Max Garcia is a 24 year old Playwright, Director, & Filmmaker from The Bronx, New York City. Past writing credits include a staged reading of his play  “Fly” for The People’s Theater. His first film “Deli” is currently going on an award winning Film Festival run.

Brian Francis Pickett has worked as a teaching artist, adjunct instructor, program coordinator, and carpenter. Currently, Brian teaches English at A. Philip Randolph Career and Technical High School in Philadelphia, and is a member of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. His past theater projects include: Debs ‘08, a political cabaret co-written and performed with Sulu LeoNimm, various community-based shows with The Romero Troupe (Denver), and Caryl Churchill’s “Seven Jewish Children” (Theaters Against War/Brecht Forum, in support of Alrowwad Cultural Center in Bethlehem, Palestine.) Brian is happy to be a recipient of the Mark Plesent Commission Fund, and looks forward to writing with the support of the Working Theater.

Martyna Majok (Max’s mentor) was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her Broadway debut play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages, and the libretto for Gatsby: An American Myth, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett. Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Arthur Miller Foundation Legacy Award, The Obie Award for Playwriting, The Hull-Warriner Award, The Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, The Sun Valley Playwrights Residency Award, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Hermitage Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award’s Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Martyna is currently adapting Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” for the Broadway stage, and has developed TV projects for HBO and written feature films for Plan B, Pastel, and MGM/Orion.

Naomi Wallace  (Brian’s Mentor) Naomi’s plays have been produced in the United States, the U.K., Europe and the Middle East and include One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, In the Heart of America, The Breach, Things of Dry Hours, The Fever Chart: Three Vision of the Middle East, And I and Silence, Night is a Room, The Return of Benjamin Lay (co-written with Marcus Rediker) and an adaptation of Returning to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani and The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon (both adaptations co-written with Ismail Khalidi).   

Awards include the MacArthur Award, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, Horton Foote Award, Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and the inaugural Windham Campbell prize for drama. In 2025 Wallace was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.  Wallace is currently writing the John Mellencamp musical Jack and Diane. 

Kelly O’Donnell This is Kelly’s second time directing for the Mark Plesent Commission and she’s thrilled to return. She is a co-founder of the NYC-based Flux Theatre Ensemble where she directed 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. 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. She has developed work with writers at New Dramatists, Portland Center Stage JAW, The Flea, The Chain, NJ Rep, and JRJ Productions. Kelly has worked as a teacher at Shakespeare & Co, Two River Theatre, NYU Tisch, Temple University, Lafayette College, The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, and The Spence School. MFA in Directing from Columbia University. kellyod.com

Zoë Adams is a Brooklyn-based theatre director originally from Spring, Texas. She is the 2024–2026 Drama League Stage Directing Fellow and recently served as Assistant Director on the Tony Award–winning EUREKA DAY at Manhattan Theatre Club. Zoë has assisted David Comer, Anna Shapiro, Chris Ashley and Danny Mefford. She has collaborated with MCC, New York Stage and Film, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Red Bull Theater, Working Theatre and will direct a new project for DirectorFest this spring, produced by Spoke Media. She is also the Co-Director of the 2025 Glamour Women of the Year Awards. MFA, Directing, Columbia University; SDC Associate. zoecraigadams.com

Danaya Esperanza (DR CASTRO/WOMAN) OFF-BROADWAY: O.K.! (INTAR, WP). Merchant of Venice (TFANA/STC/Royal Lyceum Edinburgh). Comedy of Errors, for colored girls . . . , Tempest, Twelfth Night (The Public Theater). Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theater Company). Misanthrope (Molière in The Park). Bayano (NBT). Play On! Shakespeare (CSC/OSF). Breitwisch Farm (Esperance). Mary Jane, Othello (NYTW). Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb). Washeteria (Soho Rep). Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre). REGIONAL: The Bleeding Class (Chautauqua). Midsummer (Folger). Alma (DCPA). Annie Salem . . . (NYSF). Joe Turner Vino y Se Fue (Seattle Rep). Romeo and Juliet (STC). Protect the Beautiful Place (McCarter). Another Word for Beauty (Goodman). DIGITAL/RADIO: Richard III, Coriolanus (Play On/Next Chapter Podcasts). Isolated Incidents (Rattlestick/Broadway Podcast Network). Missing Them (Working Theater). The Bleeding Class (Geva). Mother’s Tongue (Milwaukee Rep). Letters From Cuba (Acting Company). Alma (ATC). TELEVISION: The Blacklist, Elementary. TRAINING: The Juilliard School.

