workshop intensive WINTEr 2023

Ozzy Wagner

is a playwright from Seattle who currently feels inspired by space, history, and nature–especially that of the Pacific Northwest. A recent graduate of Emory University’s playwriting BA, Wagner’s work has been developed by or invited to KCACTF (2021, 2022), Silver Glass Productions, the Valdez Theater Conference, Essential Theatre, Barter Theatre’s College Playwright’s Festival, and Theater Emory, among others; and their work has been published in Smith & Krauss’ Best Monologues for Women, Spires Intercollegiate Magazine for Arts and Literature, Agnes Scott Writers’ Festival Magazine, the Licton Springs Review, and the upcoming issue of Rain City Projects’ MANIFESTO series. Ozzy’s play “Everyone Calls Her Grace,” a meta-play about the Irish “Pirate” “Queen” Grainne Ni Mhaille, had a workshop production at Emory University in 2021 which received Highest Honors as well as Emory’s Artistine Mann Award in Playwriting. Ozzy was a semifinalist for the ROO Residency at the Bechdel Project and the Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center in 2022, and received Emory University’s Lucius Lamar McMullan Award–conferred at graduation to one student with extraordinary promise and potential for service to the community, nation, and world (no pressure!).

SMJ

(they/them) is an NYC-based, mixed-race, and Trans non-binary playwright, educator, and theatermaker. They are a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. They are currently creating work with The Fled Collective at The Flea Theater (SWAY & Serials), The Workshop Theater’s Winter 2023 Intensive (yo ho.), the Jubilee Directing Lab at Wright State University (SWAY), Green Room 42 (At The Barre), and Philly Theatre Week (Untitled Raccoon Play). Their work has been seen in various forms throughout the US and the UK including Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Otterbein University, The Workshop Theater, DR2 Theatre, Moxie Arts NY, Art House Productions, The Artist Co-op, Fort Salem Theater, Access Theater, Fresh Ground Pepper, the Uptown Collective and the HMBG Foundation. SMJ has been a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference (two times), the Princess Grace Award at New Dramatists, and The Civilians’ R&D Group (two times) as well as a finalist for the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award and The 5th Avenue Theater’s First Draft Commission. They're a graduate of Otterbein University and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. SMJ is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys. www.smjwrites.com

Eliana Theologides Rodriguez

is a writer and dancer whose work centers young women in various stages of development grappling with feminism in the digital age, the difference between sexual performance and autonomy, and the general beauties and microtraumas of being socialized as a girl :,) She graduated from the NYU Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing in 2020, where the faculty granted her the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting and where she was the only undergraduate finalist for the Goldberg Play Prize. Since graduating, her work has been showcased and developed at The Kennedy Center, Clubbed Thumb, and Rattlestick, and she's received honors from organizations such as New Dramatists and Playwrights Realm. She is currently working on commissions for Adventure Theatre MTC and South Coast Repertory, and has an upcoming production of her play Marble Rooftop, Emma Has Church at Broken Nose Theatre in Chicago. When she’s not writing, Eliana can be found working the box office at Rattlestick Theater, pole dancing, and watching Dance Moms.

Mildred Inez Lewis

writes and directs for theater, screen and the digital space. A Dramatists Guild member, she writes with the Antaeus Theatre Company, Company of Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre-Los Angeles, PlayGround-LA, and Towne Street Theatres. Recent productions include JAB, CROSS, HOOK which appeared in the 2022 Fade to Black festival. In 2021, GHOSTS OF BLACKNESS, a hybrid production was commissioned by the Lucille Lortel Foundation, National Black Theatre and Harlem9. Audio work includes MEETS PRINCE, LOVES FROG for the 2022 Feminist Fairytales series. $10 AND A TAMBOURINE was featured in Antaeus' Zip Code 2021 podcast series. Recent publications include THE GIFT with Broadway Play Publishing and ECLOSION with NextStage Press.  Mildred is from NYC and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School.

Jordan Elizabeth Henry

(she/her) has been writing plays for 14 years and hopes to be writing them for roughly 100 more. She explores neurodivergence, mental illness, and trauma survival in her plays, investigating the intersections of her own identity and experience in the world. Workshops and readings of her plays include: DOWN CELLAR (The Workshop Theatre's Winter Intensive); A WITNESS (New Normal Rep, Inkwell Theatre, The Shattered Glass Project); RESURRECTION (Bechdel Group, Walking Shadow; published by Next Stage Press); THE INTERIOR LIVES OF WOMEN (Lee University Theatre; recipient of the Ohio Arts Council's Artists With Disabilities Grant); HOWLING (Athena Project's Read & Rant, semifinalist for Bay Street Theatre's Title Wave 2023); TRANSFIGURATION (Elephant Room Productions, Inge New Play Initiative, Wordsmyth Theatre); WHAT THE MIND FORGETS (Millersville University Theatre, Heartland Theatre Festival); and TO FALL IN LOVE WITH ANYONE... (DGA's End of Play Readings). You can read more about her current projects at www.JordanElizabethHenry.com or read her plays on the New Play Exchange.

Eulàlia Xavier Comas 

(they/she) is a director, writer, and teaching artist who also does some other things. She is the artistic director of Home for a Swarm of Bees, an artist-run collective with Kate Zibluk, Mia Arias Tsang, and Morgan Maben that develops live performance and publications. Laia is also currently a GBH Teaching Artist in residence at Brooklyn Preparatory High School and in residency with Uncool Artists. As a composer, she was nominated for Best Original Music at QIFF for the short film “A Month Apart” (Reformat Studios, 2020), and their debut soundtrack album is out this year for the film “Understory” (Reformat Studios, 2022). Upcoming directing projects include FLOODPANTS at The Brick Theater and SALTBEES presented by the Interrobang Festival. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Religion, and they live in Brooklyn with their cat Auggie.

