Meet the Playwrights

AUSTIN STEINMETZ is the 2025 Bradford Gromelski Jury Award winning playwright. Bradford was a past juror of THE SEVEN, a past FUSION main stage director, and a Professor Emeritus/playwright at Iona College in New York. Now deceased, he was the father of company co-founder Dennis Gromelski.

AUSTIN STEINMETZ is a playwright whose work has recently been showcased at the 2025 ShowOff! International Playwrights Festival, the 2025 Snowdance Festival, Trinity Theatre’s 2025 New Works Festival, and the 2024 Script Tease of Short Plays Competition. A two-time winner of Theatre Oxford’s National 10-Minute Play Contest and a member of Scripteasers San Diego, he is drawn to the thrill of a blank page and the energy of a live audience. Austin is honored to receive the Bradford Gromelski Prize and to be part of FUSION’s 19th annual THE SEVEN, celebrating new works that explore the theme, “When Nobody’s Watching.”

MIKE BENCIVENGA has written, directed, produced, and acted in one acts and full-length plays as well as improv and sketch comedy in New York, Chicago, Boston, and LA. He's written 11 full-length plays, including BILLY & RAY, which won the prestigious W. Keith Hedrick Award in 2013. It was produced that year at The Falcon Theater under the direction of the legendary Garry Marshall. The show moved to The Vineyard Theater in 2014, also directed by Garry Marshall, where it enjoyed an extended sold-out run. Also in 2014, Mike's political comedy, SUMMER ON FIRE, won the Christopher Wolk prize for excellence in playwriting and was produced at the Scorpion Theater that same year. His drama, COMPROMISED, was a runner-up for the O'Neill prize and won the top prize from Playwrights-First in 2020. Most recently, Mike's comedy, TALK OF THE TOWN (based on James Thurber's hilarious memoir 'The Years with Ross') was named best play at both the 2022 Austin Film Festival and the 2023 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition. Mike has also written and directed two feature films, LOSERS IN LOVE and HAPPY HOUR, both of which won festival honors and had theatrical releases. For his work as an editor/producer at WABC-TV in New York, Mike has won three Emmy Awards and the Edward R. Murrow Prize for excellence. For more about Mike visit: www.MikeBencivenga.com.

BAYLEE SHLICHTMAN writes weird and magical plays about navigating relationships and autonomy. Most recently, her work was developed or recognized by Great Plains Theatre Commons, Best of Playground-LA, Otherworld Theatre Paragon Play Festival, and Trinity Theatre New Works Festival. Her work has been additionally produced or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, Flamboyán Theatre, The Larking House, Long Beach Shakespeare Company, New Relic Theatre, Playground-LA, Secondary Location Productions, South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, UC Irvine, Urbanite Theatre, The Vagrancy Theatre, and The Workshop Theatre among others. MFA, UC Riverside '27.

OLIVIA D. DAWSON is an actress, director, and playwright who is thrilled to be part of THE SEVEN. Her short plays JULIE and SLIPPAGE were part of Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company’s Museum of Dysfunction Short Play Festival VIII and X, respectively. Her short play, A FRUITFUL WASTE, was part of the full-length production of TRASH: A Theatre Lila Invention. She co-wrote and directed the full-length play, OUT LOUD, produced by eta Creative Arts in Chicago, IL. OUT LOUD was nominated for multiple BTAA awards, including Best Writer. She wrote the short film THE CLEARING, produced by Cheeks Films and wrote and produced the short film, THE PANDEMIC: A TRILOGY, produced by We All Can Dunk Productions/Cheeks Films. She is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA and Working Title Playwrights. SECOND CHANCE is dedicated to her friend and colleague who inspired this work: Cory Scott Allen.

JD OTSUKA (they/them), a playwright based in Albuquerque, NM, is delighted to be a part of their first production with FUSION. Other recent credits include: "Pillow Talk," which received a reading in Kentucky's Human Development Institute's Disabled Playwrights Workshop, a reading of their first full-length: "Disability+" by Blackout Theatre Company's First Leap Program, and several 10-minute festivals around the city. JD is proud to continue to be an active part of Albuquerque's theatre scene, and they hope you enjoy the festival. 

MARILYN ZERLAK is a local Michigan playwright who especially enjoys writing comedy. Her play TRUE CONFESSIONS was performed at the Farmington Players’ One Act Festival in 2019 and marked the first performance of one of her works. Since then other works brought to stage include FARE TO MIDDLIN’, WEREWOLVES OF LONDON (ARKANSAS), THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE NOME, HE’S HISTORY, and HOT AND READY. When not writing, Marilyn enjoys reading, traveling, pickleball, word games of any kind, and strong coffee.

ARIANNA ROSE is an award-winning playwright/musical theatre writer, produced in thirty-seven states and ten countries. Recipient: numerous Best Play Awards; MAC Award, Song of the Year; Top 3 finalist, Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing UK. Participant:  Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, William Inge Play Festival, Miami-Dade Playwright Development Program. Two-time finalist, Edward Kleban Award for Lyricists/Librettists. Published: Applause Books, Smith & Kraus, Theatre Odyssey, Ghostlight Publications.  M.F.A., NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program; B.A. Bucknell University; BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop.  Member: ASCAP, LMDA, Maestra, New Play Exchange, South Florida Theatre League, and The Dramatists Guild.