Henry Fonte is a playwright and director. His new play, EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, has had workshops at Florida Stage, the Coronet Theater in L.A. with Timothy Busfield and Sharon Gless, and in Manhattan, under his own direction, at Cap 21. It was later presented as a fully staged production at the Hartt School’s inaugural New Play Festival. CINDERELLA, THE TRUE STORY, his new musical (with Lee Ahlin and Victoria Halloway), was performed at American Stage, and has been recently published by Samuel French, Inc. His adaptations of four Chekhov’s farces, THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL, THE BOAR, ON THE HARMFULNESS OF TOBACCO, and THE WEEDING, were presented in New York under the title of THE DOCTOR’S LIGHTER SIDE. The focus of his directing career has been on the development and presentation of new work. He has developed new plays and musicals in a variety of theatres, both regional and off-Broadway, as well as at many developmental institutions, such as The New Harmony Project; working with writers such as Eric Bentley, Larry Kramer, Don Nigro, Karen MacDonald, and many others. He is currently the Founding Director of New Play Development at The Hartt School (University of Hartford), where he is on faculty. This program is firmly committed to the development of new plays and musicals, and has produced over twenty new works for the American Theatre since it’s inception, seven years ago. Mr. Fonte has served on the New Works Panel of the National Alliance for Music Theatre. For the last three years, Mr. Fonte has directed at Dallas’ Out of the Loop Festival, hosted by WaterTower Theatre, where he recently staged the world premiere of Dave Johnson’s new play, BAPTIZED TO THE BONE. He has been a professional director for over twenty-five years; having directed over sixty Equity productions, working in theatres such as Indianapolis Starlight, where he directed Judy Kaye and Sally Mayes in KISS ME KATE and Roz Ryan in AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’; and Capital Rep, where he directed TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and Jean LeClrec in Stephen Deitz’s adaptation of DRACULA. Off Broadway, Mr. Fonte’s work has been seen at The Cherry Lane (among other theatres) where he staged the world premiere of INSIDE OUT with Ann Crumb, Jan Maxwell and Cass Morgan. Mr. Fonte is also a director of opera, most recently, the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize laureate Roger Reynolds’ JUSTICE, in 2002. This work was commissioned by the Library of Congress, and was performed in its Great Hall. At the Mannes Conservatory of Music in New York, he has directed Offenbach’s ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD and Charpentier’s rarely performed LA DECENDE D’ORPHEE AUX ENFER.

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Edith Freni’s plays have been staged, read and read staged at venues all over New York City. Recent projects include: HELP YOURSELF (2007 Williamstown Theatre Festival); MY DOG HEART (EST Marathon 2007; Dir: John Gould Rubin), MOMMA (PS 122/Best of the Boroughs Festival); BABY GIRL (PCP/Center Stage); THE ¬WORKAROUND and WATERBORN (EST/Youngblood). Upcoming projects include TELLY’S WILD RIDE (McCarter Theatre) and KIDSTUFF (Kirk Theatre, Theatre Row, Partial Comfort Production). She was a member of Youngblood, EST’s emerging playwright’s unit, from 1999 to 2008; she is a member of Partial Comfort Productions and is the co-founder/lit manager of The 24Seven Lab (www.24sevenlab.com). Publications include, WATERBORN (DPS); Hot Blooded, New Monologues from the Members of Youngblood (Playscripts, Inc.), and The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2006 (Smith & Kraus). Edith was a Lark Theatre Playwriting Fellow (Fall 2003), nominated for the 2003 Seattle Rep Women’s Playwrights Workshop, highlighted as part of Showbusiness Weekly’s 2002 Discovery Series and featured in the Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dramatic Writing Alumni Reading Series in the Spring 2004. She was a nominee for the 2008 Wasserstein Prize, a finalist for the 2005 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and for the 2007 Summer Play Festival. She is the recipient of a Rita and Burton Goldberg Playwriting Fellowship and the Harry Kondolean Graduate Playwriting Award from NYU, where she received her MFA in Dramatic Writing in May 2007. Edith is a native New Yorker, a displaced upper Westsider, and a Yankee fan. She attended Fiorello H. Laguardia High School as an art major after being rejected by the drama department. She figure skated for 12 years and fought in the NYC amateur circuit with Coach Lee Shabaka's Team Freeform Women’s Boxing Club. all else, www.edithfreni.com.

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