The Official Tumblr of the Critic & Playwright

From Marcus Scott:

They say a “near miss” is just the universe’s way of saying your trajectory is correct, you just haven’t hit the target yet.

Deeply honored to be named a 2026 Blue Ink Award Semifinalist for my play “Vinyl Vanguard.” What’s wild? I submitted an older draft and it still climbed into the top tier of over 1,400 submissions.

This marks my 4th year in a row being recognized by American Blues Theater (@american_blues_theater):

Huge congratulations to Nia Akilah Robinson (@niaakilah__) for taking the top prize; I can’t wait to see what that inventive work does! Sending love to the featured finalists, finalists and my fellow semifinalists, especially @criseliblak, @ginafemia, @kaelameishing, @gloria_majule, @sharmajasmine, @scottcsickles, @phillipchristiansmith, @caridadsvich, @montserratmendez, @nicholaspilapil, and @nyungerberg.

I’ll be honest: I’m currently the King of the Near Miss. It’s a season of “almosts.” But in this house, we take “not now” as fuel for “what’s next.” I am a very stubborn, persistent, determined and relentless bastard. If the American Theatre doesn’t know what to do with me yet, they better figure it out fast. Next time I apply, I’m not just a name on a list—I’m a featured finalist. They have no idea what’s coming! Buckle up.

Congratulations to Nia Akilah Robinson, winner of the 2026 Blue Ink Award for Overnight at the Museum.

As part of the award, Robinson receives a $3,000 cash prize and an opportunity to further develop her script as part of the 2026 Blue Ink Playwriting Festival, along with new work by finalists Benjamin Benne (and thou shalt be healed), and Claire Crowley (The Scouts of America Don’t Sell Cookies, B*tch).

2026 Blue Ink Award winner Nia Akilah Robinson notes, “My mother and my father created a household for any and all conversations regarding Black history were welcomed, debated, and celebrated. My mother always taught me to dig deeper into Black history, and my father taught me to find (if it was possible) the humor within it. I love museums and galleries, and there’s so much more to say about them; To Maboula Soumahoro – thank you for your classroom. This award is a great honor, thank you American Blues Theater.”

“We’re thrilled to name Nia Akilah Robinson’s play Overnight at the Museum as the 2026 Blue Ink Award for playwriting. Nia’s essential script about the repatriation of artifacts to Ghana brilliantly balances the poignant and timely theme on a sharp comic edge. We’re excited to present the staged reading to Chicago audiences as part of our Blue Ink Playwriting Festival,” comments Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside.

About Overnight at the Museum

Two Black men who work as night guards for museum security are stealing Ghanaian artifacts from a gentrified American neighborhood. Can they get them where they need to be before the grand opening of a “Neo-African Museum”? Overnight at the Museum is a hilarious heist story that masterfully toys with our definitions of history, legacy, and art.

About Nia Akilah Robinson

Nia Akilah Robinson (she/her) is a playwright and actor who reps Harlem with all her might. Productions: Soho Rep U.S. Off Broadway Premiere (2025 New York Times Critics Pick), NextStop Theatre (2026 Helen Hayes Recommended), Co-Pro: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company & Company One Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, Theatre503, Theatre Exile, and The Hearth. Her work has been seen and developed with Nashville Repertory Theatre (Ingram New Works Project), Steppenwolf Theatre, The New Group, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Conference, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Waterwell, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Urbanite, and New Georges. Nia has been a MacDowell Fellow, Travis Bogard Eugene O’Neill Foundation Fellow, and a writer for PEN America and EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (short play). She has had residencies at NYSAF and The Pocantico Center through YoungArts. Nia’s work has been featured at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Fire This Time Festival, and the 48th Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival. Nia has been awarded 1st Place for the 2023 A is For Playwriting Contest, the Next Wave Initiative Lorraine Hansberry Writing Scholarship, a Miranda Family Fund Commission, and the NYSCA Grant (CCCADI). She was shortlisted for the 2023 Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award. And Nia is a member or alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, I-73 at Page 73, The Orchard Project NYC Greenhouse, The Wish Collective, and TheBlackHERthePen. Education: Yale (DGSD- MFA Playwriting Candidate) & Juilliard (Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program).

