Meet the Playwrights
of the Central PA Playwrights Fest 2025
the power of stories, the power of connection, the power of theatre
Join us as we bring to life the works of celebrated authors and their award-winning plays - from short shorts to one-acts to he full-length drama about the Plantagents and their rivalries and use of dungeons.
Dan Borengasser
A Meeting of the Minds,
Friday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
Sunday at Noon, Webinar Livestream
Many of Dan Borengasser’s plays have been produced or have received staged readings. Four of his plays (A.R@UNI.GOV, The Kindness of Strangers, The Canterbury Tales Revisited and Sense & Insensibility) have been published. Borengasser’s plays have been produced in theatres across the country from New York to Los Angeles, as well as in Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and the Philippines. Several short screenplays have been produced, as well as a feature-length film he helped write titled The Donor Conspiracy. A number of radio plays have been produced and broadcast nationally.
Timothy FitzPatrick
Clap Your Hands If You Believe
Friday at 4pm, Tempest Studios
Timothy FitzPatrick was born in St. Louis and graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Clap Your Hands if You Believe was written as his thesis for a degree in English Creative Writing.”
Brian Cern
Fresh Hell
Saturday at Noon, Webinar Livestream
Saturday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
Brian Cern is a Twin Cities-based actor and playwright, whose work has won numerous awards and contests throughout North America. A member of the Dramatists Guild, he received his training at Cardinal Stritch University, where his theatre and writing studies led him to a deep appreciation for the stories that unite us in the human condition. As parables, his work has been called “imaginative,” “beautifully soulful,” and “thought-provoking.” Of all the credits to his name, however, he treasures “Teaching Artist” for local children’s theaters the most. He lives with his wife and son in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota.
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Lisa Marciano
What Are You Thinking?
Friday at Noon, Webinar Livestream
Fri & Sat at 6pm, Sun at 1pm, Tempest Studios
Lisa Marciano is a resident playwright for Santa Barbara City College’s Continuing Education drama program, with more than 25 scripts produced and presented free
to the public. Since 2023, her one-act scripts have been selected as finalists in festivals from Sacramento, California to Chicago, Illinois. Recently, Lisa's one-act script, “Love, Chase, Fly,” was voted best script in a 48-hour playwriting festival. Lisa is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and lives a quiet life in Santa Barbara,
California. She received a kidney transplant in 1990 and is extremely thankful to her generous donor. Lisa also thanks her husband for thinking this play is funny!
Guy Newsham
A Perfect Two
Friday at 5pm, Tempest Studios
Guy spent a career working on making buildings more energy efficient and sustainable. He has acted on community theatre stages for many years, and started writing for the stage in earnest seven years ago. His plays have been successful in multiple competitions and festivals, leading to more than 100 prizes and productions in five countries. He is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the New Play Exchange. In 2021 he won Canada’s National One Act Playwriting Competition. guy.newsham@rogers.com
Sache (Steven) Satta
Something Blue
Sunday at Noon, Webinar Livestream
Sunday at 1pm, Tempest Studios
Sache (Steven) J. Satta is a non-binary theatre artist. They are an actor, director, and speech coach with credits in NYC, Baltimore, and regionally. They are a full
professor of acting/voice at Towson University Department of Theatre Arts BFA in Acting. As a playwright, Sache was a Finalist for the 2024 Dramatist’s Guild Fellowship and was invited to participate in the Midwest Dramatists Centers 2024 conference. Their short play The Thousandth Crane was voted Audience Favorite at
the 10x10 Festival at ARTFactory Virginia, and their full-length play Lily, Arthur was chosen for the 2024 Baltimore Playwright’s Festival and given a workshop production at Towson University. Floating Down to Camelot (10 min. version) was produced by The Spectacular Tournament of Playwrights at The Acorn in Michigan, where it was the 2 nd Place Audience Favorite. Their one-act play Hooked was part of "Think Pink!” - the inaugural event for Pink Pen Theatre in Baltimore in September of 2023. A full-length version of Floating Down to Camelot was workshopped /read by UP Theatre Company in New York City and has been chosen for the 2025 Baltimore Playwrights Festival. Their short erotic comedy The Thrill was chosen for
Short+Sweet Hollywood 2024, where it received the Judges’ Choice Award. Upcoming: Fire Escape at The Actor’s Theatre of Santa Cruz, and Shifting at Fells
Point Corner Theatre in Baltimore. Their work is available to read on the New Play Exchange.
