Trice. After a knee injury, she turned to Pilates for rehabilitation and went on to become a certified teacher. Today Tela is a Teacher of Teachers in the Pilates method, certifying teachers in the classical Pilates method.

JEAN ANDZULIS is an actor, director, designer, voice teacher and entrepreneur who has worked in NYC and Germany. She has recently returned to her role at Playwrights Horizons Theater School as Associate Director. The mother of five, Jean received her BFA with honors from NYU and PHTS.

MARIKA BECZ is an actress, movement choreographer/performer, director, and teacher. Performance credits include works with The Barrow Group, Malashock Dance and Co, Southcoast Rep, Connecticut Rep, New York Performance Works, Laguna Playhouse, Central Coast Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Festival/LA, and the Mark Taper AmphiTheater, as well as film and television roles during many years in Los Angeles. She has served on the faculties and/or taught workshops for UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, California State University Summer Arts program. Summer Arts with the Second City Company, Cal State Stanislaus, Juniata College, The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, and Playwrights Horizons Theater School for NYU. She is a founding member, performer, and occasional artist-in-residence with The Gravity Project, a company of Theater professionals who work together in movement, extreme voice use, and environmental/poetic texts. She was also a member of the critically acclaimed Theater Neo in Los Angeles, and is currently creating projects in the New York Theater community, including original solo performance. She holds an MFA in Acting from UC Irvine, is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework (www.fitzmauricevoice.com), a certified Reiki practitioner, a certified Yoga instructor, and also works as a private coach in acting, voicework, and public/corporate speaking.

DAWN T. BOND studied Early Childhood Development and Business Administration at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Dawn joined PHTS in 2000 as the Receptionist and became Office Manager in 2001. Previously, she was a Customer Service Representative at Citibank. She is the proud mother to Terell, Corey and Tavon Bond.

SALTY BRINE is a performer, writer, and proud graduate of PHTS. He is co-creator of the vaudevillian duo Pepper & Sam who have been rocking New York theaters, dive bars and city parks since 2005. Other performance credits: THANKSGIVING! A! PAGEANT! (David McGee/Stephanie Johnstone), THE INFERNAL MACHINE (CSV w/ Te Ilum), STRAIGHT TALK (Dixon Place), Taylor Mac’s THE LILY’S REVENGE (HERE Arts Center), OH THE HORROR! (Naked Angels), EXTRA VIRGIN (Under St. Marks), OTHELLO (Dreamscape).  Salty cut his teeth hosting the weekly rock ‘n roll, gender-bending karaoke show at legendary Queens dive bar The Albatross.

RACHEL CHAVKIN is the founder and artistic director of the TEAM (the Theater of the Emerging American Moment), a NYC-based theater company that creates new work to dissect and celebrate the experience of living in America today. With the TEAM, Rachel has directed/co-authored Particularly in the Heartland, A Thousand Natural Shocks, Give Up! Start Over!, Howl, based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg, and Architecting, produced by the National Theater of Scotland. Outside of her work with the TEAM, she has collaborated on a number of new works, including with performer/playwright/composer Taylor Mac on The Lily’s Revenge at HERE Arts Center and Peace (based on the play by Aristophanes); playwright/ composer Molly Rice and composer Ray Rizzo on Canary; playwright Steve Yockey on Wonder; and playwright Talaya Delaney and composer/lyricist Dave Malloy on Haarlem Berlin. She has directed All the Great Books (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company (Hangar Theater), Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (Classic Stage Company), and the NYC revival of Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June. She has worked as dramaturg or assistant director on a wide range of projects. Rachel is an Artistic Associate at Classic Stage Company, a New Georges affiliated artist, a member of the Women’s Project Lab, and a Drama League alumnus. She earned her BFA at NYU, and her MFA at Columbia University.

HELEN R. COOK one of the founders of PHTS, served as the Administrative Director of the school from 1983 to 1991, then as the Co-Director until becoming Director in 1996. She studied the history of landscape architecture at the Radcliffe Institute in Cambridge, and Child Development and Training at Garland College in Boston. In New York, Helen worked for a short period at Playwrights Horizons as Office Manager and Head of the Internship Program in addition to her duties with the school. She is married to a playwright, is the mother of four grown children and grandmother of nine, and recently happily acquired four step-grandchildren and four step-great-grandchildren.

