Loop Festival
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What is the Loop Festival?
"The Loop Festival" is a unique New Works Festival bringing together young artists, directors, and playwrights from across the country with the goal of cultivating the development of Young Adult Theatre. Three new works will be given the chance to be read, heard and responded to by a live audience, while the playwrights join in virtually to be a part of both the rehearsal process and the feedback “loop” after the performance.
The scripts selected this year include: “My Tree,” written by Samara Siskind, “Good Knight Cyberella," written by V.B Rankin, and the musical “In BeTween" with music by Nicky Phillips, lyrics by Sarah Ziegler, and book by Steven Gallagher.
On Thursday, August 14th, the public is invited to attend the Festival for a day-long staged reading presentation of the three new works, all written in the genre of Young Adult Theatre. Young Adult Theatre includes plays that tell stories relevant to young adults and written for young adult actors to perform. After each presentation, the audience participates in a facilitated discussion and acts as responders to the play. These responses may inform how the playwright adapts the play in the future.
Approximately thirty young adult actors from all around Southern Oregon will be participating in a three-day development process prior to the presentation. In this process leading up to the reading, the young adult actors act as cultural consultants for the playwrights and provide insight and responds to the authenticity of the writing. The rehearsals and the presentation will take place at The Hivve, a multimedia performance venue in downtown Grants Pass.
The staged readings will be guided by professional theatre directors from across the country, including Kristen Fogle of California, Marjorie Treger of California, and Bradley Behrmann of Illinois. The Loop Festival will be facilitated by local theatremakers Julia Cuppy, Jaese Lecuyer, and Tianna Eddy and hosted by Trever Yarrish and The Hivve in Grants Pass.
While exact performance times are TBA, all three readings will happen on Thursday, August 14th. Your $10 ticket entitles you to All-Day Entry as well as a link to the livestream, so you can attend or watch from home, or a mixture of both! Tickets are available now at https://aggregatecollective.ludus.com/ There are also sponsorship opportunities available to “adopt” an actor or crew member, at various donation levels.
Any inquiries can be directed to julia@aggregatecollective.com
The Loop Festival Artists
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Samara Siskind
Samara Siskind is an award-winning playwright whose plays for young people have been produced nationally and internationally in eight countries. Samara's youth plays and monologues have been published and licensed by Playscripts and Brooklyn Publishers and featured in anthologies from Meriwether Publishing and Plays - The Drama Magazine for Young People.
Samara's play Bar Mitzvah Boy, featured in the Vintage Books anthology Shorter, Faster, Funnier: Comic Plays and Monologues was part of City Theatre Miami's annual SHORT CUTS Tour, engaging and enlightening young audiences at schools all across Miami-Dade County. Her prize-winning short plays for college-aged actors have been Official Selections for the 2024 and 2025 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, including her play Kevin and Jules, a Finalist in City Theatre Miami's 2025 Susan J. Westfall National Short Playwriting Contest. Kevin and Jules will also be featured in The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2025 and The Best Men's Stage Monologues of 2025, soon to be released by Smith & Kraus.
Samara is the Resident Dramaturg for Athena Project, a graduate of Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. www.samarasiskind.com
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V.B. Rankin
V.B. Rankin has directed 45 shows and has had 35 of her original scripts produced. Some of her favorites were with the Academy of Children’s Theatre where she works as the Studio Director. www.actcolorado.net Her play Miasma was performed with Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company in conjunction with CU Boulder for Science Shorts and won first place by audience selection for Riot Act Inc. New Works Shorts Festival, Jackson Hole, Wyo. 2024. As an actress, she has performed in over 25 professional and community theatre productions, including for the entertainment departments of Walt Disney World and Disneyland. She was a 2007 Denver Post Ovation Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a comedy, in Not Now Darling! which won Best Comedy and enjoyed playing Leo in the 2010 Denver Post Ovation Award Winner for Best Comedy, Getting Married. She was the costume designer for the Gold Best of the Springs, Tuck Everlasting. She holds a B.A. Creative Writing from CU Boulder and an MPA from UCCS. Lastly, she is proud to have served in the Peace Corps in Armenia from 2008-2010.
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Sarah Ziegler Blair
Sarah Ziegler Blair is a musical theater performer and writer and an advanced member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. She is the co-writer of Just Between the All of Us (winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy award with a production at the Bloomington Playwright's Project), The Brontës (production at The Space Theatre in London), Alex Gold: Stuck on Repeat (available for licensing), In BeTween, The Town that Sucked at Christmas, and The Teens ‘n Tweens Songbook (available for purchase - volume 2 coming soon!). Sarah is a graduate of Hamilton College and The Boston Conservatory. Favorite roles include Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Hood: A Children's Opera(with the fabulous Prelude Opera!), Jane in Leave it to Jane, Laurey in Oklahoma!, Jane in Pirates!, and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun. Sarah is the founder of Musical Muffins, music classes for babies and toddlers with original tunes. Most of all, Sarah loves spending time writing and performing silly songs with her sons, Arlo and Hughie.
