Michole Biancosino is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Project Y Theatre Company, where she has developed and directed new work in Washington, D.C., New York City and internationally over the past 22 years. With Project Y, she has led various professional productions, as producer, director, and writer. Credits included the long-running shows, Trump Lear (co-created and directed) and the award-winning, Gary Busey’s One Man Hamlet (as performed by David Carl), both of which toured regionally and performed at Edinburgh Fringe, as co-productions with Richard Jordan Productions (UK), The Pleasance, and Underbelly. She directs solo artist Peter Michael Marino’s long-running solo shows, Show Up!, now running in NYC in Spanish- and Japanese-language versions, as well as the breakout hit Planet of the Grapes Live! Recipient: SDC Gielgud Fellowship for classical directing. Her work with Project Y Theatre has been supported by grants from The Puffin Foundation, ART/NY, NY Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), The Dramatists Guild, and New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). She holds an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Middlebury College. For more information: www.micholebiancosino.com
Andrew W. Smith (Producer, Actor, Director, Technical Director) is a professional Artist whose work has been seen regionally and internationally. He is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Project Y Theatre Company. Selected regional acting work includes: Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Roundhouse Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, Ars Nova, Studio Theatre, and Olney Center for the Arts. Filmwork includes Lucid, Shooting Script, Death of a Nation, Under-Ground. Television work includes GONE, Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Andrew is currently an Associate Professor of Acting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. www.smithandrewwilliam.com.
Christal Brown (Mother|Artist|Educator|Disciple|Coach) is the Founder of INSPIRIT, Project: BECOMING, the creator of the Liquid Strength training module for dance, an Associate Professor of Dance at Middlebury College, and the CVO of Steps and Stages, LLC. Brown is a native of Kinston, North Carolina, where she remembers accompanying her mother to NAACP meetings and performing at Black Caucus rallies. This early exposure to social responsibility innately produced a strong desire in Brown to put her gifts to work for the greater good. Brown earned her BFA in Dance and minor in Business from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her MFA in New Media Art and technology from Long Island University. Brown’s evolution combines her creativity, educational gifts and love for people into a dynamic coaching, facilitation, and consulting practice designed to create vision and sustain change. For more info visit www.christalbrown.com
Bellwether Project is a collective of theatre and film artists who are passionate about telling inclusive stories by exploring new forms and tearing down traditional hierarchies in creative spaces. The company first united to produce a show at Carnegie Mellon University's 2015 Playground festival. Since then the company has produced pieces at CollaborAction Studios in Chicago, IL and in New York City at Ars Nova’s ANT FEST, Project Y’s Women in Theater Festival, FringeCLUB at Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, the Tokyo International Film festival, among others. They are currently in development for the second season of their web-series, (in)alienable. The mission of The Bellwether Theatre Project is to create a culture of understanding and empathy for its community through personal, intersectional storytelling.
Kaaron Briscoe Kaaron Briscoe is a Brooklyn based theater artist with an MFA from ART/MXAT/IATT at Harvard University. Her work has been featured by the Classical Theater of Harlem, Project Y, Inviolet Theater, and others. Her most recent short play, "Lost and Found", was performed at the Downtown Live Festival, a collaboration between En Garde Arts, The Tank and the Downtown Alliance. And her play, "Tallahassee'', was a semifinalist for the O'Neill Playwright's Conference. A native of New Orleans, Kaaron was a 2015 fellow of Target Margin Theater's Institute. She is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists' Guild. She is also a proud member of the 52nd Street Project.
Bixby Elliot is a queer playwright from New York City. His play I LOVE YOU ST. PETERSBURG! recently won the Samuel French OOB Festival and was published in 2020. He is the winner of the Carlos Anoni 2019 Italian Award and was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Conference. TimeOut Chicago selected Bixby’s play ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS A FAGGOT as one of the “Top 10 Plays of the Year” and nominated for a Jeff Award. Bixby is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Columbia University and a co-founder of The Brooklyn Generator. He was a finalist for the Sundance Writers Lab, and his short film AQUAMARINE has been screened at festivals around the world.
