Samson Syharath is a Laotian-American performer, director, educator, playwright, and theatre producer. He received a BA from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith. After studying at the Portland Actors Conservatory, he helped start Theatre Diaspora, a nonprofit committed to celebrating and creatively advocating for the Asian American/Pacific Islander experience through stage work and post show discussion. He is also a member of the Accountability Collective and the EDI Committee Chair with the Portland Area Theatre Alliance. He received the Leslie O. Fulton Fellowship and was named part of the Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color Cohort in 2017.

Sarah Andrews is a Portland-based director, the Co- Founder of Crave Theatre Company, and professor at Portland Community College in the Multimedia Department. She holds a BFA in Acting from Central Washington University and is well on her way to earning a Masters in Arts and Culture Leadership and Management from Colorado State. 

Sarah’s artistic work has been featured by many local theatre companies including Tears of Joy, Staged!, Post 5 Theatre, Milagro, Lakewood, Oregon Children’sTheatre, defunkt theatre, Profile, and ART.

She also works in community-based performance projects such as Ellensburg, Washington’s Buskers In The Burg and Seattle’s Summer Solstice.When the opportunity arises, she also tries to find ways to volunteer with theatre projects in prisons here in Oregon state. She has also taught workshops on puppetry at the Kennedy Center Theatre Festival in Boise, ID.

Tracy Cameron Francis is a first-generation Egyptian-American director working across different disciplines, genres and mediums including the development of new plays, works in translation, site-specific performance, multi-media performance, and film and T.V. 

She is currently the Artistic Director of Boom Arts and formerly was the co-founder and artistic director of Hybrid Theatre Works. She was a 2017 TCG Rising Leader of Color fellow, is a core member of Theatre Without Borders  and serves on the steering committee for the newly formed Middle East and North African Theatre Makers Alliance . She holds a B.A. from Fordham University in Middle Eastern Studies and Theatre, is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and an associate member of SDC.

Heath Hyun Houghton is a Korean American writer, actor and director. To support and develop organizations that endeavor towards creating environmentally and socially responsible products and services. Heath hopes to work as an advocate for fair trade, for the freedom of information, for our rights as citizens and consumers to have transparency and equality in our business practices. Member playwright  of Line Storm Playwrights, Ensemble Member of Fuse Theatre, Ensemble Member of Theatre Vertigo, Member of the Dramatists Guild, Member of USA Gymnastics.

Tyharra Cozier is an actress, writer, activist, teacher, and operations assistant currently residing in Portland, Oregon. Originally from New Jersey, by way of Florida, graduating from The Florida State University (Go Noles!) with a Bachelors of Art in Theatre. After graduating, Ty moved to Portland, Oregon to attend Portland Actors Conservatory. 

Her body of work has range! She started her career performing Nikki in Red Door Project’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, a show that has been touring for the last 5 years within the Pacific Northwest, touching on the feelings and well-being of black people within a culture of institutional profiling. Recently, you might have seen her in Vanport Mosaic’s Soul’d or Portland Playhouse/Confrontation Theatre’s Pipeline.

You may have also seen her at Oregon Children’s Theatre teaching a Saturday morning class, organizing safe protests in the Portland metro area, or giving a tour of Portland’s premier Class A mixed-use office spaces.

Jane Comer, a part of the Portland theatre scene since the 1980’s, is sometimes called a trans pioneer of theatre. Jane has decades of experience making theatre both from before and after transition.  An actor, writer and director, her work recently has focused on solo performance. Her latest work, The Fear of Speaking , was workshopped at the 2020 Fertile Ground Festival, and was featured as the mainstage production of the 2020 Outwright Theatre Festival.  Jane currently serves on the board of Fuse Theatre Ensemble.   

Michael Cavazos is a Queer Chicano theatre maker and author of the play Gritos y Chismesitos and co-author of Chic and Sassy and Chic and Sassy: The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God. He recently assistant directed Sweat by Lynn Nottage at Profile and became a company member at Hand2Mouth. Michael directed and performed in the theatrical concert Universo and has stage-managed several shows including Imago’s productions of La Belle and Medea; Crave’s productions of Crossing and Red; and Hand2Mouth’s Dream|Logic and Object Karaoke. He is currently working on new works for Crave, Hand2Mouth, and PCS.

Ki Logan Starnes is a Yunwiya (Cherokee) indigiqueer director and educator. Their work focuses on the welfare of community, working from the idea that artistic expression is inherent to our collective existence, survival, and future. Much of their previous work has centered around deconstructing dominant narratives in order to “re-story” marginalized histories. For Logan, re-storying histories is an act of resistance, healing, and continued cultural memory. They see theater as a learning space—providing an avenue to challenge ideas, privileges, and prejudices within ourselves and others with the ultimate hope of moving our voices forward into the future.

Tess Raunig (they/them/theirs) is a Portland based actor, musician, writer, and teaching artist.  They live with multiple disabilities, and they identify as a queer, non-binary trans person.  They are originally from Missoula Montana, and earned their Bachelors degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Montana.  Tess teaches voice, songwriting and choir at PHAME Academy, an arts school for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.   As an actor, they have worked with companies such as Artists Repertory Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Couch Film Collective .  An accomplished musician, they are in a theatrical folk pop band called Sasha and The Children, and Acchord, an a’capella group comprised of trans and non-binary folks.  When they aren’t performing or teaching, Tess enjoys drinking tea, and hanging out with their cat child, Sasha.  And yes, the band is named after Sasha kitty.