Please select a link below to view participants from a particular program.
Ansa Akyea - St. Paul, MN
Ansa Akyea is a professional AEA and SAG AFTRA actor who has worked locally and nationally and was most recently seen in Stacey Rose's World Premiere production of "Legacy Land" at the Kansas City Repertory Theater. Ansa has participated in developing, performing, and staging new work at Chicago Dramatist, PWC and worked with playwrights such as Mfoniso Udofia, Edris Goodwin, Josh Wilder, Christina Ham, Nathan Yungerberg and other talented playwrights. With over 20 years of professional stage experience he has worked at the Guthrie Theater, Barrington Stage Company, Ten Thousand Things theater Company, Children's Theater Company, Penumbra Theater, Mixed Blood theater, Black Ensemble Theater Company and many others. Ansa is the recipient of the McKnight Fellowship, and Many Voices Fellowship. Ansa received his MFA in Acting from the University of Iowa.

Monique Gaffney - San Diego, CA
Monique’s first two loves of theatre and dance have fueled her career as both an artist and an educator. She has performed in 30+ productions and is a resident artist at Cygnet Theatre. As a recipient of The San Diego Foundation 2012 Creative Catalyst Fund Individual Artist Fellowship, she developed Being Henrietta, a multi-media theatre piece inspired by the life of Henrietta Lacks. Monique collaborated with playwriting students to create two new works-in-progress, as the 2011-12 UC San Diego, Thurgood Marshall College artist-in-residence. Member of Omo Aché Afro-Cuban Music & Dance Company. UCSD (BA), Columbia University (MFA). AEA, SAG-AFTRA.

Karen MacDonald - Melrose, MA
Karen MacDonald is a Boston based actress, teacher, director. Recent credits include The Children, The Cake, The America Plays, Escaped Alone, Universe Rushing Apart and Calendar Girls. She has appeared at the Huntington Theatre, Speakeasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Gamm Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Trinity Rep, New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Israeli Stage, Merrimack Rep Theatre, Portland Stage, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Boston Theatre Company, Sleeping Weazel, and Vineyard Playhouse. A Founding Company Member of the American Repertory Theatre, she appeared in 74 productions. On Broadway, she understudied and performed the role of Amanda Wingfield in John Tiffany’s revival of The Glass Menagerie. In 2010, she received The Robert Brustein Award for Sustained Achievement in The Theater and the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. She teaches Acting at Harvard University.

Dael Orlandersmith - New York, NY
Dael Orlandersmith is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for Yellowman. Ms. Orlandersmith is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. She is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship and an Obie Award for Beauty’s Daughter. Orlandersmith won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick in 1999. Works Include: Liar, Liar (1994); Beauty's Daughter (1995); Monster (1996); The Gimmick (1999); Yellowman (2002); Raw Boys (2005); Stoop Stories (2008); Bones (2010); Horsedreams (2011); Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men (2012); Forever (2014-2015); Until the Flood (2016).

Reynaldo Piniella - New York, NY
Reynaldo Piniella was seen Off-Broadway in The Death of the Last Black Man…, Venus (Signature), The Skin of Our Teeth (TFANA), Lockdown (Rattlestick), The Space Between the Letters (The Public/UTR), Terminus (NYTW Next Door), The Best Of Theaterworks (Working Theater). Regional credits include work at Syracuse Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the O'Neill and the Sundance Theater Lab. He received the Thomas Barbour award for playwriting. He will next be seen in the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit production of Cymbeline. Follow him on Instagram & Twitter @ReynaldoRey. www.reynaldopiniella.com