Amina Henry is a Brooklyn-based playwright and educator. Productions, among others, include: Hunter John and Jane at JACK, Ducklings at JACK, The Animals at JACK, Happily Ever at Brooklyn College, An American Family Takes a Lover at Theater for the New City, Water produced by Drama of Works, Cindy produced by Project Y Theatre, and Bully at MirrorBox Theatre, Interrobang Theater, Clubbed Thumb and SUNY Purchase. She has been commissioned by The New Group and HERO Theater. Her work has been developed by, produced and/or presented at: The New Group, Project Y’s Women in Theatre Festival, The Flea, Ars Nova, Clubbed Thumb, Page 73, National Black Theater, Barefoot Theater, Little Theater at Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), and Texas State University, among other theaters and venues. She has been a participant in Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers group, Ars Nova’s 2017-2018 PlayGroup and Page 73’s Interstate 73 writers group and is a New George's Affiliate Artist. She was a 2017-2018 recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Space Grant and a 2018 Dixon Place Space Residency. Upcoming: New Light Theater's production of The Great Novel, June 2019 at The Flea. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College, is an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College and is a teaching artist with the Teachers & Writers Collaborative and the Hunts Point Alliance for Children. For up-to-date information, go to https://aminahenry.wordpress.com/
Juniper Creative Arts is a Vermont-based Black and Dominican family collective with a mission driven practice of creating art that involves and celebrates historically excluded communities. They facilitate community mural projects with colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and community-based organizations, and educate on the history of muralism in the United States and the value of community murals and graffiti as forms of democratic art. They use visual art and murals to lift up the voices, images, and people that are often left in the margins. Juniper Creative consists of lead artist Will Kasso Condry, creative director Jennifer Herrera Condry, and photographer and arts apprentice Alexa Herrera Condry. Juniper Creative’s work centers on using mural arts as a vehicle for community building, beautification, and healing.
Michael Kin is an illustrator/artist living in Middlebury, Vermont. His work with kids during time spent as a naturalist educator for the Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon along with a position as artist/art director at Aqua Vitea Kombucha inform his colorful and playful illustrations, paintings and animations.
A self taught artist, Michael utilizes incessant curiosity and leverages a broad spectrum of interests to explore the world of ideas and things while also working to awaken the inner awe of others in the world around them.
Daniel McCoy is a playwright, performer, and proud alum of the Project Y Playwrights Group. He is the co-creator/co-host of Whiskey Flicks Live! - an unscripted, booze-infused, deep dive into film - and a longtime member of the New York Neo-Futurists, for which he has written hundreds of very short plays. His longer plays have been produced and developed in New York and across the country. MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College.
Kevin R. Free is so excited to work with Project Y again! OFF-BROADWAY: The Best of Theatreworks (Working Theatre); CasablancaBox (HERE; Drama Desk Nominee, Unique Theatrical Experience); Greenwich Village Follies (Manhattan Theatre Source); From My Hometown (AMAS; Audelco Award Nominee); Taking A Chance on Love (York Theatre); The Conjure Man Dies (New Federal Theatre). TV/Film/Web: Gemma & The Bear!; Jack in The Box; The Building; The Reparations Show; Eighth Grade; Jessica Jones; Blindspot; Law & Order: SVU; Cyberchase; Several Commercials. Voiceover: Welcome to Night Vale; Moth Radio Hour; Narrator of hundreds of audio books. www.kevinrfree.com, Twitter: @kevinrfree
Lia Romeo is a 2021/2022 playwriting fellow at Juilliard. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway and regionally around the country, and developed at the O’Neill, the Lark, and elsewhere. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company, and she teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Broadway Play Publishing, and Smith & Kraus.
Sasha Schwartz is a freelance theater scenic designer. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. Sasha is especially interested in new work, arts education, and projects that showcase diversity of identity while tackling relevant social issues. She loved designing the virtual platform/website for the Tiny Barn Festival! sashaschwartzscenic.com
Nandita Shenoy is a New York-based writer-actor. Baby Camp was recently a Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and her Rage Play was named to the Kilroys List 2020. HerWasher/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premier at LA’s East West Players and an Off-Broadway production in which she also starred. Her first full-length, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by theHegira in Washington, DC. Her one-acts have been produced in New York City and regionally. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting. Her acting credits range from dancing on national tours to Shakespeare festivals to world premieres of new plays by emerging playwrights. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the dtfwaw, the Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity Association, and SAG/AFTRA. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. www.nanditashenoy.com
Paloma Sierra is a Puerto Rican writer. Her writing combines music, lyricism, and translation; and centers Latinx and Hispanic communities. Emerging Poet Laureate of Allegheny County 2020-2021, Paloma has presented her work with Project Y’s Women in Theatre Festival, Theatre Now New York’s Sound Bites Festival, Poetic Theater Productions, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Her verse dramas, poetry, and translations are published in Bridge: The Bluffton University Journal, Persephone's Daughters, and Sampsonia Way. Paloma holds a BHA in Creative Writing and Drama from Carnegie Mellon and is an MFA Dramatic Writing candidate at the same institution.
