Christian Mendonça

Christian Mendonça is a Portuguese-American playwright, whose work has been read at the Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation's Roundtable Reading Series (Come Flores, 2020) and at the INKubator New Play Festival by Art House Productions (Flowers for Men, 2022). Distinctions include: finalist for the Goldberg Play Prize (American Quality, 2018), semifinalist for the New American Voices Play Festival, Landing Theater (Filomene, 2021), finalist for DISQUIET International Literary Program’s Luso-American Fellowship (Untitled Screenplay, 2023), and finalist for Premiere Stages Play Festival (Flowers for Men, 2023). Christian is currently commissioned by Art House Productions via the Hudson County History Partnership Program to write a play about the Bayonne Oil Refinery Riots of 1915-1916. He lives in New Jersey, where he also runs a monthly supper club (IG: @yum.and.yearn). BFA: New York University.

Nimisha Ladva

Nimisha Ladva was born in Kenya, raised in the U.K. and now lives outside Philadelphia. She is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Her storytelling has been broadcast on The Moth Radio Hour, on NPR and BBC Radio 4, on Stories from the Stage on PBS as well as numerous podcasts. In 2019, she was a member of the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. She is one of seven playwrights selected from a pool of over 1000 to be a member of the 2023-2024 Playwright’s Realm Cohort. Her play Goddess at The Lucky Lady Motel was a 2022 Play Penn New Play Development Conference selection, a finalist for the Jane Chambers Award in Feminist Playwriting, and a 2023 Finalist for the Pittsburgh Public Theater New Works Festival. An excerpt of Goddess was included in The Bechdel Group’s Sunday Shorts Program in March 2022. Her solo play, Uninvited Girl, tells the true story of her journey from becoming an undocumented immigrant to becoming an American citizen, an experience she wrote about for The Guardian as well. Nimisha was a finalist for a residency at SPACE at Ryder Farm in 2020. In 2019, she was selected for the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. Her solo show, Uninvited Girl, was first staged in Philadelphia at the First Person Arts Festival in 2016, and premiered in New York at the Women in Theater Festival in 2018. She is currently a member of The Foundry, Philadelphia’s three-year playwright incubator. Her short stories and essays have been published in the U.S. and U.K. Her work has been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Leeway Foundation. She teaches writing at Haverford College and is the public speaking specialist on campus.

Syd Rushing

Syd has penned various stage productions in Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles. He also wrote and performed his one man show Brother’s Tellin’ in Los Angeles. The show opened up for Lily Tomlin’s show, The Search for Signs for Intelligent Life in the Universe. Syd was then selected for the Mark Taper Playwright’s Program. He went on to a string of produced plays including Akashic Permutations, Flossie, Unsung Heroes and more. Rushing was honored to be a recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Distinguished Achievement Award, The Inaugural August Wilson Fellow and a top ten finalist in the Screen Craft Pilot Screenplay Competition 2023. Rushing is part of the Theatre 4 the People Coop, ATG BIPOC Play lab and has enjoyed partnerships with the National Black Theatre. That said, he is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Writer's Boot Camp and the Dramatic Writing program at Texas State University – now faculty. Finally, he is excited with the collaboration at American Stage.

Vickie Ramirez

Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora) is a founding member of Chukalokoli Theater. Her work has been developed and/or produced at Native Voices at the Autry, Alter Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Black Swan,)The Public Theater, The Roundabout Theatre Company, Labyrinth Theater Company. Honors: Resident-New Dramatists through 2027, Winner-2020 Smith Prize for Political Theater (NNPN), The Kilroys-Honorary Mention 2019 for Pure Native and 2014 for Standoff At Hwy#37, Semi-finalist-Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2019, Semi-finalist Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference 2018, Alumna-Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group (2009). Productions: Pure Native - Alter Theater (Summer 2022) and Native Voices at the Autry, Standoff at Hwy#37 – NV Autry and the University of South Dakota, Glenburn 12 WP - Summer Shorts at 59E59, Smoke - Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group at Pershing Square Signature Center. Published: Monologues for Actors of Color: Women, Monologues for Actors of Color: Men and Contemporary Plays by Women of Color Edition 2: (Routledge Press), Glenburn 12 WP – Short Plays: Vol 1 (TRW press). Member: Dramatists Guild, PEN America Consultant: Outer Range for Amazon TV

Lily Rushing

Lily Rushing a playwright and artist from Sacramento, CA. Her play Desert Stories for Lost Girls will  received a full production by Native Voices in the Autumn of 2022. Desert Stories was also a part of the Indigenous Circles workshop led by Play Penn in 2021. She is the 2018 recipient of The Playwriting Initiative award at Interrobang Theatre Project, where she wrote Cowboy Play. In 2020, Cowboy Play was part of the Read, Rant, and Relate Series by Relative Theatrics. She is a graduate from The Theatre School at DePaul University where she received her BFA in Playwriting. She has also worked with: The Raven Theatre Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Victory Gardens.

Steven J. Burge

Steven J. Burge is humbled to be included in American Stage's Lift Every Voice New Play Festival, and to be in the company of these other courageous storytellers. He is a Colorado-based AEA actor; an occasional Teaching Artist with the Tony Award-winning Denver Center's Theater Education Program; a freelance director; a public speaker; and now an aspiring playwright. "Bats#!t" started out as a lighthearted collection of essays exploring Steven's journey to sobriety (three years and counting). He's grateful to have this opportunity to learn more about his piece ("Is it a book? Is it a play? Is it a hamster's cage liner?"), and offers his deeply heartfelt gratitude to Helen R. Murray for believing in him, when he could not believe in himself.

"For mom, dad, and Jenn. And for all the amazing women who have always been my friends, family, and fiercest protectors."

Insta:  @stevenjburge