Rajiv Joseph’s Broadway play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. Joseph’s New York productions include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Second Stage Theatre, 2011; Animals Out of Paper, Second Stage Theatre, summer 2008; The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation), Alter Ego, fall 2007; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane Theatre, 2006; All This Intimacy, Second Stage Theatre, 2006. World premieres of new plays this year, include The North Pool at Theatre Works in Palo Alto; The Lake Effect at Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey; and The Medusa Body at the Alley Theatre. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Miami University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

Jessica Ernst has been collaborating with Joyce Van Dyke to develop The Women Who Mapped The Stars through four workshops over two years, and is looking forward to bringing the world premiere to the Central Square Theater stage. Her directing credits include Daughter of Venus (Artists’ Theatre of Boston), The Love of the Nightingale (Open Theatre Project), The Weaver of Raveloe (Oberon, world premiere), and Hedda Gabler (The Longwood Players), as well as various short plays and staged readings. In the past, she has worked as an assistant director and artistic intern with several Boston area companies, including the Huntington Theatre Company, New Repertory Theatre, and Actors’ Shakespeare Project. With The Poets’ Theatre, she produced, curated, and directed The Ghostlight Series from 2015-2016 – a monthly performance series exploring poetry in performance, new plays, and more. Jessica is a graduate of Gettysburg College, where her work included classics, contemporary work, and new plays and adaptations. This summer, she will be directing Henry IV with Praxis Stage, performing in multiple parks in Cambridge and Brookline.

April 2018.

Dawn M. Simmons (she/her/hers) is an award-winning Director, Playwright, Producer, Administrator, Consultant, Advocate and Co-founder of The Front Porch Arts Collective. In recent years, she served as the Executive Director of StageSource, and Director of Performing Arts at Boston Center for the Arts. She has worked regionally with The Alliance Theater, the Huntington, Play On Shakespeare, Boston Lyric Opera, The Front Porch Arts Collective, The Hangar Theatre, WAM Theater, Central Square Theater, Lyric Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, SpeakEasy Stage, New Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Bad Habit Productions, New Exhibition Room, Boston Public Works, Fresh Ink Theatre, The Theater Offensive, Our Place Theatre Project, and Fort Point Theatre Channel. She serves on the board of ArtsBoston.