workshop intensive FALL 2024
Sixteen 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.
Aditi Pradhan
Aditi grew up in a neighborhood that was 80% Asian American, shaping her interest for different cultures. She has a degree in Political Economy from UC Berkeley, where she learned about systems of power. Aditi writes about family relationships, social change, and the South Asian diaspora. Her work has been produced at the Japanese American Heritage Museum and EST/LA. She’s a member of the New West playwriting group. She’s also an alum of the Rickshaw Foundation’s Writer’s Room, a semi-finalist for the Geffen Playhouse Writer’s Room, and a recipient of the inaugural Signpost Fellowship for BIPOC writers. In high school, she was nominated as “Most Dependable,” which is the highest honor she’s received.
Jac Ford
Jac Ford (she/her) is a New York based writer, actor, and producer. As a writer, her work fosters and interrogates community in order to help people see that they are not alone. A firm believer in collaboration and bravery in life and art, she became the multi-hyphenate artist she is today at the University of Virginia (Wahoowa!), in wardrobe departments on and off-Broadway, and through the people she has met along the way. Her plays include tango of a crumbling wall (NY Summerfest), How We Fall (The Tank, Kervigo Ensemble Theater), and T Club (Kervigo Ensemble Theater). Selected acting credits: "20/20," Carnegie Hall, Off-Broadway at Metro Baptist, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Shrill Collective. This is Jac’s first time participating in The Workshop Theater Intensive and is so excited to be part of this community! @jacmford
Cha Mangan
Cha, or Charlie (he/they), is a leuk-kreung amehlika (half-Thai American) playwright and actor hailing from suburban Philly. Their plays explore Western imaginations of Southeast Asian people—also, vice versa. He wants to uproot and reckon with past ideations of Asian people in art, theater, and TV. He also wants more Asian people across the diaspora on stage. Their premiere play, Dragoness, sold out to standing ovation audiences at Vassar College and won the Molly Thacher Kazan Memorial prize for distinguished work. Awarded two Fulbright grants in Thailand, they’ve been teaching, writing, conducting dramaturgical research, and studying Thai. He’s an alum of Woodshed Theater Ensemble. He loves Thai espresso and cold, cold showers. IG: @charlesemangan Website: www.charliemangan.com
Caroline Dunn
is a writer, actor, and comedian based in Brooklyn, NY, originally from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. She's known for her comedy and storytelling shows (Late Night Variety Tonight: LIVE!, Gay Ass Storytelling Show, & more) and performances at numerous New York venues, including The Bell House, Union Hall, Littlefield, and Club Cumming. She is the winner of the 2021 E.W. Miller Award for Drama and is an alum of Northwestern’s NHSI for Theatre Arts. She’s an ex-catholic who really likes writing about “The Church”, queerness, and more. Her current and newest project is a one-woman play starring herself (oops) about a young nun, which just wrapped workshops at The Tank.
