Introducing the 2021 Short Play Lab Members!
Please help support the 2021 Short Play Festival
This Short Play LAB is completely free of charge to the writers, and they receive the UNIQUE opportunity to have their plays produced at the end of the writing process!
There is no other program like it - anywhere!
Mary Glen Fredrick
MARY GLEN is a writer, actor, and video editor, hailing mostly from Kansas City. A writer for both theater and film, her plays include Edit Annie (Langham Court/Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition semifinalist, Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition Second Rounder), fire work (Ensemble Playwright Lab Residency, LoM Theater), and THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS. Her first short film, Been So Good (writer/actor) is in post-production, and she is currently developing her first feature film. Fredrick is the 2021 Letter of Marque Theater Winter Resident Playwright, a Fresh Ground Pepper BRB alum and grateful PAL member, a SPACE on Ryder Farm 2020 semifinalist, and a semifinalist for the Sony Gemstone Studios Rising Storytellers Search. She received her BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University, and her MFA in Acting from UC San Diego. You can check out more of her work and self at heymaryglen.com.
Rebekah LopaTto
REBEKAH is a Korean American playwright based in Elmhurst, Queens; she primarily writes about dysfunctional relationships and trauma. Born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in New York City, Rebekah has been involved in theatre for the past ten years both onstage and backstage. Working previously as an actress, a member of stage crews, a director, and now as a playwright, her short plays have received staged readings as part of The 5 Boro Play Festival at INTAR (pantograph gates) and the 2019 New Playwrights Showcase at Queens Theatre (Elevator Pitch). Her full length play, Speed Bumps, was developed and produced in collaboration with the high school students and drama program of Martin Luther School in Maspeth, Queens; she assistant directed Speed Bumps and two other plays during their 2018-2019 school year as part of an educational theatre internship. Rebekah is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at CUNY Queens College.
Queen Esther
QUEEN ESTHER, a Southerner now based in Harlem, is a solo performer, playwright, librettist, essayist, songwriter, musician, vocalist and producer. Queen Esther is a graduate of The New School with a concentration in screenwriting. She was a member of Liberation Theater Company’s Black Playwrights Group and has had residencies at HERE, The Field, Gettysburg National Military Park, George Street Playhouse and The Apollo Theater. Her work has been read at the Classical Theater of Harlem’s Playwright’s Playground and The Field’s Summer Writing Intensive. She is currently developing: The Billie Holiday Project, a musical based on Zora Neale Hurston’s newly discovered Harlem-based short stories augmented by Lady Day’s rare sides; Blackbirding, a new solo show that uses multimedia to revamp American history from a black feminist perspective; and The Tears of a Megyn, a serio-comic romp in one act about police brutality, blackface and white privilege. queen-esther.com
Jeana Scotti
JEANA is a New York born and raised playwright who currently lives in Brooklyn. Her writing is often a testament to the strength of the women in her life. Her work addresses trauma by recreating the narrative in ways that allow for power to be shifted. Her plays have been performed at Rutgers Mason Gross, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Tank, Theatre for a New City, and Access Theater. She currently teaches theatre at Purchase College. Scotti also works with younger children as a teaching artist and encourages her students to share their voices through telling their own stories. She received her BA in Theatre and Performance at Purchase College and her MFA in Playwriting from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Makaela Shealy-Sachot
MAKAELA is a writer, performer and published poet based in New York City, Paris & South Carolina. Her work has been seen at The Tank, Shetler Studios (R.I.P.), with Kervigo Ensemble Theatre, Original Idiots as part of The Generator and the Samuel French OOB Festival. She’s created original immersive material for The Balcony Arts, The Cell Theater, and Wonder Media Network. Her poetry has been featured in print with Allegory Ridge, she’s performed spoken word with Women Who Roar and Make:Shift, and been featured online with Muse Pie Press as well as Someday Production’s poetry journal: Pillow Talking. Shealy-Sachot holds a BFA from NYU and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Select performance credits Off-Broadway: The Cooping Theory 1969 (Poseidon Theatre Company), Professor Brenner (HERE Arts Center), The Jersey Devil Doesn’t Exist (The Shrill Collective), TV: LOVE LIFE (HBO).
Mehrnaz Tiv
MEHRNAZ is an Iranian American playwright and poet raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work explores the relationship and cultural tension between her first-generation identity and femininity, sexuality, adolescence, and family. She also tries her best to be funny. She recently graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing program with a minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Her work has been seen and developed by City Theatre (Signed, Sealed, Never Delivered; Threads), the Women’s Theater Festival (Threads), Permafrost Theater Collective (Dried Fruit), and the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (Italian Stallion). Tiv was a winner of the Young Playwrights Contest at City Theatre in 2016. More information can be found at mehrnaztiv.com.
