PERFORMANCE LAB

Abs Wilson & Veronica Mansour

LIGHTHOUSE

ABOUT THE PROJECT: With graduation in the rearview mirror, Bus is desperate to run away from her small Minnesota hometown and everyone in it, but the only problem— she can’t outrun herself.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Veronica Mansour is a composer/lyricist/artist. She is a two-time Richard Rodgers Award winner, Jonathan Larson Grant winner, Dramatists Guild Fellow, a recent nominee for a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award (Musical Theatre Composition), one of four writers for DreamWorks Theatricals, MTI & NBCUniversal Emerging Writers Program (currently commissioned to write How To Train Your Dragon Jr.), and one of three 2023 Write Out Loud Contest Winners for her song “Runaway Girl” (written with abs wilson).

Mansour has had work developed with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT Festival ’24), the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (NMTC ’23, ’24), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (’24), Goodspeed Musicals (Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, ’24), New York Theatre Barn (New Works Series, ’23), the South Carolina New Play Festival (’24), Musical Theatre West (New Works Festival, ’24), Syracuse University (New Works Series, ’24), St. Olaf College, Millikin University, the University of Notre Dame, and more. Mansour is also an accomplished cellist and vocalist, having spent many years studying at The Colburn School and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. She is a proud member of Maestra, the Dramatists Guild, and BMI. She holds an MFA in Graduate Musical Theatre Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

abs wilson is a playwright/lyricist/poet. She’s a recipient of the 2024 Richard Rodgers Award, recipient of the Lucille Lortel Theatre 121 Project grant (2025), selected writer for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals (2024), Eugene O’Neill National Music Theater Conference winner (2024), selected writer for Drama Club Camp (2025), selected writer for the musical theater Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2024), selected writer for Millikin University’s New Musical Workshop (2025), selected writer for the Syracuse New Works New Voices program (2024), Write Out Loud Contest winner for her and Veronica Mansour’s song “Runaway Girl” (2023), NMTC Finalist (2023), NAMT finalist (2023), recipient of the Vanguard Theater New Works Festival Commission (2023), THE SEVEN New Works winner (2023), and finalist for the David Einhorn Prize (2022). She’s had work done with Theatre Barn at Playwright’s Horizons, Paper Kraine, the Tank, the Brick, Fusion Theater, Syracuse University, Millikin University, and St. Olaf College, with songs performed at 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, the Composers Concordance Marathon, and a play published in Some Scripts Literary Magazine. She got her MFA from NYU Tisch’s Musical Theater Writing Program, is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and Maestra.

Brittany K. Allen

Rebel’s Rest is Burning Down

ABOUT THE PROJECT: The first in a three play cycle about ritual reunions and a Big Chill/whodunit on national themes, REBEL’S REST IS BURNING DOWN follows a group of black grads who return to their old college in the Dirty South for a “reparations summit.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Brittany K. Allen is a Brooklyn-based writer and actor. Her plays have been produced and developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, WPLab, Portland Center Stage, Jungle Theater, Studio Theatre, and KC Rep, among other places, and her radio plays and podcasts have been produced by Audible/Fresh Produce Media, United Artists, Woolly Mammoth, and Playing On Air. She’s held commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, and Portland Center Stage, and is an alumna of EST/Youngblood, the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater, and the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages. Awards include the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, the Dramatists Guild Foundation Comedic Playwriting Prize, recognition on the Kilroys List, and a Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellowship. Her writing life has been supported by fellowships to MacDowell and Ucross, and scholarships to Bread Loaf and the Sewanee Writers Conference, where she teaches on the playwriting faculty. She’s a company member with Colt Coeur, and recent acting credits include Have You Met Jane Goodall & Her Mother? (EST), A Woman Among Women (Bushwick Starr/New Georges), Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb), and The Good John Proctor (Bedlam Theatre).

Brock Bivens & Mage McCormick: 

F***boy Saves The World

ABOUT THE PROJECT: F***BOY SAVES THE WORLD! is a musical about finding your community and living your authentic self in the face of the End of the World, told through a highly comedic, sci-fi, B-movie lens. Florida, aliens, drag (queens & kings), nightclub EDM, 80s rock/power pop, & a small ensemble cast. Let’s vibe.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Mage McCormick (they/them) is a composer, lyricist, educator, and circus coach/performer based in Brooklyn, NY. As a non-binary, Autistic/ADHD artist, Mage likes to tell stories about those labeled by society as “different,” bringing to the stage characters that they wish they had to relate to when they were growing up. In 2022, they were accepted to the Musical Creator’s Institute, where they began developing two original musicals, FUCKBOY SAVES THE WORLD! and JANE THE QUEEN, under the mentorship of industry professionals like Sam Carner, Adam Gwon, Zina Goldrich, Anna Jacobs, and Andrea Daly (among others). Mage delights in performing and writing in many different genres, with recent performing highlights including singing back-up for Brooklyn-based rock band, Geese, on tour with Jack White, and the premiere of Mage’s original song and aerial straps act, “Careful Lorelei,” at New England Center for Circus Arts. When they are not writing musicals, Mage can be found coaching and training at Circus Academy New York, where they are well-known for their high-key enthusiasm for aerial straps and flying trapeze. If you are interested in instantly becoming their best friend, talk to them about Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Brock Bivens is an actor & writer based in Manhattan. His plays and musicals include FUCKBOY SAVES THE WORLD! (2025 Lucille Lortel 121 Project Semifinalist), CREATURE CREEK, and IN THE ROOM IS. As a playwright, bookwriter, & lyricist, Brock has been consistently mentored by Kent Nicholson, Anna Jacobs, & Sam Carner. Brock has also studied at Upright Citizens Brigade & his comedy sketches & short plays have been featured on WhoHaHa.com, UglyRhino, & Elizabeth Banks’s Twitter (rip twitter). As a performer, Brock was in the National Tour & Off-Broadway companies of The Play That Goes Wrong and played the title role in the New York Premiere of Bubble Boy the musical. He has also workshopped many new plays and musicals as an actor with theaters like Williamstown Theater Festival, Clubbed Thumb, & Playwrights Horizons. Brock is a graduate of Emerson College.

Desdemona Chiang

The Phoenix

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A sweeping two-part musical blending contemporary musical theatre with the elegance of Chinese classical dance, the Phoenix is the journey of two twin dancers exploring identity, ambition, and rebirth across continents and generations.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Desdemona Chiang (Book)

Desdemona Chiang (she/her) is a Taiwan-born American director and writer based in Seattle, WA and Ashland, OR. With over 20 years of experience directing in American regional theatre, she writes stories about unique intergenerational immigrant experiences. Her stage adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER received its world premiere in the summer of 2022. Her TV pilot MADE IN USA was developed with the Sundance Episodic Program, The Orchard Project, The Writers Lab, and was a winner of the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab. Her TV pilot ZHIZHA! was developed as part of Film Independent’s Episodic Lab (sponsored by Netflix) in February 2024. Desdemona is also part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Institute Asian American Fellowship and the AFI DWW+ class of 2024. MFA Directing: University of Washington.

Cheeyang Ng (Music)

Born and raised in Singapore, Cheeyang Ng (黄智阳) is an award winning singer-songwriter who writes at the intersection of queer, Asian and immigrant stories. They have performed around the world, including Lincoln Center with Carole King and Carnegie Hall with a cappella group Vocalosity and hold an MFA from New York University and a BMus from Berklee College of Music. They are the first Singaporean to headline a concert at Joe’s Pub and Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center showcasing their original music and their songs have been performed around New York, including The Duplex and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Musicals in development include EASTBOUND (2022 Village Theatre Beta Development Production, 2020
NAMT, NYTB IMPACT Award) with Khiyon Hursey and MĀYĀ (2021 NAMT, Live & In Color, Hypokrit) with Eric Sorrels. Select credits: 2021 Princess Grace Award, 2020 Eric H Weinberger Librettist Award.

Eric Sorrels (Lyrics)

Originally from Tennessee, Eric Sorrels is a multi-hyphenate artist. As a lyricist and librettist, he is developing MAYA (NAMT 2021) with Cheeyang Ng and Arpita Mukherjee, and THE PHOENIX (JMF Writers Grove 2022) with Cheeyang Ng and Stefani Kuo. Eric is an alumnus of the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, and in 2019 he earned the Jack & Lucille Young ASCAP Award for Songwriting with Cheeyang. Eric also spent seven years as a professional chorister in NYC and is a proud member of AGMA. He arranges and music directs in the cabaret scene in NYC, and he continues to work regionally as a musical theatre performer. In 2022, Eric moved to Raleigh in 2022 to begin studies in preparation for medical school. BA: UT Knoxville. MFA: NYU.

Joey Soloway and Lauren White

MESMERIZING!

