PERFORMANCE LAB

Machine de Cirque. Machine de Cirque is a Quebec City-based circus company that offers a high dose of vertiginous prowess, strong emotions, poetry, intelligence and humor through the production of innovative and original circus shows. Its ingenious and profoundly human creations are always driven by a unifying vision. Machine de Cirque’s unique approach to the art of circus touches and moves audiences.

Susan Bernfield, Greta Gertler Gold, and Company (Available Hooks) 

Susan Bernfield’s (lyricist/librettist/performer) plays and solo performance works have been produced, developed or commissioned by EST/Sloan and First Light Festival, People’s Light & Theatre, New Harmony Project, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, MACH 33: The Caltech | Pasadena Playhouse Festival of New Science-Driven Plays, Huntington Theatre Company, WAM Theatre, New Georges, Jewish Plays Project, undergroundzero festival, Chrysalis Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Ice Factory Festival, FringeNYC, Magic Theatre, in living rooms around New York City, and through The Pool, a pop-up theater company . Susan is the founder and Artistic Director/Producer of New Georges, a strategically small theater company in New York City. In this capacity, she has championed three generations of ambitious women+ theater artists, shepherded hundreds of exuberantly theatrical new plays, and is the recipient of Obie and Lilly awards. www.susanbernfield.com

Greta Gertler Gold (co-composer) is a composer, lyricist, performer, and producer. She composed and co-orchestrated the Off-Broadway world premiere of Picnic at Hanging Rock: The Musical, where she also served as lead producer. She co-created the concert production of Triplight at Joe’s Pub, directed by Mia Rovegno (The Civilians), and is developing new musicals with Susan Bernfield and Stew (Passing Strange). A Yaddo Fellow, Café Royal Foundation Music Grant recipient, Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, and New York City Women’s Fund Finalist, Greta’s works include the psychedelic rock musical The Red Tree and children’s musical All Aboard. She has participated in Ars Nova’s “Uncharted” program and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. As a performer with her bands The Universal Thump and The Extroverts, she made her Lincoln Center debut in 2023. Her songs have aired on NPR, and she is a multi-platinum songwriter whose credits include work with The Whitlams (Warner Music). Greta has also composed for Dr. Seuss Tonies toys and is a member of ASCAP, Maestra, and The Dramatists Guild. www.GretaGertlerGold.com

Rob Jost (co-composer) is a bassist multi-instrumentalist living in Brooklyn. He has played for over 20 Broadway shows, including Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and Death Becomes her. He was co-orchestrator/music coordinator for the December 2025 world premiere of Greta Gertler Gold and Hilary Bell’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, Off Broadway at Greenwich House Theater. He has played multiple times in the Saturday Night Live house band and been part of Joe Fiedler’s Sesame Street house band for 16 seasons, including the specials Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas, The Magical Wand Chase, and When You Wish Upon a Pickle, and on camera for the Sesame Street Muppets’ appearance on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts in 2019. He has recorded with Bjork, The Mountain Goats, Imogen Heap, and many other wonderful bands and artists. 

Portia Krieger (director) directs new plays and musicals. Most recently, she directed the world premiere of Picnic at Hanging Rock, a musical by Hilary Bell and Greta Gertler Gold based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. Portia was the Associate Director for Broadway’s Seminar, Almost Famous, and the Tony-winning Fun Home. Her artistic stomping grounds include Clubbed Thumb, Williamstown, the O’Neill, Ars Nova, and New Georges, where Portia co-founded performance gym The Jam. www.portia-krieger.com

The Civilians. Founded in 2001, The Civilians is dedicated to ambitious and exuberant new theater that creatively interrogates our lived experience; questions and tests the stories that shape our world; and awakens new thinking and perceptions. Its signature work is “investigative theater”—projects created through field research, community collaborations, and other methods of in-depth inquiry. Shows originated with The Civilians include Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (cited by The New York Times as the “4th Best Play of the Past 25 Years”) and Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. (recently on Broadway). The company has participated in several BAM Next Wave Festivals and was the first theater company to be Artist-in-Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. thecivilians.org | @civiliansnyc

