Charissa Menefee is the Founder and Artistic Director of The EcoTheatre Lab. A multi-genre writer and theatre artist, her research and creative practice focus on the intersection and interplay of writing, performance, and environmental and social justice issues.

 

She is the author of When I Stopped Counting: Poems and co-editor, with Hillary Haft Bucs, of Embodied Playwriting: Improv and Acting Exercises for Writing and Devising. She is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment and ISU Theatre at Iowa State University, as well as a past president of the Humanities Iowa board of directors.

 

Prior to her move to Iowa, she directed the performing arts program at Prescott College and co-produced Tomorrow’s Theatre Tonight, a reading series and new work incubator for Arizona playwrights, with playwright Micki Shelton. She has been a writer-in-residence for the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s New American Playwrights Project and Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, as well as a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

Vivian M. Cook is a Producer and the Community Engagement Director with The EcoTheatre Lab. She is a theatre director, performer, and educator; producer and curator of interdisciplinary arts initiatives; and advocate for the role that arts can and should play in environmental communication, community development, and civic life. With The EcoTheatre Lab team, she produces various projects and leads partnership, communication, and engagement efforts. 

 

Vivian has a B.A. in Performing Arts (Acting/Directing) and French, M.S. degrees in Community Development and Sustainable Agriculture, and a Graduate Certificate in Youth Program Management and Evaluation. In her research and practice, she works at the intersection of arts and storytelling, community engagement, and social and environmental justice.

 

In addition to her work with The EcoTheatre Lab, she is a Regenerative Agriculture Project Manager and the Horizon II Justice40 Coordinator with the Iowa State University Bioeconomy Institute, as well as a member of the Ames Climate Action Team.​

Taylor Sklenar is a playwright, Producer with The EcoTheatre Lab, and science communication Lecturer at Iowa State University. In addition, he has served as the managing director of the Missouri Playwrights’ Workshop and the Mizzou New Play Series and the founder of Ames based theatre collective, Focal Theatre Lab, which explores new and experimental work by local playwrights.

 

His writing, which explores the intersection of science, sustainability, and rural life, has been workshopped or produced at Tallgrass Theatre’s Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, Theatre du Mississippi, StageWest Des Moines’ Scriptease, Theatre Cedar Rapids, Northwestern University’s WAVE Productions, Owens Community College, Minnesota Fringe, Scene One Theatre, The William Inge Festival, and the Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop. 

 

Taylor has a B.A. in  English & Performing Arts and B.S. in Chemistry from Iowa State University, M.A. in Theatre from University of Missouri, and MFA in Creative Writing & Environment and M.S. in Sustainable Agriculture from ISU. See more of his work at taylorsklenar.com.