2026 Blue Ink Award Finalists & Semifinalists

Featured Finalists: Benjamin Benne (and thou shalt be healed) & Claire Crowley (The Scouts of America Don’t Sell Cookies, B*tch).

Finalists: Cris Eli Blak (Sing For Me), Ida Cuttler (Moe is a Dick), Alexa Derman (Zionista Rising), Annalisa Dias (The Invention of Seeds), Yussef El Guindi (Slay), Gina Femia (That Time Terri and Lily Took a Road Trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder House), Sarah Galante (Body Negative ), Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (Ping Pong Play), Robin Goldberg (Ask Three Times), Idris Goodwin (Scarfoot Lives), Drew Larimore (A Place No One Can See), Victor Lesniewski (Virōdha), Gloria Majule (Possessed (or, “the Crazy African Girl” Play)), Nick Malakhow (Straw Poll), Bella Poynton (The Appliance Department), Marco Antonio Rodriguez (Walk-In), Jasmine Sharma (PEACHY: a sorta chekhovian traumedy), Scott C. Sickles (The Battlements), Phillip Christian Smith (God Save The Queen), Caridad Svich (War Painting), Collin Van Son (Two-Man Rule), LaDarrion Williams (Secondhand Lessons), Sharifa Yazmeen (Fairy Dust).

Nairobi, Kenya - TheAfricanGriot.com is excited to announce the longlist for the second Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature. The fifteen longlisted stories were selected from 266 entries (up from 73 the previous year) submitted from 23 countries worldwide. In no particular order, the longlisted writers for the 2025 Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature are:

Retreat in the Berkshires - Kate Schwartz (USA)

Last Rites – Charlene Adhiambo (Kenya)

Big Fat Wish – Christopher Franciosca (USA)

Surveillance – Sabina Ramet (USA/Norway)

A Lesson in A Flat – Mike Power (USA)

Clowns of the Crown – Chiemezem Everest Udochukwu (Nigeria)

Two Women – Meri Holl (USA)

My French Tutor and the Dragon Under My Bed – Lucas Huang (USA/Taiwan)

Untitled Saint - Wei Cheng (China)

Bella Napoli – Steve Gold (USA)

Yesterday By the Beatles – Sean Sullivan (USA)

Breaking the Wall – Dan Borengasser (USA)

Body Count – Ifedolapo Olaniyi (Nigeria)

Y? – Frank E. Robinson (USA)

The Worst Table – Karen Poulsen (USA)

Also in no particular order, the Honourable Mentions are:

Curs’d Be Macbeth – Donna Latham (USA)

We Don’t Say Bleh Bleh Bleh – Evan Edwards (USA)

No Country For Young People – Phil Ibsen (Kenya)

The Nazarene, The Jew and the Jihadist – John Ladd (USA)

Eden Revisited – Christopher P. Minichono (USA)

Weekend Warrior – Lisa Emily Patterson (Denmark)

After the Funeral – Martin Heavisides (USA)

Ojukwu – Stephen Adinyoi (Nigeria)

A Harvest Truth – Richard Lyons Conlon (USA)

Beneath the Garment – Jeff Iwu (Nigeria)

Cutting Season – Elizabeth Hess (USA/Canada)

Much Fuss About Everything – Kithusi Mulonzya (Kenya)

Solid 8 – Jeffrey Gold (USA)

Call & Response – Marcus Scott (USA)

A Loaf of Bread – Erick Kitheka (Kenya)

The 2025 prize accepted scripts for ten-to-fifteen-minute stage plays and aims to spotlight both the playwrights and the craft of playwriting. With no theme provided, the submitted works covered a wide range of topics, including family drama, economic hardship, gender identity, espionage, war, love, romance, slavery, vampires, religion, pop culture, and nationalism. War was an especially common topic with several stories using Israel/Palestine, Ukraine,Nazi Germany, and Biafra as backdrops.

