Abigail Espinal (She/Her) is an award-winning Latin, queer, transgender actress, writer, and filmmaker with many years of professional film, theatre, television, and commercial experience. Her skills range from specialized acting, improvisation, Shakespeare, stage combat, physical comedy, intimacy, children’s theatre, cinematography, assistant camera, assistant directing, key grip, directing, writing, and performing arts and film instruction. She lives in New Jersey and hopes to never stop telling stories!

Andy Bentley (He/Him) is a playwright and deviser from Charlotte, NC. He earned his BA in Theatre Arts and Applied Performance from Drew University, where he also trained with the Tectonic Theater Project and became certified in Moment Work. His plays explore queer identity and resistance while playing with elements of non-realism. His passion for playwriting began in high school when he started devising original work with groups like Mixed Metaphors Productions. His plays have since been staged at Drew and at The Garden New Play Festival in Jersey City, NJ. As he is committed to both the craft of writing scripts and creating physical theatre, he strives to write plays that leave room for theatrical exploration and non-conventional staging. His artistic mission is to create theatre that incites dialogue, builds community, and evokes goosebumps.

D.A. Mindell (He/Him) is a playwright and educator who aims to contribute to a canon for transgender artists to explore the breadth and depth of opportunity that cis artists have been able to pursue for centuries. His play “On the Evolutionary Function of Shame” made its off-Broadway debut February 2025 with Second Stage, following its inclusion as a reading in their 2024 Next Stage Festival, and is published by 1319 Press. Recent recognition includes participation in the 2024 //dare and 2025 Cloud Nine commissions for Breaking the Binary Theatre, Theatre Write Now’s 2026 cohort, Under Construction’s 2026 cohort, First Kiss Theatre’s Summer 2024 Residency, and the 2023 Fair Play Initiative Commission through Florida Atlantic University. He holds an MFA in playwriting, three foam LARP swords from his time as a camp counsellor, and enduring love for his family, his friends, and his dog Birdie (short for Bertolt Brecht, with whom he shares a birthday).

Denise King (They/Them) is a playwright, dramaturg, and professional daydreamer. After graduating from Rider University with a double major in Contemporary Theatre Practice and Film & Television, Denise has continued to learn and grow in unexpected places. They were fortunate enough to be a member of last year’s Storyteller Studio cohort and are overjoyed to be returning to the program this year. Additional recent theatrical experience for Denise includes serving as a dramaturgical assistant for Rachel Murdy’s GOMO the Ghost cabaret, performed at SMUSH Gallery in Jersey City. You may also find some of Denise’s writing in various zine publications, such as Turnpikes and Dykes. In their free time, Denise enjoys exploring new places and playing Dungeons & Dragons with their friends. They hope that through their work and their play, that a sense of joyful hope shines through for others to bask in too.

Elijah N. Maldonado (He/Him) is a playwright, dramaturg, director, and designer. As a recent BA Theatre Studies graduate from Montclair State University with a minor in Creative Writing, he has had the opportunity to direct his own work on stage, assist playwrights with developing their own scripts, and give a voice to multiple communities through theatre. He has previously been the Intern for The Storyteller Studio 24-25 Cohort and now serves as The NJPlayLab’s current apprentice. He is very excited to be a member of The Storyteller Studio and hopes to be challenged as a new artist to the professional world.

Jaka Doherty (She/Her) is a dramaturg, writer, filmmaker, and actress. She was lucky enough to be a part of the ‘25-’26 cohort of the Story Teller Studio and she’s excited to be a part of the cohort again! In last year’s Story Teller Studio Scripted Showcase, Jaka collaborated as a dramaturg on We Are Gathered at the Dyke March, with playwright Kayla Fiscina. Prior to her time with the Storyteller Studio, Jaka grew up performing in school and community productions and in college she discovered the world of dramaturgy and instantly connected with it. She soon after got involved as a student dramaturg on productions such as The Harvest, The Birds, and Mad Forest at Montclair State. She graduated from MSU with a B.A. in Film and TV and a minor in Theatre. Jaka is very grateful to share her passion for storytelling with such a supportive community of artists.

Kathryn Fumie, The Playwrights Center Sponsored Artist

Kathryn Fumie (She/Her) is an Asian-American actor, for both theatre and on-camera, and theater educator, based in Minneapolis. She has previously appeared with Theater Mu, Full Circle Theater Company, Mixed Blood, Park Square, Girl Friday and Umbrella Collective, among others. In 2021, Kathryn helped produce a workshop with Umbrella Collective called “Have You Heard From Jason Lately?” The workshop explored Japanese internment, history and secrets of her Japanese-American family. Kathryn has also worked for GTC Dramatic Dialogues, which brings interactive theater to colleges and universities, addressing issues of diversity, racism, sexual communication, and drug use/abuse; and has worked for Pro-Crisis, which uses actors for live simulations to train police officers and correctional officers in crisis situations.  Kathryn is fascinated by stories of Motherhood and Matrescence (the time when someone becomes a mother) and how they can be translated to the stage. She is a graduate of Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Khamille Blackman (She/Her) is a theatre maker that focuses on dramaturgy, directing, and playwriting. Her work primarily focuses on showcasing stories that represent the black experience. She has a BA in Theatre Studies/African American Studies from Montclair State University. She is excited to be apart of the storytelling studio and hopes to expand her knowledge with other theatre makers.

