My official bio: Dr. Jessie (they/them) is a queer artist and creator living in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains with their strange cat, Endymion. Jessie holds a BA in Visual and Performing Arts, an MEd. in Instructional Design and Technology, and a DDiv focused on social justice ministry. Among their credits are award-winning sound designs for “As You Like It” and “The World’s Longest Kiss” in New Orleans, the Porter Fleming Playwriting Award for the short play “Kicking and Screaming,” and many other playwriting recognitions. Recently, they had the pleasure of having not one, but two of their plays selected for amateur performance by Showtimers Community Theatre in Roanoke. Jessie believes strongly in no-limits, immersive arts education and has developed several programs, workshops, and camps that they are proud to offer both in-person and online. They are passionate about magnifying the voices of the commonly silenced and will always stand with love. In their free time they are Raggedy Auntie, bringing vintage books to life for today’s young readers.

I am a playwright and storyteller. Just as I exist between genders, I exist between genres. My playwriting varies from pieces created for children with massive character lists and plenty of bit parts to more intimate stories for one or two people. I specialize in slice of life short plays (10-minutes and one-act plays).

The people on the bus are some of the most marvelous people in Roanoke, yet theirs (ours) are rarely the stories that are told. “Bus people” are folks who have somewhere to go but time to get there, and the bus community is one whose stories deserve to be told. I have a passion for this project and have really enjoyed each year’s chapbook and artist statement. I hope to be able to tell first hand accounts of not just my bus experiences but those of the riders and drivers through playwriting. Everyone deserves a voice, and the bus lends itself to being a stage of its own.

Roanoke is a city of artists surrounded by beauty. We are a colorful people, a welcoming environment, a place of solitude and a place of togetherness. I have never lived somewhere that is so human, and I have lived many, many places!