Artists

Associate Playwrights.

Liz Baker
(she/her)

Liz is a writer of plays, films, and video games based in Seattle, WA. She holds a BA in Film Studies from Mount Holyoke College and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied under Rob Handel. She has worked with Theater Masters, Hangar Theatre/Center for the Arts in Ithaca, Kitchen Theatre Company, Skyra Productions, and –– most recently –– Bungie, Inc. In 2018, her play The Death of Odysseus was published by Samuel French as a part of Theater Masters’ Take Ten Vol. 4.

Her awards include 2nd place in the Alfred P. Sloan Screenplay Competition (2019), Eugene O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist (2019), and Theater Masters’ Take Ten Finalist (2018). Her residencies include Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Hangar Theatre A.I.R.S program, and Adams State University's Rare A.I.R.

lenore bensinger
(she/her)

Lenore Bensinger is the author of several prize-winning plays produced in Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, CA., LA and St. Louis. She has authored produced plays for local and US festivals. Her solo show, A GHOST STORY, is published by Broadway Play Publishing in FACING FORWARD. She co-authored the nationally touring show, DINOSAURUS, with Ed Mast. Her musical, BEHIND the VEIL, was produced at LATW. She authored the book for MEANWHILE, a musical with a time-traveling Einstein; workshopped in Seattle. Her playwrights’ radio show, NEW WAVES, ran on KUOW until the Iraq War. She produced the first U.S. Fringe Festival in Seattle. In the last year, she wrote and directed her first short narrative film and is currently at work on creating a documentary about Public Health Nurses. Other professional skills include journalism, free-lance editing and ghost-writing.

greg brisendine
(he/him)

Greg is a 25 year Seattle resident who believes this is where he belongs. He took an acting class some years ago, got to act in some plays, and then started thinking he should write some. In 2016 he co-produced his first full-length play, The Hat. That experience was so awesome that in 2017 he produced another of his plays, No Strings Attached. Both of those plays were developed at Parley and in 2018 Greg took a sabbatical from Parley to write a non-fiction book. In 2019 he self-published Measuring Success: A Practical Guide to KPIs. Greg’s non-fiction work and his years of writing poetry both influence his plays. He’s also a super-nerd for fantasy novels and has a corporate job that he actually kind of likes.

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 is a graduating Senior at the University of Washington majoring in English Literature and Drama. At UW, Brian was the Creative Development Director for the past two and a half years, connecting fellow undergraduate peers with educational opportunities as well as curating, coordinating, and mentoring playwrights in the annual New Works Festival. While Brian primarily focuses on playwriting, they have experience in sound and light design, improv, directing, and dramaturgy. Recent productions that they have been a part of have been Anton (Parley) as the playwright, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (UTS) as a co-director, Sleep is for the Weak V (Theatre Battery) as a playwright, and Goldie, Max and Milk (UW School of Drama) as the sound designer. Brian currently interns for ACT Theatre as a Literary and Dramaturgy Intern with Samie Detzer. Last but not least, Brian is passionate about the power of stories and the intersection between creative and critical writing. On the side, Brian likes to read, write, watch movies, revel in hopeless romanticism, pet cats, and eat bread.

ryan nole fields
(he/him)

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.

katherine jett
(she/her)

Katherine is a Seattle-based performer and writer. Her interests include reimagined classical theatre, theatre for young audiences, little-known history, dramaturgy, and highly physical interdisciplinary performance work. She has performed with Book-It Repertory, Greenstage, Seattle Immersive, Thalia’s Umbrella, Rebel Kat, and Parley Productions (Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth’s cherubin). Her original musical about Bigfoot (in collaboration with composer Adam Quillian), Squatch! The Musical, received its inaugural production at Centerstage Theatre in the Spring of 2017 and won a 2017 People’s Choice Gregory for Best New Play. Katherine holds a BFA in Theatre: Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts (2011) and is a proud artistic associate of the DUENDE ensemble. www.duende-ensemble.com

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).

hannah merrill
(she/her)