The playwrights sent in unpublished scripts from the USA, Nigeria, Kenya, the Philippines, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Canada, Iran, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Ghana, Zambia, Norway, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Uganda, Cameroon, China, and New Zealand. The United States of America had the highest number of entries and dominates the longlist. ‘American writers didn’t come to play,’ says Chief Judge Alexander Nderitu. ‘The trail blazed by such playwrights as Arthur Miller, August Wilson, and Ntozake Shange continues to shine, like Broadway itself.’ He has also lauded the overall quality of the submissions:

‘They (the playwrights) took everything into consideration: characterization, language, stage use, set pieces, dialogue…everything. In just ten to fifteen minutes. Talk of capturing lightning in a bottle! The names in the honours lists also displayed good use of Chekhov’s Gun: no superfluous props, unnecessary scenes, or waste lines. As expected, some entries were instantly disqualified for falling out of the stated guidelines, like being too long or including author identifiers, but they were mercifully few. This particular contest also attracted a lot of interest from academia and from older generations. The eldest contestant was ninety-sevenyears old while the youngest was nineteen.’

In partnership with our friends at The CRY HAVOC Company, we are thrilled to announce that we've chosen our cohort of four playwrights for the inaugural cycle of our development series, Brave New Work. The series invites playwrights to create original works that will draw inspiration from Shakespeare's canon, but evolve into something wholly their own.

Marcus Scott is a dramatist and journalist. Notable plays include Tumbleweed (2025 Orlando Shakes PlayFest), Sibling Rivalries, and There Goes the Neighborhood, which have collectively earned finalist recognition from the O’Neill NPC, Princess Grace Awards, Blue Ink Award, SDNPF and BAPF. Musical credits include Cherry Bomb and a commissioned adaptation of Beethoven’s Fidelio for Heartbeat Opera (The Met Museum; NY Times Critic’s Pick). Recent honors include the Robert Chelsey/Victor Bumbalo Award, a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency, and finalist status for the 2025 Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Award, the Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship, and the Many Voices Fellowship. MFA: NYU Tisch. 

Which of Shakespeare's plays have you chosen as the springboard for your play? What intrigues or excites you about building on that foundation? 

I’ve chosen The Tempest as the springboard for my play. I’m fascinated by its perturbing resolution; the way it performs forgiveness while leaving huge ethical tensions simmering under the surface. Prospero renounces his magic, but the systems of control he built over the island, over Ariel, and over Caliban are never truly interrogated. That lingering silence is what gets me. Prospero is a paranormal propagandist — a father and a playwright orchestrating reality. I wanted to explore the aftershock of that magic. What happens when the architect of the narrative disappears? When the script is gone, whose memory prevails? This play enters the space after the “happy ending” to see if liberation is possible when the language of power still hangs in the air.

Which NYC neighborhoods make you feel the most at home? 

Harlem and Bed-Stuy are where I feel most at home. There’s an intellectual and sociological electricity in Harlem that feels ancestral and forward-thinking; you can practically feel the lineage of artists, culturati, organizers, preachers, dreamers in the pavement. It’s a continuum of Black brilliance where possibility feels infinite. Bed-Stuy was my first home during grad school, and it’s communal in a way you don't find elsewhere. It’s the rhythm of stoop conversations, music spilling from open windows, and "aunties" who will read you for filth before inviting you in for a homecooked meal. Both neighborhoods are meccas where ambition and authenticity coexist — places where Black nerds, artists, and strivers can just be without needing a translator.

What types of prompts or source material are you most drawn to as a playwright?  How would you describe your artistic voice or point-of-view? 

I’m drawn to material that interrogates power: who wields it, who enforces it, and who dares to resist it. In an era of endless reboots, I’m less interested in the repetition and more interested in the afterlife. I want to see the psychological debris left at the margins of the “canon” once the curtain falls. My work is an excavation of Black interiority. I’m fascinated by the contradictions — Silicon Valley futurists, Divine Nine social climbers, and Afropunk rockers. My voice is analytical but lyrical; I want to deconstruct narratives shaped by capitalism and anti-Blackness to help characters reclaim what’s been stolen, whether that’s memory or self-definition. Ultimately, I believe imagination is the most radical tool we have for reclamation.

November 4, 2025

by Amy Aronoff

Malley recognized with $8,000 cash grant open to New York State playwrights and screenwriters who identify as LGBTQ+.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced playwright and performer R. Forest Malley as the 2025 recipient of its Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Dramatic Writing Award, an $8,000 cash grant awarded to one (1) New York State-based playwright or screenwriter who identifies as LGBTQ+. This year for the first time, NYFA recognized five finalists: filmmaker Chheangkea (Brooklyn, NY); director, playwright, and producer Cooper Howell (New York, NY); playwright Nina Ki (Brooklyn, NY); multidisciplinary artist Maleek Rae (Brooklyn, NY); and dramatist and journalist Marcus Scott (Schenectady, NY).

