Introducing the 2024 Short Play Lab Members!

Please help support the 2024 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!

Morgan Barnes-Whitehead

Morgan Barnes-Whitehead (she/her/hers) is a playwright, dramaturg, educator, director, and arts administrator. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and now based in New York City, Morgan earned her BA in Theater and Performance and her MA in Teaching at Bard College and aims to explore and expand upon the relationship between learning and play through the development of her theatrical work and educational pedagogy. As a producer and administrator, she has experience in theater, film, and political organizing. Her work is an exploration of multiethnic communities and relationships. Her plays have been developed by GrassRoots Art Collective.

Christine BENVENUTO

Christine Benvenuto’s plays have been performed by the Boston Theater Marathon, The International Human Rights Art Festival and The Sixth Festival in NYC, The Braid in Los Angeles, Clamour Theater in Florida, the Fern Street Play Festival in Connecticut, LAVA Center in Western Massachusetts and online. A short play is available as a podcast from Onstage/Offstage; another was performed by The Orpheus Theatre Company in Lancaster, PA and is included in the international anthology Borderless Thalia. She is the author of two works of nonfiction from St. Martin’s Press, and her short stories, essays and articles appear in many newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

anel carmona

Anel Carmona is a multidisciplinary Theatre Artist from Guadalajara, Mexico, based in New York City. Whether as an actor, playwright, or director, she has participated in dozens of plays across North America. Anel is the author of plays such as Adios Fjord (Off-Broadway, Theater at Gibney), Ice Cream Fro-Yo (Hudson Guild Theater), The Church of the Winter (Gene Frankel Theatre), and Chocolate en la Estación (Teatro Jaime Torres Bodet). In 2020 her COVID-19-themed play A Seis Pies de Distancia had video productions in Tabasco, Mexico, and Alberta, Canada. It was also featured in the published anthology "De Pandemia a Pandemonium" on the Mexican Platform "Dramaturgia Mexicana." 

She has also had the pleasure of directing the plays Playing Possum, and The Questioning, both produced by Rising Sun Performance Company. Her favorite acting credits include THE ROOM of Falsehood with CAGE Theatre Company (Broadway World nomination), Tales of the White Diamond Mountain (RSPC), Catch Me in America (Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble), and Ti Jean and his Brothers (MA's Playhouse).

Anel holds an MFA in Playwriting from The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University and is an active member of the Playwrights and Directors Workshop at the Actors Studio, and The Dramatists Guild of America.  www.anelcarmona.com IG:@iamanelcarmona

Chelyn Cousar

Chelyn Cousar (she/they) is a playwright, screenwriter and director from Poughkeepsie, New York residing in New York City. She was involved in Women’s Playwriting Circle at Speranza Theatre Company from 2022-2023 in New Jersey, Tiger Heart’s Players in NYC and Cut Edge Collective. She has also worked on indie film projects and always strives to learn more about the craft of writing and directing for film and theater.

Notable works include Albert’s Wedding (The Tank NYC), The Advice (Queens Short Play Festival) and Two Weeks (Cold Reading for Playwright's Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem).

stephanie kline

Stephanie Kline is an award-winning playwright and stand-up comic based in Virginia. Her work includes Potshots (2023 first place grant winner, Veterans Repertory Theater 10-minute playwriting competition; 2023 selection, Salem State University Veterans 10-minute Play Festival; 2021 selection, Asheville Fringe Festival; selected for publication, 2024 New Plains Review), Torture Chamber (2021 selection and production, NYC Player’s Theatre Short Play Festival), Chaotic Neutral (2022 selection, The Actor’s Center staged reading showcase), Waiver Wire (2021 selection, Salem State University Veterans 10-minute Play Festival), Knishes and Other Edible Items (2023 selection, Chicago Dramatist Scene Showcase), and most notably, pup adoption profiles for City Dogs Rescue DC. Stephanie is a Dramatist Guild member and a former Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive student. Her comedy is featured on Amazon Audible’s Strong Endings: A Journey from Combat to Comedy, the National Endowment for the Arts’ podcast, Art Works, and as a recurring performer and contributor for the Armed Services Arts Partnership. She performs across the country and was a finalist in the 2023 Operation Healarious Funniest Veteran national comedy competition.