Kenny Ramos - Los Angeles, CA
Kenny Ramos is a Kumeyaay theater artist from the Barona Band of Mission Indians. Originally from the Barona Indian Reservation in Southern California, Kenny earned a BA in American Indian Studies from UCLA. Kenny is a member of the Artist Ensemble at Native Voices at the Autry and a collaborator of Dancing Earth: Contemporary Indigenous Dance Creations. As an actor, he has performed at Cornerstone Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Native Voices at the Autry, The Rose Theater Omaha, Moonlight Stage Productions, La Jolla Playhouse, and The Kennedy Center. A student of theater of the oppressed and community engaged theater methodologies, Kenny aims to increase tribal nations’ access to theater and reclaim the use of storytelling and performance to heal and empower communities. Kenny is a 2019 recipient of First Peoples Fund’s Cultural Capital Fellowship.
Daniel Banks - Fort Worth, TX
Daniel Banks is a director and deviser with roots in movement theatre and new play development. Credits include the Eastern European premiere of Anna in the Tropics at the Belarussian National Theatre, the African premiere of Jitney at the Ugandan National Theatre, Deep Azure by Chadwick Boseman at the DC Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Tap Into Peace at Playhouse Square, and developing new work with such writers as Christina Anderson, Ty Defoe, Christopher Rivas, and Madhuri Shekar. Daniel is co-director of the arts and service organization DNAWORKS, Associate Director of Theatre Without Borders, and serves on the national cabinet of the grassroots U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. www.danielbanksdirector.com

Lili-Anne Brown - Chicago, IL
Lili-Anne Brown, a native Chicagoan, works as a director, actor and educator, and has performed in, directed and produced many award-winning shows, both local and regional. She is the former Artistic Director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she focused programming on Chicago-premiere musicals and new play development with resident playwrights. Recent credits include School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play and the world premiere of Ike Holter’s Lottery Day at Goodman Theatre, and The Color Purple at Drury Lane Theatre. She is a member of SDC, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA, a graduate of Northwestern University, and represented by William Morris Endeavor.

Juliette Carrillo - Long Beach, CA
Juliette has directed critically acclaimed premiere and revival productions in theaters across the country including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory, Denver Theater Center, Arena Stage and Seattle Repertory. Her recent world premiere, Carmen Aguirre’s Anywhere But Here, was produced in Vancouver, B.C., with plans to tour internationally. As a member of the Cornerstone Theater ensemble, she has developed work for and with various communities across California. Also a playwright, her plays include Plumas Negras, Ghost Town and Tailbone. She is Yale School of Drama graduate and on faculty at University of California, Irvine.

Desdemona Chiang - Seattle, WA
Desdemona Chiang is a stage director based in Seattle, Washington and Ashland, Oregon. Recent directing credits include Hold These Truths (People’s Light Theatre Company), Snow White (Seattle Children’s Theatre), Vietgone (Alley Theatre), White Pearl (Studio Theatre), The Great Leap (Guthrie Theater), M Butterfly (South Coast Repertory), The Winter’s Tale (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Pride and Prejudice (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), and As You Like It (California Shakespeare Theater). Her awards include the Princess Grace Award, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre, SDC Sir John Gielgud Directing Fellowship, and the Drama League Fall Directing Fellowship. BA: University of California, Berkeley. MFA Directing: University of Washington.

Eric Ruffin - Takoma Park, MD
Eric Ruffin, director/teacher, has helmed regional productions at Mosaic, Lyric Rep., Young Playwright’s, Kennedy Ctr., Mann Ctr., The French Embassy, U.S. Supreme Court, Theatre Alliance, Studio, Crossroads, Imagination Stage, Luna Stage, and George Street Playhouse. For both Howard U. and Rutgers U. he has directed numerous mainstage productions. Ruffin is a former Drama League Fellow, Folger Shakespeare Fellow, Princess Grace Awardee for Dance, and NYTW Usual Suspect. His direction of Langston Hughes’ BLACK NATIVITY was recognized with 3 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Musical. He’s currently a commissioned artist for Studio Theatre and serves on Woolly Mammoth’s Board of Directors.

Madeline Sayet - Mystic, CT
Madeline Sayet is a director who believes the stories we pass down shape our collective possible futures. She is the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP), and a member of Long Wharf Theatre's inaugural artistic ensemble. Awards: TED Fellow, Forbes 30Under30, National Directing Fellow, Native American 40Under40, White House Champion of Change (Obama). Recent directing: Midsummer Night's Dream (South Dakota Shakespeare), Henry IV (CT Rep), Whale Song (Perseverance Theatre), She Kills Monsters (CT Rep), As You Like It (Delaware Shakespeare), The Winter’s Tale (HERE), Poppea (Krannert Center), The Magic Flute (Glimmerglass), Miss Lead (59e59). www.madelinesayet.com

