Professional Playwrights
Dylan Thomas Elwood is Turtle Mountain Chippewa. He has been a member of Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre, located in Seattle, Washington, for sixteen years. He has acted in and co-written numerous productions and engaged with the Seattle Native community, culminating in the premiere of his production Killer Whale and the Black Rush at ACT Theatre in August 2019. He is a featured playwright in the global Climate Change Theater Action festival this fall. He currently serves RES and YTT (Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow) as Artistic Associate.
Maggie Lee is an award-winning Seattle playwright who creates diverse, imaginative new worlds on stage in genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror, and action-adventure, with plays produced in Seattle, New York, Seoul, Chicago, and San Francisco. Her last foray into the wilderness with Penguin Productions was her short train tunnel play The Light at the End in Finding Trails (May 2020). She is currently the Resident Playwright at Macha Theatre Works, a board member of Rain City Projects (an organization supporting PNW playwrights), and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her plays are available on New Play Exchange and published by Mneme Press (mnemepress.org). Coming up this fall: The Sky Below, her newest YA steampunk adventure at Youth Theatre Northwest.
Hi I’m Myles Mawa, I’m 17 and I’m a Black dancer and choreographer in the Seattle area. I have loved dance ever since I was young but I didn’t start getting into it seriously until recently but it has informed so many of my ideas and actions today. It’s a constant form of expression that never goes away until I say so, and I hope I can share those feelings with all of you!
For thirty years Pamela Hobart Carter taught science, preschool, and a few other things. Now she teaches on the side, and writes poems, plays, fiction, and non-fiction. Her plays have been read or produced in Seattle (her home), Montreal (her childhood home) and Fort Worth (where she has only visited). PHC is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Her Imaginary Museum (https://kelsaybooks.com/products/her-imaginary-museum) and Held Together with Tape and Glue (https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/held-together-with-tape-and-glue-by-pamela-hobart-carter/). PHC loves hiking in the Cascades. Find out more at her website: https://playwrightpam.wordpress.com/.
Julieta is a bilingual writer, playwright and dramaturge born and raised in Argentina. She has an MA in English and a PhD in Spanish from Rutgers. She’s the protagonist and co-script writer of the award-winning documentary La forma exacta de las islas. She authored a book about the Malvinas/Falklands War, and many articles on Latin American literature. An alumna of the 2020 Tin House Summer Workshop, her creative writing appeared recently in Into the Void, The Normal School and The Fabulist, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She’s an associate playwright at Parley, and five of her plays have been presented in Seattle. www.julietavitullo.com
she/her, they/them (aw-new-hay-uh) Anuhea Brown is an emerging actor, playwright, and activist. Her original work focuses on creating stories for marginalized communities and experiences. Anuhea Brown is a proud Hawaiian Portuguese Filipino woman who hopes to decolonize theatre; creating a theatrical space that is fearless, daring, and inclusive. She is currently earning her MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University.
(she/her) Olivia is a recent graduate of Western Washington University, where she studied both acting and playwriting. Her most recent credits include acting roles in Henry V at WWU and devising and performing with the #Heretoo WWU ensemble. She is grateful and honored to be a part of this project and hopes that you enjoy the show!
Student Playwrights
Sadie Gingold was most recently seen as Meg in A Wrinkle in Time (Shoreline Community College) and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (Penguin Productions). She’s been acting her whole life and has performed at 18th and Union, Bainbridge Performing Arts, Edmonds Driftwood Players, Seattle Public Theatre, and Kitsap Forest Theater. She loves reading Shakespeare plays, cuddling her cat, and spending time with her family. Upcoming projects: Assistant Directing the Tempest with Penguin Productions. She plans to study acting in college. You can follow her on Instagram at @sadiegrace.music.
Kyle Gerstel is a 14-year-old theater geek who couldn’t be happier to have found Penguin in 2021. He recently directed his school’s first musical in over a decade as well as the online musical Hamleton. When not participating in the Penguin Advisory Council, you can find him acting in Youth Theatre Northwest productions, writing reviews for the TeenTix Newsroom, or working on his poetry book. He appreciates your support of Penguin and hopes you enjoy what the Finding Trails team has created!
Disha Cattamanchi (she/her) is currently a junior at Juanita High School. She is also a writer in the TeenTix Newsroom with articles published both on the blog and in The Seattle Times. She is an active member in her school’s theater program, well versed in the ways of the lighting board and writing various plays. This led her to co-found the Penguin Youth Playwrights Cohort, as a part of the Penguin Advisory Council. Disha believes that creating an equitable space is vital to the arts and tries to initiate inclusivity with all her work. She hopes you enjoy the culminated works of the finding trails project!
Aaron Sterne is a 20 year old Playwright, Actor, and Chef. His other current project, Theatre & Dragons, will have its first scenes released as an audio play in mid July, alongside other members of the Penguin Playwriting Cohort’s works. He gives many thanks to Steven and Olivia Sterne, Jennifer Dice, and Puff and Fern the cats; the best family anyone could ask for.
