Members & Bios

Peter Basch
Peter is a native Manhattanite. He studied Physics at Columbia, tried grad school at Berkeley, then, inexplicably, became an actor. He spent a few years doing voice-overs and off-off Broadway. Working at the Manhattan Punch Line and the Ensemble Studio Theatre, he started to direct and write. He wrote sketch comedy for the Punch Line’s in house group, Another Fine Mess. Peter became an active member of E.S.T., where he wrote a short play, English (It’s Where the Words Are). This play was featured in the 1996 Marathon of One-Acts, where it got some attention and drew him to Los Angeles. He “took some meetings” in LA, one of them with a producer of the TV show Coach. Peter then married that producer, Ellen Sandler. He had a new play commissioned by the First Light Festival at E.S.T., called Art Has Nothing to Tell Us About Science, and he is working on rewrites. He has also just finished a new one-act called Barrage.

Carl Capotorto
Carl played Little Paulie on HBO’s The Sopranos from the show’s third season on, and has performed principal roles in the movies Five Corners, American Blue Note, Men of Respect, Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, and Mac (written and directed by John Turturro), as well as in short films by John Patrick Shanley, John Turturro, Tim Robbins, Peter MacNicol, Adrian Grenier, and others. He makes a brief appearance in Penny Marshall’s Riding in Cars with Boys and has guest starred on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Twisted Head, his darkly comic memoir about growing up in the Bronx in the 1960s and 70s, is due out from Broadway Books in Spring 2008. Carl’s solo show of the same name (the literal translation from Italian to English of Capotorto), has been presented in several editions to sold-out houses at Michael and Victoria Imperioli’s Studio Dante, the West Bank Café, and Comedy Central Stage (LA). He has also performed his solo comedy material at the Laugh Lounge, the Laugh Factory, the Improv, and on the bill of Fired! at Second Stage, Comedy Central Stage, and the Skirball Center in LA, which performance (produced by LA Theater Works) was subsequently broadcast on National Public Radio as part of its 20th Anniversary season of The Play’s The Thing. His work appears in the book Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, & Dismissed, edited by Annabelle Gurwitch, published by Simon & Schuster. As a dramatist, Carl’s plays have been presented at the National Playwrights Conference of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (three seasons), Yale Repertory Theatre, the Vineyard Theater, Theater for the New City, Bowerie Lane Theater, the Actors Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, and numerous other venues. He received a screenwriting fellowship from the Chesterfield Writers Film Project at Universal Studios and has received grants and fellowships in playwriting and screenwriting from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Following his Albee Foundation fellowship in 1984, Carl was invited to become Foundation Secretary and personal assistant to Mr. Albee, a dual position he held until 1989. Carl has an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has worked for many years as a Teaching Artist for Manhattan Theatre Club, in which capacity he conducts playwriting workshops for incarcerated adolescents attending high school facilities on Rikers Island. He is a native of the Bronx and now lives in Hells Kitchen, three blocks away from the building in which his mother was born nearly a century ago.

Peter Coston
Born in Ohio, Peter Coston was raised in New Jersey. He is a Rutgers graduate and received an M.F.A. from Columbia. A Yaddo playwriting fellow, he has been the recipient of a film grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and for his fiction was invited to the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. Peter has studied with Herbert Berghof, William Packard, Robert Geller, Salem Ludwig, Romulus Linney, Austin Pendleton, and David Marshall Grant. His plays have been produced at venues in and around NYC. He is a regular at Naked Angels and its ongoing reading series Tuesdays@9. As a filmmaker, a short subject of Peter's called The Snow Field won several awards, played many festivals and was screened at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. He has taught writing at Hunter-SUNY and The New School. His screenplays have been finalists in both the Chesterfield and Nicholl competitions. He is currently in post-production on a full-length digital project. The owner of a Gibson SG and Marshall amp, Peter composes many loud, nasty, killer post-punk guitar riffs for songs he and his musician pals write. This understandably occurs nowhere in proximity to the Weehawken home he shares with his very understanding wife, Edith.

Laura Shaine Cunningham
Laura Shaine Cunningham is the author of full length plays Beautiful Bodies, Bang, Cruising Close to Crazy, The Fall of the House of Glass, O Hair in Hell, and many ten minute plays. Her work has been produced at Steppenwolf and many theaters throughout the United States. Beautiful Bodies is currently playing long runs throughout Eastern Europe-- Russia, Bulgaria , Estonia, Finland, Romania, and is scheduled to open in Brazil this season. Laura is also an author of the acclaimed memoirs, Sleeping Arrangements and A Place in the Country, and five novels, including the popular Beautiful Bodies, which leads a dual life as a play and a novel. As a journalist and columnist, her work frequently appears in the New York Times. Her books have been excerpted in The New Yorker. She lives in New York.