Kaneza Schaal - New York, NY
Kaneza Schaal is a New York City based theater artist. Most recently she directed TRIPTYCH composed by Bryce Dessner (BAM Opera House, The Holland Festival, LA Philharmonic, The Kennedy Center) and JACK & commissioned by Walker Arts Center, REDCAT, On The Boards, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, and PICA. She received a 2019 United States Artists Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration & Public Space Fellowship, 2018 Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, 2017 MAP Fund Award, 2016 Creative Capital Award, and was an Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage. Schaal is a visiting lecturer in the Theater, Dance, Media Department at Harvard University.
Tahnia Belle - New York, NY
Tahnia Belle is Director of Operations & Special Projects for Urban Bush Women (UBW). For 20 years Tahnia has managed social impact and leadership development projects for nonprofit institutions. Her career spans the fields of international programs, higher education scholarship management, small business consulting and arts administration. She is co-founder SunnEvents & Consulting, a socially conscious events company. Tahnia is passionate about contributing to a vision of the field that includes sustainable organizations of color producing values-based work supported by administrators who represent them and in partnership build values-aligned infrastructure, processes and systems. She is an alum of the UBW Summer Leadership Institute as well as a member of Artists Co-Creating Real Equity (ACRE) and Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA). BA in Geography & Africana Studies, Hunter College; MPA in Nonprofit Management, University of Colorado/Denver.

Kareem Fahmy - New York, NY
Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born director, playwright, and cultural consultant of Egyptian descent. Fellowships/Residencies: Sundance Theatre Lab, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center/National New Play Network (National Directors Fellow), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow & Usual Suspect). Kareem is the co-founder of the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at The Lark and of Maia Directors, a consulting group for organizations and artists engaging with stories from the Middle East and beyond. MFA in Directing: Columbia University. www.KareemFahmy.com

Lanxing Fu - Brooklyn, NY
Lanxing Fu is a Chinese-American theater artist and co-director of Superhero Clubhouse, an interdisciplinary community engaged in theater-making to shift culture towards climate and environmental justice. With SHC: playwright and co-creator of Mammelephant (The New Ohio / HERE Arts Center), program director of The Living Stage NYC (University Settlement / Meltzer Senior Center), and co-creator of PLUTO (no longer a play), (The Brick) and JUPITER (a play about power), (La MaMa). She is lead teaching artist with Big Green Theater (Bushwick Starr/SHC). Workshop facilitator and speaker: The New School, Asian American Arts Alliance, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, CESTEMER, and more.

Miranda Haymon - Brooklyn, NY
Miranda Haymon is a Princess Grace Award/Honoraria-winning director, writer and deviser of performance. Their recent projects include Really, Really Gorgeous (The Tank), Everybody (Sarah Lawrence College), In the Penal Colony (Next Door @ NYTW, The Tank) and Mondo Tragic (National Black Theater). Their theatre is radically inclusive, fundamentally multi-voiced, oriented towards sparking dialogue and in direct conversation with the current American state of affairs. Miranda is a graduate of Wesleyan University where they double majored in German Studies and Theater and were awarded the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize in Directing. Upcoming: Exception to the Rule (Roundabout Underground). www.mirandahaymon.com

Jasmine Johnson - Brooklyn, NY
Jasmine Johnson is an arts administrator, dramaturg, and producer who is passionate about building platforms to uplift the voices of traditionally underrepresented artists. She currently serves as Assistant to the Artistic Director at the Tony-Award winning Williamstown Theatre Festival where she has supported new play development initiatives through leading the Summer Literary Department and overseeing administration of the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. Previously, she has worked at The Civilians and Manhattan Theatre Club. Jasmine is a proud native of Atlanta, GA and holds a BFA in Theatre from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Peter Kim - Brooklyn, NY
Peter Kim is an actor, producer, director and teacher. He has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway and regionally. Select Film & TV credits: The 40-Year-Old Version (upcoming on Netflix/Sundance Film Festival 2020 Award Winner), Saturday Church (Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award), Sex and the City, “Chicago Med”, “Ugly Betty”. As Associate Producer of NAATCO, the company has received OBIE awards and Drama League and Drama Desk Award nominations. He is a Steering Committee Member of AAPAC and a Lecturer in Theater at Princeton University. He holds an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama & BFA from NYU. @peterkimpeterkim

A'shanti Tyree - New York, NY
A’shanti Tyree is an artist and arts administrator with a keen interest in development. As the Individual Giving Manager at Manhattan Theatre Club, she helps strengthen existing donor relationships while discovering other theatre-lovers to support the work of established and emerging playwrights. She holds a BFA in Theatre with a minor in producing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. When she’s not fundraising, she can be found reading, writing and sharing her soulful vocals at venues all over NYC.