Courtney Smith is a scenic, media designer, and technician for live performance. He currently works at Middlebury College as the Production Designer. Previously, he taught at Gonzaga University and the University of Idaho. Courtney’s designs have received several Meritorious Achievement Awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Additionally, his work received a “Distinguished Achievement Award in Scenic Design” from the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Lisa Velten Smith is an actor, educator and director based in Pittsburgh, PA. As an actor Lisa has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway and at such regional theaters as La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf, and The Pittsburgh Public Theater where in 2019 she received Pittsburgh Performer of the Year for her portrayal of Nora in A Doll’s House, Part 2. Lisa has worked extensively in T.V./Film and can be seen in the upcoming Showtime series “Rust”. Velten Smith is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Carnegie Mellon University and a Designated Linklater Teacher. www.lisaveltensmith.com
Christopher G. Ulloth is a New York City based playwright, producer, and graphic designer. Plays: FIRST SNOW (Semifinalist - 2015 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Finalist - 2014 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference); “Sex Robot” (TechnoPlays, Project Y Theatre, published by Indie Theater Now); “Bi-Cycle” (Landmarks & Transformations, Project Y Theatre, 2017 Innovative Theatre Award Nominee); “Bisexual BBQ” (Voice Recognition Plays, Bloomsburg University); COUCH SURFING (Queer Plays Reading Series, Project Y Theatre, Semifinalist - 2018 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference); “Museum Bar” (Elephant Room Productions, Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2017). B.A.: Bloomsburg University.
Dana Yeaton is a playwright and a teacher of playwriting at Middlebury College. He is winner of the Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the “New Voice in American Theatre Award” from the William Inge Theatre Festival. His musical Swing State was a featured selection at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and his play Redshirts, co-produced by Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis, and Round House Theatre in Washington, DC, was nominated for a Charles MacArthur Outstanding New Play award. Dana is founder of the Vermont Young Playwrights and Oratory Now – a center for training and research in oral expression at Middlebury College.
Antu Yacob was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and raised in California and Minnesota. She is an actor, filmmaker, and playwright. Her film Love in Submission is part of the Full Spectrum Features’ collection: Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities. Her tv/film acting credits include Night Comes On, Daredevil, Gypsy, Law & Order: SVU, Brooklyn Park, Adieu Lacan, Signs of Aging, Conjure and Love in Submission. Her plays have premiered at Kampala International Theatre Festival (Uganda), United Solo Theatre Festival, Project Y Theatre, Theatre167 and Mile Square Theatre. MFA: MGSA at Rutgers University. IG @antuyacob
Annalisa D'Aguilar is a rising sophomore actor at Carnegie Mellon University. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York she has been immersed in the arts since a young age. Being an artist is a privilege and she hopes to open doors for many people who don’t feel seen in this industry.
Bryanna Marie Felipe is a Cuban-American, first-generation student attending her third year at Carnegie Mellon University. She loves to sing and dance, sit under the sun and journal, or share a warm meal with people she loves. Bryanna is beyond excited to explore in these next 3 weeks – in and outside of the barn!
Rowan-Orlean Dunlop Vidrine is an artist from the backwoods of Vermont and current attendee of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama (majoring in Dramaturgy). When not splitting wood, Rowan can usually be found working on existential war dramas. For info/inquiries, overandeasy127@gmail.com or on instagram at @overandeasy.
Gibson Grimm is a Theatre and Film double major at Middlebury College from Jacksonville, Florida. He is Head Director of Middlebury Discount Comedy and co-hosts a radio show. Gibson is hopeful that the Jaguars will one day win the Super Bowl, and he has no known allergies.
Gabrielle Martin is a senior theatre major and music minor at Middlebury College. In addition to her acting and directing credits, they are currently a teaching artist with The Bread Loaf School of English’s education initiative, Beyond the Page, and in 2020 they were a literary intern and assistant to the producers with Project Y Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre Festival. In 2018, she held a Shakespeare artist in residency position at Berridge Programs in Normandy, France.
Wynn McClenahan is a Theatre major at Middlebury College from Montclair, NJ. She loves long walks on the TAM, watching Formula One racing, and is always looking for book recommendations. She takes a one second video everyday so smile if you see her taking a video!
Cole Merrell is a recent graduate of Middlebury College who enjoys writing and acting. He’s worked with Project Y before, on the 2019 Women in Theatre Festival, and is excited for all the barn mischief he’s been able to get up to this summer in the titular, tiny barn.
Jacob Mortonarrived from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied English and Film back in college. Outside of class, he gets a kick out of doing comedy. He’s written stuff, acted in shows, shot films, and saved the world more times than he can count. He’s currently working with Cole Merrell on a web series set in Vermont.
Sophia Power is on track to receive her BFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama in 2023. In her free time, she enjoys the guitar, swimming and painting. She's so excited to be exploring Vermont for the first time and can't wait to try the maple syrup!