DAVID DABBON is a Music Director, Conductor, Arranger, Orchestrator and Composer. He was the Vocal Director for the lost and restored Vernon Duke musical “Sweet Bye and Bye” (PS Classics) starring Marin Mazzie and Danny Burstein. He provided additional orchestrations for the Tony and Grammy nominated Broadway musical, “Sondheim on Sondheim.” Other credits include: “All Fall Down” (New York Music Theatre Festival: music director/arranger), “On a Clear Day…” (New York Stage and Film), and “Tin Pan Alley Rag” (Roundabout Theatre Company: vocal coach.) David has served as conductor/arranger/orchestrator for the Richard Rodgers Awards, the Gene Kelly Awards and the National High School Music Theatre Awards. He was the conducting assistant for two years with the nationally recognized Mendelssohn Choir. David is also the composer of the independent full length film “All Gods Creatures” and of several musicals including: “All Happy Housewives Sleep with the Milkman/ American Family,” “Just Listed.” “Greetings from Coco-Boco,” “Come on Six O’Clock”(Festival Winner), and the children’s musical “Snowed In”. David currently teaches at NYU/Tisch – Playwrights Horizons Theater School, Montclair State University, and Accelerando Music Conservatory. He has also taught at Carnegie Mellon University, Pace University, Neighborhood Playhouse, Pittsburgh Musical Theatre, Educational Main Street and the Hartt School of Music. David earned his Masters in Choral Conducting from Carnegie Mellon University studying Choral Master Robert Page, and his B.M. in Music Direction from the Hartt School of Music, Theatre and Dance in Connecticut.

GINGER ECKERT teaches voice, speech, dialects, acting and audition. She earned her MFA at Brown/Trinity. Her teaching and training is based in her experience with the work of Jones, Fitzmaurice, Skinner, Rodenburg, Berry, Alexander and Laban. Dialect and voice coaching credits: Brotherhood (Showtime), New York Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville, Trinity Repertory Company, many independent projects and private students. Teaching credits include: NYU/PHTS, Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Stone Soup Theater Arts. She has performed with The Public Theater, The Kennedy Center, Trinity Repertory Company, Marin Theater Company, LaMama, Clubbed Thumb, Babel Theater Project, Ars Nova, the Women’s Project and Guerrilla Shakespeare Project.

MARK ENRIGHT is a professional voice and speech teacher and coach. He has coached voice on Broadway (Patrick Marber’s Tony-nominated play Closer), Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. Mark has taught voice and speech at Yale School of Drama at Yale University, the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, New York University, Brandeis University, Providence College, Manhattan Marymount College, and the American Music and Dramatic Academy. Mark is an actor who has worked in New York City and regionally, including The Pittsburgh Public Theater, The Huntington Theater, The New Rep Theater, the Phoenix Theater, and Playhouse on the Square where he received Best Actor awards for two consecutive years from Memphis Magazine. Mark has served as the Director of Membership for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA). Mark holds an MFA degree from Brandeis University and has studied with Patsy Rodenberg and Catherine Fitzmaurice.

FRITZ ERTL Fundamentals of Directing, Fourth Year Seminar And Lab, Pre-Production / Dramaturgy) is a theater director and educator. He has produced or directed world premieres of plays by Steven Drukman, Erik Ehn, and Paula Vogel, and has worked at theaters such as Berkshire Theater Festival, BACA Downtown, and HERE Arts Center. Among others, at NYU Fritz has directed Pentecost, by David Edgar, The Pains of Youth, by Ferdinand Brukner, and Mad Forest, by Caryl Churchill. In recent years, he has focused his energies on developing new plays for production with student actors. The first of these projects, Youth in Asia: A Techno Fantasia (aka the resistance project), was written by Steven Drukman and was produced by the NYU Mainstage; the second project, Foxhollow (aka the animal project), was also by Steven Drukman, and was presented at PHTS as a Fourth-Year Company Project; last year he returned to the NYU Mainstage with There Was and There Wasn’t: An Old Iraqui Folk Tale (aka the queeraq project), written by Daniel Glen. Fritz began teaching at NYU in 1990, and since then has taught a wide range of courses, including acting, directing, and dramatic literature. From 1996-1999 he served as the Managing Director of the Undergraduate Drama Department at Tisch, and he spent the 2005-06 academic year in Dublin as the program director of the Tisch Dublin Acting Conservatory. He currently teaches at both PHTS and The Meisner Extension.