taylor steele

Taylor Steele is a queer, Black, NYC-born-and-based writer and theatermaker. Her new one-hour play “Damages” was selected to be part of Ars Nova’s 2023 ANT Fest. Her pilots “Psych-Ish” and “35 Bleak St.” have placed in several writing competitions, including the Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition and the Stage 32 TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest. In 2019, she directed a workshop performance of her new play “Girls Act Out” in residency at The Center at West Park. In 2021 Taylor was named an Honorable Mention for the National Queer Theater’s New Visions Fellowship. In the same year, she was script supervisor on the multimedia project “Is it love, or is it fantasy?”directed by Jared Mezzocchi at National Sawdust. Her short film “eXcape” was screened at NYCITFF and OutFest Fusion in 2023. A triple-Taurus, Taylor stubbornly believes in the power of art to change, shape, and heal. To learn more, visit taylorsteele.info

Photo credit: Jordan Ashleigh

Directors

Jenny GREEMAN

JENNY GREEMAN is an artist and educator and a long-time Resident Director with the Women’s Work Short Play LAB. She was formerly the Administrator of Youth & Community Development at NPTC and a resident director for the 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, Jenny and her writing partner, Elliot Lanes, won “Best Staged Reading” for their original children’s piece, The Raggedy Ann and Andy Musical. Jenny was 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 and recently earned her Masters of Public Administration at Baruch/CUNY.

Jennie reich litzky

Jennie Reich Litzky is a director/actor/production manager/theater artist. She loves storytelling and finding new ways to engage people with Theater. She hopes to create inclusive work that will challenge and change the way people see the world. Jennie was a Muse Scholar at Hunter College, where she studied Jewish Studies and Theater, and received the Tyrone Guthrie Award for Most Promising Student Director. She was recently an apprentice for the Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble, and her past directing credits include The Cocktail Hour, Ludlow Fair, Staff Meal and Fuck Covid. She is honored and excited to be working with the New Perspectives Theatre Company for the first time, and looks forward to collaborating with other artists to create new, diverse works. Follow @jenniereichlitzky for more. לך לך

Bianca Lopez

Theater is rebellion. To become a trailblazer of expression in pursuit of universal truth, while embracing rebellion; rebellion against stereotypes, non-conformity, limited thinking, narrow mindedness and above all freedom of expression is what motivates Bianca.

After having extensively traveled to over 43 countries she proudly amassed a plethora of experiences and wealth of knowledge to be showcased in her body of works. Bianca’s main source of influence comes from the many years of theatrical studies in different programs such as with Jeremy Geidt at Harvard University’s Tony Award-winning American Repertory Theatre, undergraduate studies at Columbia University Theatre, method acting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art’s Shakespeare Intensive. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film/Television Production as a Magna Cum Laude at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Bianca is a recent alumni of the extremely competitive Yale Writers’ Workshop. She now looks forward to her next venture with New Perspective’s Theatre Company for this year’s upcoming Women’s Work Lab."

Dani ortiz

DANI 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. Through New Perspectives Women’s Work Short Play LAB she had the pleasure of directing Bad Koreans,  Foul Line, and Cassie Goes to Congress. Dani is thrilled to support the Short Play Lab and the community of playwrights NPTC has cultivated. 

Malini singh McDonald

When Malini isn’t galavanting throughout the five boroughs and beyond seeing as much theatre as she can, she’s doing one of the following: Directing. Producing. Promoting. Sometimes, she’s even doing a bit of acting. A native New Yorker, Malini received her BA in English and Theatre at her beloved Baruch College where she also received her MPA. She received her MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School where her focus was Directing. Her favorite directing projects include: The Wiz (Matsiko World Orphan Choir, Liberia); Torch Song Trilogy; The Colored Museum; Down the Road,The Jewish Wife; Plaza Suite; Steel Magnolias; and No Exit. Malini is also the founder of Theatre Beyond Broadway which provides a platform to promote and support independent artists beyond the bright lights of Broadway. She has collaborated with The Anthropologists, Broadway Artists Connection, Non-Disposable Productions, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Mind the Art Entertainment. Malini has been recognized for her role in the community with the Woman of Distinction Award for her contribution to Media, Arts and Culture from the City of New York. www.malinism.com and www.theatrebeyondbroadway.com