ABOUT THE PROJECT: MESMERIZING! is the story of Franny Klein, a recently-cancelled darling of the Jewish tech sector, who connects with their ancestor, hypnotist and showman, Franz Mesmer, through a bathtub portal and must reckon with their ancestral gifts as present-day curses.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Joey Soloway is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning filmmaker whose work redefines how stories are told through the lens of the trifecta: funny, dirty, sad. Best known for Transparent, I Love Dick, and Afternoon Delight, Soloway’s storytelling breaks open traditional ideas of gender, identity, desire and creates new spaces for complexity where contradiction holds space for truth. Their work explores the electric spaces between self-invention and survival, family and freedom, longing and becoming.

Lauren White is a performer, playwright and comedian from Los Angeles. She makes work for homosexuals and the mentally ill. This is her first play.

Peggy Pettitt, Lizzie Olesker, & Louise Smith

Language of Dolls

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A collaborative theater piece about race and the making of identity in which three older women come to a cabin in the woods and discover a box of dolls.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): PEGGY PETTITT’s solo performances are rooted in storytelling and portray a spectrum of characters who shed light on the multifaceted history of African American men and women. In collaboration with director Remy Tissier, she created over 10 original plays examining issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse, cross-generational differences, voters’ registration and the Civil Rights Movement. With a Fulbright Fellowship to Senegal, she created The Spirit Factor, based on living history and the art of storytelling in West Africa. Her play Voyage exploring the blues as a spiritual heritage that lives along the Mississippi River and originates in West Africa was presented at the Avignon Off Festival and other work at the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Les Rencontres du Bout des Mondes International Festival (French Guiana). Other grants and awards include the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. As the founding Artistic Director of Pearls of Wisdom, a storytelling ensemble with Elders Share the Arts, she was inducted into City Lore’s People’s Hall of Fame, and currently teaches self-scripting at New York University.

In 1972, Pettitt starred in the feature film Black Girl directed by Ossie Davis and was nominated for Best Actress by the NAACP.

LIZZIE OLESKER makes plays and performances that explore the interplay of history, personal memory and the unexpected poetry of everyday experience. Plays include 5 Stages of Grief, Embroidered Past, Razing Houses, A (Kind) of Mother, Verdure and Dreaming Through History, developed and seen at the Public Theater, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, Cherry Lane Theater, Provincetown Playhouse, Dixon Place, Seattle’s Intiman Theater and The Annex. She’s received support from New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Franklin Furnace and the Dramatists Guild. Her solo object-­‐theater performance Infinite Miniature was presented at Invisible Dog Performance and the Ohio Theater. She collaborated with experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs on Every Fold Matters, a site-specific performance about laundry workers presented in NYC’s neighborhood laundromats, and the hybrid documentary THE WASHING SOCIETY (2018) presented at BAM Cinema Festiva, Berkeley Art Museum, Festival de Otre Cinema (Ecuador), National Art Gallery, Punto de Vista (Spain) and on the Criterion Channel. The play script will be published by punctum books, 2025. Olesker also performs with the Talking Band theater company (La Mama and Mabou Mines Theater) and currently teaches playwriting at New York University.

LOUISE SMITH is an actor, writer, and solo performer. She’s worked in Ping Chong and Company nationally and internationally and appeared in a body of work by artists Meredith Monk, Ann Bogart, Julie Taymor, and with the Talking Band. She played the lead role in Lizzie Borden’s groundbreaking feminist film WORKING GIRLS and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance. She’s a recipient of a Jerome Fellowship in Playwriting from the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, a Bessie Award for work with Ping Chong, an Obie with The Talking Band, and NEA Fellowship.

Smith began making solo performances in 1984 that explore the edges and intersections of autobiography and biography, history, psychology and bearing witness to complex moral and social challenges. WHITE/MAN/FEVER, (directed by Lizzie Olesker) traced the roots of white privilege and blind bias. PALAVER, a duet with Peggy Pettitt, created in 1988, was about an inter-racial friendship. INTERFACING JOAN, directed by Ping Chong, was a meditation on the overlap between the modern woman activist and Joan of Arc. DOROTHY LANE: A TRAVELOGUE (directed by Lizzie Olesker) depicts the world of a mental health therapist as she visits her patients in their homes in Dayton Ohio.

Zizi Majid

Hard is the Fortune

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A play about Muslim women impacted by American Imperialism – scored by riot grrls.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Zizi Majid is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. She is the inaugural recipient of the Julia Miles Playwriting Residency (WP Theatre) during which she wrote the play Milk which will be part of the Syracuse Stage Cold Read Series 2025. She was a 2022-23 Playwriting Fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation and is a proud alumni of the WP Lab. She won the Pacific Rim Prize for Playwriting (Kumu Kahua Theatre/University of Hawaii Manoa Playwriting Contest), has been a finalist for the Princeton Arts Fellowship, a finalist and thrice semi-finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a four-time semi-finalist for the O’Neil National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Plays include They Came in the Night, Return to Fall, The Rejects, and How to Gild an Eagle. For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) garnering multiple awards during her tenure. She teaches playwriting and drama in context at Syracuse University. MFA: Columbia University. www.zizimajid.com

Caleb Teicher

Bzzz

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Bzzz is an imaginative and comedic music-and-dance narrative featuring two world-champion beatboxers and six tap dance virtuosos.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Caleb Teicher is widely regarded as a leading performer, choreographer, director, and curator of musically-driven dance and interdisciplinary collaboration.

