SEAN CHRISTOPHER LEWIS is the inaugural recipient of the Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice in Playwriting from the Kennedy Center. A former NNPN Emerging Playwright in Residence at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, he has toured his critically lauded solo shows I WILL MAKE YOU ORPHANS (Uno Festival of Solo Performance, Available Light 01 Festival, Equinox Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Center for Independent Artists, Galapagos Art Space, Hyde Park Theatre, TIXE Arts Center, Bowery Poetry Club) and THE GONE CHAIR (Penn State University’s Cultural Conversations Festival, Openstage Harrisburg’s Flying Solo Festival, Riverside Theatre).

His other plays include MILITANT LANGUAGE (National Premiere at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Halcyon Theatre of Chicago, Bang and Clatter in Cleveland and Theater for the New City in NY) and THE APERTURE (Cleveland Public Theatre). He has been a playwriting fellow at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and has had his work developed at the PlayPenn New Play Conference, Lark New Play Development Center, Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s Harriet Lake Festival of New Work and at the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University. A noted actor, he has worked Off Broadway at the Pearl Theatre, in NYC at La Mama ETC, regionally with companies like the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and mostly recently in the feature films GOD COUNTRY and BLOOD FANTASY.

CLICK HERE for the I Will Make You Orphans website.

"A night of storytelling that's exciting and explicitly authentic."
- New York Press

"A virtuoso deployment of language, humor,compassion, and insight."
- Mark Hunter, Cornell College

"A brilliant writer and performer ... powerful, funny, and hugely entertaining. The performance, the writing, and the superb direction knocked me out."
- Ken Webster, Hyde Park Theatre

MATT SLAYBAUGH is the Artistic Director of Available Light Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. His writing and directing of original works for Available Llight and the BlueForms Theatre Group has been lauded by American Theatre magazine, New York Press, the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle, the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, and the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

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