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Gina Barnett

Gina Barnett

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A Scream (PlayPenn, 2005)

Gina Barnett’s full-length plays include Living Online, A Scream, Donna Morelli, After All, Four Play, Stuff, Blush. Her one acts include In Flight, Blood Bond, Alone at Last!, Thank You M’am, Call Girls, Making Meatloaf, Thank you M’am. Her screenplays include Blues Duet, The Scene Machine, Into the Heartland, The Female Infidel. For television she was a writer on In The Heat of the Night (CBS), and Bergen Binnen (Vara Broadcasting), a comedy in the Netherlands. Her productions include After All (Hudson Stage, Detroit Rep, TheaterFest, NJ) and Donna Morelli (New York Stage and Film), along with many workshops and staged readings at such theaters as New Jersey Rep, Philadelphia Stage Company, Arkansas Rep, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Culture Project, PlayPenn, Expanded Arts. Gina’s plays have been published in Laugh Lines, by Vintage Press; Best Plays by Women Playwrights, The Great Monologues and The Great Scenes from the EST Marathon, all by Smith and Kraus Publishers;  The Best One Act Plays, by Applause Theater books; Shorts from the States, by Klett Verlag in Germany. Her play Stuff was a finalist winner of the Kaufman and Hart New American Comedies Contest (300 entrants). Her play T for 2 (subsequently titled After All) won Theater Fest (250 entrants). She was a two-time finalist for the ten-minute play contest at Actors Theater of Louisville, and she was the recipient of the J. R Humphries Award in playwriting. After twenty years teaching professional actors she created Barnett International, a consulting and communications coaching business for corporate clients. Her work has taken her from Chiang Mai to Moscow. For the past few years she has been the speaker coach for the Ted Conference. www.Barnettinternationalconsulting.com

 

Stephen Belber

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The Dizzy Little Dance of Russell DiFinaldi (PlayPenn, 2014)

Stephen Belber’s plays have been produced on Broadway and in more than 25 countries. They include Match; Tape; Don’t Go Gentle; Dusk Rings A Bell; McReele; Finally; Geometry of Fire; Fault Lines; Carol Mulroney; A Small, Melodramatic Story; One Million Butterflies; The Power of Duff; and The Muscles in our Toes. Theaters where he has been produced include Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, MCC Theater, Primary Stages, Naked Angels, Huntington Theatre Company, and Geffen Playhouse. He was an associate writer on The Laramie Project and co-writer on The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Movies include Tape(directed by Richard Linklater); The Laramie Project (associate writer); Drifting Elegant; Management, starring Jennifer Aniston; and Match, starring Patrick Stewart, the last two of which he also directed. Television credits include Rescue Me, Law & Order SVU,and pilots for F/X, the History Channel, FTVS, and HBO. Upcoming films include O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright.

 

Jesse Bernstein

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At the Edge of a Promised Land (PlayPenn 2011)

Jesse Bernstein lives and works in Philadelphia as an actor, writer, director and teaching artist. He is currently writing the book to a new musical for 11th Hour Theatre Company. Previous writing credits include Mainstreamed, Bully For You, Friends of Shadows (Amaryllis Theatre Company); The Eighth Day (Montgomery Theatre Project) the short films, Us One Night (official selection: NewFilmmakers LA, Philadelphia Film Festival, Berkshire Film Festival) and Allergy (official selection: Audience Awards). He was also the recipient of an Independence Fellowship in the Arts for his play Healing Electra and had his play At the Edge of a Promised Land workshopped by PlayPenn. Jesse has appeared on stage at the Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, Montgomery Theater Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Rubicon Theatre, Papermill Playhouse and more. Directing credits include Shipwrecked! and several outreach plays for the Walnut Street Theatre, Member of the Wedding for Rutgers-Camden, and a project for Philadelphia Young Playwrights in collaboration with the City of Philadelphia. Teaching artist work includes University of the Arts, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, The National High School Institute (Cherubs), Wilma Theatre Company and more. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.