Donna de Matteo
Donna de Matteo is the Executive Director of The HB Playwrights Foundation and Theatre. She is also the Playwrighting Chair at HB Studio and has taught Contemporary Theatre at The College of New Rochelle. Her numerous plays have been performed at The Roundabout Theatre, Theatre East, The Cape Playhouse, The WPA, The John Drew in East Hampton, The McCarter at Princeton, and the HB Playwrights Foundation. Some of the latter productions include The Silver Fox, directed by Herbert Berghof and starring Uta Hagen; The Flip Side, a finalist in the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1982); Almost on a Runway, starring Jerry Stiller; and The Last American Convertible, which was presented at The Carnegie Mellon New Play Festival (1996). Ms. De Matteo’s latest play, Our Son’s Wedding was presented at the Gloucester Stage Co. in June, 2007. Ms. de Matteo is featured in Contemporary Women Playwrights by Kathleen Betsko and Rachel Koenig. Her other achievements include her three children, Joe, Darren, and Drea, and her marriage to her husband, Al.

Lawrence Dukore
Lawrence began his writing career with the Richard Pryor film, Greased Lightning, which was produced by Hanna Weinstein for Warner Bros. His television play, A Mistaken Charity, was produced by Lindsay Law for PBS/American Playhouse and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best dramatic writing. As a lyricist, he wrote with the late Danny Hurd. Their songs were recorded by Bernadette Peters and Chita Rivera. Mr. DuKore has also written daytime tv serials: One Life to Live for ABC and Search for Tomorrow for NBC. For Saturday morning television, he wrote the cartoon series, Thunder Cats and Silver Hawks. For somewhat older teenage girls, his novels, Never Love a Cowboy and Long Distance Love, were published by Bantam. The Boy Barrier and its French version, La RIvale were published by Scholastic. He is a member of The Workshop Theatre Company, the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit and the HB Playwrights Foundation (Uta Hagen/Herbert Berghof). His plays have been produced regionally and off-Broadway. Exploding the Swan had its world premiere at the Montauk Playhouse, produced by Bill and Anita Brown. His play, Spinsters, was presented at Tennessee Stage (Knoxville) in 2006 and also at CenterStage in Greenville, South Carolina. Mr. DuKore has been a semi-finalist three years running in the American Globe Theatre Festival of One Act Plays. In 2004, he was a finalist in the Heideman Awards competition at the Actors Theatre in Louisville for his one act play, When Men Were Men. Also, in 2004, this play took first prize/ “Audience Favorite” at the American Globe Theatre/Turnip Theatre Festival in New York City and in 2006, the play was presented in Kingwood (Texas) as part of their festival. In 2005, his one act play, The Day That Brando Died, was also a finalist in the Heideman Awards at the Actors Theatre in Louisville and in 2006, The Day That Brando Died was presented at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre (Michigan) as part of their two day festival and subsequently presented at CenterStage in Greenville, South Carolina.

Daniel Gallant
Daniel is a writer, director, performer and producer. He runs the theater and talk programs at the 92nd Street Y's Makor/Steinhardt Center. Daniel recently directed Five Story Walkup at the 13th Street Rep (which featured new short plays and monologues by Neil LaBute, John Guare, Quincy Long and Laura Shaine Cunningham, among others) and co-produced The Tempest and Antigone at the Henry Street Settlement. His own plays and monologues have been staged at venues including Mo Pitkins, New Dramatists, the Actors Studio, Galapagos Artspace and the Cornelia Street Cafe.

Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
Her last play, The Argument, premiered Off Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 2005 and her one act, The Soldier Play was included in “Armed and Naked”, short plays about the war produced by Naked Angels in 2007. The Airport Play was included in EST's 2005 Marathon. Her play, Omnium Gatherum, which she co-wrote with Theresa Rebeck, premiered at the 2003 Actors Theatre of Louisville and then went on to an Off-Broadway run and has subsequently been produced in countless theatres regionally and internationally. Omnium-Gatherum was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other plays include My Thing of Love (Broadway, Steppenwolf Theatre, Joseph Jefferson Award), Supple In Combat (Steppenwolf Theatre), I Never Told Anyone-a Short Play (McCarter Theatre), and Mother of Invention (Steppenwolf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival 2003). Seven other short plays have been produced at the HB Playwrights Foundation. Her plays have been published by Samuel French and Smith and Kraus. As an actress, she appeared in 2004 premiere of Nicky Silver’s Beautiful Child (Vineyard Theatre) as well as productions in New York at EST, Second Stage, Primary Stages, HOME, HERE, New York Stage and Film Co. and on Broadway. She is currently working on her first feature length film for director Gavin O’Conner (Tumbleweeds, Miracle) and Solaris Films, his Production Co. Ms. Gersten-Vassilaros is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, a member of Actors Studio, HB Playwrights Foundation and was recently invited to join PEN.

