Playwrights & Directors Lab
MEMBERS 2002-2003
Michele Aldin (playwright): B.A. Hampshire College. M.F.A. New York University. Upcoming production: 31 Bond at The Brooklyn Lyceum (December 13-January 26). Check out www.gowanus.com for more info.
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (Lab Director): Julie is an accomplished director and dramaturg. Favorite recent projects include Macbeth at Expanded Arts, Man With Bags at The Looking Glass Theatre and Dear America most recently read at The Titans Theatre Company. Upcoming projects include 31 Bond at The Brooklyn Lyceum and Mrs. Warren's Profession at The Looking Glass Theatre.
Molly Castelloe (playwright): Molly earned a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. in Performance Studies at New York University. She is presently a PhD. candidate at N.Y.U. and faculty member in the Department of Film and Television. Her first full-length drama Night Cries was produced at the Second Studio for Actors for an extended run and her short work Flaubert's Indiscretion was performed last year at George Washington University. Her plays and poetry have been published in various anthologies and performing arts journals. Molly also has extensive acting credits in New York City theatre and independent films which have been screened at festivals worldwide.
Sharon E. Cooper (playwright): Born in Massachusetts and raised in Virginia, Sharon has been writing plays since she was a teenager. Her first play, For Camille, was produced as a staged reading through TheatreVirginia's "New Voices for the Theatre" program. She currently lives in New York, where she is a director, playwright, and diversity trainer for the National Coalition Building Institute. In New York she was the assistant director for Three for Fifteen at the American Theatre of Actors, where her own award-winning play, Lifeline, recognized by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and the Mill Mountain Theatre, was also produced. At Looking Glass, Sharon is a member of the Playwrights Lab; last season her ten-minute play, New Witness in Wonderland, was part of The Alice Project and she had a staged reading at LGT of her new play, A Year In New York, which is currently being offered as a world premiere. As a director, Sharon works primarily with young adults and has enjoyed working with students on West Side Story, Crumble, Twelfth Night, and Comedy of Errors.
Charmian Creagle (Lab Assistant): Charmian is an accomplished avant garde director with her own company. She has recently relocated to New York City from Seattle.
Marjorie Edwards (playwright): Marjorie is an accomplished playwright, actress and self producer. She is also a Registered Nurse and runs classes for other nurses on breaking into show business.
Jeannine L. Jones (playwright) adapted her play, Firefly, for the screen. The award winning film was an official selection at major festivals including Houston WorldFest and the Charlotte Film Festival. Her screenplay, "Haze", was a finalist in the 1999 Writer¹s Network Screenwriting Competition. Her play, Criminal Behavior, was a 1996 finalist in the Cupper¹s Competition in Oxford, England. Her play, Phoebe and Hal, was a finalist in the National Ten Minute Play Contest in 1999. Her work was most recently seen in the Double Helix Theater's "One" Festival at the Jose Quintero Theater. Jones also wrote and directed Where Sleeping Dogs Lie, a collection of one-acts, at the Duplex in New York City. She is a produced sketch comedy writer in the New York comedy scene. Her work has been performed at 10:17, Personality Inventory, Living Room Live, Indigo, the Wild Rose Café, The Lamb¹s, and the West End Gate. In New York, Jones worked as production stage manager for Starfish Theatre Works, Eerie Entertainment, EST, The NY Fringe Festival and Dora Mae Productions. She produced Personality Inventory and Noah¹s Arc for Dora Mae. Jones is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and a founding member of Dora Mae Productions.
MaryLisa Kinney (playwright and director): ML has spent close to sixteen years working in the New York theatre as director, playwright, lyrist, producer, stage manager and actor. She has worked with Mabou Mines, Duo Theatre, Off Broadway Queens, WOW, Spirit Productions, Chekhov Theatre Ensemble, NYSF Latino Festival, the Riant, Theatre for the New City, Artists In Motion, and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, to name a few. As a director she has made her mark in developing and directing many new avant garde musicals and has worked closely with the new music scene. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Recent commissions have included the musical children's plays The Spider and the Dokannoos and The Adventures of the Stone Monkey King. Other New York productions of her work have included Islands, Embracing the Executioner, and a staged reading of her new musical A Bridge of Time.
Bethany Larsen (playwright): Bethany is a graduate of Fordham University's College at Lincoln Center, where she co-founded the Fordham Playwright's Project, an organization which gives students the opportunity to produce their plays. She has worked in various capacities with the Rattlestick Theatre, New GeorgeS, and MCC. Her poetry has appeared in Excursions and A&U Magazine.