The annual award honors the life and work of playwright Ryan Hudak, who tragically passed away in May 2022 at age 32 after a long battle with Leukemia. In addition to his work as a playwright, Ryan was a theater maker, filmmaker, and a valued member of NYFA’s staff, serving on the executive and development teams.

R. Forest Malley is a playwright and performer from Massachusetts. His work explores memory, migration, violence, queerness, divas, and his Arab and Jewish heritage. He was the winner of the 2024 Goldberg Play Prize for his play French Boy Cigarettes and is a 2025 MacDowell Fellow and Yaddo Resident Artist. His work has also been recognized and supported by Theater Masters (Winner, 2022), Page 73 (Workshop, 2025; Member, 2024 Writers Group; Finalist, 2024 Playwriting Fellowship), The Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Finalist, 2025), The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Finalist, 2023 and Semi-Finalist, 2024), and The American Blues Theater (Finalist, 2025). He is currently a member of the SWANA Writer’s Co-Op and a Planet Fitness in Brooklyn. Mally received his BA degree from Harvard University and his MFA degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Said Michael Royce, NYFA CEO: “We are thrilled to recognize R. Forest Malley with the 2025 Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Dramatic Writing Award. He is already accomplished in the field, and we hope that this award gives him some additional momentum as he pushes forward in his work. We are excited to see where he goes from here, and are grateful to Ryan Hudak’s parents Pat and Tom for supporting and uplifting new creative voices through this award program.”

Said Malley upon receiving the Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Dramatic Writing Award: “This award is a tremendous honor and such a gift—it will allow me to dedicate so much more time to my practice, as well as to attend more theater and performances around the city that can otherwise be cost-prohibitive. I will also be using some of the funds to travel for research for an archive-based project about my father’s parents, who founded a Third Worldist journal in Paris in the early 1970s in service of anti-colonial liberation movements spanning from Algeria to Palestine.”

Funding for this award is provided by Ryan’s parents, Pat and Tom Hudak; individual donors; and the philanthropic community. Those interested in contributing funds to this annual award may donate here. 

About Ryan Hudak:

Ryan Hudak was a gay playwright, theater maker, and filmmaker, proud of his Hispanic and European heritage.

Ryan’s play The Firewatchers won him a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he graduated with an MFA degree in dramatic writing. His play Robbie Alex Cooper was a 2018 finalist in the prestigious Eugene O’Neill playwriting competition. While an undergrad at Long Island University, he was involved in the development of and acted in the play Remembering Antigone, which was awarded a Kennedy Center honor for best reimagining of a classic play.

Ryan wrote to give the LGBTQ+ community more stories that connect them to world history and culture, which he felt has largely been sanitized by today’s culture. Ryan developed and taught a course on the History of gay theater when he attended CMU, which he eventually taught at Lehman College. He would have continued teaching the course at Long Island University except for the fate of his illness.

Ryan’s work came out of his struggles with his sexuality as a young man. He found a connection through fantasy and period novels, tales of outsiders banding together to defeat a foe or families moving through generations. As a result, his plays tended to be set in their own created worlds, pulling influences from gay culture and literature, giving gay characters more complex stories.

By Matthew J. Palm | [email protected] | Orlando Sentinel

PUBLISHED: October 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT | UPDATED: October 22, 2025 at 9:02 AM EDT

3 min read

Teachers face upheaval. Young women try to solve a crime. Oh, and then there’s a once-in-a-century storm.

These are three of the scenarios to take the stage as Orlando Shakes revives its annual PlayFest after skipping last year’s event.

PlayFest features staged readings of new works, in which audience members are able to give immediate feedback to the authors as they refine their plays. Readings such as these are invaluable steps in the development of the theater of tomorrow.

Looking to the future of the art form is important to Orlando Shakes, which is a core member of the National New Play Network. That nationwide organization is devoted to developing new work through the New Play Exchange, rolling world premieres, a producer-in-residence program and annual conferences.

Last year’s PlayFest was called off because of ongoing construction work at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center that saw the building closed for a number of months. With the return, the festival will continue to take place over two successive weekends: Oct. 24-26 and Nov. 1-2, this year.

