.gif){kind=logo}
Felix Abidor (he/him/his) is an actor, playwright, historian, and clown. He focuses on work surrounding connection, healing, and the male wound. He still plays Reversi sometimes.
Acadia Barrengos (she/her) is a freelance director based in NYC. Credits: Indecent, Roe, In the Blood, Hells Canyon (wksp). She is inspired by an epigenetic lens and excavating lost histories. Acadia has been a Directing Fellow at The Kennedy Center and a Literary Fellow at Bay Area Playwrights Foundation.
Bradley Adam Cherna is a creator working across pages, stages, and screens who believes in the power of theater to revive history, realize the imaginary, and familiarize the strange(r). Recent plays include All these Activists (commissioned by The Public Theater) and The Plague Plays (published in At The Intersection of Disability and Drama: A Critical Anthology of New Plays).They hold an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University and live in New York City.
Yair Ben-Dor is an Israeli-American actor, an LSTFI Alumni and 12-year NYC resident. Yair has appeared in many productions around the US. Some proud credits include: WeCrashed, Quantico, Blue Bloods, Passage at Soho Rep, Prayer for the French Republic at MTC. Yair is also the lead narrative director for indie game developer We Create Stuff. Find out more at www.yairbendor.com
Harrison Bryan (he/they) is an award-winning actor, playwright, librettist, producer, clown, and puppeteer. A proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, AEA/SAG-AFTRA, and AJT; Harrison is the recipient of the 2019 “NY Innovative Theatre Award.” An advocate for new works, their show, "A Hanukkah Carol, or GELT TRIP! The Musical," premieres in D.C. this holiday season. For more: HarrisonBryan.com │ @hahaharrisonbryan
A.R. Cohen/Corwin is a playwright, screenwriter, dramaturge and director. Her play "Say Goodbye" was a 2022 Finalist for the Jewish Plays Project. Her play “How to Save the Polar Bear” is published by Concord Theatricals. She teaches screenwriting at Arizona State University and is the Manager and Resident Director of the Off-Broadway production "Drunk Shakespeare” - Phoenix residency.
Adi Eshman is a playwright, screenwriter and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Venice Beach, his plays have been produced or workshopped throughout LA and New York. His short film, ANNE, is an official selection at more than thirty festivals. This past May, he earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing from the USC School for Dramatic Arts. BA: NYU Gallatin (Class of ’15).
Yochai Greenfeld Received multidisciplinary training from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Peridance Center and The Acting Studio TLV. Recent credits include Shaya in "Imported Bridegroom" (Off Broadway), Yussel in "Fiddler on The Roof" (Broadway Tour), Snoopy in "Charlie Brown Christmas" (National Tour), and Abbi in his playwright debut - "It Gets Bitter".
Lauren Hart is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the AJT Theatremacher cohort for 2024. She is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program. Favorite credits include: The Unfortunates (Roxy), The Rocky Horror Show (Janet), A Christmas Carol (Ghost of Christmas Past) all with A.C.T., Born in East Berlin (Lotte - world premiere) with SF Playhouse, Peter and the Starcatcher (Molly), Tartuffe (Elmire) with Summer Repertory Theater. Laurenhartactor.com
Stephanie Kane (she/her) has worked as a dramaturg and teaching artist at Center Theatre Group, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, The Public Theater, The Workshop Theater, and Jewish Plays Project. Stephanie holds a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Arielle Beth Klein (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based storyteller. As a theater actor, she's worked off-broadway and regionally. She’s a published/produced playwright and filmmaker with her Jewish identity at the center of her work. Arielle teaches acting and storytelling at The Barrow Group, one of her artistic homes in NYC.
Gili Malinsky is a reporter in New York covering mental health and the labor market. She's working on her second full-length play, "Strangers," about a chance encounter on a plane. Gili received her degree in journalism from Boston University. She's SO stoked to be in this cohort of the Theatremachers.
Alex Marcus (he/him) has written nonfiction for publications including The A.V. Club and Slate. His play Waiting for Ganol won an audience choice award in the 2023 Philly Fringe Festival. Alex graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has studied writing and performance at the UCB Theatre, Philly Improv Theater, and Primary Stages.
.jpg?width=200&height=300&name=Leah%20Packer-%20Headshot-%20Theatrical%20(1).jpg)
Leah Packer is honored to be a part of the 2024 Theatremachers! She recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Maryland with a dual degree in theatre performance and communications. Leah now works in Education at the Kennedy Center and as an actress in the DC area. www.leahpacker.com.
Sophia Pichanick is an aspiring playwright exploring raw and engaging portrayals of chronic illness, as well as untold perspectives of the Jewish-American experience, and adaptations of underappreciated Classical works. She holds a Bachelor’s in Theatre and Classical Studies from Smith College, and hopes to pursue graduate-level studies in the future.
Yael Rizowy is thrilled to be joining the Theatremacher Mishpoca! Based in Brooklyn, Yael has been working in Voice Over, Comedy, and Musical Theater. Yael has studied at LaGuardia Arts, The Boston Conservatory and UCB. Some of her favorite credits include: SNL, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, 59E59, Bucks County Playhouse and Audible. Yael is Represented by Ingber & Asc. and State Model Management.
.jpg?width=300&height=300&name=izzy%20salant%20(2).jpg)
Izzy Salant is a Los Angeles based playwright, actor, and magician who relocated from Maryland after he got tired of freezing to death and being allergic to going outside. He is a proud member of the Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild. Selected works: Rite of Passage (Punctuate4, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater), Peace Talks (Bema Productions, Arena Civic Theater).
Noam Shapiro is a New York-based director, dramaturg, and the Producing Artistic Director of Three Hares Theater. Noam is a former Drama League Next Stage Resident Director, the SDC Foundation’s inaugural Kurt Weill/Harold Prince Directing Fellow, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, an alumnus of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Directing Fellowship, and a winner of OPERA-America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. www.noamshapiro.com
Leela Velautham is a two-time semi-finalist of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her play “Post-Scarcity Possibilities” was staged at the New Perspectives Theatre in summer 2022 and a staged reading of her play “Take my Milk for Gall” was presented at the Amphibian Stage Sparkfest last June. She is currently a member of the 2023-24 PlayGround Playwright Residency Program.
Malka Wallick (she/they) grew up in the Modern Orthodox community in Brooklyn, where she spent her youth eating too much candy on Purim and blasting the Spice Girls. Now an East Village based multi-hyphenate creative, Malka’s work explores the intersection of the Jewish, Queer, and Girlhood experiences. malkawallick.com ; @mawallick
Emmy Weissman (she/her) is a playwright based in NYC. Her plays include Sugar (The Maker's Ensemble Short Play Fest), Glow Worms (Chain Theatre) and Mikvah Girls (Art House Productions, Breaking and Entering Theatre Co.). Film: Gracie Green is Getting Resurrected. She was a playwright-in-residence with Art House Productions’ INKubator New Play Program and a Tennessee Williams scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. BFA in Drama- NYU.