STAGE FRIGHTS - FULL SHOW! (Pts. 1-6)

Jonathan Cook is an actor, writer, and filmmaker based in South Carolina. Many of his short plays have been produced in theatres around the World and and he is a seven-time recipient of the Porter Fleming Literary Award in the playwriting category. He is the founder and creator of Gather by the Ghost Light.

John Bavoso (he/him/his) is a Washington, DC-based playwright, marketer, and aspiring wrangler of unicorns. He mostly writes plays about women and queer people who are awkwardly attempting (and generally failing) to engage with serious subject matter using only dry wit and impeccably timed combative taunts. John is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, and the recipient of District of Columbia FY18 and FY19 Arts and Humanities Fellowships. His plays have been produced and/or developed in DC, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin; Canada; Japan; South Korea; India; United Arab Emirates; Australia; and the UK.

Jacquelyn Priskorn has been writing plays since she took her first class with playwright Kitty Dubin in 1997. She has had several plays and screenplays produced since that first class, including the award winning short film "The Guest Room" (shown at the Strasbourg Film Festival in France) as well as a screenplay, "Love & Plutonium", which is currently available on Amazon. "Glass Slipper, Size 8 ½", "The Rot", "The Reckless Romantic" and "Off Center" are currently available through Brooklyn Publishing. "Ida Invisible" and "Andela" are available through Next Stage Press. The one act version of "Barn Wood and Blue Roses" is available through Stage Partners.
Her short play "Off Center" won Best Play at the Oakland University Actor Showcase. And "Good Morning, Miriam" has received the Jury's Choice Award at the Detroit Fringe Forward Festival, Best New Play from New Plays From the Heartland, Audience Favorite at Big Idea Theatre, and The Chameleon Theatre Circle's 17th annual one act play contest.
As an actress, Ms. Priskorn began writing to create roles for anybody and everybody.

Devon McSherry his co-host and producer of Gather by the Ghost Light. She went to college for musical theater and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA from Metropolitan State University of Denver and currently teaches at Musical Theatre Workshop in Augusta, GA. She is also an active actress and playwright.

Marian Thibodeau is an actor and singer currently residing in Augusta, GA. She is a mom of two young girls but enjoys pursuing her love of acting when she can. She was most recently seen on stage playing Mary Magdalene in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Le Chat Noir Theatre in Augusta, GA. In February 2026, she will have the pleasure of bringing Blanche DuBois to life in Le Chat Noir’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire. She also had a lot of fun playing Sandra/Florence in Le Chat Noir’s sold out run of The Play that Goes Wrong. Along with podcasts and live theater, Marian has been involved in a handful of short films that you find on YouTube, or, hear her in numerous episodes on the Gather by the Ghost Light podcast.

Pepper has been performing in the Augusta area for eight years. In addition to stage, film, and voice acting, Pepper has performed with Sho Fusion Belly Dance Troupe, the Geektastic Bellydance League, and Dirty South Burlesque. She and has also performed with Schrodinger's Cat Improv Group. Pepper also has experience behind the scenes as a director, producer, writer, videographer, editor, production assistant, and stage hand.

Karla is a South Carolina-based actress who caught the acting bug from her paternal grandmother who was a film actress in Austria before WWII. You can find Karla onstage performing in plays in the CSRA, doing murder mystery dinner theatre shows, showing up as an extra in box office movies, and lending her voice to GBTGL episodes.

Arelis Rivera is a Puerto Rican actress and singer, currently based in Augusta, GA. Her voiceover work is featured in the podcast Gather by the Ghost Light, where she has played the role of Michelle in "Simon Says", Estelle in "Kingdumb", Lane Hernandez in "Ain’t the Biggest City", among others. Arelis has also participated in several stage shows. One of her most recent and favorite roles is Chiffon in The Augusta Players production of "Little Shop of Horrors". She has also portrayed Deloris VanCartier in Aiken Community Theatre’s production of "Sister Act". Other recent show credits include "Something Rotten", "Young Frankenstein", "Ragtime". She has previously trained and performed with local improv comedy troupe Schrodinger's Cat.

Hi! I’m Robb Smith, a voice actor in North Augusta, South Carolina.

I really believe in the power of storytelling and that the stories that connect the most are the ones that feel like they’re being told just to you.

My background winds through radio, TV, stage performance, audio engineering, and corporate creative work, all of which taught me the same truth: a good story needs a good heart behind it. It’s what I bring to every project, whether it’s a commercial, an audio drama, a video game character, or a moment of quiet narration that helps someone breathe a little easier.

