Artists

associate playwrights.

Carolynne Wilcox

(she/they)

2022 - 2023 Playwriting Resident

Carolynne is a Seattle-based, Latine actor/playwright whose work has been produced both locally and nationally (in Baltimore, Chicago & Orlando, among others). She holds an MFA in Original Works from Towson University and is dedicated to putting more female-presenting, & other traditionally underrepresented faces & voices up on the stage.

drew david combs
(he/him)

Drew is an actor and playwright based in Seattle. He graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in 2014, BFA Theatre, with a concentration in Original Works. His senior project, Book of Daniel, was selected for the Cornish New Works Festival and staged as a reading directed by Wayne Rawley. Favorite onstage credits include The Word in Ballard Underground's Battle of the Bards, Paul/Marita in Parley's Magpie and Marita, and Josh in John Baxter is a Switch Hitter at the Intiman. Drew loves to create and participate in new work, and is stoked to be a member of Parley.

Brian Dang
(they/them)

Brian Dang (they/them) is a Vietnamese/Chinese playwright/poet/teaching artist based in Duwamish Territory (Seattle). Brian is a proud resident playwright at Parley. Brian’s artistic homes include Seattle’s Writers in the Schools and Arts Corps. For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing, an opportunity to freeze time as we know it, and a reaching for joy. They really like bread. Website: brianeatswords.com

n8 heneghan

(he/him)

n8 is an independent scholar and writer based in Seattle, WA. He received his PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Southern California and has taught at several institutions including Oberlin College and Wesleyan University. His research focuses on literary and cinematic representations of the Korean minority in Japan (Zainichi). As a playwright, much of his work explores the link between political activism and formal experimentation.

Carol Lee
(she/her)

Carol is a playwright and illustrator. She is also interested in the unlimited possibility of creating art through open source software. Her work has been produced by the Undergraduate Theatre Society (University of Washington) and by Bucknell University Department of Theatre & Dance. She enjoys watching movies and taking walks (on Google Earth and in real life).

Nelia Miller

(she/her)

Nelia Miller is an interdisciplinary performer/creator. Her work integrates the physical, vocal, and technical elements of theatre performance to create layered, rich storytelling experiences. Professional studies and performances include work in Bonn, London, Moscow, California, and Chicago. Select credits include her solo show, Cetology (NY Frigid Fest), she doesn't remember you (Oregon Fringe) and collaborations with Parley (Seattle), CollabArts (Minneapolis), Chicago Danztheatre, (re)discover theatre, and Mozawa. www.neliamiller.com

Kate Schwartz
(she/her)

Kate has her MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen (University of Nebraska Omaha).
In March 2019, Kate’s play, LEAR/LOMAN, was awarded “Festival Feature” at 2 Cent Theatre’s Acting Out INK Fest (Hollywood, CA). It was chosen “Best of INK Fest” and won five more performances at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June 2019.
In October 2019, Kate had a staged concert-reading of Venus and Mars for Chicago Dramatists/Playwrights Aloud.
Retreat in the Berkshires was included as part of the 2020 Fringe Festival (concert reading) of the Playwriting Symposium at the Mid-America Theatre Conference (Chicago) in March 2020.
The Holding Space was a Finalist in the Tennessee Williams One-Act Playwriting Contest in 2021.
A monologue from The Holding Space is published in She Persisted: One Hundred Monologues from Plays By Women Over Forty (Applause Acting Series).
She is an Associate Playwright for Parley in Seattle, WA.

Nelle Tankus
(she/her)

Nelle Tankus is a white Jewish & Romani trans woman playwright and performer. Her full-length work has been seen in Seattle at 12th Avenue Arts (The Untitled Play About Art School, dir. L. Nicol Cabe), The Umbrella Project (Slack Water, dir. QuiQui Dominguez), and Parley Productions (Yom Kippur, dir. Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth). Her shorter plays have been seen at Mo-Wave, The Pocket Theater, Volunteer Park, The Erickson Theater, Seattle Town Hall, and have been presented in association with MAP Theatre, ACT’s 1-Minute Play Festival, Fantastic Z. Theatre Company, Annex Theatre’s Spin the Bottle, Forward Flux, and MirrorStage. She loves grindcore, black licorice, and diet Dr. Pepper. She is based in Seattle.

staff.

Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth
(she/her)
creator / managing artistic director

Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA), the University of California, Irvine (MFA), and the Pacific Conservatory Theatre. At twenty, she made her professional acting debut at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London and spent fifteen years performing in regional theaters across the United States.

