Dayshawnda Ash

Dayshawnda Ash is a Cleveland-based actor and playwright whose work spans non-fiction, and poetry, with a special focus on social and political horror. Drawing inspiration from the world around her and her own life experiences, Day crafts stories that explore the intersection of cultural history and contemporary issues.

A 2024 Heights Arts Literary Artist of the Month (June), Day's work has been showcased at notable Cleveland institutions, including Cleveland Public Theatre. Her work My Skin (2021) and Green Bean Casserole (2021) were featured at Station Hope and Ten Minutes to Midnight. In 2025, Green Bean Casserole will be performed at Western Reserve Playhouse, and No Exit: Curtain Call was debuted in Cleveland Public Theatre’s Test Flight.

Greg Vovos

Greg Vovos is a playwright and director who has worked in Cleveland theater since he returned in 1998, after earning his MFA in Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  He has worked as a director and playwright for Dobama, Cleveland Public Theatre, the Beck Center, Cleveland Play House, Charenton Theater Co., TITLEWave theatre, Baldwin Wallace University, Tri-C and others on many critically-acclaimed productions.  He has taught playwriting at Baldwin Wallace University, Cuyahoga Community College West, UNLV and various theatres in the area. He also writes screenplays and is a writer at American Greetings. His plays have been seen all over the world and published by Dramatic Publishing and PPT Press.  His most satisfying work has been for the Theatre for Healthy Living, where he has written plays about difficult issues facing youth today.  These plays — performed by the young people themselves — have been produced at high schools, detention centers and youth prisons, among others, and address issues such as racism, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, heroin abuse, obesity and the challenges of transitioning back to society. Greg was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Playwriting for 2014. Beyond writing, he is married to his best friend and together they have two awesome kids.

JULIA ROSA SOSA CHAPARRO

JULIA ROSA SOSA CHAPARRO is a storyteller, director, and songwriter originally from Ciudad Juárez. Her work centers on uplifting immigrant and BIPOC communities across the United States.

Recent directing credits include The Bird Blind at Playwrights Realm, A Christmas in Ochopee at New Native Theatre and Life is a Dream at the University of Oklahoma. In Cleveland, she has directed Marisol and In the Time of the Butterflies at Cleveland Public Theatre, and has assistant directed Native Gardens and Antigone at Cleveland Play House.

Her musical and performance work can be experienced through the duo Lúnatic, where audiovisual experimentation is not only welcomed but encouraged. 

As a playwright, her piece El Toro y la Niña became a radio play for the ReUnion rEvolución: A Latinx New Works Festival. El Romántico, her first musical, supported by the Assembly for the Arts' Creative Impact Fund, had its first workshop in 2024 at Julia de Burgos Cultural Art Center. The musical explores the emotional disconnect between fathers and daughters during adolescence. 

Aesthetically, her work is colorful, playful, musical, simple when needed, maximalist when possible. Driven by a hungry curiosity, she constantly places herself in learning environments that deepen collaboration with actors and designers and enrich the experience for audiences.

juliarosasosa.com

Kevin Brewer

Kevin Brewer has been writing plays since 1993, when his first play, Prism, won the

Michigan State University undergraduate playwriting award. After graduating from Case

Western in 2002 with a Master’s in Theatrical Performance, he moved to NYC where he

became the playwright in residence for New York Shakespeare Exchange. While there

he had several plays staged including: The One-Man (Two-Man (Not Quite)) Hamlet

(2010); Island (2012) Spring’s Awakening (Adaptation – 2012); The Wall (2014); The

Rape of Lucrece (2016); and The Card Play (2019). Other works include: Jinx (2003);

Stories (2005); Artists and the Aristocracy (2007); Thirds (Adaptation – 2012); 3x3, or 9

after 9 (2013); Testing Testing (2023); Delivered (2023); and Hanway (2024).

Klae Bainter

Klae Bainter is a socio-holic, environmentalist playwright who currently serves as the Resident Playwright & Literary Manager for convergence-continuum. He uses poetic language to explore the grotesque nature of people, their values, and the spaces they hold sacred. His work delves into the decentering of both narrative and humanity. His plays have been produced in Seattle, Spokane, Cincinnati, Houston, and Cleveland. In recent years, he’s had the great pleasure of being published and produced internationally through Climate Change Theatre Action, as part of the Arts & Climate Initiative. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University and a BA in English Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Washington. He lives with an obnoxious orange cat named Cormac.  

Maggie Cregan

Maggie Cregan is a playwright living in Cleveland Heights whose work often features dark humor, difficult women, dangerous beliefs, and themes of modern American life. She produced her play The Station in a sold-out off-Broadway debut as part of the 2024 SheNYC theater festival. The Station also received Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 2023 New Play Award and emerged as a finalist for Playhouse on the Square’s NewWorks@TheWorks Series, the 2024 WATERWORKS Festival, the 2024 Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women, and the Stage 32 Female-Driven Screenwriting Contest. Maggie contributed to the two inaugural Cleveland Microtheater events as a director, actor, and playwright, and in addition to the Dobama Playwrights' GYM, she is a member of the local playwriting group The Play's the Thing and participates in CPT's Dark Room.  

Rachel Zake

Rachel Zake is a writer, actor, and director. A native of Cleveland, Ohio and a graduate of Boston University, Rachel used her degree in advertising and psychology for a few years before moving to Madrid and traveling the world. She landed in LA in 2010 to pursue her first love, acting, before stumbling into published writing. Rachel has published three books: Two People are Coming out of a Building(2014, fiction), The Nomad Diaries(2017, nonfiction), and Pants Off/Dance Off: A Gentleman's Guide(2019, nonfiction). Her plays have been seen onstage at Playwrights Local and other local venues. Rachel has been acting for over 27 years, having performed on numerous stages, including (locally): Dobama Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Cain Park, Playwrights Local, and Halle Theatre. A member of SAG-AFTRA, she has appeared in many TV shows, films, and commercials. She also served as Director of Playmakers Youth Theatre in Beachwood, OH for approximately four years. During that time, she directed over 40 casts of kids (ages 5 to 22) in musicals and straight shows and oversaw 17 other casts in various shows. Beyond the theatre, Rachel proudly serves on the Hathaway Brown Alumnae Committee.