Performer

Tia Shearer Bassett (she/her) is an actor/creator/producer who specializes in solo shows, children’s theatre, and playful theatre for grownups. She has been a grateful member of Only Make Believe - performing interactive theatre for children in hospitals, care facilities and special education programs - since 2017. She also performs self-produced work like a poetic Zoom show featuring her son’s toys. Acting credits include: The Kennedy Center TYA (two national tours of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, as well as a DC area tour of Idris Goodwin’s From the Mouths of Monsters), Nashville Children’s Theatre, The Second City, Imagination Stage, Baltimore Center Stage. She is a devising company member of Happy Theater, co-creator of a web-series starring her leopard gecko: “Eugene Cheese Gets It Wrong,” proud producer of The From-Home Fest, lucky wife to her favorite director, and an ADHD mom to an amazing ADHD/Autistic kid.

Director

Matt Bassett (he/him) is thrilled to make his SCT debut and is always happy to work with his favorite collaborator in art and life. Matt’s work as a director and playwright has been seen throughout the Washington, DC area and recognized with multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations, as well as at theatres in Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Some of Matt’s favorite work has been with his wife, Tia. For children and families specifically, they have helped to create 12 original shows between them, and have been part of another 40+ professional productions. In 2013, they welcomed their son to the world, and since then, have joyfully crafted theatre for their son's age, from short nonverbal shows when Charlie was a baby and toddler, to previewing this very show to Charlie's 4th grade class. Matt serves as Theatre Department Chair for Metropolitan School of the Arts in Northern Virginia and has been on the faculties of multiple universities and theatres in the DC area since 2010. Training: MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Matt lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his family.

Eric Coble (he/him) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His scripts have been produced on Broadway (Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated The Velocity of Autumn), Off-Broadway (Bright Ideas), in all fifty states of the U.S., and on several continents. His plays for young audiences include award-winning adaptations of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Gathering Blue, Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, The Storm In The Barn, and have been produced throughout the U.S. and internationally including in Disney World (Jedi Training: Trial of the Temple), as well as The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Habima Theatre (Israel), and Pentacion Productions (Spain). Thirty-three of his scripts have been published, and his awards include three AATE Distinguished Play Awards, the Chorpenning Playwriting Award for Body of Work, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award.