Website: www.stevenjsatta.com
David J. Valdez
Where the Love Light Gleams
Friday at Noon, Livestream Webinar
Saturday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
David J. Valdez is an award-winning freelance director based in Tampa, Florida. He has collaborated with 321 Theatrical Management, Asolo Repertory Theatre,
Urbanite Theatre, Jobsite Theater Company, Carrollwood Cultural Center, and others. At Asolo Rep, he founded OUT@AsoloRep, Sarasota’s premier LGBTQI+
theatre night, now celebrating its 15th year. He serves on the boards of Metro Inclusive Health and Florida Thespians, where he also adjudicates. In 2025, David
also launched the Valdez-King Florida Thespians Scholarship, which supports students attending a Florida public university, majoring in theatre, and minoring in
business administration or engineering. He will direct Alice by Heart at the University of South Florida in fall 2025. David holds an MFA from Florida State University and is new to playwriting, so be kind.
Colin Waitt
Peter Pan Man
Friday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
Colin Waitt is an acclaimed writer whose work is typically described as hilarious, moving, and vivid. He enjoys telling stories about small lives with huge stakes. Tonally, they're often goofy and joyfully queer. His anthology, Let's Get Weird, debuted as the #1 New Release in Theatre on Amazon (US). He was a finalist for Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play Festival and Davenport Theatricals’ Ten Minute Play Contest. His play, Fair, was longlisted for Theatre 503's International Playwriting Award and was a semifinalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. He has been a member of various writing groups, including Art House Productions’s INKubator and The Pilot Program at The Tank. He studied sketch writing at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade in NYC. Colin developed and produced the original sold out production of Puffs and was an Associate Producer on its record-breaking off-Broadway run. The play was one of the top 10 most produced scripts in US High Schools 2019-2023 (#2 in 2022 & 2023). He moved to London in May 2023 and has had two short plays produced by Theatre 503. He was the dramaturg and script editor of The (Token) Woman in Black by Hamza Jeetooa and Natalie Perera directed by Tom Paul Martin, produced by Saima Ferdows and performed at London's Soho Theatre.
Joe Weintraub
Full Moon
Friday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
Saturday at Noon, Webinar Livestream
Joe Weintraub. A member of the Dramatists Guild, J. Weintraub has had over 50 dramatic works produced throughout the USA and in Australia, New Zealand, India,
and Germany. He has published fiction, essays, and poetry in all sorts of literary places, and as a translator he has introduced the Italian and Swiss horror writers,
Nicola Lombardi and Davide Staffiero, to the English-speaking world. In 2020 his two-act adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s canonical Villeggiatura trilogy, The Summer Season, appeared in Mercurian: A Theatrical Translation Review, available online, and his annotated translation of Eugène Briffault’s Paris à table: 1846 (2018) is also available from Oxford UP. More at https://jweintraub.weebly.com
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Nick Zagone
The DMV One
Saturday at 6pm, Tempest Studios
An Oregon Book Award Nominee, Nick Zagone has a Bachelor of Theatre from Willamette University and a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He resides in Modesto, California.
Recently his short film The Gas Station was on the 2017 short list for best short film at the Cannes Film Festival. And his adaptation of Treasure Island was commissioned and produced at Merced College in California. He is resident playwright at Prospect Theatre Project in Modesto, CA.
Nick’s screenwriting credits include the short films The Gas-Mart Amendment, The Gas Station, Brainstorm and the feature Ricky is Famous. Currently he is working on turning his award winning play, David and Goliath in America: A William Kunstler Story into a screenplay.
His Ten-minute plays have been seen in all 50 states as well as England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Tasmania, Germany, Poland, Chile, India, the Virgin Islands, Greece, Singapore, Portugal, over 100 Colleges & Universities and translated into 6 foreign languages including Persian.
Nick is a proud Founding Member of Open Circle Theatre in Seattle WA. He has also been recognized by the American College Theatre Festival, Association of Theatre in Higher Education, and the Seattle Schools Interagency Arts.