XIMENA GARNICA is an interdisciplinary choreographer, director and installation artist based in New York. She is also active as a curator and producer. Past honors include the Bessie Schonberg Individual Choreographers Residency at the Yard and the prestigious Van Lier Fellowship for young Hispanic directors in New York. She is currently in residency at the OBIE Award-winning downtown theater HERE. Her own work and her collaborations, which meet at the intersection of dance, theater and installation art, are presented under the parapluie of LEIMAY (www.leimay.org). She has collaborated and danced for two of the main butoh masters alive: Akira Kasai and Ko Murobushi, as well as with dancers from the second, third and fourth generations of butoh artists such as Yukio Waguri, Takuya Ishide and Yuko Kaseki. In New York she has worked as an actress for director Kameron Steele and is currently choreographing her first opera, a rock opera created by Korean singer-songwriter Jihae and academy Award winning director and writer John Patrick Shanley. Ximena is Co-Director of the Brooklyn based art space CAVE (www.cavearts.org) and of The New York Butoh Festival. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally in theaters and galleries of all sizes in Japan, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Mexico and Colombia. For three years she served in the Junior Advisory Board of Dance NYC. She has been invited to lead master classes and lectures at Denison University, Skidmore College, DeSales University, Muhlenberg College and the Academia Superior de Artes de Bogota. Once upon the time she was a kid TV host and a teenage actress in soap operas of her native country of Colombia.

ELIZABETH HESS starred Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally in her solo trilogy LIVING OPENLY & NOTORIOUSLY. Part 1, BIRTH RITE, was performed in New York (Harold Clurman), Hartford (RealArtWays), Edinburgh (Festival Fringe), Barcelona (Project Vaca), Kiel (Thespis Festival), Berlin (The Friends) and Elizabeth Hess (Cont’d) Toronto (Hysteria Festival). Part 2, DESCENT, was performed in Edinburgh (Festival Fringe) and Yerevan (Armmono). Part 3, AT/ONE, was performed in New York (McGinn/Cazale). Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: M BUTTERFLY (Eugene O’Neill); CRITICAL DARLING (The New Group); NOTES (McGinn/Cazale); OUR PLACE IN TIME (Women’s Project and Prods.); LIVERPOOL FANTASY (Irish Arts Center); BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY (Manhattan Theatre Club); NOTHING BUT BUKOWSKI (Samuel Beckett); A MODEST PROPOSAL (UBU Rep); JACK (New York Theatre Workshop); and THE FRANCES FARMER STORY (Chareeva Playhouse).Regional credits include: HONOUR (Gulfshore Playhouse); GRAPES OF WRATH (STNJ); AH, WILDERNESS (Center Stage); MANHATTAN CASANOVA (Hudson Stage); ROMEO & JULIET (ART); THE SEAGULL (Cleveland Playhouse); WINTERTIME; PERFECT PIE (Wilma Theater); DINNER WITH FRIENDS (Capitol Rep); MOLLY SWEENEY (TheaterWorks); OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY (Royal George); SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (Royal Alexandra); SPLITTING INFINITY; ITALIAN- AMERICAN RECONCILIATION (GeVa); A WEDDING; THE MANDRAKE (Seattle Rep); A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (StageWest); THE DARK SONNETS (McCarter); PETER PAN (Denver Center) and DARE NOT SPEAK ITS’ NAME (Seven Angels).TV credits include: LAW & ORDER; GUIDING LIGHT; ALL MY CHILDREN; ANOTHER WORLD; and five seasons starring on CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL. Film credits include: HANDSOME HARRY; SOLDIER’S HEART; A BEDTIME STORY; ITALIAN LESSONS and BUDDY & GRACE. Ms. Hess has written several full-length plays including: PERFECT CURIOSITY; NOMADS OF THE HEART; LIVING OPENLY & NOTORIOUSLY: A SOLO TRILOGY (BIRTH RITE; DESCENT; AT/ONE); DIVINE RAPTURE; THE RETURN and SACRED FIRE. Ms Hess is a graduate of The London Academy of Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and currently teaches Undergraduate Acting at NYU and The O’Neill Center: National Theater Institute (NTI).

