FIRESIDE DANCES

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2024
7PM at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater

by MJ Kaufman (he/they)
directed by Aya Ogawa

Stage Manager: Angie Salazar (she/they)
Sound Designer: Christopher Darbassie
Stage Directions Reader: Colin Buckingham (he/they)

featuring Blair Barker (they/them), Colleen Litchfield (she/they), Drae Campbell (she/they), Karoline (they/them) & Zo Tipp (they/them)

When 16-year-old Em decides to move from a farm in rural Oregon to Portland in order to go high school, she lands in the home of distant relatives: lesbian moms Greta and Annie and their overachieving 8-year-old Kaitlyn. Cultures clash between rural and urban queer lifestyles, class differences and politics but Em and Kaitlyn vow to stay sisters no matter what.

**MJ Kaufman** (he/they)

**Writer**
MJ Kaufman’s plays have been seen at The Mark Taper Forum, The Public Theater, WP Theater, NAATCO, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and theatres and schools around the country as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia. MJ has received the Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award and residencies at the New Museum, MacDowell Colony, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. They are currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a member of Colt Coeur Theater Company. MJ co- founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU.

**Aya Ogawa**

**Director**
Aya Ogawa is an award-winning theater-maker. They received an Obie Award for writing, directing and conceiving The Nosebleed (Productions: Japan Society; Chocolate Factory; Lincoln Center Theater; Woolly Mammoth. Tour: Walker Art Center; REDCAT; Wexner Center for the Arts). They directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr; Ma-Yi). This season they will be developing a new play titled Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood. Select awards: Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting; Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award; The Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight National Residency; Commission; Resident playwright, New Dramatists; MacDowell Fellow.

**Angie Salazar** (she/they)

**Stage Manager**
Angie Salazar is a returning stage manager to BTB after have worked on Moon Bear and POOL (23’). Recently have been a Production Assistant on development workshops for The Interestings, ALI, and SMASH. Volunteered with Broadway Cares with Broadway Bares: Hit the Strip! and Red Bucket Follies 23’. Regional experience includes a Stage Management Apprenticeship at Denver Center for Performing Arts (22’-23’) and Assistant Props for the National Tour of Cats (21’-22’). Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. Associate's from Mesa Community College. She thanks their chosen family and friends for supporting publicly living their queer truth this year.

**Christopher Darbassie**

(Select Credits): *The Counter* (Roundabout)*, Almost There* (Audible @ Minetta Lane), *Table 17* (MCC)*, Six Characters* (LCT3)*, Apiary, Camp Siegfried* (2nd Stage) Antiquities, *Amusements (*Playwrights Horizons), *Grangeville*, *A Bright New Boise, A Case for the Existence of God* (Signature Theater), *Uncle Vanya* (O’Henry Productions), *This Beautiful Future (Cherry Lane Theater), Fly Away (Petzel Gallery)*, *Black Exhibition* (The Bushwick Starr). Chris has designed for art installations, radio plays, and devised works in collaboration with The National Black Theater, The Public, Ars Nova, and more. *www.darbassiedesign.com* | Free Palestine | Free Congo

**Colin Buckingham** (He/they)

**Stage Directions Reader**
Colin is a writer, actor, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. His goal as a storyteller is to make projects that reflect the intersectional nature of disability and create opportunities for historically excluded, disenfranchised and systemically targeted people. Originally from Washington, DC, he got his start in writing through choreographing action and stunt co-ordinating on multiple plays, indie films and webseries. He wrote, choreographed, produced and acted in the short film November Ninth‘. He was a disability and dwarfism consultant for Tomorrow’s Today and another project TBA. He recently started his own production company, “Chromatic Lens”.

**Blair Baker** (they/them)

**GRETA / Caveman 3 / EMILY**
Blair Baker (they/them) is an actor, director, and writer. Theatre: Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Center Theatre Group), The Play That Goes Wrong (First National Tour, Off-Broadway), Smart (W.H.A.T.), The Slow Dance (59e59), The Humans (Broadway, Roundabout Theatre Company), Goldie, Max & Milk (59e59), Oleanna (Broadway, Mark Taper Forum, Bristol Riverside Theater), title role in Hvmlet (SheNYC). TV/Film: The Perfect Couple, Bull, Ghosts of Christmas Always (Hallmark) Billions, Blue Bloods, Harlem. www.blairbaker.info

**Colleen Litchfield** (she/they)

**EM / Caveman 1 / Teenage Girl**
Colleen Litchfield (she/they) was last seen opposite Tony nominee Betsy Aidem in The Ask at wild project, and recently made their Broadway debut originating the role of Hanna in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (Tony Award for Best Play). Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. TV: The Crowded Room on Apple TV+. Training: BFA NYU Tisch, RADA.

**Drae Campbell** (she/they)

**NURSE / Caveman 4 / CAROLYN / Boar**
Drae Campbell. Theater: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater & National Tour, Lortel Nominated), Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Teatro Circulo), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Storm.Still (DirectorFest, Drama League), La Cage Aux Folles (Barrington Stage Company). Film and TV: Senior Escort Service, Blunderpuss, It’s Very Common, TOW Bull, New Amsterdam. Host/curator of TELL, a live queer storytelling show that is also an award winning podcast on all the platforms. BFA, The University Of The Arts. @draebiz

**Karoline** (they/them)

**ANNIE / CAVEMAN 5 / KATE**
Karoline is an actor and writer who goes by a mononym. Their credits onstage include Tom Stoppard’s THE HARD PROBLEM at Lincoln Center, [VEIL WIDOW CONSPIRACY] at NYTW, and EXCLUSION at Arena Stage, directed by Trip Cullman. Onscreen, they can currently be seen in the Hulu series DEATH AND OTHER DETAILS in a season-long recurring arc, and in A24's A DIFFERENT MAN. As a writer, their short film PIPPI traveled the festival circuit to acclaim and is currently on a two year distribution deal. They live in New York.

**Zo Tipp** (they/them)

**KAITLYN / Caveman 2 / Little Girl / SARA**
Zo Tipp (they/them) is a Jewish Japanese American performer. TV: Only Murders in the Building, American Horror Story, Dickinson. NY Theater credits include INTAR, Playwrights Horizons, Pan Asian Rep, Cherry Lane, CSC/OSF Play On! Fest, Redbull, Rattlestick. Workshops at Roundabout Theater, NYTW, Playwrights Realm, Pride Plays, The Actors Fund, and more. Independent film and webseries appearances screened at Newfest and Outfest. Narrator work for The New Yorker and New York Mag on Apple News. www.zotipp.com

2024 FESTIVAL STAFF

Co-Sound Designer: Bailey Trierweiler (he/him)
Literary Manager: Bryar Barborka (they/them)
Casting Director: Charlie Hano, CSA (he/him)
Co-Sound Designer: Christopher Darbassie
Associate Producer: Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he)
Assistant Producer: Flower Estefana Rios
Founding Artistic Director: George Strus (they/them)
Graphic Designer: Marc Ella Roy (they/them)