Meet the Directors!
Jenny Greeman
JENNY is an artist and educator currently serving as Program Manager for the Women’s Work Short Play LAB. She joined NPTC in 2007 after participating in the company's Shakespeare Bootcamp for Directors and Educators, and was formerly the Administrator of Youth & Community Development at NPTC. She also was a resident director for the Women's Work, World Voices and Apprenticeship programs. Jenny helmed the World Premiere production of Screenplay by Scott Brooks, which was awarded “Outstanding Production of a Play” at the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival and subsequently moved to an Off Broadway run at 59E59 For the 2008 MITF, Ms. Greeman and her writing partner, Elliot Lanes, were awarded “Best Staged Reading” for their original children’s musical, The Raggedy Ann and Andy Musical. Jenny is the Resident Director for Dark Lady Players, where her credits include Shakespeare’s Three Marys, Hamlet’s Apocalypse, and Shakespeare’s Gospel Parodies: A Medieval Mystery Tour. She is currently the Director of Programming at Pathways to Leadership/The Leadership Program. She holds a BA, Phi Beta Kappa, in Urban Studies from Connecticut College and was a Fellow at Barnard College’s Institute for Urban Education. She is currently pursuing an MPA at Baruch/CUNY.
Karin Crighton
KARIN graduated from Towson University Magna Cum Laude with a concentration in directing. After producing and directing plays in Baltimore, she moved to New York to join the larger theatre community. She has studied at the Tom Todoroff Studio and School of Visual Arts, directed at the DeSotelle Studio and Theatre54, and producing short films and plays on her own around the city. She is looking forward to her third year with the Short Play Lab program at NPTC.
Chanon Judson
CHANON is Co-Artistic Director with the critically acclaimed Urban Bush Women. Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. We do this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond. Currently, UBW is presenting “Hair and Other Stories,” Choreographed and Directed by Chanon Judson and Samantha Speis (proscenium Staging Director, Raelle Myrick). This work is utilizing hair as a lens to delve into conversation on race, equity, and liberation. Chanon is a 2018 Director’s Lab Fellow (Chicago) and an APAP Leadership Fellow, Cohort II. Performance credits include Taylor Mac’s 24Hour Spectacular, Cotton Club Parade and the Tony Award-winning musical Fela!
Daniela Ortiz
DANIELA has loved theater since her first day at Performing Arts camp. Since then, she's explored writing skits, scenes, and short plays. In high school, her ten-minute play, Learning to Trust, was a finalist in the Fidelity Future Stage playwrighting contest which was published by Samual French in a collection of student plays. She graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BA in Theater Performance and Arts Management. She currently works at a community-based organization supporting after school programs throughout NYC. Daniela served the Women’s Work Short Play LAB as a Directing Apprentice the last two years and is thrilled to direct.
Maggie Monahan
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Maggie is a theatre artist dedicated to confronting the most difficult questions in the public sphere through art. Her work has been seen in New York at the Tank, Theatre Row, 54 Below and Lucid Body House; in Chicago at Collaboraction, Rivendell Theatre, Victory Gardens, and Clockwise Theatre; and internationally in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has assisted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the National Theater of Sarajevo, Audible Theater at the Minetta Lane, and the first national tours of Escape to Margaritaville and School of Rock. BA Northwestern. SDC Associate.
Lola lopez guardone
Lola Lopez Guardone was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but her soul always belonged in NYC. She's thrilled to tell this story of compassion, hope, and community healing. Her previous work includes Next Thing You Know (2020), Silent Movie Dreams (2019), Before the Fall (2018, London Fringe Festival, Canada, Best Drama and Outstanding Cast Awards), These Little Ones Perish (2017 Winterfest - Best Director Award), Neil Simon's I Ought to be in Pictures at The
Producer's Club NYC and ElemenoPea by Molly Smith Metzler, among others. She is a consulting artist for Woodshed Collective and was part of the team that produced Empire Travel Agency (New York Times Critics Pick, named by The Guardian as BEST OF 2015). Training: Sergio Lombardo, Ruben Szchumacher, Mikhael Tara Garver, Tim Carol, Seth Barish and the Tom Todoroff Conservatory. Website: www.lolalopezguardone.com
Ashley Hajimirsadeghi (2021 Director’s Apprentice)
ASHLEY attended the Fashion Institute of Technology to receive a BS in International Trade and Marketing as well as an AAS in Fashion Business Management. An award-winning poet, fiction writer, and essayist, her work has appeared in a variety of print and online publications. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, she attended an arts high school as a literary student. There she worked set design in the technical theatre major, along with writing award-winning scripts for both film and theatre. A poet, artist, and filmmaker, she is heavily interested in how the written word visually translates to the stage. Find more about her on her website.