Cris Eli Blak is an award winning and internationally produced writer for the page, stage and screen. He worked with Yonder Window Theatre Company on their Creative Crusade project. His work has been produced, performed and/or published around the world, from off-Broadway (Urban Stages), West Coast (Common Ground Theatre, Left Edge Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Company), Collegiate (Columbia University, Academy of Arts University and Wellesley College), London (The Queen’s Theatre), Australia (Melting Pot Theatre), and Ireland (Eva’s Echo). He continues to strive to create work that reflects the wold that we live in, with all of its different and. diverse colors, creeds and cultures through work with organizations such as TEDxBroadway and Fine Arts Forward.

Lexi Leitner (she/her/hers) is a Jewish playwright, performer, director and fundraiser born and raised in New York City. She was living in Tel Aviv, Israel for most of the pandemic and has finally returned home. Lexi is a recent graduate of Ithaca College with a dual degree in Theatre Studies and Television-Radio. Her first play, International Relations, has been workshopped at Ithaca College during PlayFest for students taking Playwriting. Lexi is in the process of creating her first one-act play under Romanian American award-winning playwright Saviana Stanescu. Lexi has directed and award-winning ten-minute play in Ithaca College’s New Play Incubator and assistant directed Ithaca College’s main stage production of SisterAct. She was also the marketing and development associate for a site-specific production of Little Shop of Horrors at Bool’s Flower Shop in Ithaca, NY.

Maria (she/her) is a Chicana playwright from Blue Island, Illinois. She recently graduated from Macalester College with double majors in Sociology and Political Science along with minors in Spanish and Theatre. Maria is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Region 5 John Cauble Short Play Award and her play Floating Girls Go To The Moon is a National Semifinalist for the 2021 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Maria’s writing is inspired by her family. She grew up hearing stories about nahuales (shapeshifters), blood-sucking witches, and demons. These stories were juxtaposed and often interposed with stories of Catholic martyrdom, the Cristero War, and the Mexican Revolution.

Michael Monroe (he/him) is a UK/NYC-based writer. He is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (BA Acting, 2016-2019) and Strathclyde University (LLB Law, 2013-2016). As an actor he has performed across the UK, and his writing’s been staged at the Citizen’s Theatre (OTV Festival), McLellan Arts Festival, and been long/shortlisted through venues like the Royal Court, Oxford North Wall, The Space, Traverse Theatre, and Playwright Studio Scotland. He writes about art and passion and fear. And he’s excited to work more with Americans - explore the subtle yet glaring differences (and similarities) between us. How we see and hear each other.

Ellie Melick is a playwright and theatre artist based more or less along the Amtrak Northeast Regional train route. She has worked for Page 73 Productions in Brooklyn, New York, and is an alum of the National Theatre Institute’s Theatermakers Intensive. She graduated with a BA in Drama from Kenyon College, where she was awarded the 2021 James E. Michael Prize in Playwriting.

Lily Welsh is a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College where her main focus was theatre and writing. She graduated with a BA in Liberal Arts in Spring 2021. She has been performing since the age of three and has made great strides as she grew into a hopeful professional. She is also an alumnus of the British American Drama Academy, having participated in their semester abroad program. She has done shows in London with BADA, in New York with Sarah Lawrence College, Shining Studios, various community groups, and more. The extensive theatre program at Sarah Lawrence College allowed Lily to discover her talents in acting, playwriting, devising, directing, and even stage combat, while her time in London aided her refining her skills. Currently, her main theatrical focuses are acting and playwriting. Lily’s play, Cope in Wonder, has been produced by Sarah Lawrence College as part of their fall season. She has also had plays produced by such companies as Loud Colorful Filth and Soundstage. In Spring 2021 she became the recipient of the David Lindsay-Abaire Award for excellence in Playwriting.

Ellis Stump (she/they) is a NYC-based but globetrotting Columbia University Playwright MFA (2020-23), dark comedy theatremaker, screenwriter, psychiatric interviewer, and queer Jewish optimist from rural Lancaster, PA. They’ve lived in India, written teen-oriented television in Berlin, and earned full-length off-Broadway productions, awards (1st Place Vaclav Havel Library Foundation 2019; Athena Project Finalist 2020), and entirely-funded playwriting residencies from Canada to Prague. This fall brings professional company productions of their plays at NYC Westbeth Artists Community 50th Anniversary and University of Toronto’s international symposium. Always ambitious, Elis holds five degrees from Penn State Honors College 2019.

Brett Bullard (he/him) is an award-winning actor and writer currently based in New York City and alumni of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA NY) Company. Brett is the proud recipient of the Max Fischer Award for Acting and has premiered his plays in various theaters in New York and West Virginia. He has felt most fulfilled when working with friends on projects he truly believes in, such as queer and progressive theatre. That being said, Brett is thrilled to be working with the compassionate creative team at Yonder Window to introduce his new dark comedy “Mud”.