LEAD MENTORS
CHISA HUTCHINSON (BA, Vassar College; MFA, NYU – Tisch School of the Arts) is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter. Most recently, her radio drama, Proof of Love, was presented by Audible and New York Theatre Workshop at the Minetta Lane Theater in NYC and can now be found on Audible’s digital platform. Chisa’s happily presented her other plays at such venues as the Lark Theater, SummerStage, Atlantic Theater Company, Mad Dog Theater Company, Rattlestick Theater, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the National Black Theatre, Writers’ Theatre of New Jersey, Delaware REP, Second Stage Theater and Arch 468 in London. She has been a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Lark Fellow, a Resident at Second Stage Theater, a Humanitas Fellow, a New York NeoFuturist, and a staff writer for the Blue Man Group. Chisa has won a GLAAD Award, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and has been a finalist for the highly coveted PoNY Fellowship. Presently, Chisa teaches creative writing at the University of Delaware, is standing by for the premiere on a new TV series she helped write for Starz (Three Women), and is currently developing a biopic for Chaka Khan as well as a pan-African heist flick for 30,000 FT and SuperSpecial. Her first original feature, The Subject, an indie about a white documentarian dealing with the moral fallout from exploiting the death of a black teen, is available on various VOD platforms after a successful film festival circuit during which it won over 30 prizes.
CRYSTAL SKILLMAN is an internationally award-winning playwright, fictional podcast writer, and comic book author. She has written for Stories Podcast (Wondery Kids), Girl Tales, Adventure Time comics, and Marvel comics. Upcoming theatre credits include The Rocket Men, which was nominated for this year’s NNPN Showcase and will kick off its first production at The Phoenix Theatre in Fall 2025, and Rain and Zoe Save the World which premiered in the UK in 2022 and whose American Premiere will be announced later this year. She is also the playwright of Open, a NYTimes Critics’ Pick play published by Dramatist Play Service. Crystal is the recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Arts Grant, Kilroys, a NY Innovative Theatre Award, an Earth Matters on Stage Prize, a MUT Prize, EST/Sloan, an Offie Nomination, an O’Neill, a BAPF, and is a Broadway World Winner and a McKnight Finalist. Crystal is the book writer of Mary and Max the musical (Composer/Lyricist: Bobby Cronin), which is currently in the pipeline for Broadway with Drew and Dane Productions. She was just named a finalist for the Music Theater Conference at the O’Neill. She is the author of the NYTimes Critics’ Pick plays Geek (produced by Qui Nguyen’s theater company) and Cut which first put her on the map in the theater scene. She is co-author of King Kirby (with Fred Van Lente), which you can listen to on the Broadway Podcast Network. The graphic novel of their webtoon Eat Fighter (over a million views), will be coming out from Rocketship comics this fall. Crystal teaches playwriting and episodic theory at The New School for both the drama program and MFA department. She is also a professor at Pace University. www.crystalskillman.com
MFA MENTORS
PETER CHANSKEY is a Philadelphia-based playwright currently enrolled in the MFA in Playwriting program at Temple University. His work explores the existential foundations of identity and performance through heightened realism bordering on the absurd. His short play Camouflage premiered at the 48th Annual Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival. His one-act play Turn to the Bean had a public reading as part of Next Act! New Play Summit at Capital Rep in Albany, NY. His short film We’re All Fine was awarded at Couch Film Festival, Mindfield Film Festival, and NYLIFF. His play The Baby Shower has been performed at 61 Local and Wild East Brewing Co. in Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Theater at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.
KATIE KIRK (they/them) is a playwright & screenwriter originally from Northwest Indiana, currently living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Katie was selected as one of nine finalists for ABC Signature’s Emerging Playwright Initiative. Their full-length feature screenplay The Thallium Murders is currently one of five finalists in the 2024 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-CMU Script Competition for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology. Full-length plays include The Ninth Annual Hemlock Avenue Barbecue (Carnegie Mellon New Works), EGGMAN (Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting Award), and Centripetal Force (NormalAve NAPSeries semifinalist, 2023). Katie’s short plays have been adapted for the screen and published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French. Their works been staged or developed with organizations including Theater Masters, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, the University of Kentucky, Kentucky Theatre Association, and The PlayGround Experiment, among others. BA & MA, English — University of Kentucky MFA, Dramatic Writing — Carnegie Mellon University.
CAMERON NOEL is originally from Glen Allen, Virginia. He started doing theater in the 7th grade to get an easy A, and he’s been hooked ever since. Cameron received his Bachelors in Arts from Sewanee The University of The South. He received the Tennessee Williams Creative Writing Award at his 2021 commencement. Cameron will be graduating with his Master’s in Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University Carbondale May 11th, 2024. At SIUC he won the 2022 Christian H. Moe Playwriting Award for Best Short Play (Hunting Season). Cameron also won the 2024 Christian H. Moe Playwriting award for Best Long Play (The Black Paradox). He was also a 2023-2024 Confluence Playwright for the St. Louis Shakespeare Theater Festival. Cameron describes his writing as a kaleidoscope of authentic Black and queer experiences.
JULISSA MISHAY NORMENT, a Philadelphia-based Playwright, Book writer, and Lyricist, brings a Black, Queer, and Womanist perspective to her work, striving to diversify theatrical experiences. She is a graduate student pursuing her M.F.A. in Musical Theater Collaboration at Temple University. Her work explores the tension between reality and illusion by challenging audiences to confront uncomfortable truths by delving into the human tendency to cling to false narratives for self-preservation. Despite grappling with inherited tendencies to avoid harsh realities, Julissa fearlessly explores identity, self-awareness, and the complexities of human behavior.