Kate Douglas. Kate Douglas is a writer, performer, and composer. Recent work includes The Apiary (Second Stage: NY Critics Pick, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Tulipa (New York Stage & Film), and hag with Grace McLean (Vivace Award). She is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant for Music & Lyrics as well as the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award. katedouglasprojects.com

Kate Tarker. Kate Tarker is an American playwright, librettist, and lyricist who grew up bilingually in Germany. She writes offbeat countercultural plays for smart, fun-loving audiences. Her plays include Montag (Soho Rep., Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe), THUNDERBODIES (Soho Rep.), and Dionysus Was Such a Nice Man (The Wilma Theater, FoolsFURY). Music-theater projects include The Counterfeit Opera (Little Island) and Awful Event! (Baryshnikov Arts Center). Recipient of a Jerome Fellowship, two MacDowell Colony Fellowships, The Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and a 2026 Audrey Resident at New Georges. Her writing has been published in The Paris Review and McSweeney’s. MFA Yale School of Drama.

INTAR. International Arts Relations (INTAR) is committed to the development and continuation of the Latiné voice in American theater and beyond. INTAR’s mission is to commission, develop, and produce bold, innovative, artistically significant live theater works generated by an intersectional array of Latiné playwrights, composers, directors, choreographers, and visual artists. With its relentless work, INTAR not only assists early career U.S. Latiné artists and administrators in obtaining their first professional theater credits, union memberships, and reviews in English language media, but also is an artistic home for mid-career and established artists who must continue to experiment, explore, and stretch themselves in their artistic work. INTAR serves as an intergenerational creative community that represents the vast diversity of the Latiné experience. intartheatre.org | @intartheatre

Jordan Ramirez Puckett is a Chican@ writer currently based in East Harlem. Their plays include Find Me in the Mirror, A Sapphic Family Christmas, Transitional Love Stories, Untitled Dad Play, Huelga, En Las Sombras, To Saints and Stars, A Driving Beat, and Las Pajaritas. These works have been produced and/or developed by Flint Repertory Theatre, Intar Theatre, Playwrights Realm, San Francisco Playhouse, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and WP Theatre, among others. Jordan was a finalist for the Yale Drama Series Prize and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. They are a current member of EST’s Youngblood. Find them @puckettplays

Amalia Oliva Rojas (she/her) is an award winning and internationally produced Mexican poet, performer, and theatre artivist raised in Nueva York. Her work centers and archives the stories, myths, and legends told by her family, women of color and the New York immigrant community. Her plays include Tonantzin On the 7 Train (Pen America), A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Succeed in the Myth-Making Business (Lehman College, Jamaica Arts and Learning Center), How to Melt ICE (or How the Coyote Fell in Love with the Lizard Who Was Really a Butterfly) (New York Women’s Fund Grant, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Boundless Theater Company, Latin American Theater Award for Outstanding Playwriting), and In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (Egg & Spoon Incubate NYC, 2025 KCACTF Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award, 2025 Leah Ryan Prize, 2026 Landord Wilson New Play Top 20).Recent Fellowships: Ghostlight Theater, Culture and Narrative Fellow for The Opportunity Agenda, The Lily’s Lorraine Hansberry Fellow, CUNY Mexican Studies Institute Lydia Mendoza Fellow. MFA, Columbia University.

Markéta Irglova. Markéta Irglova is an acclaimed musician and actress. Growing up in a musically enriched household, she began learning piano at age 5. She is known internationally for her collaborations with Glen Hansard, including the feature film Once (Academy Award, Best Original Song, 2008) and two albums as The Swell Season. She has released multiple critically acclaimed solo albums, acted in a feature film, and continues to tour worldwide.

Sturla Mio Thorisson. Sturla Mio Þórisson is a Reykjavik-based sound engineer and producer with over 25 years of experience, working from his Masterkey Studios and as a touring front-of-house engineer. Known for his humble, artist-first approach, he has collaborated with artists including Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, Laufey, Emilíana Torrini, and Markéta Irglová, and finds his greatest reward in helping musicians realize their creative vision.