Julie McKee
Julie's plays include Play By Ear (2001 Herbert Berghof Memorial Production), Free Ascent (HBPF), The Adventures of Amy Bock (Yale Repertory Theatre), Get It While You Can (Yale Summer Cabaret), and Ron's Garden (New Zealand Festival of the Arts.) Her short plays have been produced by HBPF, EST Marathons, regionally, and in New Zealand. Some of them are published by Smith and Kraus and Playscripts Inc. Commissioned by EST/Sloan Foundation, recipient of Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, VCCA, NY Foundation for the Arts and the Sundance Playwrights Lab. Julie teaches playwriting and is a member of the HB Playwrights Unit and the EST Playwrights Unit.

Norman Kline
Commitments and Other Alternatives, produced at the Milwaukee Repertory, Toronto Workshop, Theatre Sans Souci Copenhagen and on National Public Radio. Faces, produced at HB Playwrights. It's Stupid to Steal When the Sun Is Out, 2005 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Local Potatoes and Al and Audrey, Vital Signs New Works Festival, NYC. The 8:10, Edward Albee's 2006 Playwrights Conference, Omaha, Nebraska. Pinter, Pooh, and Me, Theatre Three, Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY. United Giggles of America and This Week in the Suburbs, Emelin Theatre for the Performing Arts, Mamaroneck, NY. It Happened in New Marvelous, staged reading at HB Playwrights and Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, NY. Nothing for Blumpkin, Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble, Los Angeles. Nominated for the 2007 Mentors Project, Cherry Lane Theatre, NYC. Former Artistic Director, HB Playwrights, Executive Director, Emelin Theatre, Namaroneck, NY, Managing Director, Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, NY. Grants Panelist, National Endowment of the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Westchest Arts Council. Adjunct Professor (Arts Management) Manhattenville College, Purchase, NY. Graduate, American Academny of Dramatic Arts, NYC.

Adam Kraar
Adam Kraar’s plays include New World Rhapsody (commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club); The Spirit House (Finalist, 2002 Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival; premiered at Performance Network in Ann Arbor); The Abandoned El, which premiered at Illinois Theatre Center; Storm In The Iron Box (National Play Award runner-up), The Lost Cities of Asher (Fellowship from New River Dramatists; Finalist, 2005 O’Neill Playwrights Conference); and Freedom High (winner of the Handel Playwright Fellowship from the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Arts Guild). Adam was a Playwriting Fellow in Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club. His plays have been produced and developed in New York by Ensemble Studio Theatre, Primary Stages, N.Y. Stage and Film, N.Y. Shakespeare Festival, Cherry Lane Theatre, Abingdon, H.B. Playwrights Foundation, Rude Mechanicals, Queens Theatre in the Park and Theatreworks U.S.A.; and regionally at Geva Theatre, New Jersey Rep, N.Y. State Theatre Institute, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Key West Theatre Festival, and others. Adam Kraar’s plays have won awards from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Virtual Theatre Project and the Southeastern Theatre Conference; and received fellowships from the William Inge Center for the Arts and the Millay Colony. His plays are published by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Sundance Publishers and Applause Books’ Best American Short Plays. Adam grew up in India, Thailand, Singapore and the U.S., earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife Karen.

Quincy Long
South Coast Repertory Theater produced Mr. Long’s The Only Child, a musical play for families, in June. The Only Child was commissioned by SCR and was the first such commission produced by the theater. Mr. Long’s People Be Heard, a play with songs, was produced in 2004 by Playwrights Horizons and published recently by Dramatists Play Service. He recently completed the book for Horse Opera, a musical commissioned by the NEA and The Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC. Mr. Long’s The Lively Lad, a play with songs, was produced by the Actors Theater of Louisville Humana Festival in 2002. The play was also produced at the Power House Theatre at Vassar, by New York Stage and Film, and by Zoo District in Los Angeles, and was subsequently published by Dramatists Play Service. The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, also a play with songs was commissioned and produced by the Mark Taper Forum. The play, which won a Fund for New American Plays Award and has also been published by Dramatists Play Service, was first produced by the Atlantic Theater in New York, where it was directed by William H. Macy and starred Felicity Huffman. Mr. Long has adapted the play for film for Mel Gibson’s company, Icon Productions, and has adapted another of his plays, Shaker Heights, for Atlantic Films. The Year of the Baby, produced by Soho Rep, was a Time Out New York Pick of the Week. Mr. Long is a recipient of playwriting grants from the NEA and NYFA. In addition to South Coast Repertory Theatre and The Mark Taper Forum, Mr. Long has been commissioned by Sundance Children’s Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre, A.S.K Theater Projects, Playwrights Horizons, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project. He was a finalist for the Outer Circle Drama Critics Award, the Kesselring Prize, and a winner of the ASCAP/ Cole Porter prize for playwriting. Mr. Long is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and New Dramatists. He is from Warren, Ohio and lives in New York City.

