WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL at Ivoryton Playhouse

Carly Callahan (Board of Trustees, Ivoryton Playhouse) is a Connecticut and New York based artistic entrepreneur focused on developing innovative live entertainment. She has decades' worth of experience in theatrical marketing and audience development. Her passion lies in fostering the intersection of artistic expression and community building. Carly is a graduate of Brown University.

Carin Jennie Estey (Theater Artist, Founder, Safe Spaces) Based out of Southeastern Connecticut, Carin works largely as a stage manager, director, teaching artist, and intimacy professional. Carin has been the recipient of several grants including The Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship for 2022. Carin is the event coordinator at Artreach, Inc., a teaching artist with Oddfellows Playhouse, and the founder of Safe Spaces, an organization that offers professional development training on creating equitable, consent forward, and trauma informed rehearsal and performance spaces. Additional information availabe atl www.Carin-Jennie-Estey.com

Cynthia Rider (Managing Director Hartford Stage)

Rider is the eighth managing director at Hartford Stage joining recently appointed Artistic DIrector Melia Bensussen. She became the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's (OSF) third executive director in 2013. While at OSF, she successfully worked with the board and noted Artistic Director, Bill Rauch, in the creation of a ten-year strategic plan, oversaw an increase in contributed income of more than 20 percent, and participated in artistic initiatives that resulted in three OSF-commissioned plays moving to Broadway, with one winning the Tony Award for Best Play and another winning the Pulitzer Prize.

Additional highlights of Rider's successful tenure at OSF include the creation of the Access for All campaign, which renovated the courtyard in front of OSF's theatres and added an elevator and wheelchair seating to the Bowmer Theatre, and the opening of the new Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center - all while producing a repertory season of eleven productions in three theatres, managing an annual operating budget of $40 million and offering a number of educational and community engagement programs for audiences and students.

Prior to joining OSF, Cynthia Rider spent nine years at Kansas City Repertory Theatre as Managing Director and, earlier, as Associate Director for Advancement and Administration. Her experience also includes six years as Executive Director of the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. She served as Associate Director, later promoted to Acting Director, of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, which worked to strengthen small and medium-sized manufacturers across the state.

Rider's theatre experience also includes time spent on the stage. After graduating from Boston University, she started her theatre career as a resident company member, guest artist and young company actor at The Alley Theatre in Houston.

Emma Palzere-Rae (moderator) is a playwright, actor, director, producer and non-profit administrator. Emma spent 15 years as part of the NYC theater community, where she began producing one-woman plays and founded the Womenkind Festival. Over its ten-year run, Womenkind presented nearly 75 different performers, mainly original works. She is the Associate Director at Artreach, Inc. (Norwich, CT), and has also held the position of Artistic Director for Plays for Living (NYC), a touring company dedicated to social change, where she also wrote and developed plays for the repertoire. Emma's plays include "Aunt Hattie's House", about what compelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and "Live from the Milky Way... It's Gilda Radner!" Her current projects include "The Woodhull Project" about 1872 Presidential candidate, Victoria Woodhull; and the two-act "Finders Weepers". Her one-woman plays tour throughout the country under the banner of Be Well Productions. Emma is passionate about nurturing theater artists and co-founded The Way of the Labyrinth Playwright's Retreat, held every June since 2015 in southeastern Connecticut. Emma has also been an adjunct professor in the Arts Administration program in the Dramatic Arts Department at the University of Connecticut. Emma serves on the steering committee of the League of Professional Theatre Women (CT Chapter) and the boards of the CT Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, New London Arts Council, and East Lynne Theater Company. She is also a member of Actors Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild, where she serves as the regional representative for New England-West. Emma holds a B.F.A in Acting with minors in Creative Writing and Speech from Emerson College, Boston. In 2021, Emma was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the CT Office of the Arts.