Chris Saunders is the Founding Artistic Director of American Lives Theatre where he has directed several shows, all of them Indianapolis premieres, many of them Indiana and World Premieres. Chris has acted, directed and written for the stage in New York, Chicago and Indianapolis. He is grateful to the New Harmony Project for creating such an exciting event for the city of Indianapolis.
Malika Oyetimein received her MFA from The University of Washington's School of Drama. She has been an artist in residence at New Hope Colony Foundation for the Arts as well as Merrimack Reparatory Theatre. She recently won a Barrymore Award for Best Director for her production of Lynn Nottage’s Clydes. She is also the co-adapter and director of Dr. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Book-It Repertory Theatre) which garnered a Gregory Award nomination for Best Director. Select directing credits: What Will Happen to All That Beauty ( Contemporary American Theatre Festival) Teenage Dick (Seattle Repertory Theatre )WHITE *world premiere*(Theatre Horizon) The First Deep Breath *workshop production*( National Black Theatre).
Josiah Davis (he/him) is a director, choreographer, designer and actor. He is a Princess Grace Honoraria, NYTW 2050 fellow, National Black Theatre Soul Directing Resident, Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Associate Artistic Director of On The Verge Theatre Festival in Santa Barbara. He is a graduate from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television and Brown/Trinity M.F.A. Directing Program. Selected credits: Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm/MCC) Omar Offrendum’s Little Syria (BAM), Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theatre), Amani (Rattlestick/NBT) Clyde’s (Alabama Shakespeare Festival/Arkansas Rep), Mr. Saturday Night (Broadway(Assoc.)).
Emily Moler is a theater, film, and VO director. Theatrical credits include The Grown-Ups, The Winter Guard Play, Bitch Boxer, Dance Nation, Uncle Vanya, As You Like It, End Days, Ironbound, And We’re Live, and Coffee Break. She has self-produced productions of Chamber Music, Untitled American Flag Craft Project, and Good Cry. She has directed voice over performances for Square Enix and Riot Games. Emily is the co-artistic director of Baby Teeth, an LA-based performance ensemble dedicated to new work and LA premieres. She has developed new works with EST/LA, The Associates, Joe’s Pub, Chance Theater, IAMA, SITI Company, The Duplex, and Pipeline Theatre Company. BS: Skidmore College. MFA: UCSD.
Daniel Talbott is an award-winning writer and director, a Lucille Lortel Award winning theater producer, and the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep. His first feature film co-written and co-directed with Samantha Soule – Midday Black Midnight Blue – premiered at SIFF in Seattle in 2022 and was released in June 2023 by Good Deed Entertainment. His horror drama pilot Rome, Georgia (starring Mary-Louise Parker) is in development with Vertigo Entertainment. His feature script Gray is in active development in Denmark with Motor Productions, with Martin de Thura attached to direct. Other TV writing includes The Mist based on the Stephen King novella, and The Conners on ABC. He is a graduate of Juilliard.
Constance Macy is the Christel DeHaan Artistic Director of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. For 30 years prior, she was an actor and worked with The New Harmony Project at several conferences, as well as the IRT, Pioneer Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Rep, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Constellation, Indy Shakes and the Phoenix. She was a founder of ShadowApe Theatre Company, and has directed plays at Butler University, Anderson University, Franklin College, Summer Stock Stage (a musical!) and the Phoenix. Constance is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, twice an Arts Council of Indianapolis Creative Renewal Fellow, and was honored by the Indianapolis Foundation as an Indy Theatre MVP.
Sandra Marquez is an award-winning Chicago-based actor, director, and educator. She is an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theater Company and Teatro Vista Productions. Most recently, she co-directed Teatro Vista’s production of The Dream King by Marvin Quijada, which garnered ten Jeff Award nominations and took home eight, including Best Production. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for the MFA in Acting Program at Northwestern University, where she enjoys teaching.
Psalmayene 24 is an award-winning playwright, director, and actor. He is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater Company. Playwriting credits include Monumental Travesties, Dear Mapel, and Les Deux Noirs at Mosaic Theater Company; Out of the Vineyard at Joe’s Movement Emporium; An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland at Solas Nua; Free Jujube Brown! at The African Continuum Theater Company; and Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth at Imagination Stage. Directing credits include Tempestuous Elements at Arena Stage; Good Bones, Flow, and Pass Over at Studio Theatre; Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play at Ford’s Theatre; Native Son at Mosaic Theater Company; Word Becomes Flesh at Theater Alliance; and Cinderella: The Remix at Imagination Stage. His play, Les Deux Noirs, is published by TRW Plays and his solo play, Free Jujube Brown!, is published in the anthology, Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy (TCG).