Players
Meet the players and playwrights of the games we play at Dungeons + Drama Nerds. Below you’ll find headshots and bios for the pleayers of our first three games.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians
Gina Femia (Coney Shiversville)’s work has been seen/developed at MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, EST, Page 73, New Georges, CTG, Theater of NOTE, Panndora Productions, among others. Selected honors include The Kilroys List, Leah Ryan Prize, Doric Wilson Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award and the Neukom Award in Playwriting. Gina's work has been nominated for a Drama League Award (my pierced ears with AFO's Solo Shorts) as well as a New York Innovative Theater Award. Gina is a current Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and an Alum of EST Youngblood, Page73's Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, New Georges' Audrey Residency, the Ingram New Play Lab at Nashville Rep and Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group. Gina’s a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O’Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College (Lipkin Prize in Playwriting).
Mieko Gavia (Malta Regina, She/Her) is a writer, actor, producer, and all-around oddball from Indianapolis, Indiana. After graduating from Oberlin College with a degree in Theater, Mieko followed the classic scenario of a small-town girl with big-city dreams and hightailed it to NYC. Her acting credits include Joan of Arc in the forthcoming La Pucelle, Lou Salome in Lou at the Paradise Factory, the webseries Quarter Century (Imani), Afterswarm at JACK (Gigi), Gardener of Stars at Detroit’s Light Box (Gardener), The Reenactors at Abrams Arts Center (Actress 2), and Creative Time’s installations: Private Moment (Alice) and The Privilege of Escape (Dr. Crenshaw). Mieko’s play Dog has been performed at the Gene Frankel Theatre, her play Afterswarm (co-written with Heather Harvey) has been performed at JACK, and her non-theatrical writing has been featured in Bustle, Buzzfeed, Oxygen, and Efniks. She is also a producing ensemble member for Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop, a Brooklyn based, social justice focused theater company. On her off hours Mieko can be spotted foraging in used bookstores or wherever cheap food abounds. You can also catch her at www.miekogavia.org
Percival Hornak (Adelaide, He/They/Xe) is a dramaturg, playwright, and literary manager who loves games, ghost stories, and plays about lesbians. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Dramaturgy at UMass Amherst, and are the proud Literary Manager of Team Awesome Robot. Percy spent two seasons as an Allen Lee Hughes Fellow in Arena Stage's Literary office, where he worked on several productions as a script supervisor and production dramaturg. Other companies xe has worked with include Andy’s Summer Playhouse, Luna Stage, and the Theatre Communications Group. TTRPGs have been a lifelong love of Percy's, and he has several years of experience as a GM in several D20 and Powered by the Apocalypse systems. Check out his website at percivalhornak.com
Jon Jon Johnson (Nymeria Wu, They/He) is a queer, gender-rebellious, Asian-American multidisciplinary multi-hyphenate artist in the DMV, and has been a vocal advocate for Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression in theatrical spaces. They were an outspoken activist, advocate and consultant in the DMV Theatre Community, and are now bringing that same energy to New York City, to where he has recently relocated.
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Johnson's current theatrical practice revolves around the decolonization of leadership positions and the destruction and restructuring of toxic theatrical practices to allow for a greater shift towards equity towards marginalized identities. Johnson has been regarded as a longtime leader of EDI advocacy among the theatre community. They are currently the Production Recruiter at the Public Theater in New York City, and currently serve on Leadership in the Fled Collective, as well as on the Board for the Foundation for Inclusivity in Gaming. Podcastily, Jon Jon can also be found on Moon Harbor Heroes, a Masks: A New Generation Actual Play Podcast.
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Johnson is also a professional Tabletop GM for hire (please inquire for rates). Love to ET, KH, RT, SWA, RB, MB, and AJD.
Leo Mock (Rugosa, They/He) is a theatre-maker and educator based in Philly. They direct the flagship show for Speak About It, a Maine-based non-profit bringing pleasure-forward, values-based consent and sex education to high schools and colleges. As an intimacy choreographer and consultant, they have most recently worked with Portland Theater Festival (Pony), Durham Bulldog Ensemble (Peerless), and The Show Must Go Online (Gallathea, Edward II, The Two Noble Kinsmen). Leo is in training with Theatrical Intimacy Education, where they also assist with Mental Health First Aid workshops. He has facilitated workshops in gender, trans inclusion, and consent in theatre for a number of theatres, training spaces, and community arts groups. Leo is a member of the Gender Explosion Initiative with StageSource, and holds a BFA in Socially Engaged Arts with a concentration in Sexuality Studies from Goddard College.