Doug Wright. Doug Wright’s Broadway credits include Good Night Oscar (Chicago Jeff Award), I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize), Grey Gardens (Drama Desk nomination), Quills and Hands on a Hardbody. His work has been produced on six continents and translated into 25 languages.

David Clement. David Clement started playing his witty, melodic power-folk in New York City in the 1990s. Since then he has been on and off the road as a solo performer and collaborated with a number of artists and composers.

abs wilson. abs wilson is a playwright/lyricist. Most recently, she is a 2025 Jonathan Larson Grant winner, Richard Rodgers Award recipient, and a finalist for the Kleban Prize. Her work has been seen at Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Second Stage, and New York Theatre Workshop, among others.

Adam LaPorte. Adam LaPorte is a composer, librettist, and playwright originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He is a graduate of Oklahoma City University and NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Deniz Khateri. Born and raised in Tehran, Deniz Khateri is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist working in theater, experimental music, and visual arts. Her work explores themes of exile, identity, and cultural memory through shadow puppetry, original composition, and visual design.

The Horgles (Ceilbí Guilfoyle & Kyle Moss). The Horgles are washed up has-beens, unsuccessful dimwits, and hapless underdogs. And this is their big break! Ceilbí (they/them) trained in physical theater and clown at Ecole Philippe Gaulier and has a BFA from NYU Tisch. Kyle (he/him) is a physical comedy performer with a background in puppetry, clown, and devised theater.

Keith Bunin. KEITH BUNIN’s most recent original play THE COAST STARLIGHT was commissioned and first produced by La Jolla Playhouse and transferred to Lincoln Center Theater. He is also known for The Busy World Is Hushed (Playwrights Horizons), In A Garden (Atlantic Theater Company), and his adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters for the Atlantic. He wrote the screenplay for the film The Rite.

Tyne Rafaeli. Tyne Rafaeli directs for stage and screen. Recent stage productions include Brian Watkins’ Weather Girl (St Ann’s Warehouse), Mona Mansour’s The vagrant trilogy (La Jolla Playhouse), Gertrude Stein’s In Circles (Signature Theatre), Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica (59E59 Theaters), and Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (Lincoln Center). She is a Drama League Directing Fellow and a former Artistic Associate at the Almeida Theatre (UK).

travis tate. travis l. tate (they/them) is a queer playwright, poet, and performer living in Brooklyn. Their poems have been published in Prelude Magazine, Apogee Journal, Obsidian Literature & Arts, and Them.us. Their plays have been developed with New Dramatists, the Lark, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ars Nova, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and The Orchard Project.

Adam L Sussman is a SF-based director, creative producer, and a co-artistic director of the  queer directors’ collective Dreamlighting. He makes work that explores knotty cultural questions through radical empathy and wild theatricality. Adam holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked with Cornerstone Theater, The Playwright’s Foundation, American Conservatory Theater, the Berkeley Rep, and This American Life. AdamLSussman.com

Obed De la Cruz. Obed De la Cruz (he/him) is a Puerto Rican-Dominican theater-maker, songwriter, producer, and DJ based in Brooklyn, New York. His work primarily engages with cultural and musical imaginations as a means of unpacking overlooked human realities. His administration work has taken him to Blumhouse Productions, MCC Theater, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Jujamcyn Theaters, and ATG Entertainment. As a theater-maker, Obed has developed work at Bed Stuy Art House, Pipeline Theater, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, Hi-ARTS, The Shed, and The Orchard Project. His original musical Monster on the Lawn received top prize as part of NAMT’s 15-Minute Musical Challenge in 2020. Graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in Theater and Performance Studies and the Louis Sudler Prize; Fellow Member of the Broadway League. @obydlc

Cris Eli Blak. Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced and performed around the world. He was a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently the recipient of the inaugural Pages in Paris residency, 2025-26 Signpost Fellowship, 2024-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center, the 2026 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the inaugural LDK Productions Writers’ Residency. criseliblak.wixsite.com | @criseliblak

