Lois Hicks-Wozniak is an active concert saxophonist and educator in the New York Metropolitan and the Hudson Valley region, committed to community engagement through new music and Global Music styles. A D’Addario Woodwinds Artist, her many awards include winning the Special Presentation Winners Recital Series, sponsored by Artists International Presentations; earning her a New York Recital Debut at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. She is described in performance as having “tremendous technique and fidelity to tone without sacrificing musical line,” and a “beautiful soprano saxophone sound...preserving the beauty and consistency of her sound regardless of the technical or musical demands of the moment” (Saxophone Symposium).

From 1996-2004 she served active duty in the U.S. Army as a saxophonist with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, the West Point Saxophone Quartet and as a featured soloist at the World Saxophone Congress 2000 in Montreal, where she performed the Glazunov Concerto with the West Point Concert Band. She resigned her position in the Army to take on her most prized role as proud mom of four terrific children. (two sets of twins!)

She can be heard on her recording Playback: Music for Saxophone and Bass Trombone with Matthew Wozniak, bass trombone and Nadine Shank, piano and on the West Point Saxophone Quartet CD, Fault Lines. Her performances have been broadcast on New York public radio and she has an educational YouTube channel called “TheSaxophoneLady,” featuring frequent audition material for elementary and junior high students.

As a subscription series soloist with the New Jersey Wind Symphony, she presented the east coast premiere of the Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble by John Mackey. An artist-in-residence at Mississippi State University, she performed the Mississippi premiere of Dream Dancer for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble by Michael Colgrass, and she has been a guest of the Ithaca College Saxophone Society. She served as principal saxophonist with the New Jersey Wind Symphony from 2005-2018, and has performed and recorded with the Albany Symphony; along with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Greater Newburgh Symphony, the Lawton Philharmonic, the Pone New Music Ensemble and the Dallas Wind Symphony, to include their recording, Fiesta! She maintains an active schedule as a performer and clinician, appearing as guest soloist with high school, university and community ensembles. As a freelance musician, she has shared the stage with diverse acts from Manhattan Transfer to Milton Berle. She has commissioned and championed many new works for saxophone.

With a passion for World Music, Ethnomusicology, and Diversity, she has studied South Asian Carnatic percussion and has recorded with Pat Waing master, Kyaw-Kyaw Naing and the first Burmese-American Hsiang Waing ensemble. She is a featured professor in the textbook, World Music Pedagogy Vol VII: Teaching World Music in Higher Education (Routledge 2020), holds a certification in Smithsonian Folkways World Music Pedagogy, and teaches classroom courses in Global Music Studies.

An advocate of new chamber music, she and her husband, Matt Wozniak, comprise the saxophone and bass trombone duo, The Wozniak Duo. During the 2020 pandemic, Lois and Matt created “Music Tells a Story,” a recorded local library program for children and care-givers featuring story-telling, enactive music involvement, global music and incorporation of new music. Championing new works for this unique ensemble, they have commissioned and premiered works by Kevin Ames, Rob Deemer, Zae Munn, Carter Pann, and Gregory Wanamaker, most recently presenting the world premiere of Zae Munn’s Gnashing of Teeth at the North...

Mitchel Coffman is a New York City-based artist. He is the son of a Vietnam-era veteran and is the longtime friends of several special operations folks. His 25 oil-on-canvas portraits of fallen Rangers are featured at the 75th Ranger Regiment Hall of Honor at Hunter Army Airfield and his newest exhibit is an immersive look at the GWOT, titled, "Wish You Were Here." He has painted murals in Maryland and New York, including pieces for the Brooklyn Diner in Times Square and the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visit him at MitchelCoffman.com.

Listen at https://profilesinhavok.captivate.fm or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch on YouTube at YouTube.com/@veteransrepertorytheater

The daughter of a veteran, Jean Ciampi is a playwright, freelance writer, humorist, Dramatists Guild of America member, passport holder, scuba diver, actress, baseball fan, director, Texan, humorist, dog lover and cilantro hater. She was mentored by Canadian playwright Sharon Pollock and is a member of the 2022 Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. Her latest farce, "Yazoo, Miss'ssippi" won the 2024 Robert J Pickering/JR Colbeck Award for Playwriting Excellence. Her other full-length plays and shorts have been produced internationally. She uses the Oxford comma indiscriminately and single spaces after periods. Her ten-minute play, "Unboxed" placed third in the latest VetRep playwriting competition.

Follow her here.

