Meet the Playwrights!

Valley Players would like to introduce the fabulous women who have written the plays that comprise Ladies’ Briefs. All the plays were chosen by blind reading; it’s nice now to have names and faces. We’d like to thank each of them for sending us their bios and photos… but we are most grateful for their talent! Thank you, all!

Veronique Autphenne, Triple Threat
Veronique Autphenne’s most recent play is an all-female cast murder mystery, Murder in the Kasbah. Veronique’s work has been produced/had stage readings by the Knutsford Little Theatre, UK (2019), Tales from the Nest (2019), Lucky Penny Theatre (2018), and The Little Theatre of Alexandria (2017). She was a reader for the Little Theatre of Alexandria’s National One-Act Competition (2020). She has studied playwriting at The Theatre Lab, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and The Barrow Group.

Yael Haskel, Meat Like Me
Yael Haskal is a playwright and performer based in New York. Her work has been performed at La MaMa, Dixon Place, IRT, The Tank, the Kraine Theater, and the Midtown International Theatre Festival (NYC); the Ivoryton Playhouse, the Warner Theatre (CT); Theatre Simpson (IN); the InspiraTO Festival (Toronto); and other theatres across the U.S. She is the creator of the comedic webseries Fun Moms!, an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, and a 2020 Young Playwright in Residence at the Echo Theater Company (LA). www.yaelhaskal.com.

Susan Jackson, Sudden Oak Death
Jackson received the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award – for Best Original Play. Her works have been staged- read/produced in New York City, the Bay Area, Eugene O’Neill Foundation, and abroad. Finalist/semi-finalist: Fusion Theatre Company, Creede Repertory Theatre, South Carolina Centre Stage, Little Black Dress Ink Women’s Theatre Festival; Resident Playwright for 3Girls Theatre Co. SAMARITAN–finalist for the Henley Rose Competition-Female Playwrights.  2018-2021: Finalist: 3Girls Theatre Festival.  DEATH BE NOT LOUD!–Best of Capital Fringe with Washington Post positive review. Finalist: Red Curtain International Theatre Festival. Published in Smith and Kraus: Best Short Plays and Best Female Monologues

Christina Julian, Growing Old WithOUT Grace
Never content to being pigeonholed into any one art form, Christina Julian, has committed to many as an author, journalist, and most recently playwright. She errs on the side of comedy in work, life and writing, because in her opinion, no life is worth living if you don’t have something to laugh about. This also explains her gravitational pull to perform on stage and off, where her 7-year-old twins make her the butt of every joke. Before COVID robbed the world, Christina preformed in the Valley Players productions of Farce of Habit and Women in Jeopardy and released her first novel, The Dating Bender. Christina’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Bohemian and North Bay Biz magazine, where she has worked as a monthly columnist for the past decade. Learn more at christinajulian.com.

Jean Koppen, Wearing White After Labor Day (and Other Acts of Terrorism)
Jean Koppen’s plays have been produced at Keegan Theatre (D.C.), the Capital Fringe Festival (D.C.), SkyPilot Theatre (LA), Kuma Kahua Theatre (Honolulu), Strangeloop Theater (Chicago) and The Alumnae Theatre (Toronto). Jean’s short play “Capsmittment” was Active Culture’s 2012 playwriting competition winner and Got a Light? was a finalist in City Theatre’s 2019 National Award for Short Playwriting. Jean’s full-length Unprotected was a Trustus Playwrights’ Festival Finalist and Someplace Better was a Finalist in The Garden script development program. Jean is an alumnae of the Kennedy Center Playwrights Intensive, a founding member of Pipeline Playwrights and a Dramatist Guild member. www.jeankoppen.com.

Jennifer O’Grady, Expectations
Jennifer O’Grady is a playwright and poet whose plays have been produced across the U.S. and internationally. Her full-length plays include Charlotte’s Letters (Rising Artist Award; Henley Rose Award; O’Neill Semifinalist and other honors); Paranormal Love (MTWorks NewBorn Winner; NEWvember Finalist; Pandora’s Box Honorable Mention) and Ellery (Bechdel Group workshop selection). Her short plays have won audience-choice awards and are published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2021, 2017 and 2016 (Smith and Kraus), The Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021 and 2019 (Applause) and other anthologies. Her plays are also included in The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, Best Contemporary Monologues for Women 18-35 and other publications. Also an award-winning poet and the author of two poetry books, she lives with her family just outside New York City. (www.jenniferogrady.net)

Lorraine Midanik, Double Plotz
Lorraine Midanik is very happy to be working again with Valley Players where her play Ordinary Day was produced in 2018.  Other produced plays include: Stay with Me (Redwood City Play Fest “Coexist” & Taphouse Theater); Branding (Little Fish Theater, San Pedro & SF Theatre Pub); Call Forwarding (PCSF Playoffs, SF); Cycled (3GirlsTheatre, SF & B8 Theatre, Concord); Recalculating (Playland Productions, SF); Up the Wall ($wampland, SF Fringe); Reciprocity (Unknown Players, SF); Benched (PCSF Playoffs, SF); Shock Value (PCSF Playoffs, SF); Boy Imagined (3Girls Theatre/ReproRights, SF), Freedom of Speech (PianoFight, SF), and, Sparse Pubic Hair (PCSF’s Sheherezade’s Last Tales Festival, SF).  Lorraine is a member of the Playwrights Center of San Francisco (PCSF), Playwrights’ Center (Minneapolis); Theatre Bay Area (ATLAS playwright), the Dramatists Guild, and The International Centre for Women Playwrights. 

Arianna Rose, Water Music
Arianna Rose is an award-winning playwright and musical theatre writer, produced in 24 states and 7 countries. Miami-Dade 2019-2021 Playwright Development Program with Kia Corthron.  2021 Florida Festival of New Musicals. 2012 MAC Award, Song of the Year. Full-Lengths: Touch The Moon; The Lost Girl; The Equivalent of Sensation.  Numerous short-form plays and musicals.  NYC’s York Theatre NEO (New Emerging Outstanding Writer).  NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange.  www.ariannarose.net

Ellen Davis Sullivan, At Least You Have Barry
Ellen Davis Sullivan is an award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction and plays. Her plays have been on stage in festivals across the country including The Boston Theatre Marathon, Indie Boots (Chicago), and The Thalia Festival (New York City), and have been published in Ponder Review and anthologies, including The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2016 (Smith & Kraus). Ellen’s essay, The Perfect Height for Kissing won the 2014 Columbia Nonfiction Prize and appeared in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. Her stories are published in journals including Cherry Tree, Clarion and Moment Magazine. Ellen is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild.

Amy Tofte, The Matter With Family
Amy Tofte is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who won the 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has been in residence at the Autry Museum of the American West, Brush Creek, The Kennedy Center and Yaddo with work produced and developed throughout the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and twice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild.