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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Each year, we select three projects for an intensive two-month workshop. During this time, the chosen projects receive expert guidance from a guest theater professional and are brought to life by skilled actors. We continuously seek innovative works for our mainstage show, and all submissions to the Theater Lab are considered for a full production.
WORKSHOP LEADER Gisela Cardenas
Gisela Cardenas has worked as a freelance stage, opera director, and educator in the UK, Germany, Peru, Brazil, Romania, The Netherlands, Norway, and the USA. Recent credits include Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare at Barnard College and Herstory at the New Ohio Theater. Upcoming in 2024: Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte (Saratoga Opera) and Three Sisters (Barnard College). Gisela Cardenas is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award, the Phil Killian Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival), a former member of the Women's Project Director's Lab, a recipient of the TCG/ NEA 2009 Career Development Program for Directors, a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women, a Special Projects recipient from the Princess Grace Foundation, and a member of the Stage Director's and Choreographer's Society. Ms. Cardenas is a Faculty member at Barnard College.
Credits as Director and Writer: "Agamemnon" (Drama Desk Nomination 2006), Watanabe's "Antigone" ("Sibiu International Theater Festival—Romania); Part 1 of "An Oresteia" (Classic Stage Company), Maria Irene Fornes' Tango Palace & Dr, Kheal (New York Fornes Festival), Euripides' Medea (Perú), Brecht's In The Jungle of The Cities (The Netherlands-Peru), Richard III (Norway), Wesker's The Kitchen, Asmussen's "Nobody Meets Anyone" (Brazil), Instructions to Decode A(n In)human Transformation (Writer), Blanco's Thebes Land (South America), Herstory (2022).
Diana Son is a Korean-American playwright, television producer and writer. She notes her upbringing as rather “Americanized,” commenting that it was not until she was a teenager that she noticed the differences between her own culture and that of her friends.
Her first full-length play, Stop Kiss, debuted in 1998. It was critically acclaimed. The play was produced Off-Broadway in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York City. Stop Kiss was the winner of the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York production. The play's initial run featured Jessica Hecht, Saul Stein, Sandra Oh, Saundra McClain, Kevin Carroll, and Rick Holmes. Diana is known more frequently for her roles as television producer and writer. Son has worked in television since 2000, starting out as a story editor for The West Wing. She is known for her work including American Crime, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Southland also served as the show runner for 13 Reasons Why.
She has also taught playwriting at various institutions including Yale and New York Universities. Son was the Playwrighting Program Chair of the Dramatists Guild of America's Fellows Program, a mentorship and support program for playwrights and musical theater writers. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Women in Theatre, and the Writers Guild of America, East.
WINNER GETS A 1-ON-1 WORKSHOP WITH Diana Son
FINALISTS
Isabel Beatriz Tongson is a playwright, actor, and director based in New York City. Select writing accolades: two-time winner of the Blank Theatre Young Playwrights Festival, two-time Gold Key winner for Dramatic Script from the Scholastic Art and Writing Association, winner of Best in Show at the Central Florida Theatre Festival for Dramatic Script, winner of the Valencia College BIPOC Playwrights Festival, Semi-Finalist for the Gary Garrison National Ten-Minute Play Award by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and finalist for the #ENOUGH Plays Project. Her original plays have been produced by colleges and production companies across the country, notably The Blank Theater of LA, Valencia College, and the MD Virtual Ensemble. She has had staged readings of her work by NOMADS of Columbia University, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the Makers’ Ensemble, and Off-Broadway as part of the Laguardia Performing Arts Center ROUGH DRAFT Festival. Her play Droplets Pellets Bullets is published in an anthology and is available for licensing by Concord Theatricals. Her entire career is dedicated to opening the theatre industry to historically marginalized artists by providing them with substantial and authentic stories to tell. More at isabeltongson.com.
Gretta Marston (she/they) is a bilingual, Peruvian-American playwright and performer who works both in the US and Peru. She creates work about immigrant women, people of indigenous descent, and the land/water that nourishes us. A Miranda Family Fellow alumna, Gretta has been awarded a National Theater Institute apprenticeship and was the Literary Associate at the Latiné Musical Theater Lab. Gretta’s most recent projects include releasing her new single, “Caballerito de Mar”; showcasing her original musical Como La Tierra at the Miranda Family Fellowship Summit in NYC; and publishing GLORIA, a biographical podcast about her grandmother’s life.
Abigail Duclos (she/her) is a playwright, actor, musician, and puppet lover whose stories laugh, cry, dance, and draw blood. Her work is often multidisciplinary and engages with topics of queer desire, violence and bodies, Appalachian folklore, and more.
Abigail’s work has been produced by the Elif Collective, The Tank, WKCR 89.9 FM, Maker’s Ensemble, and more.
WORKSHOP LEADER Inés Braun
FINALISTS
WINNER
Federica Borlenghi
Manvi Ranghar
Alyssa See-Tho
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