Cassandra Medley, was honored with the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award in 2023. Her plays have been widely produced across the United States, in Toronto and in Johannesburg. In 2022, Medley wrote the libretto for the "Fannie Lou Hamer Opera," which was produced by The Trilogy Opera Company of New Jersey. Her recent works also include "March 13, 2020" at Martha's Vineyard Theater and "Celebrating Our Community" by the Gatekeepers Collective in 2020. She is also known for her plays "Mrs. Palmer's Honey" at Bread and Roses Theater, "Cell" on the Playing On Air Website in 2018, "Take My Advice" and "Survive" both in 2017, and the full-length version of "Cell" at Molelo Theater in San Diego, California. Her earlier works comprise the "American Slavery Project" (2012-13, NYC), "Cell, the one act" at the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon in 2011, "Daughter" in 2009, and "Noon Day Sun" in August 2008 with the Diverse City Theatre Company. Medley's play "Relativity" not only won the 2006 Audelco "August Wilson Playwriting" Award but was also featured on Science Friday on National Public Radio and published by Broadway Play Publishing. Medley has been the recipient of numerous accolades throughout her career, including the "Going to the River Writers" Life Achievement Award in 2004, the Ensemble Studio Theatre 25th Anniversary Award for Theatre Excellence in 2002, and the Theatrefest Regional Playwriting Award for Best Play in 2001. She also received the New Professional Theatre Award and the Marilyn Simpson Award in 1995, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in Playwriting in 1989, and won the National Endowment for the Arts Playwright Award in 1990.Her academic contributions are equally noteworthy. Medley is a retired Professor of Playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College and has taught at New York University. She has served as a guest artist at Columbia University, the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Seattle University. Additionally, she worked as a staff writer for ABC Television's "One Life to Live" from 1995 to 1997. She is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, New River Dramatists, and the Dramatists Guild.

MILDRED INEZ LEWIS writes and directs for theater, screen and audio. A Dramatists Guild member, she writes with the Colony Theater, EST-LA, PlayGround-LA, Rogue Artists Ensemble and Towne Street Theatre. She’s been commissioned by A Different Myth (Asheville, NC), Lifeline Theater (Chicago, IL), the Lucille Lortel Foundation/Harlem9/National Black Theatre (NYC), Ohlone College and SCI@SPARC (Livermore, CA). Honors include the AGE Legacy Award and Humanitas’ PLAY LA. In 2025, Mildred’s RIRI AND THE G-MAN, inspired by Aretha Franklin’s recently released FBI files, was part of Emerging Voices at IAMA Theatre (Los Angeles). In 2024, she completed WE, FOUR with The Road Theatre. It was then developed in the 2025 Howard University Play Development Lab. In 2022, THE MUSEUM ANNEX, inspired by THE COLORED MUSEUM, premiered at Central Works (Berkeley, CA). Audio plays have been produced by Feminist Fairytales and in Antaeus Theatre’s Zip Code series. Mildred’s short plays have twice appeared in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival and the Best of PlayGround-Los Angeles. Her full length and short plays are published by Applause Books, Broadway Play Publishing, NextStage, and Smith & Kraus. Educated at Oberlin College (BA) and the University of California, Los Angeles (MA, MFA), Mildred teaches writing at Chapman University.

Alinca Hamilton is a holistic creator working on stage and in film as an actor, writer, and producer. She is a founding member of Squeaky Wheelz Productions, whose interdisciplinary work has been seen on stage at Ars Nova, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Brooklyn Public Library. Select acting credits: January (MultiStages); Clyde’s (Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Repertory Theater); Mud Row (Premiere Stages); Audelco Award-nominated Gong Lum’s Legacy (New Federal Theater); Julius Cesar (Classic Stage Company); Growing Up (Disney+). A hoarder of hyphens, Alinca directed and edited the short film Black Girl Narrative. The film has played at festivals across the world, including the Berlin Indie Film Festival, where it won Best Artist Short. Her writing work has been a semi-finalist for the NYSCA/NYSFA Artist Fellowship Program and Fresh Voices Competition. A New Yorker to her core, please don’t ask her to drive. M.F.A. – Acting, Columbia University. alincahamilton.com

Laura Shamas was born in Oklahoma, and lives in Los Angeles. She is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. She was a 2023 Winner of a Los Angeles New Play Project Playwriting Award ($20,000) for Four Women In Red. Following its Feb.- March 2025 run at the Victory Theatre in Burbank, Four Women In Red has been published by Broadway Play Publishing; the full-length version had a first reading at Transformation Theatre in 2021. Laura Shamas’ many plays have been produced internationally, including regionally at Alter Theater, Golden Thread Productions, Walnut Street Theater, and Philadelphia Theatre Company, among others. Her work has been developed by many companies, including Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto), Spooky Action Theater (D.C.), The Public Theater (NYC), Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Utah Shakespearean Festival. These plays include: CIRCULAR, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (adaptation), PORTRAIT OF A NUDE, LADY-LIKE, CHASING HONEY, THE OTHER SHAKESPEARE, TALKING LEAVES (Winner – Garrard Best Play Award - Five Civilized Tribes Museum, Oklahoma), and AMELIA LIVES (Winner – Fringe First Edinburgh Festival Fringe). Her short play SEEDS won the Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting from Native Voices at the Autry in 2017. Her Ph.D. is in Mythological Studies. Website: www.laurashamas.com.