Tyaela Nieves

((they/she) is a filmmaker and theater artist based in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing in 2019, Tyaela produced, wrote, and directed her short film Limon Agrio, which was awarded recognition from the Best Shorts Competition and selected for the 2021 Latino Film Market showcase. Recently, Tyaela directed the short play Just Ask for the National Queer Theater’s Kinky Pint Size Play Festival. Tyaela is currently directing and producing a new short film entitled Lola Mama Nanay, a story about grief, love, culture, and the feeling of coming back to a place where others once were with you, but this time, alone. Lola Mama Nanay is expected to premiere by summer 2023. Tyaela is deeply inspired by their Afro-Latinx lineage and queer identity. They hope to bring the dynamic stories of underrepresented people to the stage and screen. 

Marella Martin Koch

Marella’s play FRIEND ANIMALS is in development with Midnight Oil Collective and will be featured at the Yale Innovation Summit this May. Marella’s writing for the stage has been presented at 54 Below, 46th Street Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, The Duplex, The Electric Lodge, Music of Remembrance, Two River Theater, and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, among others.​ Her opera DOLORES (with composer Nicolas Lell Benavides), winner of the inaugural West Edge Opera Aperture Commission, will premiere in 2024. Recordings include PEPITO (with Benavides) and the concept album ELINOR & MARIANNE (with composer Aferdian). As a director, she has helmed work at California Institute of the Arts, Dixon Place, The Kraine Theater/Frigid Festival, The Players Theatre, and Rattlestick Theater. She is the founder of The Rally Cat, which will preview RAGERCIZE, a theatrical aerobic catharsis, this spring. B.A., UC Berkeley. M.F.A., NYU/Tisch.

Baylee Shlichtman

is a writer from Orange County, CA. She has had her work read or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Dramatic Question Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, Long Beach Playhouse, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, Nelson Hall Theatre, OC-Centric New Play Festival, Orange County Playwrights Alliance, Phantom Projects, The Playground Experiment, and The Skeleton Rep(resents). Baylee has been a winner of the inaugural Curtis Theatre Amplify Initiative, a winner and a finalist for the OC-Centric New Works Festival, a finalist for Spectrum Theatre Ensemble’s Neurodivergent New Play Initiative, and a semi-finalist for the inaugural William S. Yellow Robe Jr. Residency. She graduated from USC in May 2020 with a B.A. in Journalism.

Nicholas Pilapil

is a Filipino American playwright. His plays include "The Bottoming Process" (world premiere in May 2023 with IAMA Theatre Company & the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Victory Gardens Ignition Festival of New Plays) and "if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets" (winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival). His work has also been developed with Geffen Playhouse, Artists at Play, Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, Playwrights Foundation, Theatre Rhinoceros, and The Fountain Theatre, among others. Nicholas is an alum of Geffen Playhouse's The Writers' Room, IAMA Theatre Company's Emerging Playwrights Lab, The Vagrancy Playwrights Group, Playground-LA, and artEquity.

Dan Caffrey

 is a playwright, musician, teacher, and pop-culture critic who graduated from The University of Texas at Austin's M.F.A. Playwriting program in 2020. He's currently based in the Northeast after a stint teaching playwriting at the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.  His work draws heavily from wildlife, horror, and various otherworldly elements. He's interested in how these external, often non-human forces can upend his characters' views of humanity, pushing them to confront more internal threats such as secrecy, repression, insecurity, and fear. Dan was a 2022 Semi-Finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship's 2021 Theatre Prize, has been both a Finalist and Semi-Finalist at the O'Neill, a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Awards Playwriting Fellowship, a Semi-Finalist for The Civilians' R&D Group, a Resident Artist at Tofte Lake Center, an M.F.A. Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, an artist in The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, and his work has been published in several anthologies by Smith & Kraus, including The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2021. His plays have recently been developed by The Workshop Theater, American Records, Mixily Presents, JOOK in Memphis, Jarrott Productions in Austin, Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, and Pegasus PlayLab at the University of Central Florida. His play "A Seed" was part of the 46th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, produced by Concord Theatricals. His play "Duckass" was part of last year's festival, making it to the final 12. Dan has also written for a variety of pop-culture publications, including The A.V. Club, Consequence, Pitchfork, and Vox. His first book, Radiohead FAQ, is currently available from Backbeat Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield). He co-hosts The Losers' Club: A Stephen King Podcast (recipient of the Silver Bolo Award For Excellence In Horror Media) and Halloweenies: A Horror Franchise podcast, in addition to recording music with Mae Shults under the name Methodist Hospital. Dean of American Rock Critics Robert Christgau hailed their debut album, Giants, as one of the best of 2018.

Utkarsh Rajawat

is a writer/performer who likes theater and TV a bunch! They started their theater career in Baltimore, and have since been a PIT and Magnet sketch house team member; a 2018 Princess Grace Award Finalist for playwriting;  a 2019 Sesame Street Writers’ Room Fellow; and a 2020 Pipeline PlayLab Member. They've written for things like the Story Pirates Podcast, Caillou, and Alma's Way, and are currently pursuing an MFA  in Playwriting at Brooklyn College.