Aurora Behlke (St. Louis, MO)is an Alaska-raised, St. Louis-based playwright and director. She is currently the Teaching Artist Fellow at Metro Theater Company, where she pens the interactive performances for their flagship education program, “Building Community Through Drama”. Her writing has been produced at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, Echo Theatre, Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, Young Americans Theatre Company, The Valdez Theatre Conference, The University of St. Andrews and Webster University. When she’s not writing, you can find her teaching, tinkering, playing the accordion, or doing all three at the same time.

M Kamara (Carbondale, IL) is a writer of the world, having lived in places like England, Georgia, and Virginia, and being a first-generation Sierra Leonean American. Each place has shaped them into the person they are today, opening their eyes to the multitude of stories that varying communities hold. M is currently an MFA Playwriting student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. As a budding playwright, M is interested in telling black diasporic stories that engage history, afro-surrealism, speculative fiction, and various cultural myths.

Aaron Scully (Warrensburg, MO) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Missouri (UCM). He received his PhD from the University of Missouri in 2018. Aaron is the Chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region V National Playwriting Program and is the Co-Coordinator for the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education. Aaron’s play Sliding into Home was a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference, was selected for the Plays-in-Progress workshop at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, and was also presented as part of KC Public Theatre’s Theatre Lab. Aaron was the recipient of the National Planet Earth Award, which recognizes the top 10-minute play that focuses on environmental issues for his play Nah-Zhee. In the spring of 2021, Aaron directed Oedipus for State Fair Community College, a play he also wrote that reimagines Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King; for this play, he received meritorious recognition for adaptation from KCACTF. Most recently, Aaron’s play Remember the Dance, received several meritorious awards from KCACTF and was selected as an Invited Production at the 2024 Regional Festival. Currently, he is writing a children’s show, Guinevere and Lancelot that reimagines the Camelot story that will be produced this summer and toured around central Missouri. This fall, KC Public Theatre will be producing his play The Disappointments.

Maiya (Chicago, IL) is a storyteller & theatermaker from the West Coast. She has many homes and is currently nesting on land stewarded by the Council of Three Fires, otherwise known as Chicago. Art is her service; she is an actor, director, writer & educator. Her plays have been produced with the neighborhood theater, Refracted Theater Co, the University of Idaho, & Florida International University. Her work as a writer and director has been recognized and developed at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Washington, DC. Mixed race, Mexican & queer, her stories are rooted in complexity, exploring humanness through the deep waters of Divine sorrow, ancestral connection & magic.

Charlie Meyers (St. Louis, MO) is a playwright, theater maker, and stand-up comedian, as well as the Community and Strategy Lead at MaTovu, an inclusive Jewish neighborhood organization. He received an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa, and is currently pursuing an MA in Theater and Performance Studies from Washington University. He majored in Theater and Jewish Studies at Smith College and has passionately pursued both paths. Prior productions include Dust and Ash, Dreams I Have About Killing My Sister, and multiple short pieces for The Q Collective, a queer theater company in St. Louis. His work explores love, death, identity, poetry, and interconnectedness.

Cameron Noel (Carbondale, IL) is Originally from Glen Allen, Virginia. He started doing theatre in 7th grade for an easy A and fell in love with it. Cameron began his theatre journey as an actor and is an alumnus of Duke Ellington School of The Arts in Washington, DC. He then discovered his passion for playwriting his senior year and has not stopped writing since. He graduated from Sewanee, The University of The South in; 2021 and is currently; attending graduate school at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale MFA program. Cameron’s writing is a Kaleidoscope of authentic Black and queer experiences. His plays live on the intersection of style, comedy, and a heartfelt embrace of language. Cameron writes in various genres, with the only common denominator of his work being their focus on Black narratives.