Directors
Agastya is a Seattle area based actor, director and producer, who first directed for Penguin Productions in the spring instalment of Finding Trails and is glad to be back for the fall instalment. Recent directing credits in the ‘before times’ include Washer/Dryer by Nandita Shenoy, Queen by Madhuri Shekar, Dance Like a Man by Mahesh Dattani, and I and You by Lauren Gunderson. A Telecom Engineer by day, Agastya serves as the Artistic Director of Pratidhwani’s Drama wing.
Kathy Hsieh (she/her/hers) is an award-winning actor, writer and director. She has directed for ACT’s Young Playwrights Program, ReAct, SIS Productions, 14/48, Annex, Pilgrim Center for the Arts, and NWAAT. She is a Co-Executive Producer for SIS Productions and works for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. Recent projects include a variety of Zoomlandia projects plus Raisins in a Glass of Milk, The Brothers Paranormal with Pork Filled Productions, and Romeo & Juliet with Seattle Shakespeare’s WoodenO. She has been honored by the National Association of Asian American Professionals in Seattle as their Artist of the Year, A Special Award of Recognition by The Seattle Theater Writers Gypsy Awards for Excellence in Playwriting, an International Examiner Community Voice Awardee in the Arts, a Gregory Award for Sustained Achievement, and a 14/48 Glen Mazen Award . She has also worked with Sound Theatre, the Seattle Rep, Book-It, ACT, Intiman, Taproot, Freehold, Living Voices and more. She is the Cultural Partnerships & Grants Manager for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and one of the founders and Co-Executive Producers for SIS Productions, an Asian American women-led theatre company recognized by Audrey Magazine as a Theatre Trailblazer.
Kiefer Harrington (he/him) is grateful for the opportunity to be working with Penguin Productions and SIS Productions on the GETTING LOST FESTIVAL! Before moving to Seattle in 2017, Kiefer attained his B.S. in Theatre Arts Management at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, where he also received training as a director. He has since worked in various capacities with several companies in the area, including Pork Filled Productions, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and Seattle Rep. After GETTING LOST, you can catch Kiefer working with Pork Filled Productions on their latest iteration of the UNLEASHED FESTIVAL, on Julia Izumi’s miku, and the gods.
Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth is a graduate of UC Berkeley (BA), UC Irvine (MFA), and the Pacific Conservatory Theatre. She made her professional debut at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London, and has since acted in regional theaters all over the United States. As a teaching theater artist, she’s worked with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts; Alliance Theater; New York Film Academy; Seattle University; Meadows School of the Arts; and Freehold’s Ensemble Training Intensive, among others. She served for three years as the Resident Playwright at the Washington Correctional Center for Women as part of the Engaged Theatre program, and her own plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and elsewhere. She is the creator / artistic director of Parley, a playwrights’ group, where she mentors the development of new works by local writers, producing them in workshop form for public audiences. A Latinx homeschooling mother of two, Rebecca currently teaches and coaches through her own tiny studio for dramatic art, Salvo.
Pick your trail! Scripts available HERE for download.
Far From Any Road, by Dylan Elwood
In the middle of a hushed forest, a healer lies sick. He has healed his people, but cannot heal himself. A young woman tries to convince him to return. A passionate, heartbreaking elegy to finding a path forward out of loss.
I’ve Been Waiting So Long to Be Where I’m Going, by Pamela Hobart Carter
Frankie abruptly decides the hike is over, but Micky wants to take the trail to its conclusion. But is their argument really about hiking, or the importance of following through on commitment? Could it be about a deep-rooted fear?
The Three Years Hill, by Maggie Lee
A mother and her child explore the legend of the cursed Three Years Hill to learn the importance of both climbing AND falling in this fun, modern retelling of a Korean folktale.
Sere/Vacation, by Myles Mawa
Choreography that incites exploration of yourself and your surroundings, mixing small amounts of Hip-Hop, Afro, and W*acking
Note – “jeka lo sere” is Swahili for “let’s talk”
The Road to Saturn, by Disha Cattamanchi
A Traveller tired with life, has taken to the woods in order to find a being who knows the path to Saturn: a place of prosperity and wealth only accessible by birds. As the Traveller finds themself at a crossroads, he is faced with the problem that they may never reach Saturn after all.
The Baseball Dilemma, by Aaron Sterne
A father and son on the trail of a familiar frontier – an argument at the ballpark. Is it worth cheering on a losing team? Are we killing the planet by coming to the ballpark in the first place? Can father and son find a trail forward together?
The In-Between, by Sadie Gingold
On their path to recovery, The Character is trapped in a place of decision between going forward and continuing recovery, or following the mysterious Back-Fairy backwards to their old self-destructive ways, making their decision through a mix of poetry and music.
Playwright’s Note: The idea for this piece is that it adds an extra level of creativity for the team that works on it. The chord structures listed are a starting place for the music, and the way the lyrics fit within them is flexible. I encourage anyone who takes a crack at this piece to use multiple combinations of the offered chord structures, make up their own, or even do the piece without it if that feels right to them. Personalize it!
Rushed No More, by Kyle Gerstel
A monologue in verse about a boy who slips, falls, and is carried towards a new perspective on the forest (and mortality).
Artists are encouraged to perform it as individuals, as a choral piece, as spoken word or set to music. Feel free to compose your own or set it to an existing tune, or use the provided guide by Sadie Gingold