Pamela Weiler Grayson (Chair) is a playwright, lyricist, composer, performer, and former lawyer. Pam began her working life as a musical theatre performer and segued into television production. She then earned her law degree and spent several years as an attorney with Martin, Clearwater & Bell. Pam was also a freelance writer for many publications, including The New York Times and The New York Observer. Pam’s award-winning plays and musicals have been seen on stages throughout New York and nationally, including Theatre 80, Soho Playhouse, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the Katra and DAMN Film Series, The Group Rep/Lonny Chapman Theatre (L.A.), Southwest Theatre Productions (Austin, TX), Arts on the Lake (Kent Lakes, NY), and Emerging Artists Theatre. She is the co-writer of “Cicadas, The Musical,” featured on Season 2 of the top-rated Amazon streaming series, “The Other F Word.” Pam’s musical Urban Momfare (book co-written with Alice Jankell) won a Best Musical Award at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival. Pam’s songs have been performed at The Metropolitan Room, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, The Duplex, and Don’t Tell Mama. She is a Dramatists Guild member. Pam is an alumna of The Chapin School, Phillips Academy (Andover), Brown University, Fordham Law School, and The BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

Caytha Jentis (Vice Chair) Caytha, a writer and producer, began making movies while driving carpools in suburban New Jersey. Her stories subvert the old tropes of motherhood with pathos and heightened-reality humor. Her first feature, a romantic comedy called And Then Came Love, stars Vanessa Williams, Eartha Kitt, and Anna Camp. The film was a story about a donor-inseminated single mother, which was licensed to Warner Bros. Caytha followed that feature with a romantic light drama called The One, a dialogue on true love and living one’s authentic life. Turning to theater, Caytha wrote a stage play called It’s All About the Kids, a dark comedy inspired by Beckett’s Happy Days and Lisa Kron’s Well about suburban sports culture through the eyes of a soccer Mom. The play won the NJ Playwrights Competition and had a limited-run production. Due to the success of the play, a movie version titled Bad Parents was produced, starring Janeane Garofalo, Cheri Oteri, and Christopher Titus. It has aired on Netflix and HBO and was a Top Comedy on Redbox.

Her other major credits include The Other F Word, a short-form episodic series about an empty-nester mother’s journey of reinvention. The cast includes Steve Guttenberg, Judy Gold, Alysia Reiner and Gilbert Gottfried. The series was a top title on Amazon Video Direct and was subsequently licensed to The Girlfriend, AARP’s GenX offering.

Caytha has produced several storytelling events called Women at the Crossroads. She recently co-chaired the Gold Standard Arts Festival, a week-long event that celebrates film, theater, and comedy, featuring emerging and established artists who are at least 50 years old. The proceeds from the festival go to creating year-round programs for older artists currently in the works. She began her career as a literary agent in New York. She has an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and a BS in tv/film from Syracuse University. Caytha was profiled by the Writers Guild and Screenwriter Magazine. She is a member of the Writers Guild, Honor Roll, NYWIFT, and the Producers Guild.

Cheryl Howard (Board Member) Actor, singer, writer, and director, Cheryl Howard has performed on Broadway, in film and television and regional theatres across the country, as well as national tours throughout the United States and in many international touring productions as well throughout Europe. Miss Howard has a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts from Douglass College at Rutgers University, and a Master’s degree in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the proud recipient of the London Shakespeare Globe Theatre fellowship program. Miss Howard was nominated for a 2011 Adelco Award for best Solo performance for her work in “The Sensational Josephine Baker.”

Paul Adams (Founder / Artistic Director) Paul Adams founded Emerging Artists in 1993 and has been Artistic Director for the life of the company these past 20 years. He previously was the Treasure at the WPA for several years and Assistant Treasurer at the Orpheum Theatre. As Artistic Director, he reads all submissions, is responsible for overseeing all creative aspects of all productions, and is also responsible for budgeting and day-to-day accounting of the company. He is also a playwright, director, and actor.