Maria Alexandria Beech In 2009, Maria Alexandria Beech was the recipient of The Aspen Theatre Master's Visionary Playwright's Award. For the award, Alex was commissioned by Primary Stages Theatre and Theatre Masters to write two plays based on The Aspen Ideas Festival which she attended last summer. Alex graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Literature Writing at Columbia University where she earned an MFA as a recipient of the Williams Foundation Fellowship and the Dean's Fellowship. In 2006, her play BREAKING WALLS was produced at The Cherry Lane Theatre as part of its Cherry Pit Late Nite Series. Her Spanish translation of The Cook, by Eduardo Machado, premiered at The Stages Theatre in Houston. The Soft Room was performed at the Culture Project's Impact Festival. Blue Box Productions produced her plays, Bat in Iraq, Your Face, Designer X, and The Times at Sticky. The Inventor of Manatees was performed at the Flea Theatre as part of Stupid: The Plays. In 2007, Bat in Iraq was performed in the Insurgency/Counter-Insurgency Theatre Project at The Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. In 2006 and 2007, her plays, Lima Beans, Breaking Walls, and Black Roses were semi-finalists in the Cherry Lane Mentor Project. As a member of the Hispanic Playwrights Lab at Intar, her play Cast Aside was performed in Bus Stop. During the past four seasons, Alex has been a member of The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages Theater in New York, where her plays, Saving The Lives of Strangers, Charity Bonds, and Little Monsters were performed in readings. Her plays Designer X and Your Face, and her one woman show, What Are You Doing Here, were performed at The Planet Realities Festival where they received ten nominations. In July of 2009, Lima Beans was presented in a reading by Teatro Luna in Chicago. As a translating playwright at the Lark Play Development Center's US/Mexico Exchange Program in 2008 and 2009, Alex translated Luis Ayllon's The Camels and Hitler In My Heart by Noe Munoz Morales; both plays were workshopped at the Lark. In January and February of 2011, Brandeis Theatre Company and Primary Stages Theatre will co-produce a workshop production of Little Monsters, which was presented in a reading during Octoberfest at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, where Alex is a Prime Candidate for Membership in 2010. Alex currently attends The Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University where she will earn her second MFA in 2011. Kirsten Berkman is currently an Associate Producer with East of Doheny, a Broadway and film production company. Formally the New Works Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and the Head of Development and Marketing Manager at The Araca Group. Before that Kirsten worked at The Lark Play Development Center as Director of Arts Learning and Community Relations and at Coleytown Middle School in Westport, CT teaching 8th Grade History. Shows she has worked on include The Wedding Singer, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Shout! The Mod Musical, The Good Body, and night’ Mother. She has also worked on many new shows as an independent producer. Kirsten holds a BA from Northwestern University and her Masters degree in Educational Theatre from NYU. She is Vice President of the board of Vital Theatre Company and serves on the board of Immediate Vision.
Kamilah Forbes is a director,actor and producer. Currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, Ms. Forbes is the artistic director of Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF), the non-profit presenter of new theater written by Hip-Hop generation artists, and through the lens of the urban cultural aesthetic. Olivia Greer is a theater producer, writer, and consultant. She received her MA in Performance Studies at NYU in 2009, where she completed her thesis entitled "Keep on Movin' it On: Odetta's Voice of Resistance". Olivia has worked as an activist in labor, civil rights and other struggles, and works as a consultant for arts, philanthropic and social justice organizations in development, strategy and communications. She co-authored Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers (Nation Books, 2006), and has contributed articles to Alternet, The Arts Politic, The Huffington Post, and openDemocracy. She was formerly Associate Producer at NY theater company Culture Project. At Culture Project, she directed Women Center Stage, a multi-disciplinary festival celebrating and supporting women artists whose work gives voice to human struggles globally. Olivia is the founder of EMANCIPATE, an initiative bringing together women musicians who are activists in their communities with the goal of solidarity, amplification of social justice issues and collaboration towards solutions. Jade Guanchez is a graduate of Princeton University where she studied English and Women's Studies and