​​BIOS: 

Merri Biechler is the Director of the School of Theater, Associate Professor of Instruction, playwright, actor, and educator. She’s the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and a Boomerang Fund for Artists award. Her plays include Tammy Faye’s Final Audition (Tantrum Theater, Dublin, OH; Centenary Stage Company; Cincinnati Fringe 2015 – Best of Fringe; Washington DC Capital Fringe 2015 – Best of Fringe); An Appalachian Christmas Carol (Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble world premiere; Woodford Theatre, KY); Occupation (Hollywood Fringe 2016 – Dozen Best; Seven Devils Playwrights Conference semifinalist; P73 Playwriting Fellowship semifinalist; Perishable Theatre’s International Women’s Playwriting Festival finalist); Real Girls Can’t Win (Centenary Stage Company Women Playwrights Series winner; Stavis Award nominee; David Mark Cohen Award finalist); Bombs, Babes and Bingo (Mortar Theatre Company world premiere; New Orleans Fringe Festival; Artist’s Laboratory Theatre workshop; P73 Playwriting Fellowship semifinalist; Clubbed Thumb biennial commission finalist); and Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver (Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, world premiere canceled due to COVID; Princess Grace Award finalist; Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award winner; Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition finalist; WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory participant, and the recipient of grants totaling $40,000 to use the play as a teaching tool for medical students). Merri received her MFA in playwriting from Ohio University. As an actor, Merri attended North Carolina School of the Arts and studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and at his home on the island of Bequia, West Indies. She spent 18 months with the original Off-Broadway cast of Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding, appeared in the films He Said, She Said; The Thing Called Love; Claire in Motion; Trailerpark; and Pieces of April; and guest-starred on episodes of Judging Amy, E.R., and Murphy Brown. She appeared in Tantrum Theater’s production of The Cake. Her new project, with co-creator Samuel Dodd, is The Healthy Village: Immersive Healthcare Theater. It uses fine arts techniques and methods to teach healthcare students to work in partnership with their patients.

​

Caitlin Kraus is a singer and songwriter living in Athens, OH. Originally from Columbus, OH, Kraus has performed her music solo and with a band over the past decade. Her music is melodic, largely lyric-based, and falls within indie-folk/alternative genres. In 2016, she released a self-titled 7″ on label Keeled Scales and recorded at Estuary Recording, both based in Austin, TX, where she lived for five years. In 2020, Caitlin completed her first full-length album What Rises followed by her second full-length album Gone Beyond–both recorded and produced by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy, OH. When not writing music or performing, Caitlin works as a counselor and music therapist in the mental health field.

​

Emily Prince is the Operations Director for Stuart’s Opera House. Previously, she served as Training and Activation Director for Air Collaborative, the Education Director & Development Director at Stuart’s Opera House, and the Program Specialist at ARTS/West in Athens, Ohio. She is also an Air Facilitator and a Crisis, Analysis, and Mitigation Coach. She graduated in the inaugural class of Leadership Athens County and served as Co-Chair of the Leadership Athens County Alumni Network for two years. She serves on the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education board. She can sometimes be seen performing with poet Wendy McVicker in the group ‘another language altogether.’  She has served on the Athens County Comprehensive Plan: Heritage, Arts, and Culture Taskforce, the Athens Community Television board, The Quilt Barn Committee, Factory Street Studio, and the Athens Municipal Arts Commission. She is a member of the Nelsonville Rotary Club. Her professional theater career started when she served as stage manager for The Harold Prince Musical Theatre Program. She was the Associate Artistic Director of The Directors Company, and while in New York, she worked as a producer, stage manager, actor, director, casting director, literary manager, and dramaturge. In addition to TDC, she worked for The Lark Theater, The National Arts Club, and the Kesselring Committee Award in Playwriting. Locally, she has directed, acted, produced, and or dramaturged for OVST, ARTS/West, Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble, Actors Moveable Theater, The Appalachian Regional Theater Company, Ohio University School of Theater, and the Corporations for the Performing Arts. Her documentary film, Appalachian Quilt Highway, was featured in the 2008 Athens International Film Festival. When not administrating the arts, she can be found crafting, writing, and spending time with her husband and sons on their Athens County farm.