Victor Vazquez - New York, NY
Victor Vazquez (he/him/his) is the founder of X Casting NYC. He served as resident Casting Director and Line Producer at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. for three seasons. Previous employment includes: Center Theatre Group, Pasadena Playhouse, Cornerstone Theatre Company. Vazquez holds a master’s degree (with distinction) from the University of Oxford in dramatic writing, and is a member of the Casting Society of America. Originally from Compton, California, he is the proud son of Mexican immigrants and Spanish is his first language. He lives and works in New York City. www.xcastingnyc.com
Kate Attwell
Testmatch - American Conservatory Theater
Kate is a WRAPT Films, Playwrights Horizons, EST, and MTC/Sloan commissioned writer. ArsNova PlayGroup, Page 73 I73, Mabou Mines Resident Artist, Public Theater: Devised Theater Working Group. Recent development: Playwrights Horizons, A.C.T., Portland Center Stage, NYTW, and The Bushwick Starr. Recent productions: Testmatch dir. Pam McKinnon (A.C.T.), Jesus in Manhattan dir. Lindsay Firman (EST). Previous work: REDCAT / Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, The Public Theater (Under the Radar, 2016), JACK, La MaMa E.T.C., Movement Research at Judson Church, BRIC, BAM (Everybooty), The Segal Center (Festival of Performance on Film).

Ross Baum
Gun & Powder - Signature Theatre
Ross Baum received the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award for Gun & Powder (book & lyrics by Angelica Chéri), which recently premiered at DC’s Signature Theatre, directed by Robert O’Hara. Other musical scores include: Crowndation: I Will Not Lie To David (National Black Theatre), Anne Frank: My Secret Life and A Letter To Auntie Rosa (Diverging Elements Theatre Company). Various concerts, festivals, and residences at Lincoln Center, NAMT, Barrington Stage, Goodspeed, Theatre Latté Da, McCarter Theatre Center, Two River Theater, and the Kennedy Center. Founder/Music Director of the vocal group RANGE. BFA, Syracuse; MFA, NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing; BMI Workshop.

Tyler Beattie
Bliss - The 5th Avenue Theatre
Tyler Beattie (book, music, lyrics). Tyler writes original musicals and animated movies with Emma Lively. A passionate educator, Tyler is the founder and coach of an award-winning middle school debate team in Harlem and a graduate of Northwestern University.
Hilary Bettis
72 Miles to Go... - Roundabout Theatre Company
Hilary Bettis is a critically-acclaimed playwright whose work has been developed and produced all over the country including, Roundabout Theatre, New Georges, The Sol Project, Miami New Drama, Studio Theatre, Alley Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, La Jolla Playhouse, amongst others. TV: “The Americans” (she won the 2019 Writer’s Guild of America Award), “The Dropout”, she is currently developing projects at AMC, Hulu, and PatMa. Graduate of The Juilliard School. She is represented by CAA and Grandview. www.HilaryBettisWriter.com

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen
Coal Country - The Public Theater
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen are writers, actors and directors. As writers: The Exonerated (Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First, Herald Angel Awards) and its award-winning TV movie adaptation; Aftermath (NYTW; two Drama League nominations); How To Be a Rock Critic (based on the writings of Lester Bangs), with Jensen starring and Blank directing (Kirk Douglas, South Coast Rep, ArtsEmerson, Steppenwolf, The Public’s UTR). They are developing this play for feature film with Likely Story; their first film, Almost Home, was released in 2019. They are married and live in Brooklyn with their daughter Sadie.