e.k. doolin, she/her, is a theatre artist living in the MetroEast area of St. Louis. She has had her work produced regionally by the Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, Prison Performing Arts, The Center for Creative Arts, The Heartland Theatre, York College of Pennsylvania, Geneva Theatre Guild of New York and Slackline Productions of London, England. Recent productions include a reading of her play Running Uphill to Smooth Criminal at the 2022 Region 3 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and an on-line production of her play Waiting for Hecate, which was produced by Prison Performing Arts Alumni Theatre Company. e.k. is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Hanna Kime is a Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Kime is currently a member of the 22/23 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Her full-length work has been presented or developed with Berkeley Rep (Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab), Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, the New Coordinates, UP Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, where she was an ensemble member, and First Floor Theater, where she previously served as Literary Manager. Kime is a two-time O’Neill Finalist, a BAPF semifinalist. and was the winner of OKC Rep’s New Voices Contest. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies. Outside of her own writing, Kime works as a freelance dramaturg and teaching artist. She is represented by UTA.

Courtney Bailey is a St. Louis based writer, actor, and maker who is passionate about creating meaningful, culturally conscious work for the stage. She is also deeply entrenched in long-form storytelling, be it written or performed. Her artistic priorities are international and cross-cultural collaboration, responsible storytelling, and the consistently vulnerable work of blurring the lines between writer and performer. Her most recent full-length play, Immersion Play, premiered in a workshop production in New York City at The Connelly Theater with She NYC Arts, an Off-Broadway theatre festival celebrating women writers (Dir. Sandy Doria).

During the pandemic, her short play Everything I eat in a Day: a shameless corona play was selected for the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s Quarantine Playwrights’ Bake-Off. In April 2021, her play Tonya and the Totes in Subterrastrata (a play about a woman being fossilized under the Earth’s surface in a layer of complimentary canvas tote bags) will premiere virtually with SATE Ensemble Theatre’s Aphra Behn Festival.

She earned her PhD in English Literature from Baylor University in 2016, with a focus on Renaissance Drama, the plays of William Shakespeare, and performance studies. She also holds an MA in English from Baylor and a BA in English from Mercer University. Courtney is an alum of the renowned SITI Company Summer Intensive (2018), where she trained in Viewpoints and Suzuki Method with SITI Company members. The 2018 intensive culminated with a workshop performance of THE BACCHAE, led by SITI’s Anne Bogart. A proud member of the St. Louis theatre community, Courtney has been privileged to work with companies like the New Jewish Theatre (District Merchants), the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (Imaginary Theatre Co.), SATE Ensemble Theatre (Doctor Faustus; Of Mice and Men), Mustard Seed Theatre (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), and Theatre Nuevo (Fefu and her Friends). In an interview for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, local actor-director Jacqueline Thompson describes Courtney as “a rising star and someone to watch.” She is a founding member of EL HUERTO International Theatre Collective.

Melda Beaty (Chicago, IL) is a passionate playwright. Her first play, Front Porch Society, delves into the complex and connected lives of elderly Black women in the Mississippi Delta on the eve of the 2008 presidential election as they relive the struggles of Jim Crow, the fight for civil rights, and the trauma of the senseless killings of Black boys. The play enjoyed a world premiere at The Ensemble Theatre in Houston, TX (2017), and a mainstage production at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC (2019). Her second play, Coconut Cake, was a semi-finalist for American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Playwrighting Award and had staged readings the National Black Theatre Festival (2017) and ReadFest in Houston, TX (2017) with virtual readings at St. Louis Black Rep (2020) and The Ensemble Theatre (2020). Her one-act stage play, Thirty, was a finalist in the Blackboard Play Festival (2021) and WayWard Sisters Third Annual Workshopping Women’s Voices (2021). Melda was commissioned by The Ensemble Theatre for their 2021-2022 season. Presently, she is a 2021 Confluence Fellow with the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Her upcoming short film, Cupcake, chronicles the divide mental illness creates between a mother and her daughter. In addition, Melda is an author of two books, performance review editor for tBTR, and freelance contributor to Black Masks magazine. Born in Jackson, Mississippi but raised and resides in Chicago, Illinois, she earned a B.A. in Broadcast Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a M.A. in English at Illinois State University. In her spare time, she enjoys cardio and strength training, live theater, concerts, reading, traveling, and hanging with her three Z’s (her daughters). https://meldacreates.com/ Twitter: @meldacreates

