Cori Thomas
Cori Thomas (Playwright)(she/her) is an-award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and author. She is the Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at WP Theater and a Soros Equality Fellow. Produced Plays include LOCKDOWN (TRW Plays); When January Feels Like Summer (Dramatic Publishing Company); Co- Author: I Cried To Dream Again – Penguin/Random House (May 2022) Finalist “In The Margins” Social Justice Book Award. Multiple residencies and fellowships including Mellon Foundation Playwright-In-Residence at WP Theater in NYC; MacDowell; Sundance Institute; O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; Bogliasco Foundation; Baryshnikov Foundation, Jerome Foundation; New Dramatists Alum; Helen Merrill Prize, American Theater Critic’s Association Osborne Award- Best New Play, and
more.
Co-Founder San Quentin Film Festival SQFF (Fall 2024) www.sanquentinfilmfestival.com
Tea Alagić
Tea Alagić (Director) is an internationally recognized theater maker and producer based in New York City. She holds a BFA in acting from Charles University in Prague and an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama, where she was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize. Since 2012, she has taught directing and collaboration at The New School for Drama, where she served as Head of Directing from 2016 to 2020.
Alagić has directed major productions across the U.S. and Europe, including world premiere of The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney (The Public Theater, Lortel Award nomination), Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek (WP Theater, Lortel Award nomination ), Romeo and Juliet (CSC Rep), and Passing Strange (The Wilma Theater), for which she received several awards and nominations, including a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction and nominations for Outstanding Production. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alagić fled her country in 1992 due to war and found refuge in theater. Her work reflects a deep commitment to cross-cultural collaboration and storytelling.
Lisa Peterson
Lisa Peterson (Director/Playwright) is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer/director. Her works include An Iliad, written with Denis O’Hare (NYTW, OBIE and Lortel Awards); The Good Book (co-written with O’Hare, Court Theater, and Berkeley Rep); The Waves (adapted from Virginia Woolf with composer David Bucknam, NYTW). Lisa is renowned for directing new plays and classics across the country; recently she directed the world premiere of Doug Wright’s Good Night Oscar on Broadway. She was Associate Director at Berkeley Rep, Center Theatre Group, and La Jolla Playhouse. She is a recent recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement. Upcoming writing projects include The Song of Rome with O’Hare, and The Idea of Order with composer Todd Almond.
Monet Hurst-Mendoza
Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Playwright)(she/her) is a playwright and TV writer from Los Angeles who lives in New York City. Her plays have been developed with The Alley Theater, Rising Circle Theater Collective, On-Site Opera, Astoria Performing Arts Center, WP Theater, The Public Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Westport Country Playhouse, and Long Wharf Theatre. She is an alum of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, R&D Group at The Civilians, Fresh Ground Pepper’s Playground Playgroup, WP Theater Playwrights Lab, and the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. She has been in residence at MacDowell, Ucross, Stillwright, La Mama Umbria, Millay Arts, The MITTEN Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Monet was a writer/producer for seasons 21-24 of Law and Order: SVU. Episodes she co-wrote won three Imagen Awards for positive portrayals of Latinos in media and a nomination for Mystery Writers of America’s 2023 Edgar Allen Poe Award. Proud member of The Kilroys, The Dramatist Guild, and WGAE.
Tatiana Pandiani
Tatiana Pandiani (Director) is a director-choreographer and writer who works in English and Spanish. She’s the creator of bilingual musical Azul (Jonathan Larson Winner, NAMT, O’Neill, Goodspeed) which has sold out shows at 54Below and Joe’s Pub. Recent: Dial M for Murder (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Indecent (Perseverance Theatre, Alaska), Our Town (Dallas Theatre Center). Tatiana directed and choreographed the world premiere of Torera at the Alley Theatre, in Houston. She received a Lucille Lortel Alcove commission for her new play, Hinge Baby, a climate change comedy she is co-writing with Danny Tejera; she is also developing English Only based on the true events of the English Only movement in Florida in the 1980/s alongside journalist and author Nick Griffin. Columbia MFA. Reps: UTA & Brillstein. For more info: www.tatianapandiani.com / www.azulthemusical.com
