Jan Probst is a storyteller, who found her creative home in theatre and film. Striving to put women’s issues center stage, she jumped headfirst onto the stage in 1976, as a writer-performer and founding member of The Whole Works Women’s Theater Collective. A decade later, she combined art forms with the performance troupe Streetwise Women’s Martial Arts Theater. She has since found her footing as a playwright, from solo stage work to production and publication. Jan has been an Artist in Residence at Z Space Studios, Playwright of the Month at Off-Market Theater, guest artist for the ATHE Annual Conference, and while earning her MFA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University, was a national finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. In 2021, after a pandemic cancellation, her play Bird on a Tree Branch premiered online via zoom production by Phoenix Arts Association, received commendation from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and is now published by Next Stage Press. As a longtime member of the award-winning improv film company Barewitness Films, Jan has helped create many short films, working both sides of the camera. She is a member of Honor Roll! (an advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40), International Centre for Women Playwrights, Theatre Bay Area, Theatre Communications Group, Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild.