The Alcove

New Play Development Program

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Playwright's Salon

The Lortel Theater Alcove New Play Development Program Playwrights Salon is an opportunity to hear some of our commissioned and affiliated playwrights reading work in their own voice. The salon showcases in-process work from our writers as well as informal conversation after each reading about themes and craft issues shared in common.

Latest Episode

Season 1 Schedule

September 14 – Watch Now

Elaine Ávila

Elaine is a Fulbright Scholar and co-founder of the Climate Change Theatre Action now involving 75,000 participants worldwide. She is described as “a wonderful writer, tremendously gifted, and innovative” (Suzan-Lori Parks), “fully engaged with the immense political, cultural, and aesthetic complexity of fado’s history” (Jeff Parker); her writing as “gorgeous…a piercing cry to the soul” (Katherine Vaz). Her award-winning plays have been produced in over forty cities/countries, from Panamá City to London, Lisbon to Los Angeles. Her books are available from NoPassport Press and Talonbooks.

Zizi Majid

Zizi Majid is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. She recently presented a staged reading of her new play at the Julie Lutz New Play Festival at Syracuse Stage, a play she first wrote during the Julia Miles Playwriting Residency (WP Theatre). She was a 2022-23 Playwriting Fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation and is a proud alumni of the WP Lab. She won the Pacific Rim Prize for Playwriting (Kumu Kahua Theatre/University of Hawaii Manoa Playwriting Contest). Zizi has been a finalist for the Princeton Arts Fellowship, a finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a thrice semi-finalist for the O’Neil National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the Columbia@ Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Plays include They Came in the Night, Return to Fall, The Rejects, and How to Gild an Eagle. For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) garnering multiple awards during her tenure. She teaches playwriting and drama in context at Syracuse University. MFA: Columbia University. Website: zizimajid.com

Zarina Shea

Zarina Shea’s plays have been seen at/supported by Lincoln Center Theater, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, BRIC Arts, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, JACK, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Ucross Foundation, among others. She was a Fondazione Giorgio Cini Fellow at the Vittore Branca Center in Venice and a Working Farm Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. As an actor, Zarina has performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Trinity Rep, and Ars Nova, among others. BA: University of Chicago, MFA in Acting: Brown University, MFA in Playwriting: Brooklyn College.

October 12 – Watch Now

Annie Siddons

Annie is a writer, dramaturg and performer from South East London, UK, with origins in Egypt, Greece, and the East Midlands of the UK. She trained in theatre and French at Royal Holloway, University of London (1st Class Hons). Her work mixes the mythic and mundane, smooshes the dark and the light. Her breakthrough play, written after a misspent youth and then having two daughters, was a version of Rapunzel taken up by Cornish legends Kneehigh Theatre. It opened at BAC in 2006, returned to the South Bank 2007, then toured the UK 2007-8, finishing at the New Victory Theatre New York in 2008.

William Gregory

Productions of William Gregory’s translations include A Fight Against… by Pablo Manzi (Royal Court, London), Villa by Guillermo Calderon (Play Company, New York), and Cuzco by Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez (Theatre503, London). Publications include Selected Plays by Cuban Playwright Abel González Melo, The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays and, as co-editor, The Methuen Drama Book of Contemporary Uruguayan Plays. He was translator in residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation, is a Visiting Research Associate at King’s College London, and in 2024 joined the staff of the Orange Tree theatre, London, as Literary Associate. He is based in London.

Daniel York Loh

Daniel York Loh is a writer, performer, filmmaker and musician of mixed Singaporan British heritage. His dramatic writing has been performed at the Arcola, Royal Court, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Ovalhouse and Soho Theatre. He is one of 21 'writers of colour' featured in the best-selling essay collection THE GOOD IMMIGRANT. As an actor, he has performed at the RSC, National Theatre and in the West End. He is one third of the alt-folk punk duo Wondermare.

November 9

Danny Tejera

Claire Crowley

Claire Crowley (she/her) is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter from the ocean and mountains of New England. Sometimes she writes dark comedies, and sometimes she writes drama, but always their plays are centered on themes of violence and money, grief and loss, hypocrisy and power, (dis)belonging and home, community and friendship and queerness.Her plays include THE SCOUTS OF AMERICA DON’T SELL COOKIES, B*TCH (Blue Ink Award Featured Finalist, GPTC New Play Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, Echoes Writers Program Finalist), THE CALLING or BROKE (O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, Fringe Fest PVD) and METASTASIZED (Woodward Residency Finalist). Her plays have been developed with Primary Stages, The Tank, Playwrights Realm, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, and The Barrow Group.

Erin Gruodis-Gimbel

Erin Gruodis-Gimbel is a New York-based writer, teacher, dramaturg, and chicken wrangler. Her work has been described as “comedy that makes you cry,” or at least that’s what she thinks she read written on a tear-stained tissue someone left in the audience. Her short story, “There’s Nazis in Them There Fredonian Hills” was selected as the best fiction piece published by JAKE Magazine in 2023, and earned her a Best of the Net Literary Award nomination. MFA: NYU.

December 14

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.

January 11

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.

February 8

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

Caridad Svich (Artistic Director of New Play Development) is a playwright, translator, screenwriter, and lyricist whose recognitions include a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement, a 2018 Ellen Stewart Career Achievement Award from ATHE, and a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama. Her signature plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart, Red Bike (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Guapa (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Spark (National Latino Playwriting Award), and The House of the Spirits(ATCA Primus Prize). Her play In the Time of the Butterflies is currently running at Repertorio Espanol in NYC. Her play Eva Luna (world premiere: 2022) receives regional premieres at Teatro Dallas (2026) and GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington D.C. in 2027. She was also a co-screenwriter on feature film FUGITIVE DREAMS, streaming on Apple TV and more platforms.