A.G. Norton is a storyteller, archivist, and queer activist with over 20 years experience working in service to others as a Social Worker & End of Life Doula. Norton’s winding career path has seen her work as a Children’s Rights Specialist in London, an outreach worker at the Brooklyn Public Library for patrons experiencing homelessness, and an outdoor educator & emotional exposure coach with young adults.

Returning to New York in 2018, Norton discovered her family’s personal connection to Berenice Abbott and a number of candid shots of the famous photographer. The impact of the photographic legacies she inherited have fueled 3 years of archival research and interviews with people in Berenice’s orbit, which in turn propelled Norton to write, perform, and tour storytelling slideshows based on her journey.

Describing her work as intersectional and subversive, Norton views performance through the lens of service with an opportunity for activism and meaningful catharsis.

Norton thanks her biggest teachers in life which have been middle school children, people at the end of their life, and those friends and fellow peformers she has made in the sex work industry. They have each shown grace, resilience, and the kind of authenticity one locates at the jugular of life.

Alex Rodriguez is a lifelong New Yorker, Alex has always been deeply impacted by the wealth gap that exists within the five boroughs. He is committed to empowering and educating marginalized communities across the city. Following his completion of the PathwaysToApprenticeship Program, Alex joined the IBEW Local 3, advocated at City Hall for adequate funding of similar programs, and has been published several times in the Red Hook Star Revue. He proudly serves his community through his involvement with the Brooklyn Networks Program, and has also channeled his experiences into writing, producing two plays with WorkingTheater, “Sparks of Uncertainty” and “Smoke & Mirrors”. Alex also loves his mom very, very much. 

Kristina Wong (AG’s Mentor) is a performance artist, comedian and writer who has been presented internationally across North America, UK, Hong Kong and Africa.  Her most notable solo works include “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Wong Street Journal,” and “Kristina Wong for Public Office.”  “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” premiered at New York Theater Workshop and won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance and is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama. She’s a Doris Duke Award Award Winner and Guggenheim Fellow who has been supported by among others, Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, ASU Gammage Artist Residency, Joan D. Firestone Commissioning Fund from En Garde Arts, Art Matters and the Kennedy Center Social Practice Residency. www.kristinawong.com

John J. Caswell, Jr. (Alex’s Mentor) is a playwright from Arizona, a recent fellow at Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, and the recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award at the Vineyard Theatre. His play Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons + MCC) won the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award as well as the OBIE Award for Best Direction and Creative Team. It was the most nominated play of the 2024 Lucille Lortel Awards and took home the prize for Best Scenic and Projection designs. Wet Brain also received nods from the Outer Critics Circle, The Drama League, and The Relentless Award. Other recently produced plays include Man Cave (Page 73) and Scene Partners (Vineyard Theatre) starring Dianne Wiest. Honors include the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Rita and Burton Goldberg Playwriting Prize, a MacDowell Fellowship, a SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency, and the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship.

Liz Peterson is a maker of live performance. Her work has been shown at the Fisher Center at Bard, OFFTA, Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival, Rhubarb, Incubator Arts Project, Dancemakers, La Poderosa, and the SummerWorks Festival. Her current research explores how live performance events may activate embodied forms of attention in the spectator through the collective Divided Attention. Born in Manchester, UK, to a Mancunian mother and Anglo-Indian/Burmese father, Liz has lived most of her life in St. John’s (Newfoundland), Melipilla (Chile) and Toronto (Ontario). Recent collaborations include Urinetown, The Musical (Fisher Center), A la facon du pays (Theatre Centre, Toronto) and new work in development, Drift. Studies: MFA in theatre directing, Columbia University. lizpeterson.org.

Kelly O’Donnell (she, her) is a co-founder of the NYC-based, Flux Theatre Ensemble. Regional credits include WOLF PLAY at Portland Theatre Festival, INDECENT (winner, Best Director Connecticut Critics Circle Awards), THE AGITATORS, and MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B all at Playhouse on Park. Favorite projects with Flux include HEARTS LIKE FISTS (NY Times Critics Pick) and MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD by Adam Szymkowicz, DOG ACT by Liz Duffy Adams, WORLD BUILDERS by Johnna Adams, and JANE THE PLAIN by Corinna Schulenburg. She has developed new work with writers at New Dramatists, Portland Center Stage JAW, The Flea, NJ Rep, and JRJ Productions. She has also directed at schools such as NYU, Temple University, Lafayette College, The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, and with high school students as part of Shakespeare & Company’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare. MFA in Directing from Columbia University. kellyod.com