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Steven Gallagher
Steven Gallagher is a writer, director, and actor based in Toronto. His musical Pollyanna, written with composer Linda Barnett, had its World Premiere at Theatre Aquarius, and was a finalist for the Playwrights Guild of Canada Best New Musical. His musical, Blackout, written with Anton Lipovetsky, premiered in Toronto (The Musical Stage Company, Canadian Stage Co.) and was selected to be part of the prestigious NAMT Festival in New York in 2022.His plays include Murder at Ackerton Manor (Tweed and Company Theatre, Lighthouse Theatre), Stealing Sam (United Solo Theatre in NYC, Alberta Theatre Projects), and Memorial (Next Stage Festival). Other musicals include The Last Party, written with Nicky Phillips,(Toronto Fringe 2018), and Drama 101, written with Kevin Wong . Steven is a Merritt Award Nominee, the winner of the Aubrey & Marla Dan Fund for New Musicals, Winner of Best Drama at The United Solo Theatre Festival for Stealing Sam, and the winner of Best Play, BroadwayWorld (Ottawa) for Murder at Ackerton Manor.
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Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips is an award-winning composer. She is an alumna of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop where she was awarded the Jean Banks Award for outstanding achievement in Musical Theatre. Nicky was honored to have been mentored by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Craig Carnelia at the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Her work has been showcased at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, Don’t Tell Mama and The New York Theatre Barn. Nicky’s musicals include Rey of Light written with Jen Cohen (ASCAP/Stephen Schwartz Workshop, Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and an upcoming presentation at the University of Mississippi); The Last Party written with Steven Gallagher (National Music Theater Conference O’Neill Theater Center Semi Finalist, Toronto Fringe Festival); In Between written with Sarah Ziegler and Steven Gallagher (upcoming Loop Festival); Stagefright written with Sarah Ziegler (Prospect Theater’s Musical Theatre Lab) and In Flanders Fields written with Robert Gontier (Smile Theatre, Lunchbox Theatre, Betty Mitchell nomination). Nicky is the co-writer of the musical theatre songbook The Tweens ’N Teens Songbook, New Musical Theatre Songs for the Young (ish) Performer, written with collaborator Sarah Ziegler. Nicky & Sarah will be releasing Volume 2 of The Tweens ’N Teens Songbook at the end of 2025. Nicky is a proud member of ASCAP and has been awarded multiple ASCAP Plus Awards. You can currently hear her songs on season 1 of the animated series Vida The Vet (Netflix) with season 2 coming out soon! www.nickyphillips.com
The Loop Festival Directors
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Marjorie Mae Treger
Marjorie Mae Treger is an award-winning theatre educator, director, and arts advocate with more than 30 years of experience in public education and youth theatre. She currently serves as Conservatory Director at La Jolla Playhouse, where she leads intensive training for teen artists, emphasizing professional acting techniques, devised theatre, and collaborative ensemble work.
Recently retired as the District Theatre Resource Teacher for San Diego Unified School District, Marjorie spent over a decade designing TK–12 theatre curriculum, mentoring educators, and fostering partnerships with leading cultural organizations. Her direction and teaching have been recognized in productions at San Diego Junior Theatre, where she received the Bravo San Diego Award for Sweeney Todd and the National Youth Arts Award for Into the Woods.
She is the recipient of several prestigious honors, including the Inspiring Brilliance Award from Disney Performing Arts, the Administrator’s Award from the Educational Theatre Association, and the Enduring Artful Learner Ovation Award from the San Diego County Office of Education.
Marjorie holds a B.A. in Theatre from UC San Diego and a Master of Theatre Studies from Southern Oregon University. She remains committed to youth-centered storytelling, arts equity, and empowering the next generation of theatre artists.
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Bradley J. Behrmann
Bradley J. Behrmann is a professional musical theatre nerd who splits his time between New York City, San Diego, St. Louis, and Amarillo. Hailing from Belleville, IL, he earned a B.Mus. in Music Ed from Lawrence University and a MFA in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University. A multi-hyphenate, he works primarily as an actor-educator-writer. As an actor, Bradley made his Off-Broadway debut in March 2018 as Le Bret in Cyrano de Bergerac. Regional favorites include Charles Clark in Titanic, Brit Craig in Parade, Dr. Craven in The Secret Garden, and Sebastian in The Tempest. Behind the table, Bradley has been director and music director for regional and educational productions, most recently at West Texas A&M University where he has served as Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre since 2018. Creative credits there include Musical of Musicals: The Musical, Spring Awakening, Songs for a New World, Monstersongs, and Alice By Heart. Connect on bradleyj.co
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Kristen Fogle
Kristen Fogle is a veteran theater artist with over 30 years of performance experience and more than 15 years directing and producing for the stage. She is the former Co-Artistic Director of the Ocean Beach Playhouse and a past Board Member and Season Selection Chair for Lamplighters Theatre. She also served as President of the Association of Community Theatres (ACT) San Diego, participated in the prestigious Directors Lab West, and contributed as a script reader for San Diego Repertory Theatre. As co-creator of The Poolhouse Project, she helped develop several original productions, ran a dynamic staged reading series, and led weekly actor feedback workshops that supported artistic growth and collaboration. Kristen currently serves as a teaching artist for La Jolla Playhouse and is the Executive Director of San Diego Writers, Ink, where she continues to champion the intersection of storytelling, performance, and community engagement.