Adam Bock
Before the Meeting; The Canadians - Williamstown Theatre Festival; South Coast Repertory
Adam Bock is known for Before The Meeting, A Life, A Small Fire, The Receptionist, The Drunken City, The Thugs and Swimming in the Shallows. He's been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Second Stage Uptown, Rattlestick, Clubbed Thumb, and others. He received an Obie Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, Clauder Prize, Glickman Award, Heideman Award, and Guggenheim, and was nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. He is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and artistic associate at Shotgun Players, Encore Theater and the board of Space on Ryder Farm.

Eboni Booth
Paris - Atlantic Theater Company
Eboni Booth is a writer and actress from New York City. Her play PARIS had its world premiere at Atlantic Theater Company. As an actress, Eboni has appeared in productions at Playwrights Horizons, LCT3, Manhattan Theater Club, Ars Nova, WP Theater, Page 73, Soho Rep., Clubbed Thumb, and more. Eboni is a graduate of the University of Vermont and Juilliard’s playwriting program.

J. Nicole Brooks
Her Honor Jane Byrne - Lookingglass Theatre
J. Nicole Brooks (she/they) is an award winning actor, director, educator, author and social justice warrior based in Chicago. Brooks served as writer-director for the world premiere of Her Honor Jane Byrne at Lookingglass Theatre Company. Other plays penned by Brooks include HeLa, Fedra Queen of Haiti and Black Diamond. Acting credits include Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), Beyond Caring (Lookingglass), Immediate Family (Mark Taper Forum). Television credits include roles on The Chi, Southside and season 4 of Fargo opposite Chris Rock.

Keith Bunin
The Coast Starlight - La Jolla Playhouse
Keith Bunin is a playwright and screenwriter. His play The Coast Starlight premiered last summer at La Jolla Playhouse. His plays The Busy World Is Hushed, The World Over, and The Credeaux Canvas all premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. His other plays include The Unbuilt City, Sam Bendrix At The Bon Soir, and The Principality Of Sorrows. His screenwriting credits include Onward (Disney/Pixar) and Horns (Mandalay), and he was a writer for the HBO series In Treatment.

Angelica Chéri
Gun & Powder - Signature Theatre
Angelica Chéri is a playwright, bookwriter/lyricist and screenwriter. Angelica and Ross Baum received the Richard Rodgers Award for their musical Gun & Powder (Signature Theatre). Plays include Berta, Berta (CATF, Everyman Theatre), The Wiring & The Switches (Geffen Writer’s Group), The Seeds Of Abraham (Billie Holiday Theatre) The Sting Of White Roses (North Carolina Black Repertory Co) and Crowndation (National Black Theatre). Angelica holds a BA in Theater from UCLA, MFA in Playwriting from Columbia and MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU.

Nathan Alan Davis
The Refuge Plays - McCarter Theatre Center
Nathan Alan Davis’ plays include The High Ground (upcoming, Arena Stage), Nat Turner in Jerusalem (New York Theatre Workshop), Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), The Wind and the Breeze (Cygnet Theatre), and The Refuge Plays (commissioned and developed by The Public Theater and McCarter Theatre). He received a Whiting Award in Drama in 2018. He is a Lecturer in Theater and Berlind Playwright-in-Residence at Princeton University.

Elliot Davis
Becoming Nancy - Alliance Theatre
Elliot is active as a writer for theatre, radio and film. His theatre credits include Loserville (Olivier Nominated for Best New Musical), Becoming Nancy directed by Jerry Mitchell). His recent commissions include ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ The Bill Withers Musical and new musical ‘Rehab’. In another career strand Elliot is a prolific music documentary maker for the BBC. He has written the life stories of Joan Littlewood, The Bee Gees, Gloria Estefan, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, James Last, Paul Anka and Freddie Mercury’s 60 Commemoration; all for the BBC.

Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Cullud Wattah - The Public Theater
Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a Blk queer feminist poet-playwright and cultural/ memory worker from Chicago, Illinois. She’s 2019-2020 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theater, recipient of the 2019 Princess Grace Playwriting Award, a 2020 Grist 50 Fixer and a 2019 National Arts & Culture Delegate for the U.S. Water Alliance's One Water Summit. Select residences and fellowships: New York Stage and Film (2019), New Harmony Project (2019), Dramatists Guild Foundation (2018-2019) and The Lark Van Lier New Voices (2018). In addition to Cullud Wattah, Erika is developing a 10-play Katrina Cycle, including Shadow/Land and [Hieroglyph].

