Jon Elston- Playwright
​JON ELSTON is a career educator and the award-winning author of over thirty plays and musicals, produced in Buffalo, NYC, Washington, D.C., and online. In 2002 Elston co-founded Buffalo’s Road Less Traveled Productions, where he ran the Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop, and supported the development of hundreds of new plays and the production of nearly 40 world premieres by WNY playwrights. He also serves as Dramaturg for Queen City Playwrights. Elston has taught and directed at the University of Buffalo, Niagara University, SUNY Erie, and elsewhere; and in public schools as a theatre instructor and certified English teacher. He is most proud of his work with Alleyway Summer Theatre, a unique annual program (now in its 14th year) that enables young artists (ages 11-18) to write or devise and then produce their own original short plays and musicals. More information: www.alleyway.com/classes/ate
Drew Fornarola - Playwright
(Writer QUIET CONNECTION, director QUIET CONNECTION and DO THE SPIRITS CONVEY?) is a songwriter and playwright from New York City and the artistic director of Starring Buffalo. He has written for DreamWorks’ SHREK and VEGGIETALES franchises, and was most recently represented off-Broadway by STRAIGHT, a New York Times Critics’ pick now adapted into a major motion picture set for release this fall. Other theater: THUCYDIDES (pub. Samuel French), UNCLE PIRATE (pub. Samuel French), TILLY THE TRICKSTER (collab. With SNL’s Molly Shannon, pub TRW), among others. Film: 1 NIGHT IN SAN DIEGO (Hulu), VEGGIETALES: NOAH’S ARK (DreamWorks Animation), STRAIGHT (BH5 Studios – Post Production), HIGH SCHOOL ZOOMSICAL (Broadway Unlocked). Drew has headlined concerts around the world including Lincoln Center (NYC), London Theater Workshop (London), Broadway au Carre (Paris) and Bar Fedora (Los Angeles) among others. Recent directing credits include LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS starring Tony Award-Winner Matt Doyle, SUNDAY IN THE PARK… starring Tony Award-Nominee Josh Young, and the upcoming world premiere of Jeff Goode’s FURSONA NON GRATA for First Look Buffalo. @drewfornarola www.drewfornarola.com
Franky D Gonzalez - Playwright
Franky D. Gonzalez is a playwright and TV writer of Colombian descent splitting time between Dallas and Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Theatre from the University of North Texas and has had his work featured throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex where he serves proudly as the Dramatists Guild Regional Representative. Nationally, his work has appeared with The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Ground Floor, the NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, the Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Texas State University's Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration, The Sol Project (SolFest 2022), Urbanite Theatre, Visión Latino Theatre Company, The Orchard Project, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Valdez Theatre Conference, the Goodman Theatre (Live @ Five Series), Launch Pad at UC Santa Barbara, The New Harmony Project, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova (ANT Fest 2021), Dallas Theater Center, the William Inge Theatre Festival, Teatro Círculo, American Blues Theatre (Ripped Festival), Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles, Austin Latinx New Play Festival, South Texas College Theatre Latinx New Play Festival, Stages Repertory Theatre's Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival (2019 and 2024), the Latino Theatre Company’s RE:Encuentro 2021: National Virtual Latina/o/x Theatre Festival, the Latinx Theatre Commons 2022 Comedy Carnaval, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, the HBMG Foundation National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Tofte Lake Center, Ignition Arts, ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine, TEATRX, Scriptworks ATX, Play4Keeps Podcast, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, Clamour Theatre Company, Ammunition Theater Company, Greenway Court Theatre, the Cloud Factory, The Mid-America Theatre Conference, Westfield Theatre Group, The Midwest Dramatists Conference, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Franky was a recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting, the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival Manila Best Overall Production Prize, and was a staff writer for the fourth season of 13 Reasons Why. Productions of his work have also been recognized garnering two Non-Equity Jeff Awards in Chicago for Short Run Production and Short Run Director in 2024. He has also been a finalist for the New Dramatists residency, the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival, the Civilians R&D Group, The DVRF Playwriting Program, the Ashland New Play Festival, the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, BETC Generations, the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, and a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Headwaters New Play Festival, the Dubai Short+Sweet Theatre Festival, and runner-up for the Alpine Fellowship. Most recently Franky was named an Orchard Project Writer-in-Residence and a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Playwriting Fellowship (Sol Project Fellowship). Previously he was a 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, a Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program Fellow, a Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and is currently Board Member for the New Harmony Project as well as the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence
Franky has been previously published in/contributed to: The Offing, The Playwrights Toolbox, YouthPLAYS, Broadway Play Publishing, The Dramatist Magazine, Smith & Kraus, Texas Theatre Journal, Jenny Magazine, Gather by the Ghost Light: Year Three, and The Playground Experiment's Faces of America.