ALLISON LEYTON-BROWN is a composer, pianist, and musical director based in NYC. Allison has composed for many New York companies including City at Peace, Urban Stages, The Culture Project, Gotham Stage, HERE Arts Center, NYU, The York Theater, Friendly Fire, LaMaMa, The Women’s Project, Bindlestiff’s Family Circus, Thread Dance Theater, and choreographers Jennifer Nugent Paul Matteson, and Neta Pulvermacher. Allison is composer-in-residence for avant-garde company Archipelago Theater, for whom she has composed two award-winning shows. She and Basil Twist recently collaborated on a live score for a 2009 Duke University production of Exit the King. Film credits include feature-length documentary Millions: A Lottery Story, which screened nation-wide, several independent films, and a silent short for Coca Cola. Television credits include music for the Food Network, Lifetime, and the WE Network. Allison works regularly as a musical director, band-leader, and vocal coach around the city. Most recently she acted as musical director for the concert of Lewis Black’s and Rusty Magee’s The Czar of Rock & Roll at Joe’s Pub, and Mary Testa & Alison Fraser’s Together Again at the Laurie Beechman Theater. Allison was commissioned to compose a live score for string quartet in Archipelago’s 2010 production Out of the Blue.

MARK LINDBERG is an actor, playwright, director, and soundpainter. Acting/dance credits include work with breedingground productions, Busted Muffin Productions, knife inc., Collective Dance NY, Quo Vadimus Arts, Dreamscape Theater, and more. Credits as playwright/director include one-acts at the Gene Frankel Theater, the Bowery Poetry Club, and Theater-Studios, Inc. Mark’s first full-length play Truce on Uranus was produced by Dreamscape at the Hudson Guild Theater. His second, Self-portrait as Schiele, was produced for the NY Fringe Festival, directed by Gerritt Turner and starring Doug Paulson and Elizabeth Hess. Original soundpainting credits include Ruins (with Tomi Tsunoda) and Profile Pictures, both produced for the Powerhouse Summer Theater program at Vassar College. Mark teaches Movement for Actors and Soundpainting for Powerhouse. Mark received his BFA from NYU Tisch and is a proud graduate of PHTS where he received the “Triple Threat Award” for acting, directing, and music performance.

MAGGIE LOW has been a professional actress for over 30 years in and around New York City. Her father was veteran actor Carl Low. As well as being “born in a trunk,” she studied the Meisner technique with William Esper, scene study with Wynn Handman and script interpretation/audition technique with Tim Phillips. Currently she’s working on an independent film written and directed by Tom Gilroy. Last year she was in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett directed by recent graduate Alexander Greenfield and looks forward to being in the 4th year Company’s production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller directed by Mary Robinson. Maggie was in Kerry and Angie by Gerry Sheridan, the Critic’s Choice Award winning play at the Samuel French Festival, recently published. She played Gertrude in Hamlet with Jared Harris, Lili Taylor and Bill Raymond (New Jersey Shakespeare Festival). Other favorite credits include originating roles in:  A Case of Murder by Robert Montgomery (La MaMa E.T.C.), The Big Vig by Jason Furlani with Blue Collar Theater Co., directed by Tim Phillips, Times of War by Eric Lane, directed by Martha Banta (Adirondack Theater Festival), Catholic School Girls by Casey Kurtti, directed by Burry Fredrik (Douglas Fairbanks Theater), Candle in the Window by Tom Gilroy, directed by Michael Imperioli (One Dream Theater), The Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Jesse James (Manhattan Punch Line), and Venus’ Diary (La MaMa E.T.C.)  by Lynn McCullough, directed by Tom O’Horgan. Feature films and television: Poverty Outlaw, Postcards from America, Burnzy’s Last Call, The Houses That Are Left, a guest lead on Law & Order and Deborah Sampson, written and directed by Joan Micklin Silver. She is a Lifetime member of The Actors Studio. Maggie teaches Script Interpretation/ Audition Technique at Maggie Low Studio and this is her 14th year at PHTS.

