Rajiv Joseph (Playwright, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO) Joseph’s play “All This Intimacy” was produced this summer at New York’s Second Stage in their Summer Uptown Series. His play “Huck & Holden” is currently in production at at the Black Dahlia Theater in Los Angeles. “Huck & Holden” was also produced this past winter at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York where the play originated, the previous spring, as part of the theatre’s Mentor Project, selected and mentored by playwright Theresa Rebeck. He is a member of the brand new theater group “The Fire Dept. and is one of 10 writers in their upcoming production of “Speak Easy” at Joe’s Pub. He was a playwright fellow at the Lark Play Development Center where, through that fellowship, he traveled this past April to Mexico City where a translation of his play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” was performed as part of the Centro Helenico Drama Week. Rajiv was a 2004-2005 Dramatists Guild Fellow. He received his MFA in Playwriting from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and also holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University. He served in the Peace Corps from 1997-2000 in Senegal, West Africa.

Jessica Litwak (Playwright, TERRIBLE VIRTUE) Her work has been published by Applause Books, Smith and Krause and The New York Times. Her plays include: Emma Goldman: Love Anarchy and Other Affairs directed by Anne Bogart and produced by The Women’s Project and Productions, Bogart and she also collaborated on Between Wind a play commissioned by The Music Theatre Group. A Pirate’s Lullaby which won The Oregon Book Award, The Drammy Award, was produced in Oregon, California, Off Broadway in New York and in Chicago at The Goodman Theatre. The Promised Land, commissioned by The National Federation of Jewish Culture, was produced in New York and Budapest. Her play Secret Agents , was produced in Hollywood at The Renberg Theatre.. Victory Dance was produced at the DR2 in New York and at The Davidson Valentini Theatre in Los Angeles where it received a Garland Award and an Ovation Award nomination for Best World Premiere. The Moons Of Jupiter was performed at The Renberg Theatre in Los Angeles and 22 Fillmore was commissioned for NYU. Love Is Not All, is Litwak’s collection of one acts and Divine Mischief: The Art of Creative Voicing is her book on combing voice work with writing.

Litwak attended The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, received a BFA with honors in Acting from New York University and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

She has been on the full-time theatre faculty of San Francisco State University and Los Angeles City College. She has taught theatre at Columbia, NYU, Marymount Manhattan , AMDA and the Stella Adler Academy. She was the Director of Drama at The Poughkeepsie Day School, where she wrote and directed Postcards from Canterbury (based on The Canterbury Tales) and The Great Journey Home (based on The Odyssey)

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of The New Generation Theatre Ensemble, a theatre company and training program for teens and young adults. NGTE plays Verona High and GRIM -written and directed by Litwak- have been performed in New York City and in the Hudson Valley. Her new play War, An American Dream will be produced by NGTE this spring.

Alina Nelega (Playwright, AMELIA BREATHES DEEPLY) B. 1960 Based in the Transylvanian city of Tirgu Mures, is a playwright and fiction writer, jurnalist and theatre director, member of The Romanian Writers’ Union and of The UNITER (Romanian Theatre Union). Her plays have been translated and published in French, English, German, Hungarian, Polish and Russian, and have been either performed or read in Romania and Hungary, as well as internationally, in London, Zurich, and New York. She participated in festivals and cultural exchanges in Europe (Ireland, Switzerland, Holland, Germany) and in the USA (New York Fringe Festival), and was a beneficiary of international residencies at the Royal Court Theatre andThe Bush Theatre (London). She also runs playwrighting workshops, teaches and directs new writing. She writes and directs radioplays. She introduced to the Romanian audiences Eve Enslers’ The Vagina Monologues. She is a recipient of several awards, including the „Play of the Year 2000” award (UNITER), and qualified as a Ph.D. in theatre studies (The University of Bucharest).