Adam Hahn - Playwright
(Playwright OPEN HOUSE OF THE DAMNED) – Adam’s play OVERLAY was presented by First Look Buffalo in the fall. Several of his plays have premiered with SkyPilot Theatre Company in Los Angeles, including OVERLAY, MURDER . . . MURDER . . . MURDER . . . , KONG: A GODDAMN THIRTY-FOOT GORILLA, THE MERMAID WARS, and the musical EARTHBOUND (with composer Jonathan Price and lyricist Chana Wise). Other productions include FROGGER and DEAR ABE at Studio Roanoke in Roanoke, VA and FEEDBACK LOOP in the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Some of his short plays for young audiences are available from YouthPLAYS. Adam holds an MFA from the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University.
Adam holds an MFA from the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University.
Wendy-Marie Martin - Playwright
(Playwright for JUST SIGN ) - Wendy-Marie is a playwright, dramaturg, and director as well as the Department Chair of the Undergraduate Theatre Department at Hollins University. She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts & Playwriting from Ohio University and an MFA in Playwriting from The Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University. For over twenty-five years, Wendy-Marie has taught, directed, and performed in Europe and the U.S. Her plays have been produced in Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Ireland, and the U.S and published by Smith & Krauss, Theatrefolk, and YouthPLAYS. Her play TO BE A STARFISH, was a finalist for the Jane Chambers Award for Excellence in Feminist Playwrighting in 2022. Wendy-Marie is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
Jeff Goode - Playwright
(Playwright, ELF SPACE and THE FUTURE FORMER HOME OF THE TIME TRAVEL MUSEUM) is a Garland Award-winning playwright and Emmy-nominated screenwriter: The author of THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES and creator of Disney's AMERICAN DRAGON: JAKE LONG. His latest work by First Look Buffalo Theatre Company's, world premiere of FURSONA NON GRATA.
Donna Hoke - Playwright
(Playwright): Donna's work has been seen in 46 states and on five continents. Plays include BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART (2016 Kilroys List), ELEVATOR GIRL (2017 O’Neill, 2018 Princess Grace finalist), and TEACH (Gulfshore New Works winner). She has been nominated for both the Primus and Blackburn Prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (SEEDS, SONS & LOVERS, ONCE IN MY LIFETIME). In its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo's Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation. Donna has served the Dramatists Guild since 2013 and is an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions.
Michelle Tyrene Johnson - Playwright
Michelle Tyrene Johnson is a senior producer at Louisville, Kentucky’s public radio station, a writer, and a former attorney. As a playwright, Johnson’s work has been staged nationally in readings and productions, including at the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival in NYC, the Pork Filled Productions Unleashed Festival in Seattle, Washington, the Florida Rep PlayLab Festival in Fort Myers, Florida, the KC Repertory Theatre’s reading series and its New Works Festival in Kansas City, Missouri, and Local Theatre’s PlayLab in Boulder, Colorado. Her commissioned play “Only One Day A Year” was selected for the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices Festival in 2020, was the recipient of a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and had its world premiere at Coterie Theatre in 2023. Johnson received her MFA in Writing with an emphasis on playwriting in May 2022 from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. Additionally, Johnson is a fourth-generation Kansan and a devotee of soap operas, mystery novels, real R&B music, traveling, and nice yarn.
Her Directorial style is a group theatre based approach focusing on a combination of Meisner, Strasberg and Uta Hagen. Some directing credits include:- The Tea Party, by Sean Abley (Rehearsed Reading) First Look Theatre. Shakespeare's Women produced at Macquarie University (AUS); Chun Li produced at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row (Manhattan); Brit Bits produced at Mind The Gap Theatre (Manhattan), 6 years consecutively (2007-2013). The Real Thing produced at The Players Theatre (New York City); Cosi, by Louis Nowra produced by Dramac (Sydney) and more...