Leo Mock (Rugosa, They/He) is a theatre-maker and educator based in Philly. They direct the flagship show for Speak About It, a Maine-based non-profit bringing pleasure-forward, values-based consent and sex education to high schools and colleges. As an intimacy choreographer and consultant, they have most recently worked with Portland Theater Festival (Pony), Durham Bulldog Ensemble (Peerless), and The Show Must Go Online (Gallathea, Edward II, The Two Noble Kinsmen). Leo is in training with Theatrical Intimacy Education, where they also assist with Mental Health First Aid workshops. He has facilitated workshops in gender, trans inclusion, and consent in theatre for a number of theatres, training spaces, and community arts groups. Leo is a member of the Gender Explosion Initiative with StageSource, and holds a BFA in Socially Engaged Arts with a concentration in Sexuality Studies from Goddard College.
Tess Huth (Gay Master, She/Her) is a transgender theatre artist, whose dramaturgical, playwriting, and directing work has been seen across the greater DC and Baltimore area. She is also a “professional nerd,” producing the podcasts Moon Harbor Heroes and Moon Harbor Extended, writing and editing original musical crossovers with other actual plays, and serving as a guest pop culture analyst on In Quest of Geek and The Fanbase Weekly Podcast. You can find her on Twitter or Instagram at @tphuth94.
Brindlewood Bay
Chris Diercksen (Eddi-Rue Dubois, He/They) is the Artistic Director of Team Awesome Robot, a New York City based theater company focusing on the dramaturgical development of new plays and advocacy of the people who make them. Credits include: Rush by Callie Kimball, That True Phoenix by Daniel John Kelley, Let's Do That Hockey by Madhuri Shekar, and Break by Samantha Fairfield Walsh. He is also one of the lunatics behind Drinking & Dragons, a live-play tabletop RPG event that empowers the audience to affect the story... and also encouraging a rowdy fun time.
Ben Ferber (Lane Walther, He/Him) is a theater artist who creates pieces about technology and the Internet. He writes, directs, designs sound and projections, and performs; he often fills more than one of these roles in his work. Full-length work includes I’m Very Online (Neukom Award semifinalist), For the Lulz (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Portland Stage), and Let’s Play Play (Brick Theater/GamePlay Festival). His solo performances (ironically done with multiple performers) include Artifacts (The Tank) and Aliterary Reading (The Shed Space). He GMed the Paranoia campaign of Dungeons + Drama Nerds, 73 Jpegs I Desperately Need, and played 18,000/Fish in the Lancer campaign, Every Lancer Gets a Girlfriend. He has more actual play work on the way! He's worked in the artistic departments of Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Lark. You can find him on Twitter (and basically everywhere) @benferber.
Kory Flores (Bebe Garcia, She/Her) is a jack of all trades. From acting to directing, she's run the New York gamut in the pursuit of happiness. She is excited to return to Dungeons + Drama Nerds in Brindlewood Bay, where her love of improv and spending time with distant friends can come together as one. Kory currently works for Rumble as a fitness trainer in Manhattan and lives with her beloved rescue cat, Garbage.
Shannon Wade (Doris Macowiak, She/Her) is an arts educator, puppet maker, puppeteer, clown, performer, playwright, and many other things besides! You may have heard her on D+DN as Gerri Winters in last season's "Oh Dang, Bigfoot..." campaign. Shannon has been lucky enough to teach and perform with arts organizations across the country, including the Yocum Institute for Arts Education (PA), Omaha Theater Company at The Rose (NE), Portland Stage (ME), and PortFringe Theater Festival (ME). She currently works as the Director of Education at STAGES Youth Theater in Portland Maine, where she often uses elements of TTRPGs to teach young people about storytelling, collaboration, and improv. Some of the many things Shannon enjoys are camping, biking, stiltwalking, baking bread, and sticking googly eyes onto things.
C. Meaker (The Keeper, She/They) is a playwright, screenwriter, and Game Master whose work often explores queerness, feminism, and the end of the world currently based in the Twin Cities. Meaker’s plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center and National New Play Network, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre in Seattle, About Face in Chicago, and Macha Monkey in Seattle. They are a former Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center, an alumna of Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Writers Group, and former Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. They are a graduate of Knox College and received an MFA in Playwriting from University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop.
