Our 5 storytellers for the 2nd annual Snap Festival have been confirmed. As you may remember from last year, Snap celebrates the power of first-person narratives across disciplines because we believe everyone has stories to tell and that sharing these stories teaches empathy by allowing us to recognize commonalities and learn about each other’s unique experiences. We had over 50 applicants from New England and New York submit their first person story proposals this year and are so excited to share the 5 artists chosen to perform in Flynn Space this January.
Kaitlin Becker is an Emmy nominated actor, singer, and writer. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting, she moved to NYC to pursue her acting career. For the past 17 years she has performed professionally in off-Broadway theatres, regional theatres, national tours, and kids tv. A highlight is working as a host/segment producer for Sunny Side Up - a live morning kids show on NBC Universal. Her work on SSU included writing and performing with Rita Moreno, Julie Andrews, and first lady Michelle Obama. Currently she plays Meekah for the popular Blippi franchise. Meekah has a spin off series on Netflix and Disney plus. Kaitlin has done voiceover for Sesame Workshop's Mecha Builders, Camp Camp, Dee and Friends in Oz, Rescue Bots and can be heard on Pinna Audio and Wondery's Once Upon A Beat. Kaitlin is a mother to her 7 year old Everett, and the two of them enjoy making up stories and songs.
Charles Day is a native New Yorker who hails from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His love of the arts began as a child while attending Broadway shows with his family. He has appeared in several off-Broadway plays including Treading Water, Going South and William Shakespeare’s, Julius Cesar. Charles’s journey as a writer began by attending workshops facilitated by the NY Public Library and the Reading Room Writer’s Program, respectively. His short story, The Floating Violin, was translated to Spanish and published on the Guardianes de la Memoria podcast as part of an episode called Un regalo para ti (A Gift for You). Under the tutelage of Scott Organ at the Barrow Group School, Charles completed his first full-length play, For All We Know. He is currently working on a semi-autobiographical one man show entitled, The Vanity Project.
John Michael DiResta is a multi-disciplinary theater artist and an Assistant Professor of Theater. His work as a director, adapter, solo performer and dramaturg focuses on new work development, site-responsive theater, community engagement, and queer liberation. His work illuminates the possibilities that lie at the intersection of new work development and theater for social change. John Michael has developed new works at La Mama, New Dramatists, The Atlantic Theater Company, The Dramatists Guild, MCC Theater, The Drama League, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and elsewhere with writers like Craig Lucas, Mia Chung, Eleanor Burgess, and many others. He is an active contributor to the Association for Theater in Higher Education (ATHE), The Mid America Theater Conference (MATC) and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). Before entering academia, John Michael championed new work from urban teenagers as the producer of the MCC Theater Youth Company.
Cassidy is a spiraling multi-hyphenate exploring all an artistic life has to offer. Acting she can be seen in Severance (Apple TV), New Amsterdam (NBC), Hunters (Amazon Prime), and others. As a singer, she recently made her Carnegie Hall soloist debut and led the world premiere workshop of Adam Gwon's All The Worlds a Stage at Keen Theater Company. She created the role of Fern in the first folk-rock national tour of Charlotte's Web. She also sings in New York City's official choir, NYCS. As a writer Cassidy has created work for the stage, screen, and beyond- including a punk-rock abortion fundraiser cabaret, an immersive short-story themed haunted house for which she won a NYCAC award, and a full-length conversion camp musical Goliath with collaborator Ethan Carlson. Her short film script Killing Cherry Jane has won accolades at the Vail, Atlanta, and Cinequest film festivals. She is the Executive and Artistic Director of Divine Riot.
Gina Stevensen (they/them) is a playwright, dramaturg, performer, and educator who tells stories about healing, self-discovery, and community. They received a Vermont Arts Council/NEA Creation Grant to develop their play Breakfalls, which was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and premiered at Vermont Stage in 2024. Their plays have been developed in NYC, London, and across the country with Roundabout Theatre Company, American Stage, Theatre503, Urban Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, Barter Theatre, and more. Gina was the 2021 winner of the Kernodle New Play Award, the 2020 winner of the New Works Initiative at Good Luck Macbeth, a 2019 winner of the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series, and a 2022 artist-in-residence at Ragdale. Favorite performance credits include The Thin Place (Vermont Stage), Front Porch Follies (BCA/Highlight), Wonder/Wander: An Interactive Tarot Card Reading (Columbia University) and City Council Meeting (HERE Arts Center). They have been a guest lecturer at Hunter College, NYU, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Vermont. MFA Playwriting: Columbia University. BFA Drama: NYU Tisch. www.ginastevensen.com