After starting their career as a tap dancer with Dorrance Dance, they’ve since performed as a Soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, on records for Ben Folds and Regina Spektor, and their collaboration with composer/pianist Conrad Tao (Counterpoint) was the first tap-dance-and-music collaboration featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

As a stage director, their shows (SW!NG OUT, Bzzz, Caleb Teicher & Company) have been commissioned and presented by countless performing arts venues including The Music Center LA. New York City Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, and others. In 2025, Caleb’s work will be presented in over 15 U.S. cities.

Caleb continues to engage as an educator and performer in the international Lindy Hop (swing dance) and Vernacular Jazz dance scene. This year, their community-granting initiative, the SW!NG OUT Community Fund, awarded over $60,000 in grants to swing dance community organizations in New York City.

As a curator in 2025, Caleb is the inaugural co-curator of 92Y’s Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival as well as K-Swing Wave @ Lincoln Center/92NY/Korean Cultural Center/Steps on Broadway, a first-of-its-kind cultural diplomacy trip for Korea’s finest swing dancers to visit NYC and demonstrate the global impact of Lindy Hop.

Caleb is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award. They’ve been featured in Vogue, the New York Times, on the cover of Dance Magazine, and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Young Jean Lee

The Rising

ABOUT THE PROJECT: When a mother arrives uninvited at her estranged daughter’s off-the-grid cabin, their tense night of reckoning takes a horrifying turn.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): YOUNG JEAN LEE is a playwright, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by The New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She is the first Asian-American female playwright to have had a play produced on Broadway, and she has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company. Her plays have been performed in more than eighty cities around the world and have been published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, and Theatre Communications Group. Her short films have been presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, and the Windham-Campbell Prize. She is currently developing an original television series with Made Up Stories, Fifth Season, and CJ ENM America. She is the Denning Family Professor in the Arts at Stanford University.

Reid Tang

Colossal Cave Adventure.

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A gently interactive work based on Colossal Cave Adventure, one of the first computer games, featuring a voice in your ear that leads you through a series of dark endless rooms.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): reid tang writes plays and things shaped like plays. Their work includes Isabel (NAATCO), WORK HARD HAVE FUN MAKE HISTORY (Clubbed Thumb Summerworks), FUTURE WIFE (Theatertreffen Stückemarkt), and Party in a Google Sheet (New Georges). They’re under commission with Breaking the Binary Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop, and a past recipient of the Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program Grant. Currently, they’re part of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and an alum of the New Georges Jam, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship. They grew up in Singapore and presently live in Brooklyn, NY. reidtang.com

Kate Douglas

Castor & Pollux & The Humans Who Ate Them

ABOUT THE PROJECT: It’s 1870, and Paris is under siege. After going through all the butter, cheese, usual meats, cats, dogs, and even rats, Parisians are looking to the zoo for sustenance. This comedy of errors follows two brother elephants named Castor & Pollux – and the humans keeping watch over them – at the Jardin des Plantes zoo.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Kate Douglas is a writer, composer, and performer. Recent work includes The Apiary (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Tulipa (New York Stage & Film), Centuries starring opposite her co-writers Matthew Dean Marsh and Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez (Ancram Center for the Arts), and hag with Grace McLean (New Group FreeFest). She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant for music & lyrics and the Next Forever Commission from The Civilians/Princeton University. She has been awarded residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Millay Arts, and Goodspeed Musicals, among others. Alum of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Dramatists Guild Fellows Program, Colt Coeur, and Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Previous performance credits include Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (where she also held the title of Associate Artist), Liz Phair’s 30th Anniversary Tour of her seminal album Exile in Guyville, Fernando Rubio’s Everything by my side, Third Rail’s The Grand Paradise, and Kansas City Choir Boy starring Todd Almond and Courtney Love. www.katedouglasprojects.com