“I’m thrilled to return to PlayFest because it’s one of the top new-play development programs in the country,” said Vincent Delaney, whose play “The Mallard” will be featured this year. He previously participated in 2020 with “The Wheel Woman.”

“The commitment to new work is stellar,” continued Delaney, “and the level of support from director and dramaturg is as good as any I’ve ever experienced.”

Through the years, PlayFest has introduced more than 180 new works to audiences. Of those readings Orlando Shakes has later staged more than 20 of them as full productions. Among them: LaDarrion William’s “Boulevard of Bold Dreams,” an Orlando Sentinel critic’s pick; Rachel Lynett’s “Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson)”;  and last season’s “Welcome To Matteson!” by Inda Craig-Galvan.

Tickets to this year’s PlayFest readings, available at orlandoshakes.org, are $16 each. A $66 pass includes access to all five readings at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins Ave. in Orlando.

“PlayFest is a creative laboratory where audiences, artists and industry leaders collide to help shape the future of theater,” said Roberta Emerson, the theater’s director of new play development, in a statement announcing the festival.

Here’s this year’s schedule:

⇒ ‘Dead Girl’s Quinceañera,’ 7 p.m. Oct. 24. In Phanésia Pharel’s comic thriller about secrets, sisterhood and solving crime, a trio of teen girls tries to discover what happened to their missing friend.

⇒ ‘Dunk City,’ 7 p.m. Oct. 25. Stephen Brown’s comedic exploration of family dynamics and personal insecurities centers on an 18-year-old with erectile dysfunction and the well-meaning efforts of his female family members to help.

⇒ ‘Tumbleweed,’ 5 p.m. Oct. 26. Marcus Scott’s heartfelt drama explores beauty standards, race and generational values within an interracial family. A young woman’s hair is in the spotlight, and family bonds are strained with the arrival of Grandma, a former Black Panther.

⇒ ‘The Sandwich Ministry,’ 7 p.m. Nov. 1. In Miranda Rose Hall’s tale of friendship and resilience, three women gather to make sandwiches for flood victims during a once-in-a-century storm only to discover their relationship is also under threat. .

⇒ ‘The Mallard,’ 5 p.m. Nov. 2. Vincent Delaney tells a poignant story of two teachers navigating personal and professional upheaval — as they attempt to hold a yard sale.

by Zach Van Dyke

5 hours ago

Planning to hit PlayFest this fall? Here’s what’s actually on stage—and why you’ll want to be in the room.

Earlier this month, Orlando Shakes and UCF revealed the lineup for PlayFest 2025, featuring six new works selected from over 200 submissions. The annual two-week festival (October 24–26 and October 28–November 2) is a rare chance to see bold, buzzy plays before they land full productions and maybe help shape their next step.

Now we’ve got full descriptions of the featured plays, and they deliver everything from stormy-night friendships to missing quinceañera drama, erectile dysfunction (yep), and yard-sale meltdowns.

Here’s what’s coming to the stage—all descriptions below come straight from the playwrights and producers:

Dead Girls Quinceañera By Phanésia Pharel | October 24 at 7 p.m.

FACT: Maria was last seen at her Quinceañera. FACT: The party ended early due to an unknown emergency. FACT: Maria has not responded to any messages in 36 hours. Now, Maria’s three best friends must race against the clock to find out what, exactly, happened at her Quince—and bring her home alive—in this comic thriller about secrets, sisterhood, and solving crime.

Dunk City By Stephen Brown | Directed by Ameenah Kaplan | October 25 at 7 p.m.

Davey is the only 18-year-old he knows with severe erectile dysfunction and he’s feeling really really insecure about it. Thank God his mother, sister, and grandma are all on the case to help him figure out this horrific affliction.

Tumbleweed By Marcus Scott | Directed by Desiree Montes | October 26 at 5 p.m.

Set over a single weekend in Morningside Heights, TUMBLEWEED is a sharp, heartfelt contemporary slice-of-life drama where a girl’s natural hair sparks a storm over beauty standards, race, and generational values, testing the bonds of an interracial family when her grandmother—once a Black Panther—comes to visit.

The Sandwich Ministry By Miranda Rose Hall | Directed by Roberta Emerson | November 1 at 7 p.m.