DANO MADDEN is a playwright and director. His play Beautiful American Soldier was a finalist for the National New Play Network’s 2010 Smith Prize. Dano’s plays have been produced by and/or received readings at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Source Festival (D.C.), Mile Square Theatre, Burnt Studio Productions, Idaho Theatre for Youth, Kitchen Theatre Company, Backstage (Dubai), The University of Tulsa, The Samuel French OOB Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Lark, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Boise Contemporary Theater, Boston Theatre Works and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, among others. He is a two time Heideman Award finalist. Kennedy Center awards include: 2007 National Student Playwriting Award; 2008 Quest for Peace Playwriting Award and the 1997 National Short Play Award. Published works include: In the Sawtooths and Drop (Samuel French, Inc.), Beautiful American Soldier and Ella (Best American Short Plays 2005-2006 & 2009-2010), The Save (Playscripts, Inc.), The Soft Sand and Survival (Northwest Playwrights Alliance), and monologues in The Best Men’s Stage Monologues and Scenes 2010 (Smith & Kraus) and Exceptional Monologues 2 (Samuel French, Inc.). In 2007, Dano was named one of “50 Playwrights to Watch” by The Dramatist magazine. He was the 2008-2009 NNPN playwright-in-residence at InterAct Theatre Company. His new play, Leaving IKEA (co-written with Monica Flory), will be produced by the Artful Conspirators at the Brooklyn Lyceum in 2012. MFA, Rutgers.

THERESA MCCARTHY was an original cast member of the Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical Titanic. She has originated roles in numerous plays and musicals off-Broadway and regionally including Nellie in Floyd Collins by Tina Landau and Adam Guettel and Polly in States of Independence by Tina Landau and Ricky Ian Gordon. She is a featured vocalist on several recordings including, “Titanic,” “Floyd Collins,” Adam Guettel’s “Myths and Hymns,” Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Bright-Eyed Joy”, and Stephen Sondheim’s “The Frongs/Evening Primrose.” In 2000, she founded a professional theater in Northern Michigan where she directed Macbeth, Grimm Tales, Art, and commissioned a new work Pigeon River Opera for which she co-wrote the music and directed. There she received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for the Arts and Culture and others to produce original works and provide arts programming for rural communities. When not teaching she is busy mothering four delightful daughters. Theresa and her husband Roy write and perform their music as the duo mom ‘n’ pop.

MORGAN MURPHEY A choreographer of non-trained dancers as well as a performer, Morgan graduated from NYU with training in managing and creating. She has worked in San Fransisco with foolsFury Theater and A Travelling Jewish Theater Company, and in New York with Banana Bag & Bodice and Our Time Theater Company. Morgan is an active contributor to Readingground, Breedingground’s online magazine, as well as a past contributor to Breedingground’s Podia. Morgan has found a home on Lafayette Street, working at both The Public Theater and at her alma mater, PHTS. Recent projects: “wipe that ____ off your face” (creator); “baggage” (creator, dancer); “Portraiture” (creator, dancer). Recent projects as a performer: “Brass Ring” (Morgan); “bellyflop busstops” (Have Suitcase); “Calms Undoing” (Morgan/Mona); “A Mouthful of Birds” (Agave); “When Things Stopped” (The Woman).

DEB O is an environment, set and costume designer. Some of her most recent credits include The Seagull (Lake Lucille, NY) The Daughters (a new rock opera, Cap 21, NY) The Nature of Captivity (Mabou Mines, PS 122) Heaven On Earth (Witness Relocation, La Mama) Broke Wide Open (Medicine Show Theatre, NY) Five Days In March (Witness Relocation, La Mama, NY) Jolly Friends Forever More (short film, NY) American Jornalero (Abingdon Theatre, NY) Deep Cover (NY Music Festival) The Savannah Disputation (Old Globe, CA) The Greeks pt 3 (Julliard, NY) Uncle Vanya, Platonov and Ivanov (Lake Lucille, NY) Expatriate (New Musical, Culture Project, NY) Salsalandia (La Jolla Playhouse, CA) The Lacy Project (Premiere, Yale & Ohio Theatre, NY) Jihad the Musical (Edinburgh Festival, Scotland) The Mistakes Madeline Made (Yale Rep, CT). After working in a factory for 20 years she headed off to college. Her first stop was Marquette University receiving a BA in Theatre Design with a minor in Studio Art and Art History she then received a MFA from University of North Carolina in Scenography. She left Greensboro for New Haven, Connecticut to receive yet another MFA from Yale School of Drama in Design. You may view production photos on her website — www.debodesignstudio.com