Martay Whitfield (He/Him) is a writer and director from Texas. He holds a BFA in Theatre from Texas State University and is a certified Theatre Teacher. He moved to New Jersey to pursue his dreams as both an educator and creative artist. During the day, Martay spends his time teaching elementary students the importance of theatre and the power of storytelling. As a playwright, Martay is interested in telling stories that explore identity, relationships, grief, personal growth. Some of his work includes The Other Woman, which has been workshopped and presented as a staged reading for an audience. As a director, one of Martay’s most memorable experiences was serving as an assistant director for Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. This experience further strengthened his passion for collaboration, storytelling, and the theatrical process. Martay is excited to continue developing his voice as a playwright, take creative risks, and build community with fellow writers.

Mia Preziosi (She/Her) is a North Jersey based, multi-hyphenate theatre artist, focusing on playwriting, directing, and theatre administration. She is thrilled to be returning to the Storyteller Studio Cohort! Mia attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, studying Theater Arts and Creative Writing. She was fortunate enough to produce two of her original plays with Fairleigh Dramatics, FDU’s student-run theatre organization. Following graduation, Mia gained experience both directing and assistant directing shows with Stevens Dramatic Society, Stageworks Theatre Group, bergenPAC, and PV Summer Theater. This spring, she interned with The New Jersey Play Lab’s PlayGym, a new play development forum. In addition to writing and directing, Mia holds numerous credits in educational theatre, arts administration, house management, stage management, sound design, and props design. She spent two years as the Manager of bergenPAC’s Performing Arts School. And of course, Mia thoroughly enjoys her time working as a staff usher at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Mollie Gordon (she/her) is a queer playwright and theatre-maker based in Newark, New Jersey. She was recently a member of the 2025-26 QueerSpeech cohort with The Cult Collective and CRY HAVOC/NY Shakespeare Exchange’s Brave New Work cohort. Her play If It Weren’t for the Women, We’d Still Be Stuck in the Desert was a 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist, the 2024 winner of the Scribe Playwriting Competition, a finalist for the 2026 MOXIE Lamoise New Works Festival, and long listed for the 2026 Distillery New Works Festival. Mollie’s plays have been developed with The Bechdel Group, CRY HAVOC/NY Shakespeare Exchange, Athena Project, Personal Pizza Party, and Sarah Lawrence College. She has a BA in Theatre and Writing from Sarah Lawrence.

Silma Sierra Berrada (She/Her) is an African American and Moroccan playwright, screenwriter, poet, and visual artist whose work excavates the space where the personal ruptures against the political. She writes toward ancestral haunting, spiritual collapse, and the inheritance of pain—asking what tenderness survives inside systems built for endurance. Her plays blend ritual, realism, and myth. She holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Ursula Sturgeon, Carnegie Mellon University Sponsored Artist

Ursula Sturgeon (She/Her) is a multidisciplinary writer and dramaturg who believes everybody deserves a night at the opera. Her writing and dramaturgy utilizes theatre as a way to teach audiences about the interconnectedness of the world around them. Her process involves a lot of scholarly research, a lot of love, and a vested interest both in the industry’s past and present. She believes theatre is a powerful way to understand other people across space and time,  and through her work she wants audiences to realize they are not as alone in the world as they might think they are. We live in an increasingly disconnected age… but Sturgeon believes theatre has the power to show us it doesn’t have to be.

Emily Dzioba-Wasserman (she/her) is the Program Director of The Storyteller Studio, having conceived and launched the program in 2020. She is a dramaturg, arts administrator, and producer. Emily’s writing on the Studio appears in the 2025 Issue of Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy, published annually by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Her full bio can be read here, and you can visit her website here.

Studio Facilitator – Alexis Krysten Morgan (She/Her) is a playwright, educator, and advocate who desires to use her art to create healing spaces for communities of color and individuals with exceptionalities. She has been a fellow with Company One Theatre in Boston, MA, and TC Squared Theatre Company in Cambridge, MA. Her short plays CONCRETE DREAMS, THE POLITICS OF MARRIAGE, and KNOW WHO YOU ARE were produced by TC Squared. Her play, CONCRETE DREAMS had a full staged reading with TC Squared in 2020. Other works including SHOW ME and ACTS OF JOY were presented and commissioned as part of Company One’s series. Her television pilot, BY THE WAYSIDE, made it to the 2nd round of Sundance’s 2021 Episodic Lab. Most recently, her play, FOLLOWING THE RULES was part of Boston’s Theatre Marathon’s festival. Her one-act play, REPAST, has an upcoming online reading with TC SQUARED.