A small town. A once in a century storm. Three women gather to make sandwiches for neighbors who’ve been displaced from their homes by floods. As they contend with the damage of the storm, they learn what brings them together threatens to tear them apart. Is their friendship strong enough to make it through the night?

The Mallard By Vincent Delaney | Directed by Nick Bublitz | November 2 at 5 p.m.

Teachers Freya and Gillian have offended their school board and lost their jobs, threatening their marriage–maybe not the best time to hold a yard sale…

PlayFest is more than staged readings. It’s a chance to hear directly from playwrights and creatives, offer feedback, and say you saw it when. Many past selections have gone on to full productions in New York, Chicago, LA, and even the Orlando Shakes mainstage.

by Zach Van Dyke

Orlando Shakes, in partnership with UCF, has announced the five finalists for PlayFest 2025, selected from over 200 submissions. The annual festival, running October 24–26 and October 28–November 2, features staged readings of new works with audience feedback baked right in.

This year’s lineup includes:

Chasing Gods by Paris Crayton III

Dead Girls Quinceañera by Phanésia Pharel

Tumbleweed by Marcus Scott

Muse of Fire by Lauren Gunderson

Dunk City by Stephen Brown

“We couldn’t be more excited to showcase the work of this dynamic group of playwrights,” said Roberta Emerson, Director of New Play Development. “We eagerly anticipate sharing these incredible stories with our community and celebrating the magic of new plays together!”

Each reading includes a talkback session with the creative team, giving audiences a peek behind the curtain and a voice in the play’s development.

Festival runs October 24–26 and October 28–November 2.

By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 25, 2025

Orlando Shakes, in partnership with UCF, has announced the finalists and semi-finalists for PlayFest 2025, selected from over 200 submissions of new theatrical works. This year’s festival will feature staged readings of five new plays, offering audiences a unique opportunity to engage with playwrights and support the development of bold, contemporary storytelling.

The five finalist plays that will receive staged readings during the festival are: – Chasing Gods by Paris Crayton III – Dead Girls Quinceañera by Phanésia Pharel – Tumbleweed by Marcus Scott – Muse of Fire by Lauren Gunderson – Dunk City by Stephen Brown

“We are thrilled to announce the return of PlayFest this fall, and we couldn't be more excited to showcase the work of this dynamic group of playwrights,” said Roberta Emerson, Director of New Play Development. “Their creativity and vision promise to astonish and captivate audiences.”

Semifinalist selections for PlayFest 2025 include: – The Mallard by Vincent Delaney – The Sandwich Ministry by Miranda Hall – Walk Away, Anna May by Diana Ly – The Great Reveal by David Valdes – Mercy by Felicia Oduh

While not included in the reading lineup, these semi-finalist plays will be recommended and featured through the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange, increasing visibility and potential for future development.

PlayFest 2025 will take place over two weekends, October 24–26 and October 28–November 2, at Orlando Shakes. The festival includes post-show discussions and offers audiences the chance to shape new works through direct engagement with artists.

The Outrage: A Queer Writers' Residency convened for the second year this past June at NACL. Lyndsey and Brad talk with Outrage founder C. Julian Jimenez and participants from both years of the program.

In 2023 playwright and performer C. Julian Jimenez approached NACL with an idea to establish a residency for queer-identifying artists. In 2024 The Outrage was born, and just last month it was born again. The video below gives an overview of the project, featuring artists from both years.

The Outrage arose out of a need for a space where queer writers could be in community, write, share with one another, and receive intentional and honest feedback, without having to explain or contextualize their work. The Outrage is an environment for craft exploration providing a safe space for risk-taking and imagination.

The Outrage experience was poignantly rendered by Marcus Scott after this year's residency:

"I reconnected with what nourishes me: the sanctity of storytelling, the spiritual rigor of joy, and the clarity of purpose that emerges when survival gives way to presence. I do not romanticize this moment. I am acutely aware that the ability to pursue one’s creative calling—especially as a Black, queer, working-class artist—requires navigating a labyrinth of precarity, structural exclusion, and emotional dissonance. My life does not resemble the stability I once imagined, but I recognize the improbable privilege of being able to make art in the margins.

This week reminded me that to create while under siege is not a miracle; it is a strategy. That joy, for some of us, is not ornamental but insurgent. That to insist on your right to imagine is, in fact, a political act. I remain humbled, altered, and radically grateful. This is only the beginning."

