THELMA AND LOUISE AND THE TIME MACHINE
Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her)
Author
Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her) is a playwright born and raised in Puerto Rico. Her Off-Broadway debut took place in 2022 with Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members, produced by Soho Rep and The Sol Project. She also adapted the upcoming Spotify/Gimlet podcast, Case 63. Mara was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow and is currently a member of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup. Other plays include: ¡GÁRGOLA!, This Is Not The Oxcart, and Thelma and Louise and The Time Machine. Instagram: @flordemara_
Sivan Battat (she/they)
Director
Sivan Battat (she/they) is a theatre director & community organizer. Sivan has developed work with companies including Roundabout, NYTW, the Atlantic, Ars Nova, National Queer Theatre, New Georges, The Goodman, Victory Gardens, The Park Avenue Armory, New York Stage & Film, Cape Cod Theatre Project, MCC and more. Sivan is the Associate Artistic Director of Noor Theatre, a company located in NYC in residence at New York Theatre Workshop. Noor is an Obie-winning company dedicated to supporting, developing and producing the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern descent. In the 2021/22 season, Sivan was the Directing Fellow at Roundabout Theatre Company, the Drama League Musical Directing Fellow and a member of TCG’s Rising Leaders of Color Cohort. As an organizer, Sivan works with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and has curated several iterations of Salon Al-Mahjar صالون المهجر, a performance salon for queer & trans MENASA artists. Upcoming: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Studio Theatre, DC), Layalina (Goodman Theatre, World Premiere, Chicago). sivanbattat.com
aydan shahdadpuri (they/he)
Dramaturg
Aydan Shahdadpuri (they/he) is a dramaturg of new and classical work, and a PhD student at the University of Chicago.
Nat Kelley DiMario (they/them)
Nat Kelley DiMario is a Brooklyn-based queer & trans multidisciplinary theatre artist, stage manager, and storyteller. With a focus in unconventional theatre methodology, and devised and transformative work, collaboration is at the core of their creative process. Recent projects include the Broadway revival of Into the Woods, Dance Nation (Fordham University), Matilda (The Foote School), Troilus and Cressida (The Juilliard School), Juilliard’s Spring Dances program, and National Queer Theatre’s Jubilee for a New Vision at MCC. Nat holds a BA in Theatre Design and Production from Fordham University and is an alum of the Juilliard Professional Apprentice Program. natkelleydimario.com
Pauli Pontrelli (they/them/ze/zir)
Pauli Pontrelli (they/them/ze/zir) Theater credits include The Visitor (The Public, Original Cast Recording), Dom Juan (Fisher Center/ Bard Summerscape), This Clement World (St. Ann’s Warehouse), House of Dance (Half Straddle, Zürich Theater Spektakel, Kyoto Experiment, MASS Live Arts), Look Upon Our Lowliness (The Movement), Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf), The Aliens (Chester Theatre Company). TV/Film: “Instinct” (CBS), Fry Day (streaming on Criterion). Most recently, Pauli choreographed Julia Jarcho's Marie, It's Time for minor theater. MFA: NYU Grad Acting.
Alex Might (her)
Alex Might (her) is an actor and fight/intimacy director from central Ohio. Recent credits: POTUS on Broadway (Assistant Fight & Intimacy Director); This Hair I Tear is Mine at Columbia University (Lily/Constance); The Wolves at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Understudy/Associate Movement Director); Are You There? at the Humana Festival (Daisy Duke); No Mercy at Moxie Arts (Fight & Intimacy Director); Elegies… at King's Head Theatre, London (Roscoe); Transformation at The National Arts Club (Christine). www.alexmight.com
Che’Li (they/them)
Che'Li is the life-performance embodiment projected by alyxandra ciale charfauros (they/them), ritualizing consciousness and shaping change at the intersections of beauty, absurdity, and sensuality. They are a Queer, Disabled CHamPinoy healing artist with recent credits in collaboration with Soho Playhouse, New York Theatre Festival, GrassRoots Art Collective, New York Shakespeare Exchange. Also, look out for them in Jess X Snow's upcoming short film, Roots That Reach Toward the Sky. Che'Li holds a BFA degree in Theatre Performance from the University of Michigan ('21) and is currently training to be an Intimacy Director and Alexander Technique Teacher in the hopes of building a healing center with TCM practitioner and life partner, Michael Yuchen Tong. They love anime, aswang, and Ali Wong! (cialikethey.com; @cialikethey; @madang.teatro).
Nora Schell (they/them)
Nora Schell graduated from The University of Michigan with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in Gender, Race and Nation. They received Drama Desk, Drama League and Clive Barnes Award nominations for their performance and Off-Broadway debut in SPAMILTON. Nora made their Broadway debut in JAGGED LITTLE PILL. With their educational background, Nora continues to cultivate a career focused on the intersection of performing and social justice.
TEmídayo Amay (they/them/friend)
Tẹmídayọ Amay (they/them/friend) OFF-BROADWAY: MCC Theater: On Love; Classical Theatre of Harlem: Foriwa. NEW YORK: La MaMa ETC: Coffehouse Chronicles 124; Joe's Pub: Queering the Canon: Sondheim (Ring of Keys). Washington, DC: Signature Theatre: The Color Purple (Squeak); Round House Theatre: School Girls: or, the African Mean Girls Play (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Supporting Performer); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Describe the Night; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Will on the Hill, The Ruby Sunrise; Longacre Lea: The Interstellar Ghost Hour (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Outstanding Supporting Performer). DIRECTING: Arts on the Horizon: Once Upon a Zoom; the Athena Project. OTHER: Founder: Black Artist Coalition; Executive Producer: PILOT. @temidayoma.