Alexandra Curth is a writer, dramaturg, and props and scenic artist based in Philadelphia. She has served as the scenic charge for EgoPo’s production of A Human Being Died That Night, UPenn’s Beckett Shorts and Villanova’s workshop production of The Gambler. She was the props designer for Tribe of Fools’ Fly Eagles Fly, and is currently working on UPenn’s upcoming production Of Government, and Villanova Theatre’s Importance of Being Earnest. Alexandra has worked in Chicago, Portland, and Lancaster as a teaching artist and theatre administrator.

Dead Doll by Alexandra Curth Welcome to the inside world of sex dolls. Buck has a garage filled with 100 dolls that he doesn’t know his daughter thinks are her toys, that his new girlfriend found them, too, or that they have consciousnesses of their own. Stage Directions: Andrea Rumble-Moore Lolly: Megan Slater Mim: Kristin Curley Lash: Elizabeth Meisenzahl Que: Rebecca Whitten Buck: CJ Miller Lacey: Casey Berner Rosemary: Shawneen Rowe Uni: Adrena Williams

Amber Palmer is a playwright currently based out of Kalamazoo Michigan. Her work has been read at Activate Midwest: New Play Festival (Kalamazoo, MI), Flint Repertory Theatre New Works Festival, Pegasus Playlab (Orlando, FL), Bristol Valley Theater’s New Play Initiative (Naples, NY) and Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival. A monologue from her play “It’s a Small World (or The Robot Play)” is published in Best Men’s Monologues of 2019 (Smith and Kraus). Her play “The Speedy Gonzales Memorial Turtle Sanctuary” is a finalist for City Theatre's National Award for Short Playwriting (2019) and a regional finalist for the Gary Garrison 10 Minute Play Award (Region 3, 2018). She will graduate with her M.F.A. in Playwriting from Western Michigan University in Spring 2020. Her work can be seen this fall at Tipping Point Theatre's Sandbox Play Festival.

Three one act plays by Amber Palmer focusing on the Midwestern Queer perspective.

The Upstage chats with Shawneen Rowe, writer of CROOKED SHADOWS! Shawneen Rowe (AEA) has been performing and teaching theatre her whole life. She has recently added a Masters in Theatre from Villanova University to her BFA from New York University and many new tools to her toolbox including Dramaturgy, Playwriting and her new solo piece Crooked Shadows. Selected credits: Leonato/Much Ado About Nothing; Barbara/August: Osage County; Bella/Lost in Yonkers; Lady Macbeth/Macbeth; Mrs. Allonby/A Woman of No Importance; Bunny/House of Blue Leaves; Nurse/Romeo and Juliet.

Stories are gifts we give to each other. We laugh together. We cry together. We heal together. Loved ones are kept alive for generations through the retelling of their tales. Shawneen struggles to step out of the shadows and into the light by revisiting the stories of her Grandma Rosa. Woman. Mother. Warrior. Curator of Family Herstory. Trigger warning: domestic violence.

The Upstage sits down with Doriane Feinstein, author of Zachary Hates Everything!

Zachary is struggling to make it through his senior year of high school. After a Homecoming dance gone wrong, he is left with a hole in his memory and an eerily familiar song that won't leave his head. He is visited by dead composers as his mind tries to piece together what happened that night. *Trigger Warning*

The Upstage sits down with Kim Shimer, author of A Ghost of A Chance!

A GHOST OF A CHANCE by Kim Shimer  is the afterlife story of Eleanor, a nitpicky, obsessive, know-it-all whom, after dying, finds she can't make it to her final resting place until she reconciles with her husband Harry. Unfortunately, because she made Harry miserable for most of their 30+ years of marriage, he's not particularly inclined to make nice with her ghost when she pays him a visit. In fact, he's already checking out an online dating site, ready to "find love again."