I love giving scripts life, humor, and humanity. And I’m always grateful for the chance to help a story land in a way that feels true.

TJ McSherry is a linguist specializing in Middle Eastern languages and a published philosophy student. In his off time, he is usually found behind the camera, backstage, or next to a control board though he seeks to be in front of the lens or the microphone more often. Favorite stage projects include Evil Dead the Musical, and The Play that Goes Wrong. His short film directorial debut “Cecilia” earned an award for practical effects and his photography has earned local recognition.

Nathan Shelton was born in Springfield, MO to Kevin and Tammy Shelton. His father is a Methodist pastor and his mother works with the Languages department of UMKC in Kansas City, MO. Nathan grew up in theatre, performing at several venues around his hometown, where he started to work professionally as a stage and screen actor in the early 1990s. He went on to study acting, writing, and directing at Missouri State University (then SMSU) in the same prestigious acting program that launched John Goodman, Kathleen Turner, Tess Harper, Jack Laufer, and many others.

Aside from working as a professional theatre/film/television actor, Nathan is an award-winning SFX makeup artist, writer, and director/producer. Nathan moved from Missouri to Chicago, IL in 2013, and continues to work throughout the country on various creative projects with his production company, Arcane (including the internationally acclaimed web series Shadow Bound, and the horror radio-drama anthology series, The Frightmare Theatre Podcast). Nathan and his wife, Alma Rodriquez, were married in March 2021 and split their time between the US and Mexico. Nathan has two children, Finnley and Vince.

Greg Mandryk is a playwright living in Cleveland, Ohio. His work has been produced throughout the United States.

From Los Angeles to the East Coast and back again, Bonnie Marie Williams has been acting for over 25 years on the stage, and in television and film; as a voice actor for clients including Marvel's Avengers STATION, Pokemon, Nintendo Switch, and Spotify, and producing feature films and podcasts. She loves all things Halloween and Batman, and has seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer more times than she can count. When she's not recording in the studio, she's drinking too much coffee, casting and directing voiceover projects, teaching classes to kids and grown-ups, trying out a new recipe or two, talking to ghosts, and watching Star Wars. Save the day with the VO Superhero at www.vosuperhero.com.

Korilyn (she/her) is a graduate of the B.F.A. Physical Theatre program at Coastal Carolina University. She has enjoyed digging into a wide range of roles over the past few decades, from silent devised movement pieces to text-heavy Shakespeare and everything in between. (Just don't ask her to sing!) She is very grateful to GBTGL for taking a chance on her and letting her chomp her teeth into the wonderful world of voice acting over the past year as well!

Favorite past roles: Brutus (Julius Caesar), Phillip (Orphans), Sylvia (Sylvia)

Favorite playwrights: Sarah Ruhl, Theresa Rebeck, William Shakespeare

Travis Williams is a writer based in Los Angeles.
He is a multi-finalist and 2016 winner of DEATHSCRIBE: The International Festival of Horror Radio Plays with Wildclaw Theatre in Chicago. His short comic Unraveled is published in the horror anthology Tales from the Akermansion with American Gothic Press and Famous Monsters Magazine. Travis’ writings specialize in character driven horror with a Midwestern Gothic twist.

Mike Brannon was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. He fell in love with the theater in high school, then spent the next 30 years raising his kids and working as a computer programmer before finally getting the chance to return to the stage. Over the past 4 years, his short plays have been featured in over 45 productions across the world. He has acted in a handful of projects, directed another 20+ short plays and readings, and helped produce the Triad Playwright Theatre’s 2022 and 2023 short play festivals; Goodly Frame Theater’s groundbreaking Zoom Fest in 2020, and their collaborative monologue project Affairs of the Heart in 2022; and the NC Audio Play Festival (with Creative Greensboro and the Cary Playwrights Forum).

Leah Philbin is a writer from Nottingham, UK. One of her plays, Broke, was included in the 37 Plays Festival at the Theatre Royal Nottingham and my play The Queen of The Sun was recently performed at the Old Electric Theatre in Blackpool. She was recently shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize and was runner up in the UK Power Plays competition. She can usually be found writing in her garden, surrounded by her dog and her many cats.

I connect with my community through art and these connections are often the focus of my work. Whether I’m talking about death over a plein air painting or drawing a cathartic piece about a chicken and a possum having lunch, my art is an ongoing conversation with the world.

Matt is an actor, director, psychologist, and cat dad in Augusta, GA. He has performed locally with Gather by the Ghostlight, The Augusta Players, Le Chat Noir, and The Presidential Dinner Theatre at Fort Eisenhower.