James Kennedy

Songs for Children

ABOUT THE PROJECT: When five queer adults try to write a children’s album about the history of gay rights and gender identity, things quickly dissolve into the surreal as they attempt to explain the inexplicable in song.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): James Kennedy makes plays and musicals and things in-between. Most recently, his new musical Prodigy enjoyed a sold-out extended run at University Settlement’s Speyer Hall. When not self-producing his work in bespoke development, concert, and production events, his writing has been produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville/The Humana Festival of New American Plays, The Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Upstart Creatures, Emerson College, Dartmouth College, and Superhero Clubhouse, and he has performed sold out concerts at National Sawdust and the Green Room 42. He has received residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Everwood Farmstead, and The Orchard Project, and he is the recipient of the Rod Parker Playwrighting Fellowship and the Betsy Carpenter Playwrighting Award, as well as a finalist for the Princess Grace award. www.jameshkennedy.com

Carolina Đỗ

40 Weeks…If You’re Lucky

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A group of preggos, former preggos, and preggo gurus dedicated to making pregnancy safe again…and what if in that parasocial journey of motherhood, the group falls trap to the teachings of a charismatic birthing coach who had dreams of his own to populate the world with his offspring?

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Carolina Đỗ is a theatre maker, community organizer, and proud descendant of Vietnamese freedom fighters and refugees. She’s joyfully a downtown theater baby with a couple of Broadway and TV credits for health insurance and residuals. An alum of the Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, JACKLabs, Fresh Ground Pepper Playground Playgroup, and Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab, Carolina’s work is a powerful blend of storytelling and advocacy. Carolina’s writing has been supported by residencies and fellowships at MACDOWELL, JACK, The Hearth, Fault Line Theatre, Piper Theater, and Naked Angels. Currently, she is a Ma-Yi Lab Playground member and part of the Episodic Theater Project Writers Cohort. Carolina’s works have also been finalists for the O’Neill, Sokhary Chau Fellowship, Leah Ryan Fund, BricLab, and Bushwick Starr; and semifinalists for Playwrights Realm, Space on Ryder, and Princess Grace. Co-Founding Producing Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective, Mai House Studio, and Betterfly Productions. In her role as Associate Director for Community Engagement at PlayCo, she bridges the gap between performance and social impact. www.carolinado.com

Sarah Gancher

Human Development

ABOUT THE PROJECT: A kaleidoscopic joyride through the whole relationship between a mother and son, from her pregnancy to her death.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Obie Award-winning playwright Sarah Gancher’s work has been seen at London’s National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, The Vineyard Theatre, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Geva Theatre, and Ars Nova, among others. Recent work includes The Wind and The Rain (Drama Desk nom, Vulture Best of 2024; dir. Jared Mezzocchi at Red Hook Waterfront Museum, En Garde Arts & Vineyard Theatre) and Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy (online production NY Times Top 10 Theater of 2020; 2024 in-person at Vineyard Theatre & Geva Theatre, in association with Dori Berinstein, dir. Darko Tresnjak. ) Honors include the Richard Rodgers Award, Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Award, NYSF Founders’ Award, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, and AR Gurney Prize. Current resident at New Dramatists and member of Dorothy Streslin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages.

Lisa Biggs

The Flight of the Pink Flamingos

ABOUT THE PROJECT:  Three former members of a marginally successful girl band reunite on the eve of the 1967 Detroit rebellion.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Lisa Biggs, Ph.D., is a playwright, actor, and performance studies scholar originally from Chicago. Her original plays have been produced at the National Black Theatre Festival, Links Hall, Shadowbox Theatre, Cultural Odyssey, the NY Hip Hop Theatre Fest, DC Arts Center, and the Baltimore Theatre Project. Her acting credits include productions at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Living Stage Theatre Company, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, Woolly Mammoth, and Lookingglass Theatre. In addition to her artistic work, Lisa is the author of the award-winning book, The Healing Stage: Black Women, Incarceration, and the Art of Transformation (Ohio State University Press, 2022). Her artistry and scholarship have been supported by grants and fellowships including from the Knight Foundation, Ellen Stone Belic Foundation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Lisa currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University.

PigPen Theatre Company

Wyatt And The Phantom Frequency

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Drawing on the lore and aesthetics of early radio sci-fi serials like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and the War of the Worlds, PigPen will be writing and developing an adventure on the epic scale that tackles the biggest questions of existence – Questions like: “Why is there stuff?”, “Where does everybody go?” and “How come?”

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): PigPen Theatre Company is a collective of actors, writers, musicians, and directors that met at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama with eighteen years of experience working collaboratively to develop entire shows, stories, and theatrical experiences from the ground up. Their unique brand of imaginative and resourceful storytelling burst onto the NYC theatre scene even before they graduated, becoming the first group to win the NYC Fringe Festival’s top award two years in a row. Most recently, they were the composers and lyricists of Water for Elephants (nominated for 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, 2024). They’re also the playwrights, composers, and actor-musicians of The Tale of Despereaux, The Old Man and The Old Moon, and The Hunter and the Bear, receiving Critic’s Picks on and off Broadway and across the country over the last decade.

As a band, they’ve toured the country and released several albums, including their debut hit, “Bremen”, which has received several million streams.

The group is developing several original theatrical stories as well as a few beloved adaptations for both the stage and beyond.

PigPen is Alex Falberg, Arya Shahi, Ben Ferguson, Curtis Gillen, Dan Weschler, Matt Nuernberger, Ryan Melia. CAA and Writers House.

Kira Stone

Built For This

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Built For This is an athletic, feminist pop musical centering five fierce young gymnasts confronting inner demons required for top-tier competition, as well as a real-life demon preying on their youth, ambition and vulnerability.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Kira Stone is a composer, lyricist, songwriter, playwright, performer, and music producer passionate about creating stories that center the force of the female experience through pop songwriting and theatrical storytelling. Current musicals include: SALEM, Built for This (w/ Lauren Gunderson), WIDOWS (w/ Matthew Greene), Revival, and others early in development. Her work has been developed at/with the Shubert Artistic Circle Fellowship, Playwrights Horizons, ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop, NAMT, The Lucille Lortel 121 Project, Goodspeed, Circle in the Square Theater, The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, New York Stage & Film, Olney Theater Center, New World Stages, University of Southern California, University of Gothenburg, and 54 Below. Awards include: ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award (first woman to ever win), Vanguard Arts Award, NAMT Frank Young Fund Award. Residencies include: Vineyard Arts Project, The BringAbout, Chateau d’Orquevaux (2x). Finalist: Kleban Prize (2024), Dramatists Guild Fellowship, American Music Theater Project at Northwestern (3x), The Orchard Project (2x), Lucille Lortel 121 Project, The Civilians’ R&D Group, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (3x), New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. Semifinalist: O’Neill National Music Theater Conference (2x). TV/Film: Sesame Street, PBS Kids. She resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. IG: @kirabethstone

Britton and the Sting

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Britton & The Sting is a funk liberation band fueling the NYC music scene. Recently Support act on Sammy Rae & The Friends world tour. Sold out performances at The Apollo, Williamsburg Musical Hall, Rockwood Music Hall, Nublu, Joe’s Pub, among others. Featured in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Fault Magazine, and The New Yorker. Their waves of funk, gospel, rock, testimony collide with mesmerizing melodies that carry their journey driven music deep into your soul. “LET’S GET DRUNK AND GO TO CHURCH”, their anthem, is listened to in over 44 countries. Paper Magazine’s, “Bops Only” 10 songs you need to start your Weekend Right list. 2020 NPR Tiny Desk Submission Top Pick.

Smith received a Tony Award in 2021 for his work as President and Co-Founder of Broadway Advocacy Coalition.

The Civilians

In their latest venture, The Civilians mine an extraordinary archive to reveal the intimate lives of Depression-era queers. Co-conceived by writer/directors Steve Cosson, James La Bella, and multimedia artist Jessica Mitrani, Sex Variants of 1941 is a kaleidoscopic fantasia adapted from a medical study of queer sexuality. Drawing on the study’s explicit interviews, pseudoscientific analysis, “medical” diagrams, and glossary of era-specific slang, the company uses scenes, songs, and striking visuals to celebrate an undersung community—and subvert the pathologizing gaze of the medical establishment. Featuring original songs by star composers Stephen Trask, Aaron Whitby, Martha Redbone, and the late Michael Friedman, Sex Variants paints a radically candid portrait of queer America in the 1930s. Racy bits and all.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): The Civilians, founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Steve Cosson, is a theater company that pioneered “investigative theater,” blending creative processes with field research and community residencies to produce acclaimed plays and musicals like Gone Missing, This Beautiful City, and The Great Immensity. Evolving from a core group of artists to collaborating with talents across the theater field, The Civilians support new works through commissions, their R&D Group, and cabaret series, while producing and touring shows with major theaters like The Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Notable achievements include residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a TED Conference performance, and multiple awards from the Obies, Lucille Lortel, and Drama Desk, all driven by a mission to interrogate societal stories through live theater.

