LEAD MENTORS
FRANCE-LUCE BENSON ( MFA, Carnegie Mellon University) is a Haitian-American playwright born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and raised in Miami, Fl, whose work is inspired by the rich cultural landscape that shaped her. She’s interested in stories about marginalized communities across the Afro-Diaspora, exploring the many ways they overcome social, economic, and political oppression, and how these issues impact relationships with family, community, and the self. After earning an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, she established herself as an award-winning playwright and arts educator. Her plays have been produced and developed in New York by Atlantic Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Billy Holiday Theatre, The New Black Fest, Apollo Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre, The Fire This Time Festival, and regionally by Crossroads Theatre, The Fountain Theatre, Juggernaut, and City Theatre Miami, among others; internationally at the Afropea Festival in Marseilles, France; and Global Voices Theatre in London. In 2019 she was named “Someone to Watch” by American Theatre magazine. Additional awards have included Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Fellowship, Zoetrope’s Grand Prize for Caroline’s Wedding, and The Lilly’s Lorraine Hansberry Award. She’s been published by DPS, Samuel French, and Routledge Press. In 2021 she served as staff writer on the television series Bass Reeves. In 2022 she was honored with Sony Pictures Innovative Curriculum award for creating B.R.A.V.E. (aka Fountain Voices). She is currently Assistant Professor at CSU San Marcos, while developing new projects for both stage and screen, including her Haitian Revolution Trilogy. www.francelucebenson.com
KIRA ROCKWELL (BFA & MFA, Boston University) is an Atlanta-based playwright and educator, originally from the heart of Texas. Selected plays include Oh to Be Pure Again (world premiere production: Actor’s Express); Wicked Bitter Beast(s) (development: Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Holy Chicken Sandwich (workshop production: Boston New Works Festival); The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood (workshop production: Boston Playwrights’ Theatre). Her work has also been developed with The Kennedy Center, NNPN, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Working Title Playwrights, and more. Her writing awards include the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, Second Place Recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Fellowship with the Mass Cultural Council, Runner-Up for the Princess Grace Award, among others. Commissions with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Moonbox Productions, and Actor’s Express. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance and MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Currently, she teaches Dramatic Writing for the Stage and Screen at Georgia State University. www.kirarockwell.com
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
MO HOLMES (she/her) is a black queer Southern playwright, librettist and dramaturg, born in San Antonio and raised on the long stretch of road from Texas to Alabama. She is a Next Wave Initiative Lorraine Hansberry Award winner, a Jane Chambers finalist and a two-time O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist. She will attend the 2025 Sewanee Writers’ Conference as a Tennessee Williams Scholar. Her writing has been produced and/or developed with the Sam French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, the Playwrights’ Center, Vertigo Theatre, Minnesota Opera, and Atlanta Opera. As a dramaturg and teaching artist, she has supported new play development at Good Apples Collective, the Playwrights’ Center, Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, and Columbia University School of the Arts. She is a current MFA Candidate in Playwriting and Undergraduate Writing Program Teaching Fellow at Columbia.
M KAMARA (they/them/theirs) is a writer of many worlds, both real and fictional. Living in many different places with a variety of people has shaped them into the person they are today, opening their eyes to the multitude of stories varying communities hold. As a playwright, M is interested in telling Black diasporic stories that utilize documentary theater tactics and engage history, afro-surrealism, speculative fiction, and various cultural myths. They received their BFA in English and Cinema Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. They are currently working towards their MFA in Playwriting at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Outside of SIU, they’ve been a two-time finalist for the Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice 2024 and 2025, a nominee for the Playwrights’ Center Venturous Fellowship 2024, they were a part of the Kennedy Center’s 2024 Black Playwrights Gathering cohort, and a part of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s 2024-2025 Confluence Writer’s Project cohort.
ELLIE MELICK is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator whose work explores the power and violence of femininity. Recent projects include a play about teenage figure skaters (Edge Call; 2025 O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist) and a horror-comedy set in a fitness studio (PassionSculpt.; 2024 O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist). She has previously worked with The 24 Hour Plays, Yonder Window Theatre Company, and Page 73 Productions. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.A. from Kenyon College, where she was awarded the James E. Michael Prize in Playwriting.