It was 2011 and the zombie apocolypse was but a gleam in our eye. We sent out the call for UNDEAD scripts of all kinds. Loads and loads were submitted, but only ten were to be chosen. Below you shall see the 10 writers that caught our ZOMBIE-loving eyes. The best of the best. The cream of the crop. The chosen few.
Ron Burch lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a screenwriter. His play, The Baby, was selected for Smith & Kraus’s The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2011. Over the past year, his plays have been produced in the UK, Seoul (Korea), New York City, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, at the TCG Conference, and at many other theatres.
Mona Lisa was awarded an ART Lab Fund Grant and workshopped/produced in May 2011 at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre (MA). The Glasses won the High Point University New Play Contest (NC) for production in February 2012. Wild Geese, another full length, is set to be produced by The Katselas Theatre in Los Angeles in May/June 2012. Visit www.ronburch.net.
Originally from Ireland, Eoin Carney is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and a regular participant at the Last Frontier and Stony Brook Southampton playwrighting conferences.
Martin French is a recent arrival to Louisville, and the United States from Europe. Previously, Martin worked chiefly in Dublin, and London, in a variety of theatrical capacities, technical and artistic. He was the theatre technician at a number of venues, and a consultant for numerous theatre companies.
He directed extensively, and adapted a number of plays, as well as penning a few pieces himself. Some highlights would include directing Sophocles' Elektra, and touring his production of Churchill's This Is A Chair to Lithuania. His Irish language play Adhmaidán won the 1998 Oireachtas Féile Dramaíochta.
Since arriving in Louisville, he has been an adjuct theatre teacher at JCTC, where he is currently directing Yeats Purgatory and an adaptation of Lady Gregory's Spreading The News towards the end of this month.
Gregory T. Fugate is a writer. His current credits include Keep Hope Alive, Beautiful Zombie, and Year of the Beast – The first book in a series that he is currently seeking publication for. He is a filmmaker and just recently completed shooting a short titled Beautiful Zombie. He has at least a dozen other projects in various degrees of completion and is looking forward to see them come to life.
He has performed on stage with The Alley Theater in Fight Girl Battle World and Looking Glass Wars and on screen in Overtime, Victim and Wish for the Dead. He is also an accomplished freelance Graphic Artist and Photographer. When he is not writing or designing, he makes costume jewelry and Origami.
Stacey Lane’s plays have been seen at over two hundred fifty theatres from coast to coast in the U.S., as well as in Canada, England, and Australia and are published with Playscripts, Inc., Smith and Kraus, Manhattan Theatre Source, San Luis Obispo Little Theatre, Freshwater, and Scene4 Magazine.
She is the recipient of the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Grant, the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District’s Literary Artist Fellowship, a “Charlie Award”, and a nominee for “Outstanding Playwriting for a New Script of a Play or Book of a Musical” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Lane has received script commissions from Classika Theatre, Women Playwrights’ Initiative, Human Race Summer Stock Kids, Zoot Theatre Company, CityFolk, and the Mascot Organization.
She has organized and emceed the Greene Children’s Book Festival and SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day Dayton. Storms, Sheets, and Show Tunes will be published in Smith and Kraus’ “2012 Best Ten-Minute Plays”. www.StaceyLaneInk.com and http://staceylaneink.blogspot.com/
Nina Mansfield is a Greenwich, CT based writer of plays and fiction. Her work has been produced throughout the United States and in Canada, England and Ireland at a variety of venues and festivals including the New York International Fringe Festival, the Boston Theatre Marathon, Vital Theatre’s New Works Festival, 20% Theatre Twin Cities, the Six Women Playwright Festival, Looking Glass Theatre Forum, San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre and multiple 8-Minute Madness Festivals in New York.
Her plays are published by Smith & Kraus, Original Works Publishing, One Act Play Depot and YouthPLAYS. Visit her at: www.ninamansfield.com, Tweet her @NinaJMansfield
Anthony R. Miller (Book/Lyrics) is a Writer/Director/Performance Artist from San Jose, California and has spent 15 years working in independent live entertainment. As Slam master of the San Jose Poetry Slam, he convinced people to listen to poetry in a sports bar, released 3 spoken word albums, received several awards and toured nationally.
While attending San Francisco University, he wrote the first draft of Zombie! as a class project. After receiving a degree in Dramaturgy, he directed and co-produced several readings and the original production of Zombie! in SF.
Anthony Produced, developed and directed several one man shows for the Sunday Night Solo program at SF Playhouse. Directing Credits include Shock Treatment, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Private Parts, and In Search of Midnight. Mr. Miller has several half-written plays and will finish one eventually.
Brendan West (Music) fell into the orchestra pit, quite by accident, played a few gigs down there on all sorts of stringed things and then crawled up to see what all the fuss was about...
As a sound designer for Banana, Bag & Bodice's Beowulf" Composer for Shotgun Player's The Salt Plays and sound designer/mixer for Teatro Zinzanni in San Francisco. Brendan is grateful for the unlikely journey.
Zombie! is his first composition for the stage.
Two Zombies Having a Conversation
This is Jeff Smith’s freshman outing as a playwright. Jeff is a native Louisvillian and lives in Prospect with his wife Lisa and their two children Grace & Max.
Jeff is a veteran of the Air Force, has a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from Webster University, and is General Manager for a local manufacturing company.
Jeff enjoys spending time with his family, all things zombie, writing, most outdoor activities, and of course…BRAAAAAAINS!
Ben Unwin is excited to be directing Necromas for it's second performance since it's original production in 2008 for Bellarmine University. As a director he's worked often with Bellarmine on such productions as Robert Patrick's Help, I Am and Carlos Manuel's No Clue.
As a writer he has had several plays performed in the Finnigan Festival of Funky Fresh Fun including Sympathy for the Techno and Looney Tunes.
His best wishes and special thanks go out to Jillian for everything and to Matt for whom all the best jokes come pouring from his mouth.
Matt Meurer is relatively unknown to the Louisville Theater scene, but this is because he is a ghost.
He can be seen out of the corner of your eye moving in mirrors and causing children to speak to walls in creepy scenarios.
His love goes out to his Pants, his Xander, and his Moose.
Brian Walker is the artistic director of Louisville, Kentucky based Finnigan Productions. He has written and produced several full length plays in the Louisville area, including: Smoke this Play, Dirty Sexy Derby Play, Great American Sex Play and My Daddy’s Name is Big Oil.
Brian is the creator of Finnigan's Festival of Funky Fresh Fun, a 10-minute play festival celebrating Louisville theatre artists, now in its fifth year. Brian's plays have also been seen in Chicago, IL (Appetite Theatre), Albuquerque, NM (FUSION Theatre Company), Baton Rouge, LA (LSU), Madison, WI (StageQ), Cleveland, OH (Arenafest),Detroit, MI (The Ringwald), Houston TX (Theatre Southwest), Omaha, NE (Great Plains Theatre Conference), Brooklyn, NY (Truffle Theatre Company) and Lewiston, ME (Bates College). Brian was awarded the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship Emerging Artist Award for playwriting by the Kentucky Arts Council in July 2010. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights’ Center, The Kentucky Theatre Association and The Kentucky Playwrights Workshop.
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