### Combined Bios

Aaron Whitby (Composer) Aaron Whitby is a multi-award-winning record producer, composer, songwriter, pianist, and engineer known for his work with an array of noteworthy artists, including George Clinton, Natalie Cole, and Randy Brecker. He is best known for his long-time collaboration with his wife, Martha Redbone. He is the brainchild behind *Cousin From Another Planet*, a jazz and visual exploration project acclaimed by the late music critic Greg Tate as “captivating, motivating…”. The Redbone/Whitby team has composed for works such as *Revelation* by Flannery O’Connor (directed by Karin Coonrod for Colombari), *HUMAN* (directed by Nehprii Ameni), and *Stars – Privacy in the Digital Age* (New York Theater Workshop).

**James La Bella (co-Writer)**
James La Bella is a writer and dramaturg. His writing has appeared onstage at The Prelude Festival, Joe’s Pub, PS21, Life World, WNYC’s Greene Space, The Brick, Art Cafe + Bar, and Lost Bag, and in print in *The Washington Square Review*, *The Maine Review*, *McSweeney’s*, and *Emerge*. A 2023 Lambda Literary Fellow and 2023/24 member of The Civilians R\&D Group, he has worked as a dramaturg with Playwrights Horizons, New Georges, The Mercury Store, Hedgepig Ensemble, PlayPenn, BAI, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He is currently the deputy literary wrangler at Clubbed Thumb. MFA, Brown University. [jameslabella.com](http://jameslabella.com)

**Martha Redbone (Composer)**
Martha Redbone is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, educator, and United States Artist Fellow. Working with her husband and long-time collaborator Aaron Whitby, their compositions elevate issues of social justice, celebrate cultural intersections, and honor the human spirit. Their original score and arrangements for the 2022 Broadway revival of *For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuff* earned a 2020 Drama Desk Award and an Audelco Award for the earlier Off-Broadway production at The Public Theater. Current works in development include *Black Mountain Women* (The Public Theater) and *Conversations* (The Civilians).

**Stephen Trask (Composer/Lyricist)**
Stephen Trask is best known as the composer and lyricist of *Hedwig and the Angry Inch*. The original production and film adaptation won an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk nominations, a Grammy nomination, two GLAMA Awards, and Entertainment Weekly’s Best Soundtrack Award (2001). The 2014 Broadway revival received four Tony Awards. His recent work includes *This Ain’t No Disco*, a rock opera premiered at The Atlantic Theater, and he is currently developing *American Shtetl*, a semi-autobiographical podcast with Aurin Squire.

**Steve Cosson (co-Writer/Director)**
Steve Cosson is a director, writer, and the Artistic Director of The Civilians. He has created numerous works in collaboration with communities—from Evangelical Christians to LA’s porn industry and inmates in Colombia’s national women’s prison. Under his leadership, The Civilians became the first theater company in residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cosson’s directing and writing credits include *Sex Variants of 1941*, *Artificial Flavors*, *The Unbelieving* (by Marin Gazzaniga), *what you are now* (by Sam Chanse), *Whisper House* (with Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow), *Paul Swan is Dead and Gone* (by Claire Kiechel), *The Abominables* (Children’s Theater Company), *The Undertaking* (BAM Next Wave, international tour), *Another Word for Beauty* (Goodman Theatre), *Pretty Filthy* (with Michael Friedman and Bess Wohl), *The Belle of Amherst*, and *Mr. Burns, a post-electric play* (by Anne Washburn).

Ned Van Zandt/Amir Arison

Del Valle: A Tale of Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll… and Redemption.

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Performed and written by Ned Van Zandt.
Directed by Amir Arison. A drug-addled actor finds himself
locked up in Del Valle – a Texas state prison – where the
junior Grand Dragon of the Aryan Brotherhood recognizes
him from his appearances on All My Children and offers him
protection in exchange for acting lessons… A journey of
survival, sobriety, and the power of art. You couldn’t make
this shit up if you tried.

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Ned Van Zandt is originally from Texas. His great-grandfather was one of the founders of the city of Fort Worth. His second cousin was singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. He has appeared in films, television, and on Broadway (“The Iceman Cometh” with Kevin Spacey). His first job in Hollywood was playing a teenage alcoholic on “The Young and the Restless”. Recent work: As Rudy Giuliani in “Painkiller” on Netflix,  Ryan Murphy’s “Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans,”  Other TV: “”All My Children,” “One Life to Live, “The Blacklist,” “New Amsterdam,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Power,” Marvel’s “Daredevil,” HBO’s “All The Way,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Hawaii Five 0,” “Person of Interest,” “Nurse Jackie” and “Lost.” Film includes Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home,” and “MacArthur” with Gregory Peck.
Ned also works in the field of recovery and runs a private sober living house in Manhattan for men struggling with addiction and mental health issues.