A love for performance helped playwright Diane Breeser overcome her shyness. She majored in Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, then spent three years in Los Angeles. Upon returning to her hometown, Diane produced her first full-length play at La Crosse Community Theatre (LCT) in 1989. Since 2015, Diane has written and directed short plays for La Crosse County Historical Society’s annual “Silent City” Cemetery Tour. In 2016 she performed her one-woman play, Goddess on the Mountaintop, about primatologist Dian Fossey. That same year, she starred as Dr. Vivian Bearing in “Wit” at LCT, a role she describes as “a life-changing experience as an actor.” In 2017, Diane co-founded The “Alternative Truth” Project, which performed free monthly play readings about social issues such as LGBTQ rights, censorship, racism, guns, religion, and politics. The “Alternative Truth” Project received an MLK Award for “continuing Dr. King’s mission through theatre.” Being chosen for ReproEco was a great honor for the Midwesterner. After attending the initial play readings in New York in the Fall of 2024, Diane was determined to get ReproEco performed in Wisconsin. During the Spring of 2025, Diane staged ReproEco as a play reading series in La Crosse. She proudly recalls, “Everyone I talked to about it said ‘YES!’” Contact Diane Breeser: [email protected]

Cindy Cooper is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced in the US, Canada and Europe. In New York, her work has been at Primary Stages, The Women’s Project (WP Theatre) (How She Played the Game), Wings (Strange Light), Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio, MultiStages, Town Hall, Vaclav Havel Foundation, Anne Frank Center USA (Silence Not, A Love Story), Museum of Tolerance, HBO, Judson Church, Ronald Feldman Gallery, Chain Theater, Montauk Library, La Mama Galleria, Center for Jewish History, WOW Café, and more; her work has also been seen in Chicago, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, LA, Maryland (Running On Glass), Texas, Florida, Colorado, Budapest, Helsinki, Montreal, and elsewhere. She has won awards from Pen & Brush, Samuel French Off-Broadway Play Festival, Malibu International Playwriting Festival, Nantucket Theatre, Equity Library Theater, City of Providence, Quixote Foundation and others. A two-time Jerome Fellow, her plays are in 17 volumes. She is also a journalist who writes about justice and human rights, drawing upon her background as a lawyer, and is the author of eight nonfiction books, including ‘Mockery of Justice,’ made into a CBS-TV movie. She is the founder of ReproFreedomArts.org. Originally from Cleveland, she lives in New York City. www.cyncooperwriter.net

Shanea N. Taylor is thrilled to reconnect with the energy of Transformation Theatre. As a director, Shanea believes in creating theatre that is joyful and hopeful and crafting narratives that celebrate diversity and foster connection. Taylor holds an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy/Directing from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently a full-time Voice Over Artist. Recent directing credits include: Firebringer the Musical: Dogwood Dell, Much Ado About Nothing: Richmond Shakespeare, BKLYN the Musical: Swift Creek Mill Theatre (2024 RTCC Award for Best Direction and Best Musical), one in two: Richmond Triangle Players, A Soldier’s Play: Swift Creek Mill Theatre, Hadestown: SPARC, Macbeth & Urinetown: Appomattox Regional Governor’s School.

Carly L. Bodnar: NYC/Philadelphia based screen & stage director, educator, intimacy director, and performer. Carly is excited to be working with Transformation Theatre after directing Natalie Ann Valentine's Greetings from the Red Planet. Film directing; Chimera, The Tone You Used to Have. Theatrical directing (select);The Bed Show (Off-Broadway SohoPlayhouse/Unattended Baggage), Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Shakespeare in Clark Park), Romeo and Juliet (Lantern Theater Company), Twelve Chairs (Juniper Productions), The Helen Project, Jimmy Gorski is Dead (ReVamp Collective), Blithe Spirit (Hedgerow Theatre Company),Company, Arcadia (La Salle University). Associate/Assistant Directed; Arden Theatre Company, Lantern Theater Company, Shakespeare in Clark Park, and Hedgerow Theatre Company. Carly was Interim Artistic Director of Shakespeare in Clark Park and is the Co-Artistic Director and founding member of ReVamp Collective, a feminist artist collective. BA in Theatre Temple University. 2018 Directors Lab West. Proud SDC Associate Member. www.carlyLbodnar.com Next up Carly is directing the world premiere of a new piece, Pinky Promise, with Paper Doll Ensemble in the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe.

When not freelancing as a dramaturg, Kajoree is the Company Manager for McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey. She has had many years of experience in performing, entertainment management, and teaching artistry for both George Street Playhouse and Disney Cruise Line. She also has experience in stage and film production (internationally and nationally) and creative writing. Kajoree received her training and graduated with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Theatre from Rutgers University. Life has led her to travel, backpack, and experience many different countries and forms of theater (India, France, Spain, Mexico, and Italy, just to name a few) for professional and social reasons. Kajoree is looking forward to working with the incredible team at Transformation Theatre again!

Victoria Estes (she/her) is a freelance Dramaturg and adjunct theatre instructor based in South Carolina. She received her BA in Theatre from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and her MA in Theatre History and Criticism from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Victoria Estes specializes in new play development and devised theatre for companies across the country. She presented her paper “Ambition Should Be Made of Sterner Stuff: the effects of implicating racism and hatred in Julius Caesar” in a Theatre for Social Change panel at ATHE in 2019 and served as a speaker and presenter for a panel on Rejoicing in Broken Pieces at the Medieval Academy Conference in 2023. She is honored to work with such a wonderful company like Transformation again, and she thanks them for their continued faith in her work!