2012-13 RESIDENTS

Actors-In-Residence

Amanda Anne Atkinson is a California-born actress who fell in love with Philadelphia.  Most recent roles include: Margaret/Showman and costume designer in iNtuitons Experimental Theatre’s Woyzeck, Cavale in Front Row Theatre’s Cowboy Mouth, and Columbia in The Pennsylvania Players’ The Rocky Horror Show.  She has received theatre training at American Conservatory Theater in  San Francisco and Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training in Philadelphia.  She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she earned a B.A. in Psychology.  She is absolutely delighted to be a part of the newly created EAR (Emerging Artist in Residence) Actors’ Residency at Plays & Players.

New to Philadelphia from Central Pennsylvania, Marci Chamberlain is thrilled to be apart of Plays and Players’ EAR Residency.  Some of her favorite roles include Bella in Big Love, Rabbi Chemelwitz in Angels in America, and The Power Animal in Stephanie Skura’s The Corduroy Prayer.  While attending Juniata College, Marci’s interest in the physical theatre forms of Corporeal Mime, Lecoq, and Commedia dell’arte influenced her original play, A Culmination of Many Things, which is about the magic of theatre, vulnerability of imagination, and struggle toward a new direction.  She also conceived a short solo piece entitled Reach, based off her grandfather’s doubts in life, and re-imaged Samuel Beckett’s Rockaby, inspired by her grandmother’s battle with ALS.  Since college, Marci has played the lead role of Jenny Clancy in the web series Office Hours and was Emma Watson’s stand-in for The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Jenna Horton is a Philadelphia-based independent performing artist. Since attending the Headlong Performance Institute in 2009, she has worked as an actor with a number of local companies including The Berserker Residents, Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, Applied Mechanics, IRC, Bright Light Theatre Company, Gas & Electric Arts, and Shakespeare in Clark Park. Her props design was featured in Red Rovers by Headlong Dance Theatre in the 2011 Live Arts Festival. As a member of the Bearded Ladies, she assistant directed Wide Awake: A Civil War Cabaret and co-directed Beards are for Shaving: A 007 Cabaret. She holds a B.A. in Performance Studies from Brown University (favorite roles: Chicken in bobrauschenbergamerica and Woman in The Thing About Air Travel). For more information, please visit: https://jennabethhorton.apostrophenow.com/.

PDC Playwrights-In-Residence

Alisha Adams began writing plays in Los Angeles, after completing a degree in Anthropology and Globalization. Her first plays were developed with Padua Playwrights, in a studio course led by Guy Zimmerman and Coleman Hough. She wrote and workshopped her tragic plays–THE MEN FROM THE GIRLS, MICROMEGAS, and ACCIDENTS OF THE BREAD–during a residency at The Department of Safety in Anacortes, Washington. Ocean Barber, her book of poetry and short stories, was published by Existential Media Press in 2009. She occasionally collaborates with friends on multimedia installations and site-specific dance, and writes about the history and mythology of tools on her appropriately titled blog, Tools (urbanhonking.com/tools). She recently founded Philadelphia Women’s Writing Workshops where she coordinates free workshops in partnership with social service organizations (womenwritephilly.tumblr.com). She is currently hard at work on a trilogy of plays exploring faith and culture in Sierra Leone, the Navajo Reservation, and the Twin Cities.

Tommy Butler calls Trenton, New Jersey his home. In 2008 he was invited to The Kennedy Center to participate in their summer playwriting intensive. His play Two Losers Present: The Exit Strategy (co-creators: Brian Long and David Spadora) was produced as a part of #theaternow’s Works in Progress series. His children’s play, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, was produced by McCarter Theatre Center’s Education Department. In addition to his writing, Tommy was a 2011 Directing Fellow at The Kennedy Center and served as the Resident Directing Intern at Actor’s Express. He recently served as a project coordinator for The Civilians on their piece Occupy #S17, which was performed at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater on the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Westminster College of the Arts. Tommy is a Teaching Artist at McCarter Theatre Center and the Artistic Director of #theaternow.

Robin Rodriguez has enjoyed productions/readings with Long Beach Playhouse, Potluck Productions in Kansas City and NY Artists Unlimited  (International Cringefest ’10.) Her play “Touchstone” was a finalist at the Long Beach Playhouse’s 2009 New Works Festival and Philadelphia Theatre Workshop’s Playshop Festival 2009. Locally, her work has appeared in the 2008 Fringe show 4X4 (“Crumbled Worlds”), the 2009 Fringe show 4Play (“Monogamy”), the 2009 Spark Showcase (“The Journey”),  HellaFreshFish 3.0 (“A Door Or Not A Door”), Philadelphia Theatre Workshop’s 2011 PlayShop Festival (“Loved Ones”) plus numerous readings at Philly’s Primary Stages. She is a member of Philadelphia Dramatist Center (PDC) and The Dramatists Guild.

For more information on our playwright residency partner, PCD, please go to www.pdc1.org.