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Chaz T. Martin

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Foundry Member

Chaz T. Martin is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and teaching artist. They hail from the frosty lake country known to the Ho Chunk people as Dejope (known to the cheeseheads who live there now as Madison, Wisconsin). Chaz has written and co-written a number of films, including the award-winning Chemistry and Melissa (Tribeca Film Institute’s Through Her Lens finalist, 2019), and the forthcoming Jesus Would Have Loved Punk Rock, Honeywell, and Girls’ Night. Chaz is the Literary Manager at InterAct Theatre Company, the ‘22-‘23 Theater Management Fellow at Lantern Theater Company, and one of the co-founders of Rendezvous Theatre Co.

Lexi Thammavong

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Foundry Member

Lexi Thammavong (they/she) is an actor, singer, and playwright based in Philly, their hometown. She obtained her BFA in Musical Theatre with a minor in Creative Writing from The University of the Arts, where they were a Student Valedictory Speaker. Having performed in productions with companies like Delaware Shakespeare and EgoPo, Lex has a passion for revitalizing and deconstructing “classical” works through an anti-colonial lens. As a playwright and poet, they also love collaborating on new work, whether she’s devising in workshops, writing sketches for 1812 Productions’ upcoming production of This is the Week that Is, or developing plays for her writing Residency with Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists. As a child of first and second generation immigrants and a proud Cuban, Lao-Thai, and queer artist, Lex strives to tell stories that are genuinely rooted in (and accessible to) the communities who inspire them.

Zahra Patterson

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Foundry Member

Zahra Patterson is the author of Chronology (Ugly Duckling Presse) and creator of Raw Fiction, a youth publishing project. Their performance work has aired on Montez Press Radio and been staged at WOW Café Theatre. Her prose has appeared in The Yale Review, Wasafiri, The Felt, and elsewhere. She is a member of The Foundry at PlayPenn, a 2019 recipient of a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography, and a former CLMP Face Out Fellow. Their work has been supported by Mount Tremper Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, The Pratt Center, and many wonderful individuals. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute.

Lily Rushing

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Indigenous Circles (2021)

Lily Rushing (she/her) is from the hot, inland metropolis known as Sacramento, CA. She graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul University with a BFA in Playwriting. 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. Desert Stories received a full production in April 2018, directed by Ann Filmer at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Her ten-minute play, The Dog, was commissioned by Victory Gardens and presented at their College Night. She has also worked with Sacramento Theatre Company and the School Partnership Program, putting on plays at urban schools with kids from her neighborhood, in her beloved hometown.

Tammy Ryan

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Take My Hand And Wave Goodbye (PlayPenn, 2020)

 

Tammy Ryan‘s plays have been performed across the United States and internationally at such theaters as The Alliance Theater, Florida Stage, Marin Theater, People’s Light and Theater Company, Portland Stage Company, Premiere Stages, Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Repertory Theater of St. Louis among others. Plays include The Wake, Molly’s Hammer, Tar Beach, Soldier’s Heart, Baby’s Blues, and The Music Lesson which received the AATE Distinguished New Play Award. Other honors include The Francesca Primus Prize, and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creative Achievement Award. She is a resident playwright of New Dramatists class of 2025.

Whitney Rowland

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Wayfinding (PlayPenn, 2019)

 

Whitney Rowland is a Minneapolis-based playwright and screenwriter. She has been a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill NPC, UMass PlayLab, Jerome Playwriting Fellowship, and shortlisted for the Theatre503 New Play Award. Her screenplay The Buzzbots was a winner in the CMU/Sloan Screenwriting Contest. Her work has been produced at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, Minnesota Shorts, Northwest Children’s Theater & School, among others; developed at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Bachelors from the University of Kansas, MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon.

Seth Rozin Headshot

Seth Rozin

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JC3 (PlayPenn, 2012)
Two Jews Walk Into a War (PlayPenn, 2009)

Seth Rozin is the author of several plays, including Men of Stone (produced by Theater Catalyst, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, published by Playscripts, Inc.), Missing Link (produced by InterAct Theatre Company, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), Reinventing Eden (produced by InterAct), The Space Between Us (readings at Abingdon Theatre and InterAct), Black Gold (National New Play Network rolling world premieres at InterAct, Phoenix Theatre, Prop Thtr, Arts West), Two Jews Walk Into A War… (NNPN rolling world premieres at Florida Stage, New Jersey Rep, Writers Theatre of New Jersey, Shadowland Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, InterAct, Florida Studio Theatre, GEVA Theatre, Barter Theatre, Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids, New Repertory Theatre; published by Playscripts, Inc.) and The Three Christs of Manhattan (produced at InterAct) and Human Rites (produced at Phoenix Theatre, upcoming at InterAct).  He has also written the book, lyrics and music for a new musical entitled A Passing Wind: The (Mostly) True Story of Joseph Pujol, which received its premiere at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ inaugural Philadelphia Inernational Festival of the Arts in 2011.  Seth is the recipient of two playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the National New Play Network’s 2007 Smith Prize, as well as a 2002 new play commission from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.  He is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he has directed over 50 productions, including 30 world premieres.  He served as President of the National New Play Network from 2002-2006 and 2014-2016.

 

J.T. Rogers

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Oslo (PlayPenn, 2015)
Blood and Gifts (PlayPenn, 2009)
The Overwhelming (PlayPenn, 2005)

J. T. Rogers‘ plays include Oslo (Lincoln Center Theater; Broadway; Tony Award, Best Play; Drama Desk Award, NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award,  Obie Award); Blood and Gifts (National Theatre, London; Lincoln Center Theater; La Jolla Playhouse; TimeLine Theater, Chicago; Drama Desk Award Nominee and Lucille Lortel Award Nominee); The Overwhelming (National Theatre; UK Tour with Out of Joint; Roundabout Theater); White People (Off Broadway with Starry Night Productions); and Madagascar (Theatre503, London; Melbourne Theatre Company). Olivier Award Nomination as one of the original playwrights for the Tricycle Theatre of London’s The Great Game: Afghanistan. His works have been staged throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Israel, Germany, and are published in paperback by Faber and Faber and TCG. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and American Theatre. Recipient of Guggenheim, NEA/TCG, and NYFA Fellowships. Multiple play development residences at PlayPenn. Rogers has received the Pinter Review Prize for Drama, the American Theater Critics Association’s Osborne Award, and the William Inge Center for the Arts’ New Voices Award.

Rogers is a member of the Dramatists Guild, where he is a founding board member of the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund.  He is an alum of New Dramatists and holds an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is a recipient of a 2016 Doris Duke Charitable Trust commission to write a new play for Lincoln Center Theater.