Vichet Chum. Vichet Chum (He/Him) is a NYC-based writer from Carrollton, Texas whose plays have been produced and workshopped all over. He received the Lucille Bulger Service Award in 2023, the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists in 2018, and the Laurents/Hatcher Award and an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for the world premiere of his play Bald Sisters which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2022. He is currently a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and a steering committee member for the Asian American Performers Action Coalition. Vichet’s debut YA novel “Kween” was released in 2023 with Quill Tree Books (HarperCollins). He is represented by WME and CURATE Management. vichetchum.com | @vichetchum

Nicholas Connors. Nicholas Connors is a songwriter, playwright, and musician. For his musical COAL, he received a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship and was an inaugural winner of the Lucille Lortel Theatre’s 121 Project. He was an artist-in-residence at Goodspeed Musicals and New York Stage & Film and is a multi-time finalist for the Fred Ebb, Ed Kleban, and Jonathan Larson awards. His Broadway credits include ALMOST FAMOUS (Assistant Music Director), Kristin Chenoweth’s FOR THE GIRLS (Associate Music Director, Orchestrator), and MEAN GIRLS (Pianist). His orchestrations have been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and The White House. www.nicholas-connors.com | @Nick_Connors

Zoë Kim. Zoë Kim (she/her) is a NYC-based storyteller passionate about creating art that fosters humanity, compassion, and kindness. She is the Founder of Seoulful Productions (seoulfulproductions.org), a Korean-American women-led 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to creating artistic experiences that celebrate the culture, artistry, and voices of the Korean Diaspora. She is currently developing her Hunger Trilogy—three standalone plays exploring hunger in its physical, emotional, spiritual, and metaphorical forms. Part One, Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?), received its world premiere in Boston at CHUANG Stage (2024), followed by a New York premiere at The Public Theater (2025), then a Texas premiere at Amphibian Stage (2026). FAMISHED [갈망] is part two or the second installment of the trilogy. Through her work, she seeks to uplift underrepresented voices and create spaces for deeper empathy and connection. thezoekim.com | @thezoekim

Adrienne Mackey (Swim Pony). With her company Swim Pony, Adrienne Mackey has created over 20 original works, including SURVIVE! – a 22,000 sq-ft science fiction adventure, EVERYTHING IS FINE – a performance series developed in partnership with a crisis simulation center and real first responders, and REHEARSAL FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, a live roleplaying game. Her work has been seen at venues including the Kimmel Cultural Campus, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Painted Bride Art Center, HERE Arts Center (NYC), and the Kennedy Center (DC). swimponyvox.com | @swimponyadrienne

Two Sisters (Emma Horwitz & Bailey Williams). Two Sisters is Emma Horwitz and Bailey Williams. Their piece Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods received a sold-out and extended off-Broadway premiere with Rattlestick Theatre and New Georges in April 2025. Emma’s play, Mary Gets Hers (NYT Critic’s Pick) was produced at MCC by the Playwrights Realm (October 2023). Bailey’s past productions include Coach Coach at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks (June 2024). She was an Edward Albee Fellow and MacDowell Fellow. emmahorwitz.com | baileywilliams.live | @buffalobailey and @ecstaticpeephole

Matt Baram & Naomi Snieckus (Big Stuff). Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus are award-winning Canadian performers, writers, and improvisers whose work spans theatre, television, and film. Alumni of the Toronto Second City, they have built acclaimed careers as actors and creators while developing original live performances rooted in comedy, storytelling, and emotional truth. Their previous theatrical work includes The Script Tease Project, a critically acclaimed and sold-out improvised production. Co-created and directed by Kat Sandler (Mustard, Yaga), assistant directed by Rachel Moore. baramandsnieckus.com | @mattbaram | @snieckus

