2008 FutureFest Adjudicators

MARY A. DONAHOE is a director, actress, and professor of theatre at Wright State University . She received her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon in 1992 where she directed her original translation of the ancient Greek comedy, Lysistrata. Her dissertation on sacramental theatre was published by Tel Aviv University in 1999. She was Artistic Director of Women Who Laugh Theatre Company in Oregon that produced plays by multi-cultural women playwrights from 1987-1992. Directing credits at WSU include her original translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, and A Piece of My Heart, which was nominated for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival and traveled to the regional festival in 1999. She has worked as an actress for university and professional theatres and performed original solo pieces about the lives of women artists and pioneers in Seattle , Los Angeles , and New York . Locally, she acted for the Human Race Company in their productions of A Delicate Balance (Edna) and W;t (E. M. Ashford) and for WSU’s production of Lost In Yonkers as Grandma Kurnitz. Other acting credits include Winter Roses at the Old Globe Theatre, Josie in Moon for the Misbegotten, and Emilia in Othello at Oregon ’s Magic Circle Theatre. In 1996- 99, she served as National Coordinator of the Jane Chambers Women Playwrights Award (ATHE). In 2006 she was elected Trustee/Director on the Executive Board for the International Centre for Women Playwrights.

ANDREA J. DYMOND is Literary Manager and Resident Director at Victory Gardens Theater, where her recent credits include world premiere productions of Jeffrey Sweet’s Court Martial at Fort Devens; Shoes by Gloria Bond Clunie; and Charles Smith's Free Man of Color. Both Shoes and Free Man of Color were Jeff-nominated for Best New Work, and Free Man of Color won the award for the 2003 -2004 season. Andrea has worked in new play development for most of her twenty plus years in Chicago, and worked as a dramaturg, both credited and un-credited, helping to shepherd many new works to the stage during 10 years as a member of American Blues Theater (now American Theater Company) and 6 years as Artistic Associate at City Lit Theatre Company. A recipient of the TCG New Generations grant supporting future leaders in the field, other recent directing credits include: Sonja Linden’s I Have Before Me A Remarkable Document Given To Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda for Victory Gardens; Peter Parnell’s Hyde in Hollywood for Shattered Globe Theatre; the world premiere of Aaron Carter’s Panther Burn for MPAACT, at Victory Gardens’ Greenhouse, as well as Helen at Next Theatre. Andrea’s development work on new musicals includes workshop productions of St. Heaven and The Arresting Dilemma of Mister K for Theatre Building Chicago’s Stages Festival.

DAVID FINKLE is a freelance reporter and reviewer who has covered the arts for over 40 years. He is a regular contributor on theatre to the Village Voice and TheaterMania.com, where he is the senior critic, and writes about music and the voice for Back Stage. In addition he has written about theatre, movies, books, and dance for 50 various publications and lives in Manhattan .

ELEANORE C. SPEERT is founder and President of Speert Publishing which offers self-publishing services expressly for playwrights. Her short play, The History of Me, was produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her full-length play, Peripheral Vision, was produced in New York by I.C.A.N.I. productions. Her short play, Quartet Nights or the Last Good Time We Had, has been published by Penguin Books, and Heinemann has published a portion of her play, Madagascar Butterfly. Her other plays include Dear Anna, Something So Simple, The Gathering and others. She served as a judge for the Princess Grace Playwriting Awards, administered by New Dramatists. She was the Publications Director at Dramatists Play Service for ten years and published over 600 acting editions. Prior to her position at Dramatists Play Service, she held production positions with Lifetime Productions, Current Trend Productions, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studio Productions. She is currently the Buyer at The Drama Book Shop, Inc., one of the oldest independent bookshops in the country, and one of a handful of bookshops dedicated to the performing arts. She is proud to be an adjudicator at FutureFest for a seventh season.

MILAN STITT is best known as a writer for The Runner Stumbles, which was selected as Best Broadway Play in the Burns Mantle 75-76 Best Plays and continues to be performed around the world. As a Company Playwright at Circle Rep, several of his plays were developed and produced. Stanley Kramer made the film of The Runner Stumbles with Dick VanDyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Beau Bridges , Maureen Stapleton, Tammy Grimes and Ray Bolger. He has written television films for all networks, including for American Playhouse’s Long Shadows, which was nominated for an International Emmy Award in 1995. As a producer, he produced the Off-Broadway musical Kiss Now and was Executive Director of Circle Repertory Theater for three years, presenting premieres of plays by Stephen Dietz, Charles Evered, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Heelan, Dusan Kovacevic, Beth Littleford and Kikue Tashiro; directed by Laurence Fishburne, Leonard Foglia, Richard Jenkins, Penny Bergman and Austin Pendleton with actors including Heavy D, Olympia Dukakis, Rita Moreno, Fritz Weaver, Frank Whalley and Louis Zorich. His new play, a thriller, Hunting Accidents, has been developed in New York at the Epiphany Theater Company and the Heartlande Theatre Company in Oakland , Michigan . He co-wrote the libretto for the Pittsburgh Ballet Company’s The Nutcracker, which will play for 7 more years during November and December. His one act “Places We’ve Lived” played last June as part of the Pittsburgh ’s gay festival of new plays. For eight years, Mr. Stitt has been the Raymond Smith Professor of Dramatic Writing and Head of Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University . He has taught writing at Princeton, NYU, Yale (where he was Head of the Playwriting Department for four years) and the University of Michigan . Born in Detroit , he now lives in New York City and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.