Isis Saratial Misdary (director): Isis is a director/dramaturg/actor now serving a Van Lier Directing Fellowship with Second Stage and a directing residency at The Bat Theatre. Recently, she completed The Lincoln Center Directors Lab and was accepted as a member of the Drama League Directors Project. Her directing credits include: Daughters of the Moon (New Perspectives Theatre, NYC), The Verdict (Theatre Studio, NYC), Duck (Pulse Ensemble Theatre, NYC), The Conduct of Life (Villanova Theatre, PA), and Ubu Roi (Phoenix Theatre Lab, London, UK). She has dramaturged over 30 plays, including Linda Faigo-Hall's Pusong Babae/Heart of a Woman (Clark Studio Theatre Lincoln Center), Wit Philadelphia Theatre Company, also assistant director, Dir: Maria Mileaf), and Talk by Silvia Gonzalez S. She has dramaturged for the Department of Theatre & Dance, Bard College under Joanne Akailitis. Isis has taught at Villanova University, PS 150 Queens, several high schools in the Alternative High School Superintendency (NYC), Medgar Evers CUNY, Jamiaca Arts Center and Lehman College CUNY. In 1999-2000, Isis was nominated as a Fulbright Finalist, Egypt and received a Ford Foundation Fellowship. She is excited to be part of this year's lab at Looking Glass.
Kathryn Moroney (director): Kathryn has worked in various locations in the city, recently directing at New Georges as part of their "Roaring Girls" series. She is a gradauate of Carnegie Mellon.
Cynthia Ohanian (director): Cindy recently served as assistant to the Resident Director on The Lion King. Her directing credits include Signals, the Musical, Blame in on the Bossa Nova, The Great White Way, Hairdresser on Fire, Lightning From Heaven, and Beautiful Noises in New York. She also directed the New York premiere of Ellis Island 101 at AGBU-ARTS. Cynthia served as the Associate Producer of the Carnegie Collaborative Reading Series and as the Literary Manager of Abingdon Theatre Company. She had the distinct pleasure of working with Benjamin Mordecai on Angels in America (parts I & II), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, and Band In Berlin. She is an Associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Anne Phelan (playwright): Anne is a member of The Dramatists Guild. Her plays have been produced by the Abingdon Theatre Co., Off Broadway Queens, Aboutface Theatre Co., The Riant Theatre, Chelsea Rep, Thirteenth Street Rep., The Fugue Theatre Co., Silk Road Company and The Perishable Theatre, among others. A Mushroom In Her Hands, begun as part of tlast season's Alice Project) was part of the 2001 Living Room Series at HERE. Crèche Scenes was a semifinalist in the 1999 Chesterfield Writers Film Project; and The White Cat won the 2000 Marilyn Hall Award, Grades 4-6, sponsored by the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild.
Danielle Soames (director): Danielle is an accomplished actress and director. Her most recent project (The Monkeys Paw) can currently be seen as part of The Looking Glass Theatre's Late Nite Series.
Judith Stevens-Ly (director): Judy moved to New York from Tokyo where she was artistic director for an English language theatre co. She also worked with and directed for a Japanese women's acting group there. Since coming here she has directed a number of plays and staged readings in NYC. She was a resident director at the Horse Trade Theatre Co. and has an ongoing involvement with the Ensemble Studio Theatre, where she has directed for the Octoberfest and a number of other original productions. Currently she is a member of The Looking Glass Theatre's Writer/Director Lab.
Joyce Turiskylie (playwright): Joyce is a recent transplant from Minnesota where she ran a reading group for playwrights.
Karin Williams (playwright) Karin served as Playwright-In-Residence at San Diego's Fritz Theater from 1992 until her move to New York City in 2001. Her plays have been produced and published internationally. The Fritz has staged her
plays Australia, Room, Susan Katrina and Jill, The Hatchet,Quiz, and The Third Voice of the Nightjar. Plays produced
elsewhere include Head, Sunrise, Ten O'Clock Tuesday and Mel Is A Strange Girl. Her comic adaptation of Justine by the Marquis de Sade won first prize in the 2000 Windmill Playwrights Festival at Texas Tech University, and was a finalist for the 2001 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the 2001 U.S. West Theatrefest. Embalming was a finalist in the 1999 Actors Theatre of Louisville Ten-Minute Play contest. Her latest play, Surgery, was recently named a semi-finalist for the 2001 Chesterfield Writers Fellowship and the Stageplays.com Best Play 2001 Award.
She has directed numerous critically acclaimed productions at the Fritz including The Woods, The Conduct of Life,
US, Raised in Captivity, Sight Unseen, and Unmerciful Good Fortune. Her directing work has also been seen at
Diversionary Theater, Ensemble Arts Theater, and Asian American Repertory Theatre. She has taught classes in
Playwriting at the Writing Center and Senior Stages Academy. She has an M.A. in Theatre from the University of New
Sarah Elizabeth Zeitler (director): Sarah moved to NYC in 1997 and attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, completing her BFA in Drama with honors in May 2000.During her stay at NYU she was a Tisch scholar as well as the student speaker at commencement. Since graduation Sarah has freelanced in live television, working on shows
such as The Latin Grammy Awards, Elton John LIVE at MSG, The Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Concert, NSYNC LIVE at MSG, and the Tony Awards. Sarah has also been a part of the Drama Desk Awards since 1999. In October 2000 she began her current position as the assistant to the CEO of Clear Channel Theatrical. Sarah was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA.
