Dipika Guha was born in Calcutta and raised in Russia and the UK. Her plays include Yoga Play (South Coast Rep, SF Playhouse, Playmakers Rep & others), The Art of Gaman (Theatre 503, London) and Unreliable (Kansas City Rep). She was the inaugural recipient of the Shakespeare’s Sister Award through the Lark, the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University and the Venturous Fellowship for her play Passing. She is currently writing plays for Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Berkeley Rep. For TV, she’s written on American Gods, Sneaky Pete, projects at AMC and Netflix, Black Monday and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. She’s currently writing pilots for FilmNation and A24. Dipika is a proud member of New Dramatists and is an alumnus of the WP Lab, Ars Nova’s Playgroup, Soho Rep W/D Lab, the Geffen Writers Room, Playwrights Foundation, the Ma Yi Writers Lab, the Playwrights Center and the Young Writers Program at the Royal Court. Dipika received her BA in English Literature at University College London, was a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University and was awarded her MFA from the Yale School of Drama under Paula Vogel.

After graduating from UCT Drama School, Rosalind worked as an actress, improviser, director and writer. She’s focused on her passion- writing- since 1998. Rosalind’s style is dominated by emotional depth, humour and character driven story.

Rosalind’s writing highlights include: Home Affairs seasons 1-4, Penguin Films’ one hour drama series for SABC 1, nominated for Best TV Drama Series for the International Emmy Awards in 2006 and 2008. Hotel Majestic - (Nigeria) MNet Africa’s Telenovela, first screened in 2015. Castle and Castle - Nigerian law series produced by Ebony Life, screened on Netflix in 2020. 4play: Sex Tips For Girls season 2, produced by Quizzical Pictures for eTV, winner of BEST WRITING TEAM at the 2013 SAFTA Awards.Rosalind’s first major television writing job was co-creating and head writing Soul Buddyz seasons 1 and 2, youth drama television series for Soul City and SABC Education which won BEST CHILDREN'S DRAMA IN AFRICA and BEST EDUTAINMENT IN AFRICA at CBFA SITHENGI 2003 CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL. An Unromantic Comedy, Rosalind’s first play, was nominated for the Naledi Theatre Awards in the category of BEST NEW SCRIPT. Rosalind also co-wrote the story for the hit film Material which won BEST FEATURE FILM at the 2013 SAFTA Awards.Rosalind is an extremely experienced daily drama writer. She worked in all aspects of SABC 3’s awarding wining Isidingo’s writing department, including a stint as head writer. At present, Rosalind is a writer and storyliner on Scandal!, eTV’s number one soap which won SAFTA’ S BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SCRIPT WRITING - TV SOAP for the second consecutive year in 2022. Rosalind loved being part of the writing team for MNet’s hit drama series Lioness Season 1 and Season 2 which is currently screening on MNet.

SaringROCK is a playwright, director and actor. Born 1980 in Higashi Osaka, Osaka Prefecture SaringROCK graduated from the Philosophy department at Kansei Gakuin University. She formed Gold Fish theatre company (TOTSUGEKI KINGYO) in 2002 and began writing plays. The underlying theme of her work is “the anxiety and resentment felt by people living in the modern world.” Her work comically and realistically depicts people trying to find hope. The unfolding drama of clumsy characters speaking with Kansai accents creates a compelling world that straddles reality and fantasy. In 2008, SaringROCK won the Grand Prize at the 15th OMS (Oogimachi Museum Square) Drama Awards. Since then, she has also won the 9th AAF (Aichi Arts Foundation) Drama Award for Excellence and the Young Directors Competition 2012 Award for Excellence. She was selected as a finalist for the 57th Kishida Kunio Drama Award for 100 Years Stray (2012) and the 62nd Kishida Kunio Drama Award for The Boy Dreams with a Chicken (Shonenwa Niwatorito Yumewo Miru) (2017). In 2019, 100 Years Stray was staged as a reading by the Japan Society in New York.