"NACL provides a haven for artists..." We are continually reminded by those who have been in residence here how important it is to have access to such a place to be able to explore, experiment, and bring new work to life. This is particularly true for all those who "make art in the margins." Our efforts will hopefully help those margins to keep growing wider... We are looking forward to welcoming the next cohort, as plans are underway for The Outrage to return in 2026.

Follow The Outrage on Instagream @the_outrage_residency

"The 7th cycle of our New Works Lab (which is co-directed by Cynthia G. Robinson and A.J. Muhammad) is winding down! Read about the exciting projects our playwrights have been diligently developing over the past several months!" - The Fire This Time Festival

Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024

Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Alum Marcus Scott (Cycle 22) awarded the Chesley/Bumbalo Award for Playwriting. The Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Foundation supports playwrights of Gay and Lesbian theatre.

This collective of writers was carefully selected from an extensive submission and outreach process to honor the mission of JCTC, and to realize the goals of The GSNPF.

By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 28, 2024

Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) and The New Jersey Play Lab (NJPL), in partnership with the Department of Theatre and Dance's BA Theatre Studies Program at Montclair State University, have announced the collective of playwrights selected for participation in the inaugural year of The Garden State New Play Festival (GSNPL).

The diverse collective of playwrights include:

Yangzhou (Yao) Bian Sichuan; China (Binghamton University, NY)

Khadija Diop; Jersey City, NJ

Boris Franklin; Highland Park, NJ

Gabriel Diego Hernández; Jersey City, NJ

Vincent Langan; Union, NJ

Rossella Lopez; Bayonne, NJ

Elijah Maldonado; Belleville, NJ

Palesa Mazamisa; Johannesburg, South Africa

Tiffany McQueary; Jersey City, NJ

Cynthia Mellon; Newark, NJ

Francisco Mendoza; Brooklyn, NY

Dave Osmundsen; Denville NJ

Syd Rushing; Raleigh, NC

Marcus Scott; West New York, NJ

Dylan Zwickel; New York, NY

For more information on these writers, visit The NJPL website.

For a Full pass to the festival, visit www.jctcenter.org.

This collective of writers was carefully selected from an extensive submission and outreach process to honor the mission of JCTC, and to realize the goals of The GSNPF: Community, Festivity, Advocacy, Sustainability, and Artistic Equity.

As artistic institutions in a rapidly changing world, it is incumbent upon us to constantly question whether our work is truly being created, developed, and produced in service of our community, and assess whether or not our work is reaching audiences in a meaningful, impactful manner.

The GSNPF was conceived around a new strategy of blending community and artistic development in which community members are given access to create art not just consume art, resulting in an understanding and celebration of the opportunity for individual and collective growth inherent in the process of new play development.

The Collective of Playwrights participating in the GSNPF include both emerging and early career playwrights, Jersey City Community Members working in the non-profit and advocacy sector, International Artists both from abroad and from our local immigrant communities, college students, and high school students. Each of their plays focuses around an aspect of social justice.

The Garden State New Play Festival will take place on May 1st-4th and 8th-11th, 2025 at Jersey City Theatre Center.

Over the course of the six months leading up to the Festival, each writer will embark on an individualized dramaturgical track to further develop their play for presentation at the Festival. Woven into each track will be an interactive forum with a local community group or organization selected according to the lens of social justice through which the play has been conceived.

Concurrently to the individualized play development tracks, a schedule of workshops, exchanges, classroom visits, play readings, and public events, will take place between November and May, and be open to all Festival participants, including writers, actors, dramaturgs, directors, and community leaders.

The goal is that by the time the Festival itself opens, hundreds of artists and community members will have collaborated and contributed to this process of new play development, and personally experienced the power of the written word for the stage.

The GSNPF offers a new model for a new play festival that brings together artists of all career levels without barriers of hierarchy, and blurs the lines between artist and audience, all while respecting the integrity of each individual artist's craft and experience. This model frames the art of playmaking as a means of expression and advocacy, and as a tool for deeper understanding of self and one's community, and dismantles barriers to producing full productions of new plays by cultivating a vibrant ecosystem that values and champions the power of playmaking.

The Garden State New Play Festival is supported by a grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts, Project Serving Artists grant.