Rachel Mars. Rachel Mars is a writer and performer based in the UK. She works at the cross-over of performance art and theatre, interrogating the possibilities of live assembly; female, Jewish and Queer identities and their intersections. Her recent work includes: FORGE, a durational metalwork installation exploring memorial inheritance; YOUR SEXTS ARE SHIT: OLDER BETTER LETTERS, an archive of sex and desire; OUR CARNAL HEARTS, a choral dissection of envy (developed at the Orchard Project). She has won a Total Theatre Award, the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, and a Michael Grandage Company Futures Bursary, and has performed at The Barbican London, Under The Radar NYC, Brisbane International Festival, and On The Boards Seattle. www.rachelmars.org | @rachelofmars

Homegrown Solo

Aparna Nancherla. Aparna Nancherla is a Los Angeles-based comedian who has worn a panoply of hats. Her debut hour standup special, Hopeful Potato, was released on the streaming platform Dropout in December 2025 to a warm reception from more than just her mother. Her first essay collection, Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Imposter Syndrome (Viking) was named one of New Yorker’s “Best Books of 2023.” You may have heard Aparna as the voice of Nisha in Pixar’s recent release Hoppers. Other voice work includes Susmita on Bob’s Burgers, Moon on The Great North, as well as Hollyhock on Bojack Horseman. Other acting credits include A Simple Favor, Another Simple Favor, What We Do in the Shadows, Master of None, and The Drop on Hulu. She’s written for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and has made multiple late night appearances including Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Conan, and After Midnight. Aparna was once named one of “The 50 Funniest People Right Now” by Rolling Stone. In 2019, she was in a Super Bowl commercial with Michael Bublé for sparkling water neé seltzer. She was also chosen as one of Variety’s “Top 10 Comics to Watch” that same year. These days, Aparna can be found strumming a harp or perusing an estate sale in search of the perfect caftan. Neither one of those things is true.

George Civeris. George Civeris is, according to the American media apparatus, “known for his monster wit and broad palate” while his comedy “collapses the divide between high art and low”. George’s debut comedy special “A Sense of Urgency” was named in the New York Times’ Best Comedy of 2025 and is available online via Comedy Dynamics. George co-hosts “StraightioLab”, iHeart’s most intellectual podcast to date, in which George and his co-creator Sam Taggart unpack the rich tapestry of straight culture. George also co-hosts iHeart’s newest original podcast “United States of Kennedy” for those who want to digest that family’s history as the Bravo show that it is. George holds degrees from Stanford and MIT. In a previous life, he worked at Facebook. He lives in Brooklyn.

Jo Sunday. Jo Sunday is a Brooklyn-based writer, actor, comedian, and soon-to-be your dear friend. They currently write for Saturday Night Live, and perform at venues across Brooklyn and Manhattan including The Bell House, Club Cumming, and Union Hall, where they co-host their monthly show Body Count. They frequently open for their mentors such as Charlie Bardey, Rachel Coster, and Jaboukie Young-White. Meandering through sex, religion, and their experiences as a Ghanaian immigrant, Jo’s standup muses on the little lies we tell each other to get by.

Michael Cruz Kayne Michael Cruz Kayne is a Filipino-American comedian, actor and writer based in NYC. He is currently a staff-writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where his work has earned him a Peabody Award, a WGA Award and several Emmy nominations. His comedy special, Sorry For Your Loss released exclusively on Dropout this year. The show also ran off-Broadway at The Audible Theater and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award. As an actor, he can be seen in the Apple TV series Helpsters, HBO’s The White House Plumbers and Apple TV’s Severance. He’s appeared in every incarnation of The Chris Gethard Show, and can be seen on High Maintenance and Love Life. Michael’s podcast A Good Cry, is available on Headgum, and notable guests include Stephen Colbert and Nicole Byer. Michael was a Creative Consultant for Billy On The Street and wrote for @midnight’s pilot presentation. Along with D’Arcy Carden, he co-wrote and starred in Terrible Babysitters, a webseries that featured Abbi Jacobson, Nicole Byer, Brandon Scott Jones and more, and was part of SXSW’s Comedy line-up. Michael performs stand up and improv across New York and made his late night debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Michael Abber. Michael Abber is a very loud comedian/not-for-profit cabaret artist who has been featured in The New York Times and, more prestigiously, on public access television. Abber has performed his stand-up comedy act in the New York Comedy Festival, Netflix is a Joke Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but none of this in a fancy way. He is also known for hosting the internet show Roommate Court, in which he wears a phenomenal suit. He is banned from Uber and cannot drive.

