Creating Of Spacious Skies
Join us for the recorded live stream conversation with the FAC Theatre Company, featuring the writers for our fall 2020 audio play series, Of Spacious Skies. Hear directly from the authors and learn about the inspiration behind the series. Regular releases coming to FAC Connect throughout the fall.
Meet the authors
The FAC Theatre Company creates theatre again, in an old form made new for the 21st Century. Using the Golden Age of Radio Plays as the jumping off point, our intrepid team of artists, has created 12 episodes of a series which highlights the past, present and future of Colorado Springs, with Pikes Peak as our center point. While it is best to experience the series as released, and recognized as a complete omnibus, each 15-minute episode can be listened to individually and in any order.
Listen to the first episode and experience the visual companion here
Receive early advance 2-week access to Of Spacious Skies, the new, FAC original radio play series. (Plus, a complimentary CD of the entire series!)
Writing Team Bios
Mêlisa Annis (Lead Writer)
is an award-winning playwright (Parity Commission Winner, The Margaret Lamb Prize for Creative Writing) and director. Her work as been developed and presented at and with Primary Stages (NY), The Lark (NY), Rattlestick Theater (NY), Dorset Theater Festival (VT), The Theresa Rebeck Writers Colony (VT), Parity Productions (NY), The New School (NY), Ambassador Theater Group (UK), Arcola Theater (UK), Athena Film Festival (NY), Clutch Productions (FL), About Face Theater (Dublin, Ireland), Theater Masters (CO), ESPA*Drills (NY), The National Arts Club (NY), Shadowland Theater (NY), The Playground Experiment (NY). TV and Commercial writing include; Jessy & Nessy (Amazon Studios), Trader Joe’s Frequent Flyer sketches, and Conde Nast content online. Mêlisa is also writing and developing a new musical “The King’s Wife” with Grammy Award Nominee Jamie Floyd, Jennifer Krantz and Rosalind Productions. Personal essays have been published in several major publications (The Western Mail, Salon, HowlRound, Dinesydd, Golwg), and she is a frequent contributor to the BBC and BBC Wales. Her play “Aberfan” was published by Clockhouse, and “Fit For A King” published by Fourth Wall. Mêlisa also teaches at the NYU Tisch Dramatic Writing program in NYC. Fun fact, Mêlisa is a fluent Welsh speaker, and in a former life she was an actress in a soap opera. “I am thrilled to be back working with the Fine Arts Center, directing Matilda the Musical in 2018 was a highlight!”
Jonathan Andujar
has been writing, acting, directing, and producing theatre in Colorado Springs since 2013. Having graduated from Adams State University with a degree in Theatre, and Creative Writing, Jonathan has adapted literary works for the stage, and written shorts for various non-profits in Colorado Springs. He has adapted the works of H.P. Lovecraft in THEATREdART’s production of Excerpts from Miskatonic University:An Evening with HP Lovecraft, written shorts for the Manitou Springs Heritage Center’s Haunted History of Old Manitou walking tours, and dabbled in copywriting with the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region, and THEATREdART. He has appeared in many productions around the Springs, including at the FAC, Theatreworks and the Millibo. Jonathan is currently a Theatre/Spanish teacher at the Colorado Springs School and has been the President of THEATREdART since 2019.
Mickey Burdick
received a BFA in theater from the University of Arizona. His background as a playwright includes productions of several original plays and adaptations of classics. He currently serves as Technical Director for the FAC Theatre Company. Recently, he was fortunate enough to become more involved with the FAC Theatre School, where he taught an introductory lesson on playwriting and penned a short radio play for the students to perform in class. In his spare time, Mickey enjoys writing novels, most of which will never see the light of day.
Marisa D. Hebert
is an Actor, Director, and Playwright located in Colorado Springs, where she lives with her wife and four rescue dogs. As an actor, Marisa works with The FAC Theatre Company, THEATREWORKS, and numerous other local and regional theatres. As a director, Marisa worked at the old Smokebrush Theatre, Vintage Theater, and The Millibo Art Theatre. As a playwright, Marisa’s first full-length play, Pieces of Him, won the FAC’s 2013 Rough Writers New Play Festival, and pieces of her lyrical autobiographical play High Yellow have been performed locally at UCCS and The Millibo Art Theatre.
Jessica Kahkoska
is a Colorado and New York-based writer, dramaturg, and researcher. Projects include IN HER BONES (Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 2020 Colorado New Play Summit) THE DEATH OF DESERT ROSE (with Elliah Heifetz, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, SBR Productions Commission), AGENT 355 (with Preston Max Allen, Chautauqua Theater Company New Play Workshop, Marion International Fellowship in the Visual and Performing Arts), LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (dir. Michael Bello, The Cooper Union), WILD HOME: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (Notch Theatre Company, 2020 NEA ArtWorks Grant), and NIA (dir. Sarah Wansley, Upcoming at New Light Theatre Project’s Darkroom Series). Born and raised in Colorado Springs, she has performed in seven productions at the Fine Arts Center (most recently Fun Home), and recently collaborated on a 3×3 Creative Collaborations from Isolation project with Anita Rodriguez and Miguel Gandert. In Colorado, she has also worked with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Lake Dillon Theatre Company, Theatre Aspen, Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre, North Fork Valley Creative Coalition, Creede Repertory Theatre, Athena Project, Colorado Environmental Film Festival, and Denver University. Her work has additionally been developed/presented by Roundabout Theatre Company, Ars Nova ANT FEST, Joe’s Pub, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the Drama League, UCROSS Foundation, Village Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Company and the American Musical Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University. www.jessicakahkoska.com
Jess Weaver
is thrilled to be part of, Of Spacious Skies for the FAC! Thanks to her education and the U.S. Army, she has been performing, writing, and devising theatre all over the country. She received her BA in Theatre from Washington State, her MFA in Theatre Performance from Arizona State, and the rest of her skills through this crazy thing called “life.” She would like to thank her loving family for supporting her passion to create art. Lastly, she would like to thank you for tuning in to support the arts and such a wonderful company in this strange and unpredictable new world. www.jessicaweaver.net
Xochitl Portillo
is a poet, playwright, actress and screenwriter currently living in Santa Fe, NM by way of her hometown, Denver. Her work has been most recently featured in FAC’s 3×3 project, a short film entitled, Huerfano. As a young woman of mixed Indigenous Mexican and White/European descent, she strives to create work that finds a bind between both blood lines and to develop stories of individuals who have their own complex, untold truths. Thank you to the community members of Colorado Springs who brought this play to life and gave me their own, relived truths to share with the world.
Artwork by Alyssa Washburn