DOUG PAULSON is an actor, singer, writer, musician, composer, and teacher of Voice and Speech at both NYU’s PHTS and Brooklyn College. As a member of breedingground productions, he co-produced the 2005 and 2007 Spring Fever Festivals while appearing in their mainstage productions of Bunnies (Part one) and A Mouthful of Birds. Doug has worked with director/writer/composer Elizabeth Swados on projects including The Millennium Lounge (PHTS), The Beloved Dearly, and Inside/Out (Lincoln Center Institute), and the recordings of “Dispatches” and “The Beautiful Lady.” Doug has been a proud member of Actor’s Equity since 1998. www.dougpaulson.info

SAM PINKLETON is a director, choreographer, and teaching artist. Sam is a core company member of Witness Relocation and with the company has created and performed Hagaddah (LaMaMa ETC), …Small Incision (Bushwick Starr/Princeton University/Dance New Amsterdam), and The Blue Bird (CSV). Recent directorial credits include POP! (Pittsburgh City Theatre), The Daughters (CAP21, Joe’s Pub), and Lightning Man (Ars Nova). Assistant/Associate Director on world premieres by Nicky Silver, Charles Busch, and David Auburn. Also work with Les Freres Corbusier, Goodspeed Musicals, Westport Country Playhouse, Theater Mitu, Dixon Place, and The Public Theater’s Music Theater Initiative. Co-Founder of the Dance Dancing Dance Company Company Class, an extreme dance class and lowbrow fitness experience. Education: NYU/Tisch. www.SamPinkleton.com

MICHAEL POTTS has starred on Broadway in GREY GARDENS and LENNON. Some of his Off-Broadway & other theater credits include OEDIPUS & HIGHWAY ULYSSES (dir. Robert Woodruff), THE PERSIANS, RICHARD III, TWELFTH NIGHT (dir. Brian Kulick), ROMEO & JULIET (dir. Sir Peter Hall), THE HOSTAGE (dir. Jack O’Brien), CUP OF COFFEE, JOE FEARLESS, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, ARMS AND THE MAN, MUD RIVER STONE & THE RIVALS (dir. Roger Rees), OVERTIME (dir. Nicholas Martin), RENT (dir. Michael Greif), THE AMERICA PLAY (dir. Liz Diamond). Michael’s TV & film credits include: The recurring role of “Brother Mouzone” on the critically acclaimed HBO series THE WIRE, QUEENS SUPREME, OZ, LAW & ORDER, NYPD BLUE, Ken Burns’ THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE WEST, CONSPIRACY THEORY, THE PEACEMAKER, DIGGERS, STONEWALL and HACKERS. He is the winner of an OBIE award, a Fox Fellowship, recipient of the New Dramatists’ Charles Bowden Award, The Kennedy Center Lloyd Richards Award. He’s also been a judge for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award since 2006. Michael is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

MARY B. ROBINSON has been teaching at PHTS since 1996 and heading the directing program since 1999. Recent New York directing credits include WOMEN ON FIRE, a one-woman play with Judith Ivey, and STRING FEVER with Cynthia Nixon. She directed the world premiere of THREE VIEWINGS at Manhattan Theater Club, A SHAYNA MAIDEL, which ran for 15 months at the Westside Arts Off-Broadway, and revivals of LEMON SKY and MOONCHILDREN, both at Second Stage. She has directed at many of the country’s outstanding regional theaters, including Seattle Repertory, South Coast Repertory, and Actors Theater of Louisville, and served as the Associate Artistic Director at Hartford Stage and Artistic Director of Philadelphia Drama Guild. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1986, and in 1987 was the first recipient of the Alan Schneider Award, a national award in memory of the late director.