Ed Napier
Ed hails from Kenova, West Virginia. His first play, Junior Prom was directed by his teacher, Herbert Berghof, at the HB Playwrights Foundation. Off-Broadway, his work has been seen at the WPA and MCC. Many other New York productions have occurred in theatres like West Bank Cafe, EST, PS 122, Alice's Fourth Floor, Nada, the Salon, the Amateur Comedy Club, and the Workhouse Theatre where he was playwright-in-residence. His work has been published by Dramatists Play Service and Smith and Kraus. He was a Columbia University Senior Writing Fellow, a Julliard Playwright Fellow, and a Playwright Fellow at the Lark, recipient of the Berilla Kerr Award. He has taught playwrighting at Columbia University's High School Program, James Madison University, NYU and HB Studio. Artistic affiliations include the Playwrights' Coalition at MCC and the Playwright's and Director's Lab at the Actor's Studio. Ed serves on the Artists Advisory Council at the H B Playwrights Foundation. For the past two years, Ed was on the writing staff of the television show,Criminal Minds. He is a graduate of Columbia University.

Mark St. Germain
Mark has written the plays Camping with Henry and Tom (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards), Out of Gas on Lover's Leap and Forgiving Typhoid Mary (TIME Magazine’s “Year’s Ten Best”). His plays Ears on a Beatle and The God Committee premiered at the Barrington Stage Company and then were produced Off Broadway, respectively, by Daryl Roth and Carolyn Rossi Copeland at the Lambs. Mark’s plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatic Play Service and in numerous anthologies. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, winner of an AT&T “New Plays For The Nineties Award,” Jack's Holiday at Playwrights Horizons and Walter Wangerin Jr.’s The Book of the Dun Cow at the Prospect Theatre. Mark’s musical, Stand by Your Man, The Tammy Wynette Story was created for Nashville’s Ryman Theater and then toured nationally. Television credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for The Cosby Show. He co-wrote the screenplay for director Carroll Ballard’s recently acclaimed film, Duma. Mark is an alumnus of New Dramatists, where he was given the Joe A. Callaway Award, member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writer’s Guild East . He was awarded the “New Voices In American Theatre” award at the William Inge Theatre Festival, 2001.

Ellen Sandler
Ellen Sandler was nominated for an Emmy as Co-Executive Producer of the CBS series, Everybody Loves Raymond and although she has enjoyed a long and successful television career, her first love has always been theatre. She has worked as a professional since she was sixteen, doing everything from picking up pins on costume room floors to writing, producing and directing in theatres as small as 15 seats and as large as 1,500. She was a performer with the legendary Open Theatre under the direction of Joeseph Chaikin and studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof at the HB Playwright’s Foundation where she also directed One Time, One Place, her adaptation of Eudora Welty short stories. She worked for five years as a member of the development staff of Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre where she directed numerous new and experimental plays. Her award-winning production of Pennant Fever, for the Los Angeles Actor’s Theatre led to her first TV job, writing for Taxi, and to commissions by the Mark Taper Forum to create and direct two productions for their literary cabaret series. The first, Red Smith On Baseball, based on the famed sports writer’s journalism; and the second, Baby In The Icebox, adapted from short stories by James M. Cain. She was invited to recreate the Cain project for the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J. Her autobiographical comedy, Jewish Roots, was produced at the Hudson Theatre and the co-written How’d It Go starring Megan Mullally was produced at the HBO/Warner Bros. Workspace, both in Los Angeles. Ellen is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America and the Dramatist Guild and has an MFA from the American Film Institute. Her consulting company, Sandler Ink, provides script development and career coaching, as well as workshops at universities and writer’s conferences both in the U.S. and abroad. She teaches television writing at USC School of Cinematic Arts and is the author of The TV Writer’s Workbook, A Creative Approach to Television Scripts, published by Bantam/Dell, Spring 2007.