Nathan Englander
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank - The Old Globe
Nathan Englander is the author of The Ministry of Special Cases, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Dinner at the Center of the Earth (Knopf) He also translated The New American Haggadah. His latest novel, kaddish.com, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in March 2019, and was longlisted for the Wingate Prize, 2020. Englander has been longlisted for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize honoring a mid-career writer.

Will Eno
The Underlying Chris - Second Stage Theatre
Recent plays include The Plot, which premiered in 2019 at Yale Rep. The Realistic Joneses (Broadway) won a 2014 Drama Desk Award and was named USA Today’s “Best Play on Broadway.” The French premiere, Juste Les Jones, will be directed for the Paris stage by documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. The Open House (Signature Theatre, 2014) won an Obie, Lortel, and Drama Desk Award, and was one of Time Magazine’s Top 10 Plays of the Year. Will wrote the book for the award-winning Skittles Commercial: the Broadway Musical. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Maria Dizzia and their daughter Albertine.

Emily Feldman
The Best We Could (a family tragedy) - Manhattan Theatre Club
Emily Feldman’s plays have been developed by theaters around the country including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwrights Realm, New York Stage and Film, ACT, and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. She’s an alumna of SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Jerome Fellowship, Page73, and The MacDowell Colony. She’s been included on the Kilroy’s List and on The Broadway Women’s Fund’s 50 Women to Watch list. She’s currently the Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club, a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center, and is working on commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, and MTC.

Ricardo Pérez González
On the Grounds of Belonging - Long Wharf Theatre
Ricardo Pérez González, a Queer Puerto Rican writer with bacalao on his breath and salsa on his hips, recently premiered his Sundance-developed play Don't Eat The Mangos at The Magic, supported by the Sol Project, after a season on the Netflix show Designated Survivor. His play On The Grounds Of Belonging about racially segregated gay bars in 1950s Houston, the first in a trilogy, premiered at Long Wharf in 2019, directed by David Mendizábal. He’s under commission by The Public, MTC, and Long Wharf (for the second in the Belonging trilogy). Upcoming projects include Orlando, a pilot with Nina Tassler about the Puerto Rican diaspora after Hurricane María.

Richard Greenberg
The Perplexed - Manhattan Theatre Club
Richard Greenberg is the author of The Babylon Line, Our Mother’s Brief Affair, The Assembled Parties (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Take Me Out (Tony Award for Best Play; Drama Desk Award; NY Drama Critics Circle Award; Outer Critics Circle Award; Lucille Lortel Award), The House in Town, The Violet Hour, The Dazzle (Outer Critics Circle Award), Everett Beekin, Three Days of Rain (L.A. Drama Critics Award; Pulitzer finalist), The American Plan, and many other plays.

Katori Hall
The Hot Wing King - Signature Theatre
Memphis-native Katori Hall is the Olivier Award-winning playwright of The Mountaintop. Most recently, she co-produced and wrote the book for the Broadway and West End hit, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Katori’s other works include Hurt Village, Our Lady of Kibeho, and Pussy Valley, which she adapted into a Starz television series premiering July 2020. Additional awards include the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the National Black Theatre's August Wilson Playwriting Award, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Find her digitally @katorihall.

Samuel D. Hunter
Greater Clements - Lincoln Center Theater
Samuel D. Hunter’s plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play), Lewiston/Clarkston (Drama Desk nomination), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination), The Few, A Great Wilderness, Rest, Pocatello, The Healing, The Harvest, and most recently, Greater Clements. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho. A native of northern Idaho, Sam lives in NYC. He holds degrees in playwriting from NYU, The Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Juilliard.

Sylvia Khoury
Selling Kabul - Williamstown Theatre Festival
Sylvia Khoury is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent. Her plays include Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival), Power Strip (LCT3), and Against the Hillside (Ensemble Studio Theater). She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center and Williamstown Theater Festival. Awards include the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and Jay Harris Commission and Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Awards. She is a member of EST/ Youngblood, a member of the 2018-2019 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop at The Lark and the 2016-2018 WP Lab. BA from Columbia University and MFA from the New School for Drama.

