PLAYWRIGHTS

France-Luce Benson is a two-time recipient of the Shubert Foundation Fellowship. Her play Fati's Last Dance was awarded the Lorraine Hansberry Award by the Kennedy Center and was selected for the Ignition Festival at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. Healing Roots was awarded the $10,000 prize from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation.

She is a member of the Women's Work Lab at New Perspectives Theatre, where her play Bright Lights, Tent City premiered in September. She is also a Lifetime Member at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Silence of the Mambo, Destiny's Edge, Ascension, and Floating Under Water were all developed at EST. Risen from the Dough and Learning to Swim were both produced at EST's GTTR: River Crosses River Festival (2009, 2011). She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing.

2012 Featured Play: The Talk

Jocelyn Bioh is beyond thrilled to be a part of this year's Fire This Time Festival! A proud native New Yorker, Jocelyn holds degrees in English and Theatre from The Ohio State University and MFA in Theatre - Playwriting from Columbia University. Previous acting credits include: Seed (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet (City Theatre - PA), American Schemes (SummerStage NYC), Neighbors (The Public Theater), and Lightskin/Darkskin which she co-wrote and starred in with Fire This Time founding playwright Kelley Girod. As a playwright, Jocelyn has been produced at Columbia University, and she was a finalist in Southern Rep Ruby Prize Award for her play AFRICAN AMERICANS.

2012 Featured Play: Four

Kevin R. Free Face Value (FringeNYC, Henry Street Settlement Playwrights' Project, 2000); (Not) Just a Day Like Any Other (2009 NY It Award, Outstanding Ensemble); Over 20 short plays for Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (New York Neo-Futurists, 2007-2009); A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People (2010, FringeNYC).

2012 Featured Play: The Crisis Of The Negro Intellectual: Dream One

Patricia Ione Lloyd is part of the Smithsonian Griot Project and Folk Life Archive for the Library of Congress. 2012 finalist New York Theatre Workshop fellowship. 2010 resident playwright Brown University. 2009 resident playwright University of Mumbai, India. New Professional Theatre's Emerging Playwright Award, Black Tale, and Downtown Urban Theatre Festival's Best Play Award, This Train is Bound for Glory.

2012 Featured Play: Little Louise

Zoey Martinson, Co-Artistic Director of Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative. Directed Breakfast by Yusef Miller for The Fire This Time Festival in 2011. Was last seen in Shakespeare in the Park's Alls Well That Ends Well. She founded Bright Future Arts International at National Theatre of Ghana West Africa, and her play Ndebele Funeral has toured South Africa.

Her last production with Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative, Skype Duet (co-creator/director), won the 100 Grand award at the HAU2 Theater in Berlin. As an actress, she has performed at the Guthrie, Shakespeare On The Sound, 365 PLAYS/DAYS at The Public, Purchase Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, The Flea Theatre, Broom Street Theatre, Theatre in the Muz, South Africa, the National Theatre of Ghana, and the Diorama theatre in London. Film/TV: "Are We There Yet", "Restless City", "Law & Order." Training: SUNY Purchase College, NYU Grad Acting.

2012 Featured Play: The Pitch

Antoinette Nwandu is a New York based writer via Los Angeles. Plays include Breach, Black Boy & The War, Flat Sam, and The Dying Days Of Viktor Castle, currently in development with Dreamscape Theatre. Awards include the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and the NEC's Douglas Turner Ward Playwriting Award.

2012 Featured Play: Vanna White Has Got To Die!

Jerome A. Parker's plays were performed at the Old Vic, the Company of Angels, Celebration Theatre, the Cherry Lane, and the Public Theater, amongst others. Lorraine Hansberry Award (2008), Tim Robbins Award (2009), Public Theater's EWG (2010-2011). MFA (UCLA). Upcoming: Stag, Bliss, Strange Fellowe, Rising Son, and Miracle On Monroe.

2012 Featured Play: Dig