Leah Roth Barsanti is a Chicago-based artist with an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University and a passion for writing in any collaborative medium. Her work focuses on strong women and girls trying to make space for themselves in a world that doesn't ever make that easy. Her protagonists struggle against all sorts of things, but mostly against expectations: both their own and those of others. While the ultimate goal of Leah's work and life is to make the patriarchy squirm, her side goal is to use her writing to figure out what it means to be a "Millennial" in this crazy world. Her specific areas of interests include anything related to mental health, sports, forgotten or overlooked moments from history, and zombies.

A screenwriter, director, and actor based in LA. You can find a complete list of their projects at their IMDB page Their most recent work quAr, which Peter wrote, directed, and starred, is available on YouTube. Learn more about Peter on his recent appearance on The Eric & Tony Show.

Maria Burnham is a Greek-American writer and director and a founding member of Chicago's Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre. Her full-length plays include "Mitera," "The Princess Without Pots" and "Nutcracker Nightmare," as well as adaptations of Homer's "The Odyssey" and Oscar Wilde's short story "The Selfish Giant." Her works, short and full-length, have been produced across Chicago and beyond. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes dark, always subtly dissident, the stories Maria tells shine light in places people rather leave dark.

Stefanie Coleman has lived on three continents, owns two pets, raises one reader, and spends her free time in coffee shops requesting better tea selections and equal treatment for all tea drinkers in this coffee world. She’s a published essayist who is deeply interested in how the personal intersects the universal. A storyteller in the Chicago live-lit scene, she knows stories can change the world.

Stefanie works as Coordinator of Partnerships for CultureBuilds by 2nd Story - a storytelling non-profit that helps individuals and companies tell the stories that drive them. She has a Masters of Divinity from Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, TN. She also serves as an Editor for NewThing, a global church planting organization dedicated to helping church leaders launch and lead networks of churches to plant even more churches (whew, that’s a lot of church!).

Carolyn Minor been creating stories in Chicago since 2001. 

She was a company member of the now defunct Knife & Fork Theatre Company that built artwork with a heavy emphasis on devised and movement-based pieces, worked as a Production Manager at City Lit Theater and written pieces performed at You Only Live Once More for SoloCrowd Chicago, at AbbieFest for Knife & Fork, Brecht 3 High Fest for The Island Theater Company, and Ghostlight Ensemble’s Nightlight Series. 

In 2022, Carolyn had her network television debut on Chicago Fire, completed her remote film program at NYU, produced her first short film, F.I.F.O. and was named Teacher of the Year in 2023 for her work teaching kids and teens playwriting for American Blues Theater.

Lori Taylor is a Chicago-based playwright with two plays produced with the Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre Company's Nightlight Young Audience Series: Splash of Magic, and Asherella, as well as Grand’s Great Plan at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Lori holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.