AMIR ARISON:
As an actor: Best known for 10 seasons on NBC/Netflix series THE BLACKLIST.
Currently, Ridley Scott’s AppleTV+ series DOPE THIEF. Upcoming: Claire Danes’ Netflix series THE BEAST IN ME.
Other TV credits: The Dropout, American Horror Story, Billons, Girls, Homeland, SVU, The Visitor & more.
2023 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut leading THE KITE RUNNER.
Additionally, has performed World Premieres with NYTW, The Public, The Signature, MCC,
Waterwell, LABryinth, Yale Rep, Huntington, La Jolla, the RSC & more.
As theatre director, in NYC & Los Angeles: IAMA, Circle X, Mind the Gap, NWIFT, & The Orchard Project.
Producer and director of award winning short films: Anna Ziegler’s FORTRESS &
TATI’S FASHION SHOW for Angelight Films where he was recently named director of Creative Advisory Board.

John Michael Lyles

Untitled Rodeo Musical

ABOUT THE PROJECT: City-slicker Phillip has it all and wants nothing more than to be the fabulous lawfully wedded trophy twink to their country-fried partner, Lucas, but there is just one thing in their way: Phillip is just too… extra. So, Phillip harnesses all of their willpower and resources to shed their inner Meredith Blake, move down south and win the rodeo, and in so doing — win that ring!

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): John-Michael Lyles is a guitar-wielding, Vivace & Obie winning, multi-hyphenate creative! His debut EP, “HOW TO STAY BRIGHT” is being released on all streaming platforms over the summer of 2025! He wrote additional music for the Second Stage production of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die & theme music for The Great Gay Dadcast. He was selected to participate in the Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellows class of ’21, Musical Theater Factory’s 2nd MAKERS Cohort, the 2021 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and the 5th Avenue Theater’s First Draft: Raise Your Voice commission program. He is currently co-writing book, music and lyrics with David Gomez for The King of Harlem, which was a 2022 finalist for the Relentless Musical Theater Award. As an actor, he has originated two roles on Broadway: Thought 3 in A Strange Loop (Obie-winning) and Eli in The Heart of Rock & Roll!

Lisa Deng

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Lisa Deng is a writer and artist based in Los Angeles from Changsha by way of Maryland. As a performer, she produced sketch shows with Women of Color Anonymous at UCB LA and won a Moth StorySlam under the theme of “Gumption.” She previously worked in Art Department for film and television and knows a thing or two about adhesives. As a writer, she wrote for BARBIE MYSTERIES on Netflix and staffed on ZOMBIES: THE RE-ANIMATED SERIES for Disney TV Animation. In 2024 she participated in the Orchard Project Episodic Lab working on an original death-metal horror sitcom. She recently co-wrote and co-directed a college-set comedy miniseries CRASH OUTS for a short-form streaming platform, coming to your phones soon. Lisa has also published flash fiction in Litro and Introducing Magazine. In her free time, she enjoys acquiring foreign languages and perfecting her mime walk.

A. Cooper

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): A. Cooper believes that storytelling is both a vehicle for empathy and a conduit through which people derive meaning from the world. As such, she writes character and female driven stories across genres with the intention of participating in the conversation around identity and the human condition. A. Cooper is an MFA Screenwriting graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. She was the creator and head writer of an animated series, and the writer of an animated short (TCL). She served as a Staff Writer on Netflix’s Family Reunion. She was a 2023 Film Independent Project Involve Writing Fellow and the SONY Pictures Entertainment Fellow. In 2024 she participated in The Orchard Project’s Episodic Lab. A. Cooper’s short film (written by) AUGUST & EBONY, premiered at the Oscar-Qualifying Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and has gone on to screen at multiple festivals including Urbanworld, HollyShorts, GEM Fest, and the Writers Guild of America West’s (WGAW) Committee for Black Writers Short Film Screening.

Ana Verde

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S): Ana Verde is a Puerto Rican & Venezuelan filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She is a 2023 Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today fellow, a 2023 Rising Voices fellow, a 2022 Orchard Project Episodic Lab fellow , and a 2022 WAVE Grant Recipient. Her most recent film, Mara Has Three Jobs in San Juan, Puerto Rico, had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to play at Palm Springs International ShortFest, RiverRun, and NewFilmmakers LA, among others. The film also had a theatrical window of distribution playing in select theaters in front of Barbie and Blue Beetle. Her other short film, Te llaman las olas, had its world premiere at the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival, followed by subsequent screenings at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival, as well as screening as part of American Cinematheque’s Women Wednesdays screening series. Aside from filmmaking, Ana works with Wavelength Productions as a mentor for their current class of WAVE Grantees as they make their debut short films.