wrote a thesis titled Staging the New Woman: The Sexual Double Standard in Edwardian Theatre. At Princeton, Jade was the vice president of the Organization of Women Leaders , president of Wymon'stage, a theater company dedicated to producing theater that explored gender issues and was written, directed and acted exclusively by women, and director of three productions of The Vagina Monologues. She has worked for V-Day, the worldwide campaign to end violence against women and girls, where she supported the production of Eve Ensler's The Good Body and the Until the Violence Stops Festival, and the Hampton's Shakespeare Festival , and is currently a Global Communications Manager for Coca Cola. Jade has been a long time fan of the theater and advocate for gender equality, and is thrilled to be serving WP's Leadership Council. Roseanne Medina is an attorney and actor. She graduated from Barnard College, New York and Northeastern University School of Law, Boston. She has lived and studied both art and law in Spain, Oxford, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. While living in Washington, DC, she practiced civil rights/discrimination law while simultaneously performed in: "Our Lady of 121st Street" (Kennedy Center/Woolly Mammoth); Frank Loesser's "Senor Discretion Himself (Arena Stage, NY Workshops); "The Russian National Postal Service", "A Class Act", "Prometheus" (Studio Theatre) ; "The Who's Tommy" (Studio Secondstage), Moliere's "The Learned Ladies" (Catalyst Theater), as well as various independent films, TV, and voiceovers. She has also mentored and taught Shakespeare to young children in the DC Public Schools. Since moving back to New York City, Roseanne has performed in various off- Broadway productions, is member of INTAR’s Actors Collective, and studied acting with the acclaimed Bill Esper. Roseanne is a proud member of Actors Equity. Jenny Rosenbluth graduated from the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University in 2000 where she majored in Urban and Regional Studies. During her time there, she participated in the Cornell-in-Rome (Italy) program, which offered a rich curriculum of architectural, art, and urban history as well as immersion in Italian culture and language. Following graduation, Jenny worked in development at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. and Lighthouse International in the area of individual giving/major gifts, having administered various membership programs and related events, including the reinstatement of a young patrons group. Simultaneously, she continued to cultivate her interest in theater as a front of house staff member at Studio 54 (revival of Cabaret), and later, the new Jazz at Lincoln Center facility. Following Cabaret, she joined the creative team at the off-off-Broadway company Theater Ten Ten in 2004 as assistant stage manager for All’s Well That Ends Well, and their subsequent production of Iolanthe as production stage manager. Jenny also volunteered with Only Make Believe (a theatrical charity devoted to children in hospitals) and as a music assistant for Signature Theatre’s (VA) presentation of 110 in the Shade. Most recently, she served as the assistant director/assistant stage manager for a production of The Yellow Wallpaper (adapted from the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman) at Manhattan Theatre Source. Tamilla Woodardis an Actor, director and proud supporter of Women’s Project. As a director, Tamilla most recently directed the two woman vocal musical, EXPATRIATE by Lenelle Moise (Culture Project, NYC) , CRUISING THE DIVIDE, (Actors Theatre of Louisville, apprentice company.) and BREAK THE MIC (Urban Word at Dance Theatre Workshop) She has developed and directed several solo and chamber performances pieces: Sherry Boone’s Super Star Artist Show (The Zipper Theatre, NYC) LeeAne’t Nobles KickN2theBeat (The Zipper Theatre, NYC); Queen GodIs’ Birth of Power U (Triad Theatre & Hip Hop Theatre Festival) and Carlos Andrés Gómez’s MAN UP (PS 122, NYC and Edinburgh Fringe, UK). Other directing credits include: Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets with Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn, Kerry Washington VALIANT (The Greenway Court Theatre, LA; Urban Stages, NYC); and An Evening Honoring Toni Morrison( Jazz @ Lincoln Center featuring Sonia Sanchez, Phylicia Rashad, Morgan Freeman, Bill T. Jones and Sweet Honey in the Rock.) As an Actor, recent credits include I WANT WHAT YOU HAVE with Women's Project; BLACK SNOW at Yale Rep; and the feature film, THE PROJECT winner of the audience favorite award at SlamDance! Tamilla is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, former artistic director of the Yale Cabaret, member of The Lincoln Center Directors Lab and The Internationalists Directors Collective. And a proud member of 15 years of Actors Equity. www.Tamilla.com
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