The Alcove

Dhari Noel

Dhari Noel is a Queer Black Caribbean Harlemite artist whose work explores the incoherence of race, failures of gender, and inherited performances. Recent plays include: Is Cry You Cry’n? (Brown University & Clubbed Thumb Showcase), Money Shot (Brown University, 2025 O’Neill NPC Finalist), Penguin Sex With Mr. Morgan (ANTfest/Ars Nova), Man Made (2024 O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist), and Spirit Junkie (Cherry Picking, The Wild Project). Recent conferences include: 2023 Tennessee Williams Scholar (Sewanee Writers Conference), 2023 Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow (Lambda Literary). Dhari is a current member of Page 73’ writers group. Dhari has an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University.

Tristan Willis

Eka Savajol

Eka Savajol (they/he) is a transmasc playwright, lighting designer, and multidisciplinary artist interested in spirals. Eka’s writing, lighting, and performance work has appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe, La Mama as part of Poetry Electric, the Tank, the Chain, Colorado College; in print and online journals, play festivals, experimental musical albums, and more. They were a 2025 FABnyc LES Young Artists of Color fellow. Eka is also one of the co-founders of the publishing collective Active Chapter, which has put out numerous publications, including the ongoing series Trans Opinions Periodically, and hosted events and workshops throughout New York.

Peter Pasco

Peter Pasco’s an actor, NYU grad from the Bronx, and Yankees fan. Over the years he’s worked on plays, commercials, tv, films, and himself. Peter’s been told he looks like Marc Anthony, Wilmer Valderrama, Esai Morales, or a young Lin Manuel Miranda.  Proving all Latinx people look the same.  As long as you think he's handsome he doesn't care what celebrity he resembles.  Part of Play Penn’s 24/25 playwriting cohort, Peter’s first play was a semifinalist for the O’Neill and Blue Ink.  In 2025 he had short pieces in the Fresh Fruit Festival and Bread&Roses Missouri 2025 Social Justice Shorts Festival.

Brian James Polak

Brian James Polak is an award-winning playwright born and raised in New Hampshire. His plays have been presented at venues and schools around the country, and have been published by Smith & Kraus, Talon Review, Commonplace Books, NoPassport Press, Next Stage Press, and Canyon Voices. He has been awarded the Jean Kennedy Smith and John Cauble Awards from The Kennedy Center and an Elliot Norton Award (co-recipient for P.S. Page Me Later). For ten years he has hosted and produced American Theatre magazine's "The Subtext," a playwright-centered podcast. He received his MFA from the University of Southern California.

Max Langert

Max Langert is a playwright, producer and storyteller based in Austin, Texas. His plays have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and elsewhere. He’s told stories for Listen to Your Mother, Risk, Testify, and The Vancouver Story Slam. He’s produced benefit shows for The Autism Society of Central Texas, The SAFE Alliance, and VELA Families of Austin. A film version of his play A Million More to Go premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

Iraisa Ann Reilly

Iraisa Ann Reilly (She/Ella) is a writer, performer, and educator who is half-Cuban, half-Irish, and whole New Jersey. Select full-length plays include Good Cuban Girls (Teatro del Sol, at The Arden Theatre), The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo (Sol Fest 2022, Yale Drama Series Shortlist 2022, Finalist Leah Ryan Prize, KCACTF) Saturday Mourning Cartoons ( Arkansas New Play Festival 2023, Winner, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival 2022, Finalist Goldberg Playwriting Prize 2022, Semifinalist Blue Ink Award 2023, Semifinalist Premiere Stages). Her work has been developed with Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, The Chain Theatre, The Workshop Theatre, ARTHouse INKubator, NYU Production Lab’s Development Studio and the Latinx Playwright’s Circle. Her play “House Bill 3979: Amendment #10: The Life and Works of Dr. Hector P. Garcia” was commissioned and produced by Texas A&M-University-Corpus Christi in 2022. Iraisa Ann is currently under commission with the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and Michigan State University. She is a recipient of the 2023 Latinx Playwright’s Circle Mentorship, working with mentor Migdalia Cruz. As a screenwriter, her screenplay La Reina del Bronx won best screenplay at Fusion Film Festival and was a semifinalist for the Vail Screenwriting Competition. Iraisa Ann recently performed off-Broadway in Arlene Hutton’s According to the Chorus. She’s taught students of all ages and is an adjunct professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU. MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, B.A. in Theatre and English from the University of Notre Dame. iraisaannreilly.com.

Savannah Reich

Savannah Reich is a playwright and screenwriter based in West Philadelphia. Her plays have been produced at theaters and universities across the country, commissioned or developed by Walking Shadow Theater Company, The Flea, the University of Minnesota, SuperGroup, the Playwrights Center, and Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and supported by residencies at Tofte Lake Art Center and MassMoCA. She was a 2020/21 McKnight Fellow at the Playwrights Center, and her play “Oedipus in Seattle” was the winner of the audience choice award at the 2022 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She currently teaches Playwriting and Screenwriting at the University of the Arts and Dramaturgy at Swarthmore College.

Gretchen Suárez-Peña

Gretchen Suárez-Peña (she/her) is a Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter based in Florida. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (2024). She is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University Department of Theatre and Dance. Awards and Recognitions: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, Voices of Women Theatre Festival, Straz Center, DUAF, SheATL, and the Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival. A portion of her work is available to be read on the New Play Exchange, and she is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. gretchensuarezpena.com