Hannah Merrill is a devoted Seattle resident, and a (sometimes exasperated) student of the city's faults and virtues. Her workshopped plays include Water Over My Head, Crooked Grace, Magpie and Marita, Crocodile Plays the Drum, The Orchid and the Skull, and Triceratops Love Song. In her work, she enjoys pondering questions of redemption, family, gender, and imagination. She is a proud student at Goddard College. She also loves meandering walks, feminist fantasy books, gender-bent Shakespeare, and her friends and family.

susan Mcnally
(she/her)

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.

sarah overman
(she/her)

Sarah is a writer, producer, and actor. Plays include: SHE’S HOT, developed with the support of “The Hive” at 29th Street Rep, NYC; AFTERGLOW (A Comedie of Bad Manners) developed by Aviles Street Productions with staged readings at New York Theatre Workshop and The Player’s Theatre NYC; HER MAJESTY THE KING, which premiered with Dramahaus New York at HERE Arts Center in 2006; THE STILL HUNT, the first play in a trilogy about Pacific Northwest frontier women; and LITTLE GUN the trilogy’s second installment.
Regional acting credits include roles at ACT San Francisco, The California Shakespeare Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Portland Center Stage and the Artist’s Repertory Theatre among others. Film projects include roles in HAIKU TUNNEL (Sundance, Sony Pictures Classics), LOVE & TAXES (ABRAMORAMA), and MY SUMMER AS A GOTH (Sour Apple). Sarah holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre.

Kate Schwartz
(she/her)

Kate has her MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen from the 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 of the Playwriting Symposium at the Mid-America Theatre Conference (Chicago) in March 2020. Her one-act, Thou Roguish, Boil-brained, Coxcomb, was published in The
Drama Notebook Spring/Summer 2020. Her ten-minute play, Nothing Lasts, received a full virtual production at TheatreThree in Port Jefferson, NY in Summer 2020. Auburn University’s Theatre Department included PeacefulME as part of their Together Apart virtual collaboration in November 2020. Her play, The Holding Space, was a Finalist for the Tennessee Williams One-Act Playwriting Contest in 2021. She is thrilled that Lighthouse Writers Workshop selected her application to take a week-long Playwriting Intensive taught by her favorite female Playwright, Sarah Ruhl (June 2021). She is equally thrilled to be a part of Parley!

nelle tankus
(she/her/they/them)

Nelle Tankus is a white Jewish & Romani trans woman playwright. Her/their full-length work has been seen in Seattle at 12th Avenue Arts (The Untitled Play About Art School, dir. L. Nicol Cabe), and Annex Theatre (Eat Cake, dir. Catherine Blake Smith) and in New York City at IRT Theatre (Hunting, dir. Tristan Powell). Her/their shorter plays 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, and Forward Flux. Nelle is a 2015 and 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting where she studied with Cherríe Moraga and Phillip Howze respectively. She/they were a finalist for The Playwright’s Realm’s 2019-2020 Scratchpad Series, and a semi-finalist for the 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. She/they are currently based in Seattle.

Staff.

rebecca tourino collinsworth
(she/her)
creator / artistic director

Rebecca is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA, English), the University of California, Irvine (MFA, Acting), and the Pacific Conservatory Theatre. At twenty, she made her professional acting debut at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London, and she has since acted in regional theaters all over the United States. As a teaching artist, she’s worked with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine; the Alliance Theater in Atlanta; the New York Film Academy in Soho; Seattle University; Meadows School of the Arts at SMU; Freehold Theatre Studio/Lab; Freehold’s Ensemble Training Intensive; and served for three years as Resident Playwright 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 such as the American Theatre of Actors, Center Stage, and the Barrow Group. As a director, she has helmed over 70 world premieres in the last seven years alone.

A homeschooling mother of two, Rebecca teaches playwriting, acting, and voice through her tiny home studio, Salvo.

jaime shure
(she/her)
technical director

Jaime is a theatre technician and stage manager. She had the immense pleasure of designing lights for cherubin in early 2019, and has refused to leave ever since.