Elizabeth Archer (Chicago, IL) hails from Edmonton, Alberta, and holds an MFA in Writing for Screen+Stage from Northwestern University, a BA in English from Fordham, and an Associate’s Degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts East. She is a graduate of The Second City Chicago’s Musical Improv and Improv Conservatories. A book of Ukrainian folk verses she compiled and edited was published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta and is now used as part of the curricula at Ukrainian bilingual schools in Western Canada. In June 2014, her play Old Gray Devil was performed as a part of the Source Festival (Washington, D.C.). In December 2014, her play Both Sides, Now received a staged reading at Chicago Dramatists and was also performed as part of the 2015 Source Festival. In summer 2016, Elizabeth served as co-producer for her play TROLL put on by Fraud & Phony Theatricals, a new Chicago theatre collective she co-founded. She is a two-time semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and a semi-finalist for the 2016 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. Her play El Words was produced by Chicago’s Fury Theatre as a part of their 2016 SAST Festival and her 10-minute play La Donna e Mobile received a reading in May 2017 at the Stella Adler School of Acting (in conjunction with the Harold Clurman Playwrights Unit) in NYC. Elizabeth was a finalist for the 2018 Campfire Theatre Festival. eaarcher.com

Myah L. Gary (Carbondale, IL) is a playwright-health educator from Carbondale, Illinois. She is an interdisciplinary doctoral student in Health Education and Theater at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her plays focus on creating a dialog around health and social issues. Myah is the author of the full length plays, Blemished Brown Beauties, Jesus in the Ivory Tower, The Woman Who and Penetrate. In 2018, she wrote, directed and produced the full-length children’s musical Kendall Saves the Day as part of The Creative Academic Performing Arts Academy (T.C.A.P.A.A) program that she founded. In June 2019, her piece Blood Memory was performed at a Valiant Theater summit (Chicago, IL). Most recently, her full-length play, Blemished Brown Beauties was performed as a staged reading at The Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, MN. Myah’s love for writing and performance began when she was eight years old. A classically trained vocalist, she sang in several traveling jazz and musical theatre choirs. In 2005, she participated in the Carbondale Community Arts (CCA) / McLeod Summer Playhouse program. For nearly ten years, Myah participated in SLAM Poetry competitions. In 2012, Myah began writing one-woman shows. She performed her shows in college courses and in women’s centers. She also began touring her one-woman shows with a faith based non-profit. Her shows were toured in Illinois and Texas. In 2018, Myah co-founded The Gary Learning Institute (TGLI). TGLI is a behavioral-health wellness, personal development and research institution. The institute aims to add a health-theater component by the year 2021.

Rob Maesaka (St. Louis, MO) was born and raised in New York City with a passion for theatre.  He came to St. Louis to attend Washington University where he received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and then his Masters of Arts in Theatre.  Since the days of being a professional student, Rob has taught at Wydown Middle School in the Clayton School District for the past 25 years — 9 years of drama and 16 years of Literacy.  Rob’s playwriting career began with adapting classic stories to be performed at school.  The first adaption of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which was written with musical collaborator Jerry Estes was published by Shawnee Press.  Other adaptations include Around the World in 80 Days, The Prince and the Pauper, Treasure Island, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, and The Canterville Ghost. After many years of writing adaptations, Rob began writing full length original scripts several years ago.  His first script White to Gray was developed during a Summer playwriting workshop with Dr. Deanna Jent and was performed by The Mustard Seed Theatre Company in 2015.  Rob’s one minute play The Birthday Wish was also performed at the Every 28 Hours Play Festival in 2017.  Other full-length scripts include A Question of Loyalty about the Japanese Internment during WWII and The Butterfly People which is set in Joplin, MO when the class five tornado struck in 2011.

