Composer/lyricist Amy Engelhardt scored Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Musical nominee/Richard Rodgers-O’Neill finalist BASTARD JONES (cell theatre NYC), TRIPTYCH (book/music/lyrics, NY Transit Museum Commission), wrote lyrics for commissioned adaptations of Carl Sagan’s CONTACT (Puget Sound Theatre Award) and NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, music/lyrics for A COMEDY OF ERAS (with the Flying Karamazov Brothers). Her solo show IMPACT incubated at the cell theatre NYC, won the Jury Prize for Best Score at the National Women’s Theatre Festival, and was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe, The Tank NYC, Voila Festival UK, Fringe Providence and in Chicago and Los Angeles. Residencies include the Creative Centre of Iceland, Bethany Arts (NY), HBMG Playwrights Retreat (CO), New York Mills Cultural Center (MN) and Nautilus Composer/ Librettist Studio (MN/CA). Amy received the Manhattan Association of Cabaret’s Burman Award for Songwriting and was Co-Creator/ Artistic Producer of TUNE IN TIME, New York’s Musical Theater Game Show at the York (“cerebral fun & games… the BMI Musical Theatre workshop on steroids” – Stage Buddy). A Syracuse University graduate, Amy is looking forward to returning to Minnesota, even in January, having workshopped A COLLECTIBLE SENSATION (Arianna Rose, co-lyricist/librettist) at the Depot Theatre last year with Dunbar Hofmann Productions.

From 1998-2012, Amy recorded/toured as sole female vocalist/writer of Grammy-nominated, genre-busting band The Bobs. She swears that her fourth album FINISH WHAT YOU will still be released in 2020. And as Mother Superior of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, she led an army of silly, singing nuns crashing publicity events in London, New York, LA and Austin (SXSW) as part of Amazon Prime’s immersive PR campaign for GOOD OMENS (7 Clio Awards). She also produced the nuns’ EP UNHOLY NIGHT for Amazon Music. Amy is a proud member of ASCAP, Maestra NYC, the Dramatists Guild and Facebook’s “I Hate Cilantro” group. www.amyengelhardt.com

Robert John Ford is an award-winning playwright, composer, lyricist, and theatre producer.  His stage plays and musicals - including Caucus - The Musical, Six-On-Six, Utopia, Adore Us Line, Sleeping Dogs, The World’s Largest Aluminum Foil Ball*, and My Dinner With Andrew* (*both Minnesota Fringe Festival “Must See” designations by the St. Paul Pioneer Press) - have been seen by more than 75,000 people throughout the world and featured in stories by The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Public Radio, and The CBS Morning Show, among others.  His songs have been performed at Carnegie Hall and events by notable Broadway performers, including Jeremy Jordan and Laura Benanti.  An active member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York since 2012, he has received numerous national recognitions, including the Ashland New Play Festival Award and the Cloris Leachman Award.  A native of Iowa, he is based in both Des Moines, where he is an Iowa Arts Council Fellow and the administrator of RJFcreative, and New York, where he currently serves as the Company Manager for Hudson Valley Shakespeare. rjfcreative.com 

Marc Acito has traversed a multi-hyphenate career as a novelist (Ken Kesey Award for How I Paid for College); journalist (regular commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered) playwright (Helen Hayes Award for Birds of a Feather); stage director (NY Times Critic’s Pick for his Off-Bway musical Bastard Jones) and filmmaker (multiple award-winning film musical MAD/WOMAN). Acito also wrote the libretto of the Broadway musical Allegiance, which was subsequently produced in Tokyo and London’s West End. In 2016, he became the first Broadway librettist to have a new Mandarin-language musical produced in China (The Secret, featuring the music of Jay Chou), followed by Sound of the Silk Road in 2021). Other musicals include A Room with a View (Old Globe, 5th Avenue Theatre) and Chasing Rainbows (Goodspeed Musicals, Papermill Playhouse). His most gratifying work, however, is mentoring young artists through the Theatre Development Fund and teaching History and Musicals at New York University. @AcitoMarc / MarcAcito.NYC.

Robert (Rob) Dunbar Hofmann is President/CEO of Dunbar Hofmann Productions, LLC. Rob is a theater producer, actor, playwright, screenwriter and published author on the subject of donors and dementia. Rob has co-produce two presentations of New York based 24-Hour Plays with Minnesota based Hennepin Arts and one presentation of 24-Hour Musicals with Twin Cities based Chanhassen Dinner Theaters.  In addition to producing the workshop of A COLLECTIBLE SENSATION, Rob is co-producer for the London bound 2025 production of the play A BRIEF CRACK OF LIGHT and is co-executive producer for the independent feature film Th 7th. Rob is a Certified Fund Raising Executive with 25 years’ experience raising over $23 Million in 16 years at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is currently serving as a fundraising consultant for the NYC nonprofit Theater Resources Unlimited. Rob is a proud member of who draws from his life experiences as a SAG/AFTRA and Actor's Equity and has performed in films, TV, commercials. trade shows and upon the stage in regional theaters throughout the country. Married to his wife Kathleen of 40 years, he is a proud native of Minnesota, who draws stories from life, his encounters with nature, and the abundant arts and cultural offerings that his home state has to offer.  

Amanda Weis is a Twin Cities-based music director, stage director, and vocal instructor. Ms. Weis has worked with such companies as Minneapolis Musical Theatre, History Theatre, Masquers Theatre, Eden Prairie Players, Journey North Opera, Opera Reading Project, Open Window Theatre, Lyric Arts, The Phipps, and Duluth Playhouse, among others. She vocal directed the 2019 National tour of Nick JR LIVE and is a teaching artist at the Guthrie and Children's Theatre Company. Amanda teaches private voice lessons at her home studio in Lino Lakes. She volunteers frequently with her certified therapy dog Bucky, visiting their local library, Crestivew Memory Care in Blaine, and Ecumen hospice patients. www.weisamanda.com 

Katie is originally from Katy, Texas, and moved to Duluth in 2018. She graduated with a BFA in Stage Management and minors in Marketing and Communications from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has been busy working as the Production Manager for the Minnesota Ballet Since 2021. Additionally, Katie works as an event Lead with The Vault helping bring clients decor visons to life. In her free time she gets involved in Stage Managing Community theater and is currently stage managing La Ronde at Zeitgeist Theater. 

She has loved this unique experience and working with the Collab team and hopes you enjoy it. Katie would like to thank her mom and boyfriend for all of their support and to also send a special shoutout to her dad who is looking down on her as her guardian angel from above.