Contributors
after-school special theatre
Chloé Hayat is a Lebanese-American playwright and dramaturg from Roosevelt Island, New York. Her work has been seen and developed as a part of Young Playwrights Inc., SUNY Purchase’s New Plays Now festival, Ithaca College, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writer’s Group, Space on Ryder Farm, and the inaugural writer’s room at The Flea Theater. She serves as the associate artistic producer at Breaking and Entering, a theater collective and producing company dedicated to the Pre-Emerging theater artist. She is also the co-founder of After-School Special Theatre, a company of scrappy young female-identifying writer-producers that value accessible, organic, and experimental theatre. Additionally, she has stage managed and assisted dozens of readings, workshops, and productions at New Dramatists, Clubbed Thumb, The Brick, and The Flea. She is a professional makeup artist, an amateur baker, a perfectly fine belly dancer, and the lucky owner of a piece of the Abraham Lincoln deathbed.
_____
Tori Lassman is a Brooklyn-born playwright with IBS. She is an alumni of SUNY Purchase college, where she studied playwriting. Tori is a co-founder of After-School Special Theatre, a group dedicated to presenting accessible work of the bizarre, campy, and transgressive. Her play Sweet Shop was most recently developed in the Casa Na Ilha residency in São Paulo, Brazil. Tori works in the film and television industry doing props and set dressing.
_____
Anna O’Connell is a NYC-born playwright and special education teacher who has a collection of broken cellphones and can turn her feet completely backwards. She studied playwriting at SUNY Purchase and is a co-founder or After-School Special Theatre, a collective that brings campy, transgressive theatre to any audience. Her work has been most recently seen at Dixon Place.
_____
Gabriella Sprenkle is an actor, musician, and co-founder of After-School Special Theatre, a fresh-faced theater company presenting fresh-off-the-press plays and campy improv shows. Gabriella studied jazz vocal performance at the City College of New York, but always involved herself in theater throughout her time in school. Gabriella is also a costumer in the film and television industry.
Alyssa Bilyeu
Alyssa Bilyeu is a visual artist raised in the verdant splendor of Oregon, who now lives and works in the Portland Metro area. Alyssa seeks to create a dialogue between audiences and the forces that move our lives, both natural and artificial. Drawing from diverse inspirations such as classical and postmodern literature, to the sublime and surreal works of the 20th century visual masters, Alyssa challenges her audience to find personal meaning in impersonal work. Find more of her work at alyssabilyeu.com.
colleen burner
Colleen Burner (they/them) is a graduate of the MFA writing program at Portland State University, an Oregon Literary Arts fellowship recipient, and editor of Shirley Magazine. Burner's work has been featured in Old Pal, Entropy, Black Candies: Gross and Unlikeable, and elsewhere. The excerpts in this issue are from a larger hybrid project on gender and attraction, titled Germ. Find them on Instagram @colleenburner.
J Aaron byrnes
J Aaron Byrnes is an artist and filmmaker working in Miami, Florida. His work explores the crossroads of ritual magic and art making. Keep up with her at aaronbyrnes.com and @homosuperiorr.
Amy Epperson
Amy Epperson is a Portland-based artist and community organizer. They hold a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Film Studies from Portland State University. Their work ranges between design (apparel, graphic and architectural), curation (film and art), and theory.
Spaghetti is my hobby, cowboys r my passion
You can find Amy online at anyeprsn.info, and on instagram at anyeprsn or apersonmade.
Cypress Marrs
Cypress Marrs lives in Philadelphia and has had work appear in/on Art in America, Lapham’s Quarterly, BOMBmagazine.com, The LA Review of Books, Public Books, and Full Stop.
Steven Meidenbauer
Steven Meidenbauer is an artist based in Los Angeles. With a soft spot for color and sun-drenched scenery, he looks to capture moments of quiet familiarity in everyday life. With work featured on various digital platforms including Fucking Young! and Vogue Italia, he mixes both digital and analogue to create a lasting feeling of nostalgia. Find more of his work at stevenmeidenbauer.com or his Instagram.