workshop intensive SprING 2024
Twelve talented playwrights are selected to participate in The Workshop Intensives, which are collaborative dramaturgical sessions uniquely designed to support each writer wherever they are in the development of their script.
Kareem Fahmy
is a Canadian-born playwright and director of Egyptian descent who resides in New York. His plays have been produced Off-Broadway and at theatres across America. He received the 2022 Woodward/Newman Playwriting Award (for American Fast), a MacDowell Fellowship, the Janet Sloane Literature Residency at Yaddo, a NYSCA/NYFA Playwriting Fellowship, is a two-time finalist for the National Showcase of New Plays, and was named a Rising Leader of Color by TCG. A Distinct Society received a co-world premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Pioneer Theatre and its midwest premiere at Writers Theatre. American Fast had a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, and InterAct Theatre. Dodi & Diana received a world premiere at Colt Coeur. Other plays include Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the acclaimed novel The Yacoubian Building. Commissions: Audible, Artists Rep, Colt Coeur, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation, inaugural recipient of The Next Forever Commission from The Civilians and Princeton University. Selected directing credits: Cincinnati Playhouse, Writers Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Portland Stage, Crossroads Theatre. Fellowships/Residencies: Sundance Theatre Lab, The Old Globe (Classical Directing Fellow), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), The O’Neill (National Directors Fellow), MFA–Theatre Directing: Columbia University. www.kareemfahmy.com
Alicia Margarita Olivo
is a Houston-based Mexican American writer-director, arts manager, and weather enjoyer. Alicia was the Texas Representative in the 2022-2023 National Leaders of Color Fellowship cohort. As a playwright, Alicia's works have been developed and/or received readings with The Workshop Theater, Rec Room Arts, Stages, Company One Theater, Teatro Chelsea, Telatúlsa, AlterTheater, and The Inkwell Theater. The writer has also directed or assistant directed for TEATRX, Rec Room Arts, Stages, and Wellesley Repertory Theater. Selected recognitions include being Finalist for AlterTheater and La Lengua Teatro's Historias de Descolonización Commission, Finalist for Texas State University's Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration New Play Development Workshops, Semi-Finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Semi-Finalist for the South Texas Latinx New Play Festival, and a Semi-Finalist for The Future of Playwriting Prize (twice), plus more. Alicia is a NWS SKYWARN Storm Spotter and loves to hang out with beloved family, eat good food with good friends, and enjoy the weather. BA: Wellesley College. @a.m.olivo Headshot by Hannah Colen.
Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo
is a multi-ethnic + multi-hyphenate theater artist and composer from Honolulu, and the Lead Steward + Head Jester of Kamamo House, a queer-centered theatre, new work & artist cultivation/advocacy organization, and podcast. He has worked with Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Kumu Kahua Theatre, Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, Atlantic For Kids, and TheaterWorks USA, to name a few. He is stoked to work with The Workshop Theater, and to learn from other theater artists during this intensive! Sean was a 2021 Creative Lab Hawai’i Playwrights Immersive Program Fellow, with mentor Chay Yew, in which his play, otou-san, received highest marks. otou-san was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2023 as well as semi-finalist for the 2023 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. His play the isle is full of noises is a finalist for the 2024 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and was developed as part of The Playwrights Realm’s inaugural Native American Artist Lab, where he was mentored by Rhiana Yazzie and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl.
Tanner Forbes
(any/all) is a Brooklyn based playwright, screenwriter, and (sometimes) actor. This is their first workshop opportunity! Tanner recently graduated from NYU’s Dramatic Writing program at Tisch where he developed his works Holy Shit, Breed, and Time Share, the latter two being developed through The Broke People Play Festival. Tanner’s work often uses a queer lens to magnify the grossest parts of ourselves. They’re no stranger to shock factor and believes that toeing the line between silly and harrowing is what exposes our deepest humanity. He’s honored to be able to develop Time Share at The Workshop Theater. It’s his favorite theatrical outing since 2006’s Beauty and the Beast Jr, where he starred as both Beast and Gaston, not to brag.
