Welcome to Bi, Bi, Bi!
A night of short play readings celebrating and exploring bisexual and pansexual perspectives.
August 8th: 7pm-8:15pm EST at stardust video and coffee
August 9th: Virtual Encore, available 7pm-11pm EST
Artistic Director & Host
Katie Thayer
Producer
Bethany Dickens Assaf, assisted by Logan Turner
Stage Manager
Carla Ehlers
Filming by
Jessica Fernando
Venue Coordinator
Kate Murray
Stage Directions
Jodi Antenor & Kate Murray
Creative Team
Billie Jane (Actor: "The Morning After the Fall" & "We're a Couple") is an actor and playwright from Orlando, by way of Missouri. Her newest play, JUDAS, was recently awarded “Patron’s Pick” and “Best Original Script” at the 2021 Orlando Fringe Festival. As an artist, Billie Jane believes in championing queer stories and queer voices, so she is elated to lend her support to this event.
John Bavoso (he/him) (Playwright: "The Morning After the Fall") is a Washington, DC-based playwright, marketer, and aspiring wrangler of unicorns. For more info, visit John-Bavoso.com.
Taylor Byerly (Actor: "Going In") is super excited and humbled to be bringing this amazing piece to life. She’s so happy to be working with Bethany again on our third project together and this one in person! Love is love.
Bethany Dickens Assaf (Producer, Director: "Going In" & "We're a Couple," Playwright: "Anomaly") (she/her) is the Literary Manager for MadLab Theatre of Columbus, a teaching artist with Central Florida Community Arts, and a founding member of both the Fragmented Play Festival in Cincinnati and the Whiskey Theatre Factory of Orlando, and is a member of Next Stage Playwrights Cincinnati. She’s helped over 50 playwrights across the country take their work to the next level, and frequently facilitates workshops and panel discussions for the organizations she works with. An occasional playwright herself, her works have been performed over 100 times across the country, including the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, where she won “Best Full Length Play” in 2019. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and also does freelance grant writing and nonprofit development in her (clearly, plentiful) spare time.
Kristen Lichtenthal (Actor: "Just to B") is a native of Orlando, FL. She earned her Bachelors of Music Education from UCF and is currently a music teacher in Central Florida. She has a passion for live performance and enjoys dancing, singing, and aerial arts. Kristen most recently performed in the 2021 Orlando Fringe Festival, playing Sally in “Darths and Droids” and made an appearance as a guest in “#Headcanon”. She is excited to make her debut with Whiskey Theatre Factory!
John Mabey (Playwright: "Just to B") is a writer and storyteller whose plays have been published and produced in the United States, Europe, and Australia. They grew-up in the desert but called New York, London and Amsterdam home for the past 10 years, now living in Atlanta and always writing with a cactus on their desk. Their work as a playwright is connected to their career in Psychology and certification as a Mental Health Counselor, as they infuse everything they’ve learned about behavior, emotion and relationships into their plays. John is also a published author on the topics of sexual identity and spirituality in academic books (Routledge: SEXUAL ORIENTATION DISCRIMINATION, ADVANCES IN FEMINIST ECONOMICS) and journals (The Professional Counselor: COUNSELING OLDER ADULTS IN LGBT COMMUNITIES). They also enjoy teaching and performing improvised comedy and true storytelling around the world.
Kristin Pringle Marksbury (Actor: "Going In") (she/her) is elated and honored to be lending her voice to such an important project and would like to thank Kate and all the ladies of WTF for making it possible. You may recognize Kristin from the hit Fringe show Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Kristin is a two-time Best Actress and one-time Best Supporting Actress award recipient from The Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park where she was able to play one of her dream roles. (Sissy. Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean.) Aside from theatre, Kristin’s favorite things are the way music makes her feel, her pets, and a good comedy.
Juniper McKelvie (Playwright: "We're a Couple")’s search for truth has led her to explore diverse modes of living. After teaching English in Puebla, Mexico for a few years and then working in NYC's publishing scene, she turned to nunning in a remote monastery in the jungles of Vermont before braving the San Francisco clime to develop a meditation app. She draws from these experiences, her meditation practice of many years, and her acting training in the Yat-Bentley Movement Psychology method to develop plays with layered characters who seek to know (or avoid) their depths, their place in the world, and what it means to live authentically. After a year of seclusion spent communing with the ponderosas of southern Oregon, she’s on to new adventures and writing new plays.
Kate Murray (Actor: "We're a Couple," Director: "Just to B" & "The Morning After the Fall") (she/her/hers) is a pansexual educator, performer, producer, sexuality and communication advocate, & social justice mage. She’s been seen on theatre and burlesque stages throughout Central Florida, most recently as the wrangler and MC of #Headcanon at Orlando Fringe. For over a year, she brought her American sass to the stages of France with her home troupe Burlesque Moulin before coming back home to fight the patriarchy and eat Taco Bell. She is passionate about telling unique stories and reducing shame around difficult topics.
Lakayla Patterson (Actor: "Anomaly") moved from New Jersey to Florida when she was 10 years old. She has always had a passion for acting since a young age and actively started pursuing it at around age 13 where she performed in her first talent showcase. Lakayla continued acting throughout high school and college; working on over a dozen projects ranging from live musical theater to horror based film; her most recent project being an LGBTQ+ YouTube series called Our Agenda. Though she had a strong love for live Theatre, Lakayla wishes to further pursue a career in tv and film.
Leonard Peterson III (Actor: "Just to B"; Poet) is a recent Acting grad from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of music and was born in Bell county, Tx and raised in Radcliff, Ky. Leonard has worked with professionally with The Carnegie Theatre, where he was the U/S for Jimmy Early and was apart of the ensemble; The Cats theatre where he portrayed Avery in Annie Baker’s the Flick and finally with the Cincinnati Fringe festival where he played the loving and cunning character of Elis in The Consciousness which was written by Bethany Dickens. Leonard is also a poet and is just now dabbling in the playwright and screenwriter field.
Katie Thayer (Artistic Director, Playwright: "Going In") is an actor, improviser, director, and playwright. She has her BFA in Theatre from UCF, and is part of the Core Collective of Whiskey Theatre Factory. Her play, Graceland, can be found in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2014. More of her work can be found on New Play Exchange.
Jesse Thomas Foster (Actor: "The Morning After the Fall") is excited to work with Whiskey Theatre Factory as he enjoys whiskey very much. JTF has a BFA in Vocal Performance and is pursuing a Masters in Teaching to teach high school theatre. JTF generally enjoys music theatre more than straight plays and has numerous credits including Corny Collins (Hairspray), Tom Collins (RENT), and Leo Bloom (The Producers). His current dream is to play Jimmy Harper (Reefer Madness) before he’s too old to pass as a high schooler. Thank you to Kate Murray and BeeJay Aubertin Clinton for being joys to work with.
Charis Watler (Actor & Director: "Anomaly") is an emerging Orlando theatre artist who is thrilled to be working with Whiskey Theatre Factory for the first time! She directed for the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Orlando Fringe, and a sci-fi play (The Consciousness by Bethany Dickens Assaf) currently showing at DigiFringe. She is incredibly excited about the opportunities given to her, and cannot wait to work on more projects with WTF!
Maxim Young: (Actor: "We're a Couple") This is Maxim’s first show with the Whiskey Theatre Factory. Originally from Portland, OR, Maxim has appeared in Urinetown: The Musical, Pride and Prejudice, and Love and Information. Maxim would like to thank his director, Bethany Dickens, for giving him the opportunity and his castmates Kate and BeeJay for being so supportive and rocking every rehearsal.