Shannon Robert serves on the design faculty at Clemson University, and is a proud member of USA 829. She received the M.F.A. in scene design from Florida State University and studied at the Moscow Art Theatre Conservatory in 1991. Shannon was director of theatre and head of design at William Carey University and serves as a member of the Hollins University M.F.A. Playwriting Faculty (in the area of design). She served KCACTF as Region IV design chair, regional vice chair, and on national design committees. Shannon served on the board of directors and executive committee of SETC. She managed the paint/craft departments of The Spoon Group Productions in NJ/NY, and fabricated props/painted for the Broadway productions of THE GRINCH, GREASE, XANADU, LEGALLY BLONDE, INHERIT THE WIND, THE PIRATE QUEEN, CORAM BOY, THE COLOR PURPLE, JERSEY BOYS, SPAMALOT, and HAIRSPRAY. With Technical Theatre Solutions, she painted for the national tours of CINDERELLA, IN THE HEIGHTS, and MAMMA MIA. She has designed for The Warehouse Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Theatrical Outfit, Salt Lake City Acting Company, The Tennessee Williams Festival (Provincetown - current) Actor’s Express, Mill Mountain Theatre, Brian Clowdus Experiences, New Stage Theatre, Auburn University Theatre, Texas Tech University Theatre, Middle Tennessee State University Theatre, Southern Arena Theatre, University of Southern Mississippi, The Peace Center (Gala) and the University of West Georgia. She has worked internationally as a designer, consultant, and respondent. She served as design consultant for Albert and Associates Architects for The Saenger Theatre renovation, and as the Productions Unlimited consultant for the Upstate Children’s Museum featured climbing sculpture. Shannon was the Associate Artistic Director and Scene Designer in Residence for The Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, SC. She received Atlanta’s 2014 and 2016 Suzi Bass Awards for best set design for a musical for MARY POPPINS and IN THE HEIGHTS.

Topher is delighted to return to the Lab, with fond memories of exploring LAURA AND THE SEA and HARBUR GATE. Favorite credits include HARBUR GATE, R+J: STAR CROSS'D DEATH MATCH, COURSE 86B IN THE CATALOGUE (SLAC), THE ICE FRONT, ADAM AND STEVE & THE EMPTY SEA, BORDERLANDS (Plan-B), DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, THE PRIVATE EAR, THIS BIRD OF DAWNING (Sting and Honey), THE WORST THING I'VE EVER DONE (Sackerson), THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY, TWELFTH NIGHT, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (Grassroots Shakespeare), and HAMLET AND OPHELIA GO SWIMMING (Edinburgh Fringe, SLC Fringe).

Alexandra Harbold (Dramaturg) Recent credits: dramaturging THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME and THE LAST SHIP (Pioneer Theatre Company); acting ​in HAND TO GOD (Salt Lake Acting Company); and directing YOU NEVER CAN TELL (Babcock Theatre), ION (Greek Classical Theatre Festival), ​HOW LONG CAN YOU STAND ON THE TRAIN TRACKS: A GAM FOR TWO SISTERS (Flying Bobcat & Sackerson). Upcoming projects: co-directing JUMP (Plan-B Theatre with Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory and the David Fetzer Ross Foundation for Emerging Artists), and directing MACBETH (Pinnacle Acting Company).  She is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Flying Bobcat and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Utah.

Eleanor's work has been produced at the Alliance Theatre, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Portland Stage Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and Centenary Stage Company, and presented or developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, the Lark Play Development Center, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Everyday Inferno, Ryder Farm and Luna Stage. She’s currently a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of The Civilians' R&D Group, and a semifinalist for the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. She has also been the recipient of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, an EST/Sloan commission, a Keen Teens Commission, and the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, studied history at Yale College, and recently completed the M.F.A in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch.

Patrick Ssenjovu was born and raised in Uganda. He started his career with Alex Mukulu’s IMPACT INTERNATIONAL. He has graced stages across the world from The Uganda National Theater to Lincoln Center and performed works of various artists. He is happy to be at Salt Lake Acting Company, speaking the words of Will Snider and playing with the company. Aluta Continua...

William Richardson is delighted to join Playwrights’ Lab for the third time, after working on David Jacobi’s READY STEADY YETI GO and Kathleen Cahill’s SILENT DANCER (still in development). He most recently appeared at SLAC as Doc Bornstein in Al Nevins’ & Nancy Borgenicht’s SATURDAY’S VOYEUR: THE SHIT SHOW, less recently as Stuart in TOO MUCH MEMORY by Meg Gibson & Keith Reddin, as well as readings including Julie Jensen’s THE HARVEY GIRLS, Steve Yockey’s BLEEDING HEARTS, and as the reader for Robert Askins’ THE SQUIRRELS. Will co-wrote a musical that was produced during his undergrad, and is currently stabbing in the dark at writing a new play. He also does a lot of other stuff that you can check out on his website at theatrebywill.com.