Lucy Kirkwood
The Welkin - National Theatre
Lucy Kirkwood is a British playwright and screenwriter whose plays include The Welkin; Mosquitoes; The Children; Chimerica (Olivier Award for Best New Play, Evening Standard Best Play Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); NSFW; small hours (co-written with Ed Hime); Beauty and the Beast (with Katie Mitchell); Bloody Wimmin, as part of Women, Power and Politics; it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (John Whiting Award); Hedda; and Tinderbox. She won the inaugural Berlin Lee UK Playwrights Award in 2013.
Emma Lively
Bliss - The 5th Avenue Theatre
Emma Lively (book, music, lyrics). Emma writes original musicals and animated movies with Tyler Beattie. She serves as manager and collaborator to Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way), and is the co-author of several books. She was originally trained as a classical violist.
John Logan
Swept Away - Berkeley Repertory Theatre
John Logan received the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic Circle and Drama League awards for his play Red. Other theater work includes Peter and Alice, I’ll Eat You Last, Never the Sinner, Moulin Rouge, The Last Ship, Superhero and Swept Away. As a screenwriter, Logan has been nominated for Oscars and received Golden Globe, BAFTA, WGA, Edgar, and PEN Center awards. Film work includes Skyfall, Spectre, Hugo, The Aviator, Gladiator, Rango, Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai, Any Given Sunday and RKO 281. He created Penny Dreadful and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Showtime.

Martyna Majok
Sanctuary City - New York Theatre Workshop
Martyna Majok is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, born in Poland. Plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, Cost of Living and Ironbound. Honors include Lucille Lortel Outstanding Play Award, ATCA Francesca Primus Prize, Lanford Wilson Award, Stacey Mindich Prize, Greenfield Prize, NYC Champions of Change Award, Helen Merrill Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, two Jane Chambers Feminist Playwriting Prizes, and The Merage Foundation Fellowship for the American Dream. She was the 2015-16 PoNY Fellow and 2018-19 Hodder Fellow.

Bonnie Metzgar
You Lost Me - Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Bonnie Metzgar is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, director and producer who specializes in socially-provocative theater. Recently, she served as writer for Genius: Aretha, a limited television series with Suzan-Lori Parks. Her plays have been commissioned by the NEA, the Goodman Theater, Sideshow Theater, were finalists for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Festival and selected for the Great Plains Theater Conference. A fighter for artists from marginalized communities, Metzgar is passionate about making systemic change in the nonprofit theater. Previously, Metzgar served as Associate Producer at the Public Theater where she founded Joe’s Pub.

Dominique Morisseau
Confederates - Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) which includes: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit ’67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). She is also the TONY nominated book writer for Broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre). Dominique served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless” (3 seasons) and is a recent MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow.

Richard Nelson
The Michaels - The Public Theater
Richard Nelson's plays include The Michaels, Illyria, The Gabriels, The Apple Family Plays, Nikolai and The Others, Farewell to the Theatre, Conversations in Tusculum, Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier, Best Play), Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nomination, Best Play), Some Americans Abroad (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy), and others. Musicals include James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey, Tony Award Best Book of a Musical); his screenplays include Hyde Park on Hudson. He is an honorary associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels “Master Playwright” Award.

Lucy Prebble
A Very Expensive Poison - The Old Vic
Lucy Prebble is Co-Executive Producer and writer on the WGA, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy award winning HBO drama Succession. Her Sky Atlantic show I Hate Suzie, co-created with Billie Piper, will air in 2020. In 2019, Lucy wrote the political meta-thriller A Very Expensive Poison which was Olivier-nominated for Best New Play. It won the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play and Best New Production of a Play at the Broadway World Awards. Previous plays include The Effect, Enron and The Sugar Syndrome.

Theresa Rebeck
Dig - Dorset Theatre Festival
Theresa Rebeck is an acclaimed playwright, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and abroad. Rebeck is the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time, whose Broadway plays include Bernhardt/Hamlet Dead Accounts; Seminar and Mauritius. Other notable NY and regional plays include: Seared (MCC), Downstairs (Primary Stages), The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels (Second Stage), Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons), The Understudy (Roundabout), View of the Dome (NYTW), What We’re Up Against (Women’s Project), Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Prize finalist).