Camilla was also Director of Voice Over talent and Content Producer at Juice 1073.1 radio station, (Gold Coast).
ArLynn Parker - Playwright
ArLynn Parker is a writer, director, and performer native to Chesapeake, VA. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University and MFA in Playwriting from Hollins University. She was recently featured as a producing and performing artist in the 2024 and 2025 Z Fringe Festivals at Zeiders American Dream Theater in Virginia Beach and as a playwright in Hollins University's 2025 Winter Festival. She assistant directed "The Producers" at Little Theatre of Virginia Beach where she serves on the Playreading Committee and will be directing the upcoming production of "Stick Fly" in January of 2026. Her work will also be shown in Zeiders American Dream Theatre's fall Proteus Festival. ArLynn works as the Programs Coordinator for the Sandler Center Foundation, and you may catch her during Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia.
Deborah Yarchun - Playwright
Samantha Macher - Playwright
(Playwright DO THE SPIRITS CONVEY) is an award-winning playwright and filmmaker based in Washington, DC. Since beginning her career in 2011, she had over 70 productions of her written work both in the US and abroad. Her play RESET was a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award (2015) and her play WAR BRIDE was the winner of the StageScene LA Play of the Year (2012). Her award-winning documentary LAST PYRAMID (2015) was accepted into several festival and her newest film TO THE NEW GIRL is now available on Amazon Prime. Her scripted podcast ST. MARY’S SCHOOL (FOR CHILDREN WITH THE STIGMATA) has charted internationally for audio dramas on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and has reached over thirty-thousand listens since it launched in 2021. Samantha is also a theater educator, and was a Visiting Professor in the Hollins MFA Playwriting Program and was also the Keenan Lecturer for the UVA Drama Department while her play THE ARCTIC CIRCLE *AND A RECIPE FOR SWEDISH PANCAKES was in production (2016). Samantha is resident playwright at First Look Buffalo, a resident playwright emeritus at SkyPilot Theater in Los Angeles, a proud graduate of the University of Virginia, and the Playwrights Lab at Hollins University.
Deborah Yarchun’s plays have been produced and/or developed at Alleyway Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, The Civilians’ R&D Group, Capital Rep, The New Harmony Project, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Amphibian Stage Productions, The Great Plains Theater Conference, The Playwrights’ Center, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, TheatreSquared’s Arkansas New Play Festival, the William Inge Center for the Arts, Jewish Plays Project, the Minnesota Fringe, Six Points Theatre, Northern Stage, the Philadelphia Fringe, The Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater by Young Playwrights Inc., Williams Street Rep, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and at theaters and universities across the United States and in Canada. Deborah is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Her other honors include two Jerome Fellowships at The Playwrights’ Center, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, an EST/Sloan Commission, Dartmouth’s Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Kernodle New Play Award, the Maxim Mazumdar Award, and Women in the Arts & Media Coalition’s Collaboration Award. Her play GREAT WHITE was an Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award and her play ATLAS, THE LONELY GIBBON was a finalist for the National Playwrights Conference. Deborah is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and was recently a Core Writer at The Playwrights’ Center. She earned her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.
Bella Poynton - Playwright
Dr. Bella Poynton (she/her) is a playwright, director, actor, and theater scholar. Her creative work has been published with Samuel French (Concord Theatricals) and can be seen in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019, The Best American Short Plays 2018-2019, The Weirdest Plays of 2020, and WE-US: Monologues for Gender Minority Characters. Her plays have been produced and developed at Alleyway Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Festival, Road Less Traveled Productions, 3rd Act Theatre Company, Oklahoma City University, Otherworld Theatre, Theatre Viscera, and the Pittsburgh New Works Festival among others. Poynton is a co-chair of the Playwriting Symposium at the Mid America Theatre Conference, and the director of the Playwrights Wing at First Look Buffalo Theatre Company. Upcoming productions include: The AI at Delphi (First Look Buffalo), 20,000 Leagues (Otherworld Theatre), Another World: One Acts for the Imagination, (Worthington Kilbourne High School), and Medusa Undone (Tulsa Community College). Poynton holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from SUNY Buffalo.
Sponsors/Grants
Erie County Cultural Funding Grant