Aya Ogawa is an award-winning Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based playwright, director, and translator whose work reflects an international viewpoint, centres women/non-binary perspectives and utilises the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience. They have written and directed many plays including A Girl of 16, oph3lia (HERE), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre) and Ludic Proxy (The Play Company). They wrote, directed and performed in The Nosebleed (Under the Radar, 2019; Japan Society & Chocolate Factory, 2021; Lincoln Center Theater, 2022) for which they received an Obie Award. They directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest for The Bushwick Starr and Ma-Yi Theatre Company (2019 & 2020), and Maiko Kikuchi and Spencer Lott’s 9000 Paper Balloons at HERE, 2021 and Japan Society, 2022. They have translated numerous works of contemporary Japanese playwrights into English, including plays by Toshiki Okada, Satoko Ichihara, Yudai Kamisato and more. Many of her translations have been published by Concord Theatricals and others. Recipient, 2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Grants to Artists; Resident playwright, New Dramatists; President’s Award in Performing Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. ayaogawa.com

Laura Maria Censabella’s full-length plays include Carla Cooks The War (winner of the $10,000 Saroyan/Paul Human Rights Playwriting Award), Beyond Words (Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Commission), Abandoned in Queens (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and Paradise (IRNE Award Best New Play, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Commission). Paradise made its sold-out U.S. west coast premiere in Los Angeles at The Odyssey Theatre (Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, producers) after receiving its world premiere at Underground Railway/Central Square Theater as part of its Catalyst Collaborative@MIT program, and she has written the screenplay version for Vicangelo Films and JuVee Productions. An audio version of the play opened the L.A. Theatre Works 2021-22 season. Her play Beyond Words about the life and work of maverick scientist Dr. Irene Pepperberg of Alex and Me fame was workshopped in Ensemble Studio Theatre's First Light Festival and is scheduled for development at Central Square Theater in Fall 2023.

Ms. Censabella is the recipient of three grants in Playwriting and Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts, including the Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award, and two Daytime Television Emmy Awards. Plays and musicals have been developed or produced in the U.S. at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, WP Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, the New Harmony Project, Gulfshore Playhouse, The Working Theatre, Luna Stage, Passage Theatre and Urban Stages, among others. She directs the Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit and teaches at the New School for Drama where she received the Distinguished University Wide Teaching Award. She is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. Philosophy) where she studied with Wole Soyinka, Nikos Psacharopoulos, Michael Roemer, Anthony Davis and Henry Louis Gates.

TyLie Shider is an American writer and the inaugural playwright in residence at ArtYard. A 2022-23 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights' Center (PWC), he is a recipient of Premiere Stages' Liberty Live commission, two consecutive Jerome Fellowships (PWC), and an I Am Soul playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre (NBT). Recent projects include, the fall 2022 NJ premiere of Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family at Premiere Stages, The Gospel Woman (NBT), Whittier (PWC), and his filmmaking debut Sign O' the Times. Screenwriting credits include: Truant. He holds a BA in Journalism from Delaware State University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. A proud member of the Dramatist Guild, he is currently a Professor of Playwriting at Augsburg University, and a staff writer for Minnesota Playlist. Follow his work on IG: @theplaywright

JC Niala is a multilingual playwright and theatre maker. Her plays include Unsettled, 2019 (Methuen, Bloomsbury) shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Prize (2020) and the Hope Mill Theatre Prize (2020). Out of Bounds was awarded the Nancy Dean prize in 2021. It was written when she was an Oxford Playhouse Playmaker 2020-2021. JC was also a Tamasha Playwright 2021-2022 during which she developed Life in A Goldfish Bowl commissioned for the AHRC BBC 100 project Cultural Revolution? The BBC and Social Change in 1960s Britain. During the growing season of 2021, JC re-created an allotment in the style of the year 1918. She held performance events at the site and the ‘1918 Allotment’ was awarded the Social History Society’s public history prize. JC has been given a DYCP grant by Arts Council England for her project ‘Shakespeare in Swahili’ which works to translate Shakespeare’s plays into Swahili for the stage.

Laura Jackson is a writer and performer with a passion for strong female narratives. Laura’s work speaks to women’s experiences in the modern world, exploring street harassment, domestic violence, online privacy and fertility.

Laura's play 'The Culture' is currently touring, after premiering in NYC in 2022, showing in Wellington (NZ) and Adelaide, with Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne to come and further cities to be announced.

Laura toured her one-woman play Handle It across seven seasons, the fringe circuit, and a UN Women charity performance and International Women’s Day performances. At NIDA Laura wrote and presented a reading of a new work Come On Baby, and co-wrote a new play Speak Now in 2022 exploring the same-sex marriage debate in Australia. Laura collaborates with an illustrator to self-publish children’s books and is polishing her first novel.

A graduate of the prestigious three year BFA Acting at NIDA – class of 2018, Laura also has a BCA Performance, an MFA Creative Writing and a Dip Ed from the University of Wollongong. During her time at NIDA Laura played leading roles in the productions, including Lucia (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Lady Fidget (The Country Wife), Willow (The Colbie Sisters of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania) and Grusha (Caucasian Chalk Circle). Laura is represented by BMEG as an actor, writer and voice artist.