Shualee Cook (St. Louis, MO) has been writing theatre in the Midwest for so long that she’s starting to forget how to speak Californian. She is the winner of the 2019 Parity Commission, and has been a resident playwright at Tesseract Theatre in Saint Louis and Stage Left Theatre in Chicago. Productions, readings and workshops include Earworm (Tesseract Theatre, Campfire Theatre Festival), Cercle Hermaphroditos (Stage Left Theatre Summer Reading, Queer Village Reading Series), An Invitation Out (Mustard Seed Theatre, Quantum Dragon Theatre, Benchmark Theatre Fever Dream Festival), Sunset Artists of the American West,” (2016 Chicago New Work Festival, About Face Theatre), “Tempest In A Teapot” (R-S Theatrics, 2016 Idle Muse Athena Festival), and “The Geography of Nowhere’ (Mustard Seed Theatre). She was the Honorable Mention playwright for the 2019 Annual Parity Commission, has been a finalist for the 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2016 Jane Chambers Award, the 2016 David Calicchio Award, and a two-time finalist for the Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit.

Kristin Idaszak is a Chicago-based playwright, dramaturg, and performance maker, and the Artistic Director of Cloudgate Theatre. Her play “Second Skin” received the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award. Her play “Another Jungle” (Relentless Award Honorable Mention) received its world premiere with Cloudgate Theatre and The Syndicate in April 2018. Her work has also been developed through residencies at the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Stage Left Theatre, and the Qualcomm Institute at Calit2 in San Diego. Kristin has co-created collaborative original work that has been seen at the WoW Festival at La Jolla Playhouse and the Blurred Borders Festival, an international showcase of contemporary dance theatre. She has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work and has received two honorable mentions on the Kilroys’ List. She was the 2015 Kennedy Center Fellow at the Sundance Theatre Lab. She has received two Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowships. Kristin has received commissions from EST/the Sloan Foundation and Cleveland Playhouse. She was the Shank Playwright in Residence at the Goodman Theatre where she dramaturged “The Wolves” and was a member of the 2017-2018 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Kristin is also a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and an adjunct faculty member at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Previously, Kristin served as Associate Artistic Director/Literary Manager of Caffeine Theatre and Associate Artistic Director of Collaboraction. MFA: University of California, San Diego. BFA: The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Carter Lewis (St. Louis, MO) teaches Introduction to Playwriting, Advanced Playwriting and Dramaturgy at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to that, he was Resident Dramaturg & Playwright-in-Residence for The Geva Theatre Center in New York.  Carter was also co-founder and Resident Playwright for Upstart Stage in Berkeley, California. He is the winner of several national playwriting awards including: The Julie Harris – Playwriting Award, The State Theatre – Best New American Play, The Cincinnati Playhouse Rosenthal New Play Prize (’96 & 2001), New Dramatist Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award, Playwright’s Center Jerome Residency, The Kevin Kline Award for Best New Play of 2009 and he is a two time nominee for the American Theatre Critics Award. For his play, While We Were Bowling, Carter was the recipient of an NEA/TCG Residency Grant for Playwriting, and The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation Award for Best New American Play.

Mariah Richardson is a St. Louis native and received her BA in Communications from the University of New Mexico and an MFA from Smith College in Playwriting. Mariah began her acting career while in New Mexico. Afterwards, she returned to St. Louis and did two seasons with the St. Louis Black Repertory and three seasons with Metro Theater Company. Her HBO/New Writers Project solo performance show, “all that” has toured throughout the country. Her play, “Sistahs Indeed!” was a main stage production at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park in 2008. In 2007, Metro Theater Company commissioned her to write “Delilah’s Wish” which won
a Kevin Kline Award in 2011 and was published by Dramatic Publishing. Gitana Productions commissioned “Soy Yo! An Afro-Latina Suite” in 2013 which premiered at the Kranzberg and remounted at the Missouri History Museum in 2014. Her last play, “Idris Elba is James Bond,” premiered in March 2017 at St. Louis Community College. She was commissioned by the University of Missouri St. Louis to adapt “Alice in Wonderland,” which was produced there in the fall of 2018. She served as the Playwriting Fellow at the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis 2017-2018, in which capacity she helped to rewrite the remounted “Blow Winds!” for the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis’ Shakespeare in the Streets program.