ALICIA LOUZOUN-HEISLER
is a playwright/filmmaker who writes about women who teeter on the edge of having zero self-awareness and way too much of it. She is the winner of both the Goldberg Play Prize and the Patty Abramson Emerging Playwright Award, a finalist for Dramatist Guild Foundation’s National Fellows, a semi-finalist for Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and a story editor for the James Patterson Audible Series “Murder In Bermuda” starring Mary-Louise Parker. Her plays have been supported by Ensemble Studio Theater/ LA, Theater J, Full Circle Theater, Bespoke, and Stream On. Alicia holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch. Find her narcissistic mirror selfies on IG @manic_pixie_nightmare
FAITH AMRAPALI WILLIAMS
(she/her) is a theatre artist currently living in Brooklyn whose work focuses on underrepresented stories and perspectives. Having graduated from Bard College in 2022 with a joint degree in Theatre & Performance and Spanish Studies, she is delighted at the opportunity to further develop a bilingual play with The Workshop Theater. Faith recently presented a reading of her ten-minute play It Crawls Around in my Head with The Makers Ensemble. She was also seen Panicking! at thee Sisco with Thee Doll Productions at The Green Room 42. This year she is once again very involved with the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival as she is on the Publications Team at Concord Theatricals where she reads many plays :-) Follow Faith on Instagram: @faith_amrapali
Andrew Michael Reid
(he/him) is a NYC playwright and dramaturg originally from the Washington D.C. area who writes epic spectacles filled with whimsy. Recent productions and development at The Kennedy Center, Rorschach Theatre, The HUB, D.C. Arts Center, The Chain Theatre, George Mason University, Fairfax County Public Schools. Recently a Lanford Wilson New Play Festival Finalist and O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-finalist. He has worked as a theater educator for several years as both a teacher and administrator. In 2017 he co-founded Who What Where Productions, a multi-disciplinary cohort dedicated to developing new works. Andrew is currently working towards his MFA in playwriting at Columbia University and holds a BFA in playwriting and dramaturgy from George Mason University. He is excited to develop his play, We the People of These Fifty Acre Woods, with The Workshop Theater this spring! Instagram: @andrewmreid
ANANDA LONG
(they/she) is a playwright, director, and producer who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ananda is heavily influenced by Black metropolitan life, and as a Lesbian, wishes to investigate Black and Queer experiences within her work, and what it means to embody radical empathy. While they have spent their life steeped in the arts, initially falling in love with poetry & prose, Ananda’s formal creative education began at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied Dramatic Writing with a concentration in Playwriting. She has written, directed, and produced work that has been shown at various NYC theaters, such as La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Rattlestick Theater, Caveat, and throughout Brooklyn. This is Ananda’s first time participating in a Workshop Theater Intensive, and they are beyond excited to join this wonderful community!
Malaika Fernandes
(she/her/hers) is a playwright and arts administrator from Mumbai (and many other places). As a playwright, her work explores her own ever-broadening, ever-fluctuating definition of home. Her plays include MULAQAT (Khachig Tololyan Fund Award, Wesleyan University), BANJAARA (Workshop Theatre), and EYEBROWS ON (Horizon Theatre Young Playwrights Festival). She is a 2023 Rattlestick Van Lier New Voices Fellowship Finalist and 2024 Eugene O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist. Malaika graduated from Wesleyan University with High Honors and a B.A. in Theater and Economics in 2023; she was the recipient of the Theater Outreach and Community Service Award as well as the Rachel Henderson Award for Excellence in Theater.
ANDRA LAINE HUNTER
(she/her) is the Founder & Artistic Director of The Linden Grove Theatre Company, and she holds a MFA in Playwriting from Spalding University and a BFA in Theatre Studies from Southern Methodist University. Her work is published in Apricity magazine, Flyway Journal of Writing and Environment, Flowersong Press's anthology Drama in Plague Time, and her scripts Nutcracker: Krakatuk, Frankenstein/Monster, and Holly Abel & the Missing Mothers are published with Next Stage Press. Listen to an audio version of her play The Abbey of the Holy Lonesome, released by The Garden of Voices, wherever you get your podcasts! Her plays have been performed around the country and in Canada; highlights include the LAB Theatre in Tampa, Heller Theatre in Tulsa, the Brit D'Arbeloff Women and Science Theatre Festival, New Manifest's Manifest Minifest, and City Theatre's National Short Playwriting Competition. Andra is a proud member of Second Thought Theatre's Thought Process playwrights' group and of the Dramatists Guild. She is thrilled to have her play HareSkin part of The Workshop Theatre's spring intensive, and she's looking forward to continuing work on it this summer at the Last Frontier Theatre Festival in Valdez, Alaska!
M. D. Schaffer
(They/He) is a Non-Binary, Ashkenazi, African-American writer, choreographer, librettist, and lyricist born in Houston, Texas, and residing in New York City. Their previous works include Southern Seeds: An Americana Story with the Ensemble Theatre’s New Voices Fest, The Last Days of Victor Greymore with Emerging Artist Festival, A Rodeo Clown with the Obsidian Theatre Festival, & Drapetomania: A Negro Carol with the We Will Dream Festival. Their work as a lyricist has been performed at Rattlestick Theater, 54 Below, and Musical Theater Factory. They’re a member of Ring of Keys, MUSE, Dramatist Guild, & UNTITLED Musical Theatre Writers Group. They are a 2023 recipient of the Pine Meadow Ranch for Arts & Agriculture Residency program with Roundhouse Foundation and a finalist for the 2022-2023 Dramatist Guild Fellowship. They are a proud alumni of Princeton University & the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University-Tisch. Their works examine the relationship between Americana historical romanticism and contemporary American reality. Using their degree in Anthropology, they look to represent cultures honestly in an effort to create spaces for all people to speak, connect, and form a solidified resistance to damaging and oppressive structures.
MIZ HASHIMOTO
(Miz/they/she) is a British Japanese playwright living in New York City and a current member of EST/Youngblood. Miz has a degree in Human, Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a background in stand-up comedy. Believing in the ability of creativity and critical thought to free oneself from the limits of circumstance and context, Miz’s plays juxtapose despair and comedy to ask the question: how can we feel less alone? Be it disability, immigration, or queer identity, Miz uses marginal spaces and narratives to explore what can give us hope. Miz’s first full-length play, Small Empires, was written during the pandemic; their second play, This Is Not a Noh Play, was chosen as a 2023 Eugene O’Neill NPC Finalist.