Morgan Siobhan Green (CLARA/THERAPIST) Broadway: Be More Chill National Tours: Hadestown (Original Company, Eurydice) Regional and Off-Broadway: Ceremonies In Dark Old Men (Negro Ensemble Company/ Peccadillo Theater Co), Fish (Keen Company/Working Theater) White Girl In Danger (Secondstage, Caroline), Moby Dick (American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge), Between The Lines (Kansas City Repertory Theatre), Folk Wandering (ART NY) Avalanches (Because I’m Me) Dick Johnson Is Dead (Billie Holiday) TV: “The Bold Type”(Zuri)

Thanks to The Mine and Rebel Creative Group! For my mom always. Pip and Vernies mom.
@morgansiobhang www.morgansiobhan.com

Reynaldo Piniella (JASON) is an actor, writer, activist and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. Broadway: Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. His Off-Broadway acting credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, the Working Theater, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), and Rattlestick Theater, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Cleveland Play House, NY Stage and Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco and NEAP Fest in Rio de Janeiro. TV credits include Reservation Dogs, Sneaky Pete, Law & Order: SVU, The Carrie Diaries, Flesh & Bone, Blue Bloods, Greenleaf, Louie, NYC 22, Us & Them,and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Film: Madeline’s Madeline (Sundance Film Fest, Showtime), Shadows (HBO Max) and Broken City (20th Century FOX).@ReynaldoRey. www.reynaldopiniella.com

Sinny Gisselle Feliz (Stage Directions) has found herself back in the orbit of something very important to her – telling stories through ART. Although she has been away from the stage for a few years, her favorite memories of falling in love with the stage are first during her high school debut of Grease as Cha Cha Degregorio and as lead ensemble member and dance captain for multiple productions like Little Shop of Horrors, Oklahoma and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Those experiences continued to pave her journey back to the theatre after graduating HS and she later returned with The People’s Theatre in their full production of The Diamond, as a lead understudy. During that project, she was able to sharpen her devising and improv skills after a while, in real time. Whether she was taking it all in behind the scenes, as part of the production crew or telling a story of perseverance on stage, there is one important thing that fuels her; as an immigrant and a child of two Dominican immigrants; holding on to your joy through hard times helps us survive and it will always take us beyond what we can ever imagine. Summer 2025 she made her short-film debut in Max Garcia’s original piece Deli, which has expanded her interest in being a full student of the game. A truly heart filling experience, a season of both learning and growth and a reminder that she is exactly where she needs to be.

Ralph Stan Lee (Stage Manager) hails from Long Island, New York. Ralph has been working as a Stage Manager for 20+ years now. He attended North Carolina A&T and the University of Illinois respectively . He is blessed to have been around the world to do theater. Current Stage Manager for dance tHeatre of Harlem. Credits; Broadway PSM; The Sign in Sidney Brustien’s Window, The Wiz. Select 1st National Tours PSM; Hamilton, The Wiz, Bodyguard; the musical, Summer; the Donna Summer Musical, Hello Dolly (50th Anniversary). I love you Naomi & Leanora

Isabel Arraiza (MIRIAM) is an award-winning actress hailing from Puerto Rico. She can most recently be seen starring in an episode of Fox’s anthology series “Accused,” opposite Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy.

Arraiza has also made her mark on the big screen, starring in John Lee Hancock’s film “The Little Things” opposite Rami Malek and Denzel Washington. Recently, she can be seen Michael Zegen in the indie film, “Notice to Quit,” and can also be seen in the award-winning Spanish language short film, “Renata,” for which she has received the 2024 Puerto Rico European Film Festival Award for Best Actress.