Gloria Oladipo
is a playwright based in New York, proudly hailing from Chicago, IL. She writes Black comedies about Black women, exploring themes of caregiving, mental health, and trauma through a mix of realism and absurdism. Gloria is a 2023-2025 Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group Fellow. She is also 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow and 2023 Seven Devils New Play Conference resident, where her play The Care and Keeping of Schizophrenia (and Other Demons) is in development. She is a 2023 Gingold Group Speaker's Corner fellow, with her play I Wanna Kill, Annie G. Gloria is 2023 artist-in-residence with New York Stage and Film in Poughkeepsie, New York. Gloria is also a Velvetpark Writers Residency finalist. Gloria is also an award-winning cultural critic and journalist. She is the 2023 recipient of the American Theatre Critics Association's Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism. She is a 2022 National Critics Institute fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, an opportunity she was selected for via the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy. Gloria's work has appeared in the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, the Guardian, Bitch Media, and other publications. gloriaoladipo.com
David H. Parker
(they/them), with almost 10 years in the industry under their belt, is a multiple national award-winning artist from Birmingham, AL, which they lovingly call "a blue island in the US South’s sea of red." Intersectionality informs the base of their work, but the intersection of Blackness and Queerness is always at the top of their priorities. David has worked on and Off-Broadway as well as various regional theaters and organizations as a freelance director, playwright, cultural worker, and more. Selected recognitions include invitations to: the inaugural Cody Renard Richard Scholarship cohort; the inaugural GLAAD Black Queer Creative Summit; participate as a cultural organizer to the Highlander Research and Education Center where the likes of Rosa Parks and Angela Davis trained; and East/West Players and Rogue Machine Writers Roundtables in Los Angeles. Selected directing credits: Fat Ham (Broadway Transfer — Geffen Playhouse), Fairview (UCLA), Patience (2nd Stage), Guess Who's Coming to the Juneteenth Seder? with Zhailon Levingston (Inheritance Theater Project). David holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a Co-Artistic Director of the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective. http://davidhparker.us/
Joey Merlo
Joey Merlo is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator who has worked all over the world including Greece, Peru and Ghana. His produced plays this year include the "Brilliant/Highbrow" (NY Mag) On Set with Theda Bara at The Brick in a Transport/Lortel co-pro; directed by Jack Serio and starring David Greenspan and "The year's most twisted psychosexual melodrama. A bittersweet, yet biting piece." (NYT), Midnight Coleslaw's Tales from Beyond The Closet at The Tank, directed by Nick Browne. He has been called "One of the most original and exciting voices writing for the NY stage at the moment." (Theatermania). Joey is a New York Foundation for The Arts Fellow and a recipient of grants from The Puffin Foundation and The Merchant Ivory Foundation as well as a William Steeple Davis artist-in-residence. Joey is grateful to be part of the 2024 Workshop Theater Intensive, where he will develop his NYSCA supported play, Out of Memory, which will have a reading at Theaterlab this December. www.joeymerlo.com | @joejoemerlo
Paul William Levine
Paul William Levine (he/him) is an NYC-based playwright, director, producer, and arts administrator born and raised in sunny South Florida. Using dark comedy, his work explores the historical, social, and cultural systems that link queerness, tragedy, and fate. He now works at Roundabout Theatre Company and is the lead facilitator of the Staff Writers' Group, allowing colleagues space to connect and share work. Paul has worked in literary departments at the Vineyard Theatre and Burning Coal Theatre Company, promoting new work and early career playwrights. His play "The Hive" (2018) was awarded Best Play in Florida by the Educational Theatre Association. His artistic work has been developed and showcased at The Brick/Exponential Festival, Dixon Place/HOT! Fest, Playwrights Downtown, aWe Creative Group, the Makers’ Ensemble, and the Tank. He is currently developing and producing "Sapphire" for Exponential Festival 2025. He loves drinking seltzer, staring directly into the sun, and wearing a seatbelt. BFA: NYU Tisch, Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. paulwilliamlevine.com
Laurel Mora
Raised in Dallas, Texas, Laurel Mora (He/Him) takes artistic inspiration from his Mexican heritage, the sheer volume of fantasy novels he consumed as a child, family dinnertime conversations with his critical care intensivist father. As such, his work explores themes of death, grief, and identity in often fantastical worlds. He strives to continue the work he started at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and feature Latino theater makers in all of his productions as a means to combat the historic exclusion of Latinos both on and off stage. Outside of playwriting, he dabbles in props design, stage makeup, costume construction, and acting. Outside of theater, he can be found planning her next Halloween costume, rehabilitating his childhood love of reading, and yearning to be reunited with his chihuahua, Cody.
Mukta Phatak
is a playwright, actor and teaching artist based in New York City. She is a WP Theater Lab Fellow for 2024-2026 and her writing has been produced and workshopped at the Children’s Theater of Charlotte, Ancram Opera House, and in devised works as part of Fringe festivals. She also writes for children extensively through her work with Mind Body Music NYC. Mukta is a project-seeker and much of her work blossoms from the creative communities she cultivates. A proud daughter of Indian immigrants, her intersectional identities are at the core of her artistry. In her writing, acting and everyday life she strives to be a force for justice, learning, and play.