Dakota Silvey is a New York-based playwright, stage manager, wildland firefighter and U.S. Air Force Veteran. Recorded in-person at the Players in NYC, Dakota spoke about life as both a writer and an active participant in the profession of arms. His play INTERMISSION PLAY placed second in Veterans Repertory Theater's latest 10-minute playwriting competition.

Stephanie Kline is a playwright from Arlington, VA. She is a Marine Corps veteran, former Air Force dependent, and served as an Army civilian and defense contractor.

Her short plays have won multiple competitions and festival selections, including selection to the NYC Players’ Theatre 2021 Short Play Festival with a four-night, off-Broadway run of ‘Torture Chamber.’

Her first full-length stage play-in-progress, a drama about the military’s treatment of servicemembers with PTSD, was selected for the 2023 Chicago Dramatists’ Scene Showcase. Stephanie is a Dramatists Guild member and studied playwriting at the Kennedy Center, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Chicago Dramatists.

Kat Furrow is a self-taught artist based in Carlsbad, California. She is a Navy veteran, a full-time student, and an art instructor with over a decade of experience. Drawing inspiration from her love of people and nature, Kat is passionate about her craft, utilizing bold colors and textures. She embraces an "Art Every Day, it’s a Mindset" philosophy, viewing her art as a metaphor for living life with curiosity and hope. As a "Trusted Art Seller" with the Art Storefronts Organization, she ensures quality and value in her work. Kat is open to commissions, special editions, and offers classes, embodying her belief in the transformative power of art.

Follow Kat here.

Dan Lauria has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs and more than twenty Movie Of The Week productions plus a score of motion picture credits. Dan is a very familiar face to the off-off, and off-Broadway and regional theatre scene having performed, written or directed over 50 professional stage productions. In 2010/11 Dan was seen on Broadway as the legendary coach Vince Lombardi in LOMBARDI, with the beautiful and talented Judith Light playing Marie Lombardi. The production was directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Dan returned to Broadway in the 2013 & the 2014 production of the Tony-nominated A CHRISTMAS STORY: The Musical directed by Tony winner John Rando. A published playwright, Dan’s DINNER WITH THE BOYS and JUST ANOTHER DAY have received many productions. However, Dan is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning ABC television show THE WONDER YEARS. Dan was most recently seen on the Fox TV show PITCH as manager Al Loungo and then joined the family of THIS IS US both series written by television’s most talented writer, Dan Fogelman. Dan and dear friend, the lovely and talented Wendie Malick have performed the play THE GUYS by Anne Nelson, for veteran & firemen organizations around the country. THE GUYS is a tribute to those brave men and women who died on 9/11. Wendie and Dan now do LOVE LETTERS as fundraising events for the development of new plays at regional theatres, and to save our planet and the animals that inhabit it. Dan is a Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

See Dan's JUST ANOTHER DAY in NYC this March!

Michael D. Fay is a former USMC Combat Artist with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1975 and was discharged in 1978 as an 81 mm mortarman (MOS 0341). In 1978, he returned to Penn State Univeristy and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education. In 1983, re-enlisted into the Marines and served as an avionics technician (MOS 6322) in the Presidential Helicopter Squadron (HMX-1) and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365 (HMM-365) until 1993. Fay served a tour on recruiting duty (MOS 8411) and was a recruiter of the year for 1989 and 1990. He left active duty at the end of September 1993. Fay returned to service in the USMCR in January 2000. He was assigned as an official combat artist. He is now retired from the Marine Corps. Fay's artwork is in the Marine Corps Combat Art collection, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the collection of the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Fay has also had solo exhibitions at the Farnsworth Museum, where he was the target of a protest group. His artwork has been published in Leatherneck Magazine—the official magazine of the Marine Corps Association—and the New York Times. The Guardian called his work "exceptionally moving and thought-provoking", and said, "Over the past decade, Fay has seen action as a war artist with US troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but his latest journey was to a military veterans' hospital in Richmond, Virginia. In the resulting New York Times blogs, he relays his meetings with three young men severely wounded in Afghanistan. His account of their injuries and rehabilitation is gripping, but what really deepens the reporting are his drawings, reproduced alongside the articles."

Fay has also recorded wounded veterans recovering from their injuries. As part of this work he founded the Joe Bonham Project to document the experiences of the wounded. After retirement, Fay campaigned for enhanced recognition and improved working opportunities for war artists. Fay also uses sculpture. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Illustration; his thesis was called The Boy Who Drew Soldiers.