Playwrights

Lolly Ward's plays include GONE (Inkwell's Lerner Fellowship; finalist, Portland Civic Theatre Guild), MATE (Eric Tucker at The Actors' Gang; CalTech), 72 OBJECTS (semifinalist, O’Neill NPC), DO YOU TAKE THIS WOMAN? (Smith and Kraus, Best Ten Minute Plays 2019), BLACK PRESS IN THE WHITE HOUSE (Smith & Kraus), and THE ETHEL PARTY (Silk Road Review). She was a member of the LA-based Playwrights Union before moving to Oregon, where she joined the board of PATA and co-founded LineStorm Playwrights. She received her BA and MA from Stanford University in English and Creative Writing. Read her work on the New Play Exchange. Member: Actors' Equity, Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA

Audrey Block's first piece for theatre, THE FARM, debuted at Fertile Ground in 2016. In 2017, her 10-minute play, PDX, was chosen by the Majestic Playwright’s Lab in Corvallis for performance at the Majestic Eight Festival. ALASKA, her first one-person play, debuted at Fertile Ground 2018. Her first full-length play, 38 MINUTES, was read at Fertile Ground 2019. In 2020, her still-unfinished experiment, DISASTER SESSIONS, will debut at Fertile Ground. Member: Dramatists Guild

Sara Jean Accuardi’s plays include THE DELAYS (Theatre Vertigo, Portland, OR; Drammy Award for Best Original Script), THE STORYTELLER (O’Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist; Something Marvelous, Chicago, IL), < 3 (Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, McCall, ID), and PORTRAIT OF THE WIDOW KINSKI (The Blank Theatre, Los Angeles, CA; JAW Playwrights Festival, Portland, OR), among others. Sara Jean is a member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights. She holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University. Her plays are available on the New Play Exchange. Member: Dramatists Guild

Alan Alexander III is a playwright, composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. Alan recently completed the book, lyrics and score for HOMELESS (the musical), which debuted at the 2017 Fertile Ground Festival. Alan’s first musical, ALAN'S CONFECTIONERY, sold out at the 2015 Festival. As a performing musician he has toured internationally, headlining performances and opening for artists such as UB40, Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley and Taj Mahal. Alan has composed source music and original scores for several film, television and theatre productions, including: HEAR NO EVIL (20th Century Fox) and ALIEN INVADERS (National Endowment for the Arts). For more information please visit www.dubsquadmusic.net. Member: BMI, Dramatists Guild

Susan Faust is a playwright and director whose background is in devised theatre. Her play CONFABULOUS was a finalist for the 2020 Portland Civic Theatre Guild New Play Award, and her one act STRANGEST YELLOW was published in the Silk Road Review. Susan was a founding member of the San Francisco-based Paducah Mining Company, and has collaborated with Anne Bogart’s internationally renowned SITI Company and with Portland’s Hand2Mouth Theatre. She has been an artist-in-residence with Portland Public Schools and a playwriting mentor with Haven Project. Susan is a co-founder of LineStorm Playwrights and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Matthew Miller is a playwright and a screenwriter. His short plays have been produced in the San Francisco Bay Area and South Florida. His full-length play, I LOVE YOU/WHO ARE YOU, is the winner of the Portland Civic Theatre Guild 2018 New Play Award. His feature-length film, EXILE, was selected as a semifinalist for the Shore Scripts Screenwriting Contest. He lives in southwest Portland with his partner, Chris, their dog, Paca, and their cat, Mashed Potatoes. Member: Dramatists Guild

Holly Yurth Richards is a playwright, composer, lyricist, poet and performer. Her musicals include WELCOME TO ZION, NO MORE IN DARKNESS, POP! GOES THE BUBBLE, and a new work-in-progress, CESSAIR. She was a featured songwriter at the July 2018 Dramatists Guild National Conference and a panelist at BroadwayCon 2018 in NYC. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP. Marylhurst ‘18. Read her work on the New Play Exchange.

Rich Rubin’s plays have been staged throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. Full-length plays include Swimming Upstream (winner, Todd McNerney Playwright Award; finalist, Reva Shiner Comedy Award); Caesar’s Blood (finalist, Oregon Book Award; finalist, Ashland New Play Festival); Shakespeare’s Skull (winner, Portland Civic Theatre Guild New Play Award); Left Hook (finalist, Woodward-Newman Drama Award); Picasso in Paris (winner, Julie Harris Playwright Award); Assisted Living (winner, Neil Simon Festival New Play Award); One Weekend in October (winner, Playhouse Creatures Emerging Playwright Award); and Cottonwood in the Flood (winner, Fratti-Newman Political Play Award). Member: Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange

Anya Pearson is an award-winning actress, playwright, poet, screenwriter, producer, and activist. She is the author of the play, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings, (Showcase Production: Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, World Premiere: Shaking the Tree). Anya received the $10,000 Problem Play Commission from Bag&Baggage Productions to adapt Measure for Measure. Her reimagining, The Measure of Innocence, focused on unjust incarceration and its effect on black families, will premiere in March 2020. Anya was a finalist for the 2019 National Black Theatre’s I Am Soul Playwriting Residency. Her best production is her 7-year-old daughter, Aidee, who can be seen, most nights, trying to circumvent bedtime by asking deep philosophical questions. Member: Dramatists Guild

Brianna Barrett is a solo performer named Portland's Best Spoken Word Storyteller in Willamette Week’s Best of Portland awards in 2016 and 2017. Her theatrical work has been seen at the Fertile Ground Festival, HART Theatre, Bag&Baggage, Theatre33, Otherworld Theatre, the Northwest Narrative Medicine Conference, and other stages throughout the Pacific Northwest. For the last 3.5 years, she ran a weekly writing workshop for cancer survivors at Oregon Health & Science University. She is now pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at UCLA.