In Times of Disaster

Lauren Feldman is a queer, feminist playwright (and circus artist) who loves theatrically adventurous, physically ambitious, intimate, inquisitive, deeply honest plays — usually about outsiders, often about searchers, always about the human connection. Her plays include THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL (New Georges Audrey Residency); ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE (Sewanee Writers' Conference, PlayPenn Conference, O'Neill Finalist, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Drama League workshop); AMANUENSIS (Georgetown University, Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company commission); THE EGG-LAYERS (Jane Chambers Honorable Mention, O'Neill Finalist, New Georges/Barnard College co-commission); A PEOPLE (Orbiter 3, Jewish Plays Project); GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING (Denver Center Theatre Company, Nice People Theatre Company, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Nomination, Barrymore Nomination, Kilroys List); several ensemble-devised works, including GUMSHOE (New Paradise Labs with the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Rosenbach Library), AND IF YOU LOSE YOUR WAY, OR A FOOD ODYSSEY (The Invisible Dog, New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination), LADY M (Philadelphia Live Arts Festival), and THE APOCRYPHAL PROJECT (Yale Cabaret), among others; and a baker's dozen of short plays. She has been nominated for the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She was awarded an artist grant through the Boomerang Fund and a creation grant from the State of Vermont, and she has been an artist-in-residence at Terra Firma, SPACE at Ryder Farm, the School of Making Thinking, Tofte Lake Center, Montana Artists Refuge, Montana Repertory Theatre, Sewanee University of the South, Cornell University, and Theater Emory/Brave New Works Festival. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Lauren is also a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a devised-work collaborator, a teacher of playwriting (Bryn Mawr College, Circadium, McCarter Theatre, PlayPenn), and a freelance dramaturg. In 2010 Lauren fell in love with theater & circus as a hybrid art form through the feminist, Brooklyn-based ensemble LAVA; soon she began creating theatrical circus duets with Megan Gendell, and her passions led her to the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) for full-time professional training. Lauren freelances as a creator/performer of contemporary circus — specializing in duo trapeze with Megan Gendell, solo static trapeze, handbalancing, and partner acrobatics. She has performed in festivals and cabarets from Chicago to San Francisco, Philadelphia to New York City, Riga (Latvia) and beyond, and she is a co-creator/performer of the full-length ensemble circus-theater show TINDER & ASH (SummerStage NYC, TOHU residency, Orchard Project). She coaches at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and she travels around the country teaching dramaturgical craft to circus artists and dramaturging acts and shows. Hailing from Miami, Florida, she has lived in seven cities and is now based in Philly — where she is a proud Orbiter 3 playwright.

Dorothy Fortenberry is a Los Angeles–based playwright and television writer. Her plays include PARTNERS, MOMMUNE, CAITLIN AND THE SWAN, GOOD EGG, and the play with music STATUS UPDATE. Dorothy's work has been developed at Arena Stage, Ars Nova, Geva Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among others, and produced by Center Rep, Chalk Rep, Live Wire, Red Fern Theatre, and The Management. She is a winner of the 2011 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and a two-time Finalist for the O'Neill Conference (for her plays STATUS UPDATE and MOMMUNE). Residencies include the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Program, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and Page 73. Dorothy is a member of the Playwrights Union, a founding company member of Tilted Field, and in the 2013 Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop. She received an EST/Sloan commission and is currently working on a commission from Yale Rep. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Jennifer Tuckett is an award-winning writer, specializing in writing for the theatre, film, television, radio and digital media. Jennifer's work includes KIDNAPPING CAMERON (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), I AM A SUPERHERO (joint winner of the Old Vic New Voices Theatre 503 Award and a finalist for the Adrienne Benham Award for writing for young audiences), WAYS YOU CAN SURVIVE THE WORLD (Theatre 503 and the Flea Theatre, New York), LUCY’S BRIEF GUIDE ON HOW TO BE HUMAN (Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays), GEORGE BUSH SAVED MY LIFE LAST NIGHT (Hampstead Theatre/Menagerie Theatre Company), AN ALIEN’S GUIDE TO THE UK ELECTIONS (Liverpool Everyman Theatre and Playhouse/Nabokov), pieces for WISH YOU WERE HERE (Liverpool Everyman Theatre and Playhouse) and THE BEST TOUR OF LOVE EVER (Octagon Theatre). Jennifer holds an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama, a BA (Hons) in English from Cambridge University and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was awarded the first Distinction in the eight-year history of the scriptwriting strand of the course.