Meet the Playwrights
10 Minute Play Festival
FELISPEAKS
FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish artist celebrated for their profound exploration of identity, social justice, and personal growth through poetry. As well as being featured in the Irish Leaving Cert English Curriculum, their compelling work transcends borders, leaving an indelible mark on international literature. As a playwright, FELISPEAKS continues to innovate. In 2021, their collaborative work "DÚBH," supported by Arts Council Ireland and featured at the Dublin Theatre Festival, invites audiences to explore themes of repression, sexuality, and healing. Commissioned by the Irish Repertory Theatre and Fishamble the New Play Company for the Transatlantic Commission Programme, FELISPEAKS premiered their new play infused with poetry ‘BENT!’ across Dublin, New York, San Francisco, and LA in 2023-2024. Mentored by Pulitzer Prize nominee Dael Orlandersmith and directed by Nicola Murphy-Dubey and Jim Culleton, their performances resonate deeply with diverse audiences worldwide.
Brittany Fisher
Brittany Fisher is a playwright from Richmond, VA, and a graduate of Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Her play, How to Bruise Gracefully, won the 2021 Kennedy Center Lorraine Hansberry Award and was recognized by the Rosa Parks and Paula Vogel Award. Her play, Your Regularly Scheduled Programming, was a 2022 O’Neill NPC selection and was recognized by the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Award. She has been a finalist for the Blue Ink Award, The Leah Ryan Prize, and the Alliance Kendeda Playwriting Competition. She was a 2018-2020 Pipeline New Works Playwriting Fellow, and her work has been featured at or developed with the Kennedy Center, American Blues Theatre, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Alliance Theatre, Cadence Theatre Company, and Virginia Repertory Theatre. She received her B.A. from James Madison University.
Jeanette W. Hill
Jeanette W. Hill is the founder and executive director of JWHill Productions LLC. The Audelco award winning playwright has received numerous awards and recognition across the nation for her impactful plays. She was recently inducted into her high school’s Luther B. Smith Hall of Fame for her expansive body of work in theater which addresses social issues that impact the Black experience in America, with focus on the life experiences of individuals over forty. Jeanette serves as a board member of the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival and the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She is a member of the faculty at the Woodie King Jr./New Federal Theatre Playwrights Program and a professional member of The Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll and an ArtistInc Fellow. She continues on her journey of ‘telling our stories in our voice.’
D. L. Patrick
D. L. Patrick is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a native Detroiter who holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from New York University. Her play, STUDY IN BLACK, a.k.a. The Study, was produced by the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop, NYC, and was nominated for an AUDELCO Award. Other works include: ECLIPSED: THE SUN, THE MOON, AND GLADYS ATKINSON SWEET (Michigan Playwrights Festival 2024; scheduled for a five-week run at Theatre NOVA, Ann Arbor, MI in spring 2025); KINGDOM COME (Shine: Illuminating Black Stories 2024, Barter Theatre); and RIGHT BEHIND YOU (OnyxFest 2023, Africana Repertory Theatre, Indianapolis); among others. She is a finalist in the Black Motherhood & Parenting New Play Festival 2024 and was a semi-finalist for the Dramatists Guild Foundation 2023 National Virtual Fellows Program.
TYLIE SHIDER
TyLie Shider is an American writer and the inaugural playwright in residence at ArtYard. A 2022-23 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights' Center (PWC), he is a recipient of Premiere Stages' Liberty Live commission, two consecutive Jerome Fellowships (PWC), and an I Am Soul playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre (NBT). Recent projects include, the fall 2022 NJ premiere of “Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family” at Premiere Stages, “The Gospel Woman” (NBT), “Whittier” (PWC), and his filmmaking debut “Sign O' the Times.” Screenwriting credits include: “Truant.” He holds a BA in Journalism from Delaware State University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. A proud member of the Dramatist Guild, he is currently a Professor of Playwriting at Augsburg University, and a staff writer for Minnesota Playlist.
Garrett Turner
A proud native of Florence, Alabama, Garrett Turner is an actor, singer, poet, and playwright. Turner is a 2020 Tanne Foundation Award recipient and was chosen as a 2020 Arts & Social Justice Fellow at Emory University. Turner writes at the intersection of moral courage and joy. His play “An Elegy for Patriarchy or Good Guys and Real Men and Woke Niggas, Oh My!” recently received a reading at Asolo Rep in Florida. He is currently writing a musical, entitled “Eleanor: A Church Story,” about a young Black girl from Tennessee who stages a mini revolution in her own church when they ban her from preaching because she's a girl. Turner is an Emory University grad and a Marshall Scholar. He holds an M.A. in Theatre and Performance from Queen Mary University of London and an M.A. in Music Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.