Additional film credits include 2018 Toronto Film Festival official selection feature, “Driven” alongside Jason Sudeikis, Judy Greer and Lee Pace, and Derrick Borte’s “American Dreamer” opposite Jim Gaffigan, which debuted at Los Angeles Film Festival.

Additional television credits include Amazon’s “Outer Range,” USA Network’s “Pearson,” Crackle’s “The Oath,” CBS’s “Elementary” and “Prodigal Son.”

Most recently on stage, Arraiza captivated critics such as The New Yorker as an  “excellent Portia” in “The Merchant of Venice,” directed by Arin Arbus and produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company and Theatre for a New Audience, at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. In January 2025, she will be reprising her role as Portia in “The Merchant of Venice” as the production travels to Edinburgh, Scotland debuting at The Royal Lyceum Theater. Additional theater credits include “Julius Caesar” at the Public Theater, directed by Oskar Eustis, “Minetti” at the Barbican Centre in London, England and Royal Lyceum Theater in Edinburgh, Scotland, and “Intersections” at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Arraiza obtained her Master of Fine Arts from The Juilliard School, becoming the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the Drama Division since its founding in 1905. Her impressive work within the acting program has also earned her The Laura Pels Award for Best Actor of the Company, Juilliard 2017.

She currently resides in New York City and holds both US and EU citizenship.She is represented by Gersh Agency, Circle Management +Production and Insight Management in the UK .

Mike Gerbi (STEVE) is a New York based actor/writer/producer. New York credits include The Count of Monte Cristo and Pride and Prejudice (Hudson Classical Theater), Mud (Lenfest Centre of the Arts) and Dollars to Doughnuts (Theater for a New City). Regional credits include Treasure Island (Classic Theater of Maryland), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatricum Botanicum), All My Sons (Elite Theater Company), and Hamlet directed by Michael Attenborough CBE (Sainsbury Theatre, London). Mike has been in numerous films and TV shows featured on Netflix, History Channel and PBS. He also executive produced, wrote and starred in the short film Missing Her, which won Best Short at the New York City Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short in numerous film festivals including BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica Short Film and Carmarthen Bay Film Festivals. Graduated from LAMDA.

Deven Kolluri (ALI) is a NY based storyteller. His acting work has been seen on Disney+, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Audible, Abingdon, The Drama League, The Old Globe, Hypokrit, Signature, Bay St., TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and DCPA among others. As a writer, his animated short, DEV, was a Bluecat Semifinalist. His play, SODARA, co-written with his brother Derek, was a Kesselring nominee and has received developmental support from The Public and Artist Rep. Deven is a CRNY Grant Recipient. @devenkolluri | devenkolluri.com

Briana Archer (Stage Directions) is an actor, singer, and dancer based in Brooklyn. She holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, studying at the Experimental Theater Wing and International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam. She has performed at the Public’s Under the Radar festival, Judson Memorial Church, BAM Harvey, The Brick’s Exponential Festival, Paradise Factory, JACK, and more. Briana is a band member of Daisy the Great (their new album “the Rubber Teeth Talk” comes out June 28). You can find her in music videos for Maggie Rogers and Daisy the Great. For more, visit brianaarcher.com and @briearcher

Rachel Denise April (They/Them) (Stage Manager) is a Guyanese-American Stage Manager from Brooklyn, currently residing in Newark. They studied Theatrical Design and Stage Management at the City College of New York. Select Credits include: Indra’s Net (Park Avenue Armory), Jordans (Public Theater), Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group), Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (The New Group), soft (MCC) Chicken and Biscuits (Queens Theatre), The Baby Monitor (Different Translation), Retreat Workshop (National Black Theatre), The Big Green Theater Festival (SuperHero Playhouse) The Hole (Zhailon Levingston), Neptune (Timothy DuWhite), Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell (MTWorks), and The Fire This Time Festival 2015 (The Kraine Theater). They have worked on projects throughout the United States and internationally