The Writer

Ruth McKee's plays include Hell Money, a runner-up for the 2009 Yale Drama Series Award; Stray, winner of the 2008 Stanley Drama Award, recent readings at Abingdon Theatre, New York, Black Dahlia Theatre, Los Angeles, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York; The Nightshade Family, produced in the 2007 Summer Play Festival (SPFNYC), readings at Playwrights Horizons, NY and Alliance Theatre, Atlanta; Otherwise Engaged, Actors Theatre of Louisville; Full Disclosure, Security Check and Mail Returned, Six Figures Theatre Company; The Noise Room, HB Playwrights Foundation; 500 Words and Long Term Parking, published by Playscripts Inc. Originally from Canada, by way of Bangladesh and Kenya, Ruth has a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, an MFA in Playwriting from UCSD, and currently lives in Los Angeles where she is a founding member of Chalk Repertory Theatre. www.chalkrep.com.

The Director

Jen Bloom, MFA, RYT is a cross-disciplinary director and teacher.  She is the Director of Education & Community Outreach and Co-Founder of the new theater company Santa Monica Rep, where she directs plays and works on community-based Theater in Education integration projects.  Jen has worked as director, actor, teaching artist and/or workshop leader with the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, UCLArts & Healing, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Chalk Rep, USC, Theatricum Botanicum, LA Playwrights Union, American Jewish University, Yoga Blend, Trinity Repertory Theater, Perishable Theatre, Brown University, the Department of Psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital and a dozen other theaters, public venues, yoga studios, academic institutions, spiritual centers, backyards, and hole-in-the-walls.  Jen served on the theater faculty at Providence College and Rhode Island College for five years.  She has an MFA in Acting and Directing from Trinity Repertory Conservatory, and is a registered yoga teacher from the Nosara Yoga Institute of Costa Rica.  She is also a grateful cancer survivor, with the help of self-expression and yoga. Jen learns from stories, the people that tell them, and all the ways they can be told.www.bloomstories.com