Jami Brandli, Paula Cizmar, Alexandria Dilks Pandola, Liz Femi, Larry Dean Harris, Ellen Snortland, Mary Steelsmith, Amy Tofte

 

Jami Brandli

JAMI BRANDLI’s plays include Technicolor Life, S.O.E., M-Theory, ¡SOLDADERA!, Sisters Three, Visiting Hours and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) which was named in The Kilroys Top 46 List in 2014. Her work has been produced/developed at WordBRIDGE, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Launch Pad, The Antaeus Company, Chalk REP, among other venues. Winner of John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, Holland New Voices Award and Aurora Theatre Company’s GAP Prize. This fall, Technicolor Life will premiere at REP Stage as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theatre Festival. She was a finalist for the Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Fellowship, Princess Grace Award, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Disney ABC TV Fellowship and was also nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. A proud member of the Playwrights Union, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, The Dramatist Guild and Moving Arts, Jami teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University’s low-residency MFA program and is represented by The Gersh Agency and Gramercy Park Entertainment. www.jamibrandli.com

 

Paula Cizmar

Paula Cizmar is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced all over the world.  Her plays include Street Stories, Death of a Miner, Candy & Shelley Go to the Desert, Still Life with Parrot & Monkey, and Bone Dry, among others. Theatres producing her work include Portland Stage, San Diego Rep, LaMaMa, the Women’s Project, Jungle Theatre, Playwrights Arena.  She is one of the authors of the internationally acclaimed documentary theatre piece, Seven, which explores the dangerous work of female human rights activists, and her play Venus in Orange, co-written with Laura Shamas, was selected for the 2012 WPIC Conference in Stockholm this coming August. Awards include two NEA grants, a Drama-Logue, Special Commendation from the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and a Rockefeller residency at Bellagio, Italy.  She teaches playwriting at USC.  More info: www.paulacizmar.com

 

Article:

Women’s Work  2012/06/04

 

Alexandria Dilks Pandola

Alexandria Dilks Pandola is the founder and Artistic Director of Green Light Productions. She has been at the forefront of women in theatre for over a decade as a producer, writer, director and actor. Dilks Pandola is also a writer and performer with the Turbine Arts Collective as well as a professional fundraiser who has served organizations all over the country including The Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, The GRAMMY Foundation and The Waldorf School of Philadelphia. She received a BA in Theatre from American University and an MFA from Columbia University.

 

 

 

 

Articles:

One-Woman Fringe    2015/06/15

5 Sirens: Women Rock!    2015/06/22

 

Liz Femi

Liz Femi is an actress, writer, and educator in Los Angeles. She has appeared in numerous noteworthy projects on stage including: No Child, Eclipsed (world premiere), and The Convert. TV and film work include: The Nick Kroll Show (Comedy Central), a supporting role in Things Never Said, starring Shanola Hampton of Showtime’s Shameless and directed by Charles Murray (V, Criminal Minds) the pilot Adventures with Shondrella, starring Shondrella Avery of Napoleon Dynamite, and the short film, Faith and Dreams. Liz studied at the U of Rochester International Theatre Program and holds a Masters in Education and an MFA in Acting from Harvard. Her play, Take Me To The Poorhouse premeieres at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival this month Lizfemi.com  Takemetothepoorhouse.com

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The “M” Word   2013/06/12

The “M” Word-Revisited  2013/07/01

 

Larry Dean Harris

Larry Dean Harris is the Los Angeles regional representative for the Dramatists Guild of America. He is a founding member of Playwrights 6 and a long-time board member of Celebration Theatre. His plays – Bible Stories, Like an Old Song, The Prodigal Fatherand the musical Play It Cool – have earned him an Ovation Award nomination and an LA Weekly Theatre Award nomination. He is also a monologuist: currently performing stories from his newest work Witness to the Bizarre all over town at Spark, Sit N Spin, I Love a Good Story. Even as he blogs, he is performing as the sole male in a cast of 13 fabulous women in Expressing Motherhood. www.expressingmotherhood.com

 

Articles:

In the Company of Women  2011/04/25

To Fairfax and beyond!  2011/04/30

 

Ellen Snortland

Ellen Snortland has her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and her B.A. in theater and film from University of California, Irvine. Formerly adjunct faculty in the Communication Studies department of California State University Los Angeles, she has been a broadcast journalist, actor and writing/media coach. During law school, she co-founded the country’s first all woman theater of company upon observing the paucity of women-in-charge in all aspects of theater. She has been in theater since she was 14. As a journalist, Snortland is a regular columnist for the Pasadena Weekly, contributor to Ms. Magazine and Huffington Post blogger and now, LA FPI. Ellen has been an NGO delegate to two major United Nations World Conferences: the Women’s conference in Beijing in 1995 and Conference Against Racism in South Africa in 2001.  An instructor in training and on the board of the 501 c 3 Impact Personal Safety of Los Angeles, Snortland is the author of “Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the Warrior Within Women and Girls,”  a how-come book about women’s personal safety. She is currently at work on a new book, “The Safety Godmothers” with her co-author and colleague, Lisa Gaeta of Impact Personal Safety. Ms. Snortland is also directing a documentary by the same name. She has also written and performs a solo show entitled, “Now That She’s Gone” which was nominated for a Pulitzer. She’s a professional writing coach for first time authors in private consultation or at one of her in-home classes. She lives in Altadena, CA with her beloved husband, Ken Gruberman and their two dogs.  http://www.snortland.com/

Articles:

Universal We Are   2010/06/21

Legacy  2010/06/22

Going Solo  2010/06/23

Ageism  2010/06/24

 

Mary Steelsmith

Mary Steelsmith, Playwright

Mary grew up in Boise, Idaho, two cow fields away from the Broadway Drive-In movie theater.   Her work has been produced in the United States and internationally.

Mary’s full length play, “Isaac, I am,” a sordid tale, of love, life death and AOL, won the Helford Prize, giving her the distinction of being the only woman given the honor.   It was produced at USC, October, 2011.  Mary presented “Isaac, I am” at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Stockholm, Sweden in August, 2012.

Her ten minute play, “HAPPY AND GAY,” the tale of two women stressing over how to decorate their church’s fellowship hall for its same-sex wedding, won the Eileen Heckart Drama for Seniors Competition.

“THE OLD MAN AND THE SEED” placed first in the Hewlett Packard Action Theatre contest in Singapore.  Mary had entered the contest, hoping to score some toner for her HP printer. Instead, she was delighted to learn first prize included the trip of a lifetime, to Singapore where she saw her play produced.

Mary is a member of the ICWP, The Dramatists Guild and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.  She is married to the dashing Steve Lee and owned by two cats.

Article:

HIT AND MISS:  MY OWN LITTLE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME  2012/09/09

 

Amy Tofte

Amy Tofte was a semi-finalist for Washington, DC’s 2013 Source Festival with her play Relentless Pursuit of a Lady. Her plays FLOOZY and FleshEatingTiger premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe (2010, 2011, respectively). Tiger was remounted at the Hollywood Fringe in 2012 where it was named “Best of Fringe” and nominated for Best Play. Tofte has been invited to develop her plays at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK four times since 2009. She developed her play WhiteDevil-LovingMother at both the Kennedy Center (2009) and on a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at the Autry National Center of the American West (2012). WhiteDevil was presented as a staged reading by the Northwest Playwrights Alliance at Seattle Repertory in April 2013. Her plays and solo pieces have been produced throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. She is a founder of the play development company Fierce Backbone in Los Angeles and a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. MFA, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). www.amytofte.com

 

Article:  Because Plays Take Time  2013/06/09