Valeria A Avina

VALERIA A AVINA (www.valeriaavina.com) is an actress, writer, producer and a voice teacher based in NYC originally from Durango Mexico. MFA Acting at the University of Iowa, Fitzmaurice Certify Voice Teacher and Associate Producer at Gabriela Dias Entertainment. in 2016 Valeria has done a few films  Burgesinha, the HBO Asian pacific competition "MALOU" by Maravic Guevara. also she wrote and performed in her first short film called "My Relationship with the Moon". She is a member of the Saudade Theatre Company, The Other Real Theatre, INTAR Unit52, Teatro SEA, The Flea (The BATS), VASTA Member, a member of AGR Immersion, and she is the Co­-founder of a Latino Web Series called “Claro Wey”.

SCIENCE FICTION INFLUENCES: Star Wars, ET, Pan's Labyrinth, Back to the Future, Star Trek, Alien, Xfiles, Black Mirror, The OA, Sense8, Star Trek, The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

Matt Barbot

MATT BARBOT is a writer and actor from Brooklyn, NY who received dual BAs in Theater and Creative writing from Franklin & Marshall College. His plays have been performed in New York, Miami, LA and Pennsylvania. El Coquí Espectácular and the Bottle of Doom has been workshopped as part of IATI Theater's Cimientos Play Development Program, and performed at The Brick's 2014 Comic Book Theater Festival; Matt's play Infallibility was produced as part of the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival. Recently, Matt wrote the Pepsi branded digital short The Perfect Play, starring Victor Cruz of the New York Giants. He is currently a member of The Flea Theater's resident acting company, The Bats, with whom he performed in Jeffrey M. Jones' A Letter from Omdurman, as well as the Drama Desk Award nominated and New York Times Critics' pick These Seven Sicknesses. He is also a contributing writer to and former City Editor of online Latino culture and events guide Remezcla. Matt is pursuing his MFA in playwriting at Columbia University.

Sean David DeMers

SEAN DAVID DEMERS (www.seandemers.com) is a playwright with New England and New York City based roots.  His plays include Great Emergencies, Faculty Portrait, Going There, Redacted, Off Tackle Glide, Four Movements, Dreams of Elysia, You Love Myself, and The Suicide of Mark Twain. He has had plays produced by Riverside Theater, Two Lights Theatre Ensemble, Prime Number Productions, Harvest Theater Festival, Des Moines Social Club. He is published by Samuel French in the first two volumes of Theater Masters’ Take Ten series. He was a Semi-Finalist for the O’Neill in 2014, and a Finalist for the Kennedy Center MFA Workshop and Weissberger Nominee in 2016. Sean is a graduate of the University of Iowa MFA Playwright’s Workshop.

SCIENCE FICTION INFLUENCES: Books:The Martian Chronicles, Slaughterhouse Five, From the Earth to the Moon, A Wrinkle In Time. Movies: Back to the Future, 2001, 12 Monkeys. Plays: RUR, Marjorie Prime

Emily Dendinger

Emily Dendinger is a Brooklyn-based writer by way of Chicago. Her plays include Hideous Progeny (produced by LiveWire, Holland Productions and North Park College), For the Falls, Still Quiet, No home for Bees, and Pocketful of Sand (winner of the Activate Midwest New Play Award and a 2015 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award finalist). She is a two-time winner of Theater Masters National Play Competition and has been a finalist for the City Theatre National Award, DC Source Festival, the Heideman Award, and 2017 Emerald Prize. Emily has worked around the country with companies including The Lark, Sideshow Theatre, The Trip, The Alliance, The Navigators, NNPN, Filament Theatre, Available Light, Curious Theatre Company, NJ Rep, and TimeLine Theatre. Emily was the 2015-2016 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence with Curious Theatre Company and is an alumni member of TimeLine’s Writer’s Collective. Emily is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwright’s Workshop.

Sci-fi influences: Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Madeleine L’Engle, The X-Files, and Mary Shelley.

Jack Horton Gilbert

Jack Horton Gilbert (jackhortongilbert.com) is an New York based, Ohio born playwright and actor. A member of The Flea Theater’s resident acting company, The Bats, as well as a founding member of Decent Company and Crazy Raisin Productions; Jack’s writing focuses on the absurd, the magical, the human, and the spaces between. His plays have been produced and read all over NYC and Ohio, including The American Theatre of Actors, The Tank, Standard Toykraft, and Stage Left Studio. His full-length piece Mea Culpa was recently published in the Adirondack Plays: Anthology Of New Plays.

Science-Fiction Influences: Stephen King and everything he's done, specifically The Dark Tower, Kubrick, Hr Giger, Danny Boye, Kurt Vonnegut, Tolkien, Lewis, Bukowski, David Bowie. 

Cristina "Cha" Ramos

CRISTINA "CHA" RAMOS (www.Cristina-Ramos.com) is a performer, theatre creator, and total bookworm. She's an alumna of Columbia University (Anthropology), The Lee Strasberg Institute (Acting), and The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (Playwriting), as well as a founding member of Combative Theatre Company, a collaborating member of Everyday Inferno Theatre Company, and an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. More info and news at www.Cristina-Ramos.com.

SCIENCE FICTION INFLUENCES: 

Books: Dune by Frank Herbert and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
TV shows: Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and The Twilight Zone (the old one). Movies: The Fifth Element and Minority Report
Theater: Once Upon a Time on the Surface of Mars by Adam Esquenazi Douglas and Boldy Go by Matt Barbot (both introduced to me by The Navigators!)