DAN SAFER originally hails from the wild suburbs of New Jersey, and is artistic director of the dance/theater company Witness Relocation. His work has been presented all over, including Off-Broadway, The Ontological Theater, La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop (four consecutive seasons), The Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, Fury Festival (San Francisco), Revolutions Festival (New Mexico), Fuse Box (Austin, Texas), in Atlanta, at Les Subsistances (Lyon, France), Patravadi Theater (Bangkok), Theater Krudttonden (Denmark), The Open Look Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia), Bytom Dance Festival (Poland), The National Opera House in Cluj, Romania, at the CUNY Prelude Festival, Dixon Place, Danspace Project; he has choreographed rock videos, operas, films, and fashion shows. Performer with Ridge Theater, Jane Comfort, John Moran, Mabou Mines, the Blacklips Performance Cult, Hong Kong choreographer Dick Wong, and others. He is faculty at NYU, and teaches workshops across the US and internationally. He was a 2007-9 recipient of the Six Points Fellowship (Performance), and has won two NY Innovative Theater awards. He used to be a go-go dancer, and once choreographed the Queen of Thailand’s birthday party.

JENI MAHONEY SAHL Jeni is a playwright, teacher, producer, co-Artistic Director id Theater and Founding Artistic Director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Jeni’s plays including The Feast of the Flying Cow… and Other Stories of War, Mercy Falls, The Martyrdom of Washington Booth, Running in Circles Screaming, Come Rain or Come Shine, Kandahar and Light have been variously presented at the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center, InterAct Theater (Philadelphia), Source Theater Festival (D.C.), L.A. Theater Center, MidWest New Play Festival (Chicago), Lark Theater’s Playwrights Week, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYU’s hotINK Festival, And Toto Too (Denver), Circus Theatricals, and London’s Greenwich Playhouse among others. Published plays include: Come Rain or Come Shine (Applause); Throw of the Moon (written with Ben Sahl) and American Eyes (NYTE); Light (Playscripts.com & Applause) and Running in Circles Screaming featured in the recently released anthology Best Short American Plays 2006-2007 (Applause). As Artistic Director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, she has been instrumental in the development of more than 80 new plays and is featured in Michael Wright’s book Playwriting: At Work and Play (Heinemann). Jeni often speaks on the subject of play development and has been featured in Stage Directions Magazine, The Dramatists magazine and The Loop. Jeni is a member of Dramatists Guild of America.

DAVE TENNENT is a freelance media designer and co-founder of Room 404 Media. His work is influenced by his background in theater and cinema as well as his experience as an interactive developer. In addition to designing projections for a variety of off broadway and regional broadway houses Dave has taught design workshops at various institutions including Pratt School of Design, Syracuse University, and Harvard. Www.room404media.com

JOAN VAIL THORNE works as a director, playwright and librettist. She began her professional directing career at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., was Assistant Director to the renowned American director, Alan Schneider, and went on to direct independently at such regional Theaters as the Alley Theater of Houston, the Asolo Theater Company, the Dallas Theater Center, Florida Stage, etc., and at Off-Broadway theaters such as the American Place Theater, the Ensemble Studio Theater, the Jewish Repertory Theater, and The Women’s Project. Her recent plays include THE THINGS YOU LEAST EXPECT, THE EXACT CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, SIGNS AND WONDERS, and THE ANATOMY OF A FEMALE POPE. She has written and directed two short films: LAST RITES seen on PBS, and SECRETS seen on Cinemax. Opera Libretti and texts for narrator and orchestra, with music composed by Stephen Paulus, include THE WOMAN OF OTOWI CROSSING (Opera Theater of St. Louis), SUMMER (Berkshire Opera Company), VOICES FROM THE GALLERY and WINDOWS OF THE MIND: THE FIVE SENSES (available on CD). Ms. Thorne is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the Dramatists Guild, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and The Women’s Project.