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They currently teach playwriting at Macalester College and the Playwrights' Center. In their spare time, they obsessively research monster and zombie theory, GM various TTRPGs, and drink a lot of tea while reading cozy mysteries. They podcast about The Walking Dead and horror with fellow playwright Margot Connolly on Don't Podcast Dead Inside. Follow them on twitter, instagram, or check out their New Play Exchange.
ARC
Jovane Caamaño (He/They) is a queer, boricua actor and educator based in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. By day, he teaches theatre at a school for children with learning differences, following his passion for providing young people experience and an education in the arts and all the countless benefits that gives, especially to those for whom it may be harder to find/express themselves and their creativity. By night (and elsewhen), he acts, sings, performs, and sometimes attempts to dance at several theatres in DFW and around the country, and he has voiced a variety of characters on the Writer Wrong podcast. And all the time, he loves to consume, share, and create stories that make him think and feel things; to learn, speak with, and coach dialects and accents; to knit; to be reminded of how insignificant and significant he simultaneously is; and to make and experience all kinds of art. He has long been interested in TTRPGs and is steadily gaining experience with them, and D+DN’s ethos and explorations are immensely pleasing to Jovane’s nerd-brain. So he is seriously stoked and grateful for the opportunity to play and story-tell with these fellow nerds again after playing Lancer last season. You can witness how he continues to fail at maintaining a social media presence @jove_aw_nee on Instagram.
Anthony Sertel Dean (He/They) is a sound artist, composer, and theater designer working to build community through a radical art practice. This work takes a multidisciplinary approach to performance, hoping to create a more inclusive, personal art. Anthony’s sound work can be heard in theater, film, radio, art installations, and music ensembles. Anthony is the technical director for The New York Neo-Futurists and the technical manager for The Tank. Anthony is a graduate of Wesleyan University, returning often as a visiting sound designer. For more on Anthony, visit anthonydean.org
Romana Isabella (They/Them) is a playwright, performer and producer with roots in Ukraine and Argentina. Their plays include HYENA!, which they performed at La MaMa, the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the United Solo Festival (winner of “Best Experimental Show”) and Martyrs, which premiered in La MaMa’s Spring 2018 Season. Romana is also a 2017 Fellow of the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices.
Nicholas Orvis (He/Him) is a dramaturg, director, literary manager, and tabletop roleplaying game enthusiast who’s dedicated to fostering new stories in media of all kinds. As the Literary Associate for Premiere Stages at Kean University, Nick served as the dramaturg on over a dozen workshops, readings, and productions. He’s also worked at Portland Stage Company, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Luna Stage, and the Tank, and his short (fan) fiction has appeared in Wayfinder magazine. He has over a decade of experience in tabletop roleplaying games (mostly as a GM). He’s on Twitter @nsorvis, on Instagram @norvis13, and online at nicholasorvis.com - and currently completing an MFA in dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama.
Dex Phan (He/Him) is an American-born, Vietnamese, gay as hell, man looking to inspire others to be their best selves. A former marine mammal trainer and park ranger, he now works in a QA team at a global pharmaceutical research laboratory in Pennsylvania. In his free time, he enjoys writing and reading about unabashedly queer characters, designing Vietnam-inspired fantasy settings, and subverting expectations of what Asian Americans can and should be. He hopes to see his own books on the shelves one day. Keep up with him on Twitter @dexphanwrites.
Todd Brian Backus (The Guide, He/Him) is a co-producer of Dungeons + Drama Nerds and a lifelong RPG enthusiast. When he’s away from his D20s Todd is a literary manager, dramaturg, and director of new work. This past summer he curated and directed a second series of readings entitled Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die which included The Zero Hour, A Beautiful Day in November on the Greatest of the Great Lakes, and peerless. Some of his favorite directing projects include Let’s Play Play by Ben Ferber (Brick Theater/GamePlay Festival), Sparks Fly Upward by Eleanor Burgess (Everyday Inferno/Developmental Lab), The Nature Room by Nora Sørena Casey (Portland Stage/Studio Series), and The Absentee by Julia Doolittle (Portland Stage/Little Festival of the Unexpected). Todd also writes plays from time to time like Emily Dickinson: Paranormal Investigator. Keep up with him at toddbrianbackus.com or just about everywhere as @tbbackus.