Jamie Merwin is the Founding Artistic Director of Philadelphia-based Olive Dance Theatre and the artist-driven management cooperative Seed Management. She is equally committed to the tradition of Breakin' and the creation of contemporary American theatre. She is a 2007 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellow in Theater and New Performance Forms, a 2005 New Edge Artist in Residence at the CEC in Philadelphia and an Artist in Residence at JS Jenks Elementary School. Ms Merwin’s work is supported by the Leeway Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Dance Advance, CEC, GPCA Five County Arts Fund, Suzanne F. Roberts Cultural Development Fund, Poor Richards Charitable Trust, Institute for Cultural Partnerships & PennPAT. She holds a B.A. in Theater and Dance with minors in Criminal Justice and African-American Studies from Temple University. She has taught at the Charter High School for Architecture + Design, University of Pennsylvania, and Artrageous at Bristol Riverside Theater. Ms Merwin has worked with multiple Philadelphia organizations in many capacities from actor and director to stage manager and administrator, including: Rennie Harris Puremovement, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia Young Playwright's Festival, CEC, Actin' Up!, Eastern State Penitentiary and the Pennsylvania Prison Society. Past projects include: “Rapid Transit…A Moving Kollage of African-American Writers,” “Closetlands,” adapted from the screenplay, “OLIVE,” “tOy bOx,” “real thing come...and real thing go,” “ToTM Rd.,” “Strung” and “Phresh.” Her current projects include: “Urban Carnage” (published in the June, 2003 issue of Bike Magazine), and the development of two new evening length works - “Brotherly Love” and “Conversations.” Jamie serves on the Executive Committee for Alternate ROOTS as well as The Network of Ensemble Theaters’ (NET) Board of Directors.