TOMI TSUNODA is a graduate of PHTS. Her directing credits include: ACT WITHOUT WORDS I by Samuel Beckett; THE CRAZY LOCOMOTIVE, by Stanislaw Witkiewicz; THE GREAT GOD BROWN, by Eugene O’Neill; THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN, by Bertolt Brecht; THE BALD SOPRANO, by Eugene Ionesco; and BELOVED DEARLY, by Doug Cooney at The Lincoln Center Institute. Tomi has directed several readings and productions for new playwrights programs, including Ensemble Studio Theater’s Young Blood. She has assisted Gordon Dahlquist at New Dramatists and SoHo Rep Think Tank, Elizabeth Swados at Lincoln Center, and directs each summer for NY Stage & Film’s Powerhouse program at Vassar College. Outside of teaching, she directs and designs plays as well as creating new theatrical works with her own company. Tomi performs regularly with The NY Soundpainting Orchestra, a multi-disciplinary ensemble working with improvisational performance and composition, and is the founder of Breedingground Productions, a multi-arts collective with whom she has helped develop more than 100 new projects in the last nine years.

JO WINIARSKI is a scenic designer. She has worked with a wide variety of New York theater companies including New Georges, The New Group, Keen Company, Clubbed Thumb, Relentless Theater Company, and the Roundtable Ensemble. Off-Broadway credits include J.A.P THE JEWISH AMERICAN PRINCESSES OF COMEDY, and I LOVE YOU BECAUSE. She was the Associate set designer on Broadway for ROCK OF AGES, LOVEMUSIK, and Jay Johnson’s TWO AND ONLY. She is the Assistant designer of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNUM COUNTY SPELLING BEE and the Associate on all subsequent productions. She has also worked regionally in theater as well, including the four seasons at The Utah Shakespearean Festival. Jo received both her BFA and MFA from NYU.

FRANCINE ZERFAS was a co-founder of Tiny Mythic Theater Company in New York City, where she was both an actor and writer for the company. In addition to numerous roles for Tiny Mythic, some past performances include leading roles in A DREAM PLAY by August Stringberg, WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN by Henrick Ibsen, APOCRYPHA by Travis Preston and Royston Coppenger at the Cucaracha Theater, TWO SMALL BODIES at the Harold Clurman Theater, THE EAGLE HAS TWO HEADS at the Ohio Theater in Soho and DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, written by Collette Brooks, at the Yale Repertory Theater and Center Stage. Ms. Zerfas has appeared in several independent films and video art works, including IRONY, IN SHADOW CITY, and THE SMALLEST PARTICLE by Ken Feingold, THE MADNESS OF THE DAY by Terrance Grace, and REVOLUTION by Jeff Kahn. As a writer, she has collaborated with both The Private Theater and Tiny Mythic Theater creating original works. Her full-length play ADVICE FOR A TRAVELING SALESMAN was directed by Kristin Marting (Artistic Director of HERE), in New York City in 1987. Ms. Zerfas has studied yoga in New Dehli, India, and has trained extensively in ballet and modern dance, and performed with various independent choreographers and dance companies while in Minneapolis. She is the founder of the Penrose Mothers’ Artist Colony, a residency where women artists who are mothers can create art while accompanied by their children, and is currently writing a personal narrative entitled The Cardboard Guy. She is an Adjunct Professor for both the BFA and MFA Theater Programs at Brooklyn College and teaches voice for the Atlantic Theater Conservatory and their Vermont Summer Intensive program. She has also taught for the Cay Michael Patten Studio (NY), the Classic Stage Company (NY), and The Hangar Summer Theater Program in Ithaca, NY, and the Horace Mann School in NYC. She has conducted voice workshops and vocally coached O’Neil’s Homecoming at the Centro em Movimento in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1997 and 1998. She has also taught Fitzmaurice Voicework™and a Shakespeare workshop in Melbourne, Australia, in 2007. She has served as vocal coach for various university productions, as well as THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE (directed by Kenneth Branagh) on Broadway and STANLEY Off-Off-Broadway. Ms. Zerfas holds a BFA in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (ETW & PHTS) where she received the J.S. Seidman Award, the Friar’s Foundation Scholarship, and the Outstanding Achievement Award, and was a nominee for the Dorothy Stickney Award. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New School University. She is a Master Teacher of Chuck Jones Vocal Production and an Associate Teacher of Catherine Fitzmaurice’s Destructuring/Restructuring Voicework™.