Nina Ki
(xe/she/they) is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright living in Brooklyn. Xe graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and xer plays have been read, recorded, and presented nationwide, including with Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi Theater Company, MCC Theater, The Parsnip Ship, Yale Summer Cabaret, and Queens Theater. Xer play “Moon Bear” was given special consideration for the Relentless Award, and xer play “Ravage” was a finalist for the Playwrights Realm's Fellowship. Xe was also an inaugural member of The Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group and a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writer's Group, and is currently a member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and Ma-Yi's Writers Lab. To contact xer or learn more about xer work, please visit xer website at www.nina-ki.com.
Kelsey Harper
is a Texas/Brooklyn transplant living in Los Angeles. She graduated from NYU Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing MFA program in 2019 with an emphasis on television and playwriting. Kelsey wrote, directed and co-produced What Can I Get Started For You with Lucky Dolly Productions which has won multiple awards including Best Podcast at Las Vegas International Film Festival, Prague international Film Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival. When she's not writing, Kelsey spends her time performing and hosting various shows around Los Angeles. Kelsey co-hosts a bi-monthly comedy show, Phones Down, at the Lyric Hyperion and a semi-quarterly, bi-coastal variety show, Pigeon Presents, which was featured in TimeOut NYC. She also has a solo musical puppet show, Something Like... Musical, and a one-act/karaoke hybrid show which won multiple awards and a residency at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023. She is currently rolling out her new solo show, Kelsey Karaoke: A Choose Your Own Adventure Comedy Show. Prior to NYU, Kelsey attended The University of Texas at Austin where she earned degrees in Music Production and Spanish Teaching and played the tuba in the marching band.
Paige Esterly
is an NYC based playwright, producer, and director. Her full length plays include The Torso (Theater for the New City), Whittier, Alaska (American Lore Theater), The Great Lesbian Love of Eve Adams (The Space at Irondale; The Tank), and C. Lingus, Independent Journalist (SERIALS @ the Fled), among others. She is the creator and producer of Fucked-Up Play Fest, a recurring theatrical festival showcasing new work by local playwrights, performed as a drinking game for the audience! Member of The Road Theater's Under Construction 5 Playwriting Group, administrative director for @serialsnyc. Paige works as a script editor for Complexly, helping college professors adapt their courses into accessible YouTube series. BFA: New York University Goldberg Dept. of Dramatic Writing, playwriting concentration. Instagram: @poutywriter. Check out her work on NPX!
Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas
(he/they) is a Peruvian theater artist, scholar, and educator, author of Nunca Estaremos en Broadway (with Rodrigo Yllaric), Hasta Que Choque El Hueso (with Mario Zanatta), Debut (with Caro Black Tam), Shakira Es Más Inteligente Que Nosotres (with Gonzalo Whitehead), XYZ. Historias de Amor (with Ana Lucía Rodríguez), El Rancho de los Niños Perdidos, Una Historia de (Poli)Amor or Can The Peruvian Speak?, among others. Their academic and artistic work has been presented in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Perú, UK and the USA, and has received awards from Teatro La Plaza, Microteatro Lima, IberEscena, Global Latin American Voices, Yale Summer Cabaret or Shakespeare is Dead, among others. Sebastián has served as dramaturg at Yale Repertory Theater, Real Women Make Waves, Lucille Lortel Theater and Yale Cabaret. He is currently a DFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale with the dissertation Post-National Dramaturgies of the Americas, or, The Nation Fails, and teaches at Boston University.
Nyeda Stewart
is a playwright and poet from Brooklyn, New York. Her writing is published in the Yale University Press; Yale Herald; Long Wharf Theatre’s Kaleidoscope; other online small publications. She is a 2023 O’Neill Finalist, has workshopped at Cave Canem, and is pleased to join The Workshop Theater. A graduate of Yale University, she currently works at the Mercury Store.