Mark Bly is currently on The Artists Advisory Board of and has dramaturged frequently for The Acting Company led by Artistic Director Ian Belknap and founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley. He is the Associate Director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Fordham/Primary Stages where he helps to supervise the graduate program, produces new plays, and teaches. He is an active free-lance dramaturg in the New York, Washington, DC area for such playwrights and television writers as Ken Lin, Andrew Hinderaker and for such theaters as The Arena Stage and Tectonic Theater Project among others. Bly is former Director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Hunter College 2011-2013. He was the Chair of the MFA Playwriting Program at The Yale School of Drama from 1992-2004 and taught Dramaturgy while serving as the Associate Artistic Director at Yale Rep. Over the past 35 years he has worked as a Dramaturg, Director of New Play Development, and Associate Artistic Director at the Arena Stage, Alley Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Seattle Rep, Yale Rep, The Acting Company, and on Broadway dramaturging and producing over 200 plays. He has dramaturged on Broadway Emily Mann’s EXECUTION OF JUSTICE (1985) being credited by Alisa Solomon as the first production dramaturg on Broadway; Moises Kaufman’s 33 VARIATIONS (2009); and lbsen’s AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (2012). Bly has served as Dramaturg for world and United States premieres of plays by Rajiv Joseph, Suzan-Lori Parks, Howard Brenton, David Hare, Tim Blake Nelson, Sarah Ruhl, Ken Lin, James Magruder, Jeffrey Hatcher, Charles Randolph Wright, and Moises Kaufman. He has dramaturged new plays by Robert Schenkkan, Maria Irene Fornes, Marcus Gardley, Dorothy Fortenberry, David Henry Hwang, Daniel Beaty, Kevin Kling, Karen Zacarias, Matthew Maguire, and Amy Herzog. Bly has appeared in numerous publications: Yale Theatre as Contributing Editor and Advisory Editor, Theatre Forum, American Theatre, The Dramaturgy Sourcebook, Critical Stages, The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, LMDA Review and Stage Directors and Choreographers Journal.  He is Editor of Production Notebooks: Theatre in Process: Volumes I & II (TCG, 1996, 2001), and Special Editor for Yale Theatre, “Return of the Dramaturgs,” Summer, 1986. In 2018 his latest book New Dramaturgy: Strategies and Exercises for 21st Century Playwriting will be published by Routledge Publishers. In 2010 Bly received the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas G.E. Lessing Career Achievement Award. In 2014 he established the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Bly Creative Capacity Grants/Fellowships Fund that supports innovative projects that advance the field of dramaturgy. He has served as Director of the Kennedy Center New Play Dramaturgy Intensive for the past eight years. Bly is an Ambassador at Large for the National New Play Network and has served on its Board.

Tony Campisi is thrilled to be back at SLAC Playwrights’ Lab. He just completed a run of the Tony Award winning play, THE HUMANS and recently finished a guest appearance in the new Netflix series, Seven Seconds. His Broadway appearances include AWAKE AND SING! (Tony Award for Best Revival), PVT. WARS and THE NERD. He has also performed in a number of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway plays. Regional credits include performances at the Williamstown Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Body Politic Theatre (Chicago), NY Stage and Film, GeVa, McCarter Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, Studio Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Kennedy Center and others. He was a participant for several years at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference and for several years at the Sundance Playwrights Lab, where he worked in the development of new plays, including ANGELS IN AMERICA and THE KENTUCKY CYCLE. TV: all the variations of the Law & Order franchise, Blue Bloods, Tyson (HBO), Ally McBeal, Matlock and others.  Film: Cruazndo, A Home of Our Own, Green Plaid Shirt and Dad. 

Will Snider was born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His play HOW TO USE A KNIFE received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in the 2016-17 season through Capital Stage (Sacramento), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City), and InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia). Other plays include THE BIG MAN (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 35th Marathon of One-Act Plays), STRANGE MEN, and DEATH OF A DRIVER. His work has been developed at MCC, NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, The Kennedy Center, SPACE on Ryder Farm, #serials@theflea, the claque, and MAKEHOUSE. He is an alumnus of Youngblood and received a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, an EST/Soan Grant and The Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. MFA: UCSD.

Merry has appeared locally in ION (Classical Greek Theatre Festival); TRAIN TRACKS (Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory); BURN (Sackerson); TITUS ANDRONICUS (Pinnacle Acting Company); ROMEO AND JULIET and LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (Grassroots Shakespeare Company); STRANGERS, LOVERS, FAMILY FRIENDS and RESOLVED (Company of Cohorts). Merry is originally from Colorado and has a BFA in Acting from Westminster College.