Writer, director, dramaturg, and actor, Mieko Ouchi trained at the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting Program, the Women in the Director’s Chair Program, and the National Screen Institute. Her award-winning films have screened at over thirty festivals, including the Toronto and Vancouver International Film Festivals and Asian American film festivals in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Her plays The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The Blue Light, The Dada Play, Nisei Blue, I Am For You, Consent, The Silver Arrow, and Burning Mom have been translated into six languages, been finalists for the 4 Play Series at the Old Vic, UK; the Governor General’s Literary Award; the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award; the City of Edmonton Book Prize; and Sterling Awards, and have been recognized with the Carol Bolt Award, Betty Mitchell Awards, and the Enbridge Playwrights Award for Established Canadian Playwright. Her work as a director and dramaturg—both at Concrete Theatre where she was Co-Artistic Director and Artistic Director for thirty-one years, and with writers and companies across the country—spans TYA to indie to large-scale work. Mieko now works as Associate Artistic Director at the Citadel Theatre. She lives in Edmonton with her husband Kim and their dog Nara.

Merlynn Tong is a Playwright and an Actor. She was a resident writer of La Boite Theatre in 2022 and the 2020 resident writer of Melbourne Theatre Company. Some of her playwriting credits include Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre & Melbourne Theatre Company), Antigone (adaptation, Queensland Theatre & Mercury Theatre, UK), Good Grief (Queensland Theatre), Legends [of the Golden Arches] (co-writer, co-director, Black Swan Theatre Company), Caesar (co-writer, La Boite Theatre), Blue Bones (Playlab Productions), Come to Where I am (Critical Stages Touring & Paines Plough Theatre Company, UK), SKIN (Dear Australia, Playwriting Australia) and Ma Ma Ma Mad (Wax Lyrical).

Her one-woman-show Blue Bones by Playlab Productions, that she also performed in, has won 6 Matilda Awards including the Lord Mayor Award for Best New Australian Work, Best Mainstage Production and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role. She is also the prize recipient of Screen Queensland’s Screen to Stage pitch, The First 10 Pages 2.0. In 2023. Her work Golden Blood has been short-listed for a Victorian Premier Literary Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Award, as well as Sydney Theatre Award (Best New Australian Work).

Some of her performances include Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre/ Melbourne Theatre

Company), Blue Bones (Playlab Productions), Enlightenment (Elbow Room), New Babylon (Brown’s Mart Theatre), White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company & National Theatre of Parramatta), The Shot (Queensland Theatre, The Scene Project), Top of the Lake: China Girl (BBC & Sundance Films, Jane Campion), The Mathematics of Longing (La Boite Theatre), The Lost Lending Library (Punchdrunk & Imaginary Theatre), Hotelling (Bleached Arts), Bitch: Origin of the Female Species (Brisbane Festival), Viral (Shock Therapy Productions), Straight White Men (La Boite Theatre) and Hot Brown Honey (Judith Wright Centre).

Momoko Takeda is a playwright and actor from Kochi Prefecture, Japan. In 2018, she founded the theatre unit "Babureruriguru," which specialises in performing plays using the Hata dialect of Takeda's hometown, Tosashimizu City, in Kochi Prefecture.

While Takeda's work deals with universal worries and conflicts, she confronts these issues in a light tone and with a realistic portrayal of people that can unintentionally make the audiences laugh.

She has won multiple awards, including the Best Screenplay Award at the Kansai Theater Festival for 21:00, Takarazato in 2020, and the Japan Playwright's Association's New Playwrights Award for Love—no Filter(Original Japanese title, Ibishinai Ai) in the same year. In 2022, the Association of Japanese Theatre Companies awarded her play Tanin the Best Japanese Drama Award.

Jeremy Kuhles is a British-born translator, writer, and editor based in Tokyo. With a background in film subtitling, Kuhles began translating stage plays in 2017 with his English version of Akihito Nakatsuru's Remote Backwater Island. The play, a powerful critique of the role of the government and media in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, was performed in London in 2018 as part of the Ashita No Kaze / Winds of Change series.

Kuhles' work as a writer and translator has covered many topics related to Japanese culture, from English signage on the trails of Mt. Fuji to stories about vintage Japanese trucks and the history of Buddhist statues. After translating Momoko Takeda's Love—No Filter in 2021, he developed a love for Kochi Prefecture and the local dish, katsuo-no-tataki, beautifully seared and citrussy skipjack tuna.