Sharyn Rothstein
Tell Me I'm Not Crazy; Right to be Forgotten - Williamstown Theatre Festival; Arena Stage
Sharyn Rothstein is an award-winning playwright and television writer, whose plays and musicals have been produced around the country by theaters such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, Arena Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, McCarter Theatre Center and Northlight Theater. She was a writer and producer for the legal drama SUITS, and is currently creating a new one-hour drama for Apple TV Plus. She holds an MFA in dramatic writing from NYU, where she has also taught, and a Masters in Public Health from Hunter College.

Madhuri Shekar
Dhaba on Devon Avenue - Victory Gardens Theater
Madhuri Shekar is the 2020 recipient of the Lanford Wilson Award for playwriting. Her plays include In Love and Warcraft, A Nice Indian Boy, Queen, House of Joy and Dhaba on Devon Avenue. Her audio play Evil Eye was named one of the top 10 Audible titles of 2019, and won the 2020 Audie Award for Best Original Work. She is a graduate of the Juilliard playwriting program and a fellow at New Dramatists. @madplays www.madhurishekar.com
Al Smith
Rare Earth Mettle - Royal Court Theatre
For the Royal Court: Harrogate. Other theatre includes: Diary of a Madman (Traverse/Gate); Radio (Arcola/Audible). He is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club (Sloan Commission), the Traverse Theatre, and English Touring Theatre. Awards include: Audio and Radio Industry Gold Award for Best Fictional Storytelling, 2x BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Series; BFI Wellcome Trust Screenwriting Prize.
Jack Thorne
the end of history... - Roval Court Theatre
Jack Thorne is a writer of film, television and theatre. In film, his credits include Wonder, The Aeronauts, Radioactive and The Secret Garden. His television work includes National Treasure, Kiri, Don't Take My Baby, The Virtues, His Dark Materials and The Eddy. In theatre, his plays include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, When You Cure Me, Hope, A Christmas Carol and the end of history... Jack is a patron of Graeae Theatre Company and an associate artist of the Old Vic Theatre.

Bess Wohl
Grand Horizons - Williamstown Theatre Festival
Bess Wohl (Playwright). Plays include Grand Horizons (Outer Critics Circle Honor, Drama League Award nomination), Make Believe (New York Times, Best of 2019, Outer Critics Circle Honor, Off Broadway Alliance nomination), Small Mouth Sounds (New York Times, Best of 2016), Continuity, American Hero, Barcelona, Touched, In, Cats Talk Back and, in collaboration with Michael Friedman and The Civilians: Pretty Filthy (Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations). Wohl is the recipient of the 2015 Sam Norkin Special Drama Desk Award and the John Gassner Outer Critics Circle Award. BA Harvard, MFA Yale School of Drama.

Simon Woods
Hansard - National Theatre
Simon Woods attended Oxford University, where he studied English Literature and directed two sell out runs at the Oxford Playhouse. After graduating, he worked as an actor best known for playing Mr Bingley in Working Title’s Pride and Prejudice, Caesar Augustus in HBO’s Rome, and for his roles in the BBC adaptation of Cranford and the comedy Penelope. He has also written and presented a documentary on Elizabeth Gaskell for BBC 4, worked as a volunteer on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 election campaign, been the face of Yves Saint Laurent menswear, and a contributor to The Huffington Post, The Daily Telegraph and to the BBC’s Newsnight Review, and Broadcasting House programmes.

Karen Zacarías
The Copper Children - Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Karen Zacarías is one of the most produced playwrights in the US. The Copper Children premiered at OSF March 2020; Destiny of Desire at Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, The Guthrie was not to be. Her bilingual adaptation Romero y Juliet postponed at CalShakes. Other plays: Native Gardens, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, Just Like Us, Into the Beautiful North. Karen is a core-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons; 2019 Washingtonian of the Year; 2019 Sine Fellow for Policy Innovation. Recipient of 2019 Lee-Reynolds-Award and the 2019 Medallion by the Children’s Theater Foundation. www.KarenZacarias.com