2014 Play Group

Sofia Alvarez’s plays include Between Us Chickens, Life Drawing, The Fish Bowl, Nylon and Friend Art. She is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, New George’s JAM and Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer’s Group. She is currently a staff writer for USA’s Sirens. Education: Bennington, Juilliard.

Liza Birkenmeier received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon. Her work has been seen (or heard) at Invisible Dog, Working Theatre, LACE, San Diego Museum of Art, Point of Contention Theatre, BAX, OnSite Theatre, and MATC. She is currently working on a commissioned piece with a PR2 Robot.

Matthew-Lee Erlbach's most recent writing credits include: Eager to Lose, a Burlesque Farce in Rhyming Verse, Handbook for an American Revolutionary, Kevin Lamb, and King George III. His plays have been developed and/or staged at Ars Nova, Williamstown, MCC, Primary Stages, GYM at Judson, Ohio Theatre, Tisch/NYU Grad, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, among others. TV: Nickelodeon, MTV, WWE. BFA, University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign.

Suzanne Heathcote is a British actor and writer based in New York. Her writing career began at the Royal Court Theatre where she attended their Young Writers Program and subsequently the Advanced Writers Group. Since then Suzanne has continued to work with some of the most established theatres and companies in Britain and the U.S. including Hampstead Theatre, The Bush Theatre, Drywrite, The Factory, Labyrinth Theater NY, The Echo Theater LA, and the BBC.

Meghan Kennedy’s play Too Much, Too Much, Too Many received its world premiere this fall at Roundabout Underground. She is currently under commission from Roundabout Theatre Company and NYSCA/New Georges. Other plays include Light (2012 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize), Talk to Me of Love, Yours, and The Greenest Month. MFA: The Michener Center, UT Austin. BA: Tisch, NYU.

Justin Kuritzkes’ plays have been produced and developed at venues including New Workshop, the New Group, the Brecht Forum, Colt Coeur, and Dixon Place. He is a MacDowell Colony fellow, an Edward F. Albee Foundation fellow, and a member of SPACE on Ryder Farm’s inaugural writers group: the Working Farm. He has been commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville for the 2014 Humana Festival.

Brian Otaño’s plays include The Ocean at Your Door, What We Told the Neighbors, Between The Sandbar and the Shore and Zero Feet Away. His work has been developed and workshopped with New Dramatists, ArsNova, , Labyrinth Theater Company, The Amoralists and the LARK. Brian is a 2012-2013 New Dramatists Van Lier Fellow.

Jonathan Payne’s plays have been presented by the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center, the Bushwick Starr and Tara Arts (UK). He is a member of the 2014 Fire This Time Festival, Impossible Bottle, and America-in-Play. He received an MFA in Playwriting from Tisch School of the Arts.

Daniel Pearle’s plays include: A Kid Like Jake (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater; 2013 Laurents/Hatcher Award; 2013 Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Fund Grant), The Prodigies, Freefall, Plunder (2008 Loeb Drama Center’s Phyllis Anderson Prize) and The Truth About Christmas (2011 Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival Winner). He earned his BA from Harvard University and his MFA from The New School for Drama.

Max Posner’s plays include The Thing About Air Travel, The Famished, Snore, Gun Logistics and Judy. Produced or developed at , Actors Theatre of Louisville, Page 73, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Hangar Theatre, Curious Theatre Company and Production Workshop. Recipient of the 2012 P73 Fellowship, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the Heideman Award from Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship at Juilliard. Alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. BA: Brown University.

Erica Saleh's plays have been produced and developed by theaters including Ensemble Studio Theatre, The 52nd Street Project, Studio 42, 3 Graces and The Claque. She is the recipient of a Michener Fellowship and commissions from the EST/SLOAN project and Dramatics Magazine. Erica is a member of Ars Nova Play Group, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumna of Youngblood. She is a graduate of the Michener Center at the University of Texas and Brown University.

Celine Song is a 2012 Edward F. Albee Foundation Writing Fellow, a 2013 Sponsored Artist of Theatre That Transcends, and a 2011 recipient of the Shubert Presidential Grant. Her plays include The Feast, Four Horsemen and Family (written in mentorship with Will Eno). MFA: Columbia.