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.

Playwright, author and college English professor, she is the “one to watch,” in her industry. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Melda resides in Chicago, Illinois with her three gifted and beautiful daughters.

Melda is a passionate playwright. Her first play, Front Porch Society, delves into the complex and connected lives of four elderly black women in rural Mississippi Delta on the eve of the 2008 presidential election. What is the significance of our country’s first Black president to women who have lived through Jim Crow, The Civil Rights Act, and the senseless killings of Black boys? The play enjoyed a world premiere at The Ensemble Theatre in Houston, TX (2017), and most recently, a mainstage production at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC (2019). The play is traveling across the country gathering rave reviews. Her second play, Coconut Cake, was accepted into the New Works Reader’s Series at the 2017 National Black Theatre Festival and had a 2017 staged reading during ReadFest in Houston, TX. Her most recent stage play, Thirty, is an explosive look at a generation of Black women trying to make sense of family secrets. Melda was commissioned by The Ensemble Theatre for their 2021-2022 season. 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 and freelance contributor to Black Masks magazine. Her first book, My Soul to His Spirit: Soulful Expressions from Black Daughters to Their Fathers won the 2006 National Fresh Voices Award. It is a diverse and cathartic compilation of non-fiction writings by black women from across the United States. Her debut novel, Lime, is hailed as “America’s Next Top Model” meets “Burning Bed.” Both books are available on Amazon.com.

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 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.

Inaugural Confluence Fellow

Carter W. Lewis

Carter Lewis 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.