Kristin Battersby is a Hudson Valley local, SAG actor, and first time playwright. She’s thrilled to have been selected for GCB3, and is grateful to Gaby and Nora for hosting this festival and providing such wonderful feedback! Acting credits include Shakespeare: Unplugged (VIOLA/ DIANA) with the Powerhouse Theater, Pride and Prejudice (LIZZY BENNET) with County Players Falls Theater, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (CANDY STARR) with the New Deal Creative Arts Center. kristinbattersby.com/home-page/

Sharon Cooper is a NYC based playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced in Australia, Germany, India, Hungary, Singapore, England, the Netherlands, and nationally. She is published in The Best 10-Minute Plays 2014, 2016, 2019; Literature to Go, and others. She wrote and co-produced the short award-winning films Believin’ and The Seven Men of Hanukkah which screened in festivals around the country. Sharon is a graduate of NYU, a writing coach, and member of Honor Roll! and Stillwater Writers. She’s thrilled to be a part of GCB3 and to be collaborating with Jessica Bauman and her team. www.sharonecooper.com

Gabrielle Fox is an award-winning playwright. Her play The Home was presented in the La MaMa New Playwright Marathon and won multiple awards in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity including Best Playwright and Production. Her work has been included in online journals and print anthologies including The Best New Ten Minute Plays 2021 and We/US Monologues for the Gender Minority. She won the 914Inc. Women in Business Award for her work as Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Revolution. She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning short film Father Daughter Dance. She teaches playwriting at SUNY Westchester. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. 

Adrienne LaValley was born in the small Finger Lakes town of Seneca Falls, New York. She began her career as an intern for the Wooster Theatre Group and has since developed into a prolific actor, voice over artist and writer. Combining her love of story telling with her wide breadth of essay work, she created the podcast ‘The Old Man and The Me, the video series Nugget O’ Knowledge and the children’s book The Bravest Kind. Her play The Good Father was part of the Dramatist’s Guild Footlights series and developed at ESPA Primary Stages. www.adriennelavalley.com

Evelyn Mertens has had plays produced through Westchester Collaborative Theatre (WCT); Axial Theatre; Glass Ceiling Breakers; the Aery and Ariane Festivals; Irvington Arts; the Library series; and Manhattan Rep. She studied acting with Howard Meyer’s Acting Program, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Circle in the Square. Evelyn is a member of Honor Roll! and the Dramatists Guild. 

A Broadway World review said, “Mertens is more than a writer -- her mastery of imagery, story and the human condition casts her as a portrait artist whose palette is words, each of which she chooses with utmost precision and affection.”

Susan Jennifer Polese is a poet and award-winning playwright whose work is seen at such venues as La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, HERE Performing Arts Center, The Midtown International Theatre Festival, and Planet Connections Festivity in Manhattan. Trained at The Wonderhorse Theatre, Herbert Berghof Studio, and Hunter College she has taught playwriting through Axial Theatre and Key West Fringe Theatre. Susan attended La Mama’s International Playwright Retreat in Umbria, Italy. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, New York Women in Film & Television and is published in Alexander Street Contemporary World Drama Anthology. 

Steph Prizhitomsky (she/her) is the eighteen year old head screenwriter of Future is Female Productions, co-founder of the White Rabbit Film Festival in its second year, screenwriter/director of Imagine Networks’ horror miniseries Distress Signals, editor in chief of Suits and Sage Magazine, and recipient of the Best Young Actor award at the NJ Film Awards.

Louise Schwarz's award-winning plays have been produced and developed at the Mark Taper Forum, New York International Fringe Festival, Stage Left Theatre, Pandora’s Box, Horizon Theatre, among many others. Residencies include the Edward Albee Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts. M.F.A. Playwriting, Columbia University. B.A. Drama, University of Georgia.

Kelli Lynn Woodend is a Kentucky playwright. She has previously worked for History Channel, PBS, Muppets. and Sesame Studios. After years of living in NYC, she returned to her small hometown to teach English at her former high school.