As a teaching theater artist, she’s worked with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts; the Alliance Theater in Atlanta; the New York Film Academy in Soho; Seattle University; Meadows School of the Arts at SMU; and Freehold’s Ensemble Training Intensive, among others. For three consecutive years, she also made weekly trips to Gig Harbor to work with incarcerated people at the Washington Correctional Center for Women as part of the Engaged Theater Residency.

Her plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and elsewhere at venues like the American Theater of Actors, the Barrow Group, 12th Avenue Arts, West of Lenin, and Book-It Repertory Theatre. She is also the co-book writer (with Evynne Hollens) of Mija: A New Musical (Latiné Musical Theatre Lab Table Reading selection, Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theater Conference semi-finalist); and the co-screenwriter/director of the feature-length Psyche and Cupid: A Puppet Film.

In Parley (now in its tenth season), Rebecca has established the most robust new work developmental program in the Pacific Northwest, offering unprecedented support to its playwriting associates. Through Parley, Tourino Collinsworth has developed, directed, and produced more than 75 world premieres of important new plays by underrepresented writers in the last decade. As The Dramatist attests, “[Parley’s] founding, continuance, and expanding reputation is largely due to one person. That artist is Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth, an indefatigable playwright, director, and theatre-maker.” NPX (comprehensive playwriting info)

Rebecca lives happily in Seattle with her husband and two children.

Asha Dore

(she/her)

associate art & marketing director
managing editor, parley lit

Asha is a writer and artist who has spent most of her adult life making her way from Florida to Seattle. Her essays and poems have been published in The Rumpus, Brain Child Magazine, Parents, River Teeth, Hobart, and elsewhere. Her art has been featured locally at the Belltown Art Walk and various obscure coffee houses and restaurants in the PNW. She received a MFA in Writing in 2016 and teaches writing workshops twice annually. You can find her work at ashadore.net. Asha is thrilled to participate and learn with the amazing artists at Parley!

Dustin Hageland

(he/him)

technical producer

Dustin Hageland is a playwright and educator from the Pacific Northwest. He received his BFA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University in 2018 and his MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2021. His play Small Box with a Revolver has been performed as part of the 2021 Big Muddy New Play Festival, the 2021 St. Lou Fringe Festival and the 2022 SETC Fringe Festival, and he has technically produced numerous virtual works since the summer of 2020, including numerous evenings of short plays, the 2020 Big Muddy New Play Festival Online, Rainy Day Artistic Collectives Halfway Histories One Act Festival.

Katherine Jett
(she/her)
associate producer

Katherine is a Seattle-based interdisciplinary theatre maker and performance artist. A proud associate playwright with Parley since 2018, she has workshopped full-length plays (This Pleasant Prison, The Mermaids), a solo performance, and co-mounted an interdisciplinary, covid-conscious performance promenade (Aposiopesis). She has performed with Book-It, Greenstage, Seattle Immersive, Taproot, Thalia’s Umbrella, Rebel Kat, and Parley Productions (Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth’s Stamina and cherubin). Her original musical about Bigfoot, Squatch! The Musical (in collaboration with composer Adam Quillian), received its inaugural production at Centerstage Theatre in the Spring of 2017 and won a 2017 People’s Choice Gregory for Best New Play. She holds a BFA in Theatre: Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts and has trained as a performer locally with Roger Curtis and in Greece with the DUENDE company.

emeriti.

Susan McNally

Susan McNally is a filmmaker and a playwright. For her work in film and television, she received EMMY, CINE and TELLY Awards, as well as a development grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for an independent feature film. As a playwright, she is a founding member of Parley and five of her full-length plays have been performed in Parley workshop productions. Sue’s short plays have appeared at various local festivals, including Forward Flux and the Seattle Play Series.

Ryan Nole Fields

Ryan is a Seattle native and theatre artist. As an actor he has been on stage at Intiman, Book-it, Balagan, Theatre 9/12 and other various theatres in and around Seattle. He has done film work in various commercials, small independent films and NBC's Grimm. Ryan is proud to be a member of Parley. He admires Parley's commitment to make theatre accessible to all and to tell stories for people who otherwise may not have a voice.

Elijah Merrill

Elijah is a playwright, fantasy novelist, and leader of writing workshops in Seattle. He is fascinated by folklore from around the world, the history of United States immigrants and migrants, firsthand accounts of resistance to tyranny, and theatre that centers marginalized voices. His plays workshopped by Parley include Bipolar Inkwell, Water Over My Head, Crooked Grace, Magpie and Marita, The Orchid and the Skull, and Triceratops Love Song, the last of which was also produced by Somniterum Productions. His play Memory-Eaters and his adaptation of Pride and Prejudice were produced by the Bush School's high school drama department. Elijah has offered over ten writing workshops through the organization Gathering Ground, and has been a production assistant on many Parley shows.