Episodic Homegrown Lab

Desdemona Chiang. Desdemona Chiang is a Taiwan-born director and writer for theatre, film, and TV. Her films have screened at CAAMFest, Newport Beach Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, HollyShorts, and LAShorts. She has developed work with the Sundance Episodic Program, Film Independent, The Orchard Project, and The Writers Lab. She is developing her first full-length feature, SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIDE (Tribeca/AT&T Untold Stories finalist), and made her episodic directing debut on FIRE COUNTRY (CBS/Paramount+) in February 2025. Princess Grace Award. AFI DWW+. WIF Directing Fellow. Drama League. MFA Directing: University of Washington. @deschiang

Kevin Kenerly Kevin Kenerly is an actor in the regional theatre and a 30-year member of the acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where his credits include Macbeth, Jitney, The Tempest, Shakespeare in Love, Topdog/Underdog, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Romeo and Juliet. Broadway and regional credits include Clyde’s (Broadway, Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group), Sweat (Arena Stage), and All the Way (Seattle Repertory Theatre). @k2kenerly

Brett Maline is an award-winning, disabled multi-hyphenate. From small town Nebraska, he’s niche because he lives with a rare type of scoliosis and for a really long time drove a crappy PT Cruiser. Currently developing his half hour multicam with Party Over Here, his feature WRONG GUY is set up with Bronxburgh productions and is based on his short film that was a Slamdance 2025 official selection and an Adobe development grant recipient. A 2024 CBS Paramount Showcase alum, he wrote on the 2nd season of Marvel’s Loki while developing his first half hour comedy with Sony Pictures Television. Last year, Brett also made his foreign film directorial debut with MAI, a film shot in Tokyo. With appearances on CBS, NBC, FOX, Amazon Prime, and Disney, Brett is a former cast member of the Groundlings Sunday Company and a UCB house sketch team veteran. His YouTube channel, Genuine Jerks, has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and Vulture.

Greenhouse/Homegrown Lab

Nia Akilah Robinson. Nia Akilah Robinson (she/her) is a playwright and actor who reps Harlem with all her might. She is the winner of the 2026 American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Award. Productions include: Soho Rep U.S. Off Broadway Premiere (New York Times Critics Pick), NextStop Theatre (2026 Helen Hayes Recommendation), Co-Pro: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company & Company One Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, Theatre503, Theatre Exile, and The Hearth. Her work has been developed with Nashville Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The New Group, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the National Black Theatre. Education: Yale (MFA Playwriting) & Juilliard ’24 (Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program). niaakilahrobinson.com | @niaakilah__

Alexa Derman. Alexa Derman is a Brooklyn-based playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been developed by the Playwrights Realm, Ars Nova, NYTW, Clubbed Thumb, the O’Neill, Orchard Project, and the Playwrights Center. Winner of the Kernodle Prize, the Chesley/Bumbalo Prize, and the Jewish Plays Project’s National Competition; runner-up for Princess Grace/New Dramatists; two-time honorable mention for the Relentless Award; four-time finalist for the O’Neill; finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship; twice nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn. Member of Page 73’s 2026 Writers Group. She has written for Netflix and Hulu. BA from Yale; MFA from Brown. alexaderman.com | @lexderman

Nelson Díaz-Marcano. Nelson Díaz-Marcano is a Puerto Rican playwright, advocate, and community leader based in New York City. His work has been produced Off-Broadway and regionally in Chicago, Dallas, Connecticut, and beyond. He creates bold, history-rooted stories that explore identity, community, and memory, using the past as a way to better understand who we are today. He serves as Literary Director of the Latinx Playwrights Circle. @nelsondm