Introducing the 2020 Short Play Lab Members!

Performing August 8-15, 2020

Please help support the 2020 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!

K. Alexa Mavromatis

ALEXA is a Boston-based playwright whose award-winning short plays and one-acts have been produced by theatres across the country including FUSION Theatre Company, Southern Rep Theatre, Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, Gorilla Tango Theatre, and ArtsCenter Stage. Her work is published in numerous anthologies, textbooks, and acting editions. Alexa’s full-length plays include The Back Room (third place winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award), Gravity, and Pirate Radio. She is a past playwriting fellow at New Repertory Theatre, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Rhombus Playwrights. Alexa earned her MFA in Playwriting at Boston University. In addition to her work as a playwright, Alexa proudly serves on the staff of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. 

Uma Paranjpe

UMA is an Indian-American actor, playwright, and teaching artist originally from San Francisco. Growing up surrounded by music, she has been working in the arts her whole life. After graduating, she moved to New York to begin work at the Atlantic Theater Company, where she is a teaching artist. She also works with Breaking Walls, an international youth empowerment non-profit organization. Uma plays drums and piano, and gives private voice lessons from her home. She believes that music and art amplify young people's voices, and has dedicated herself to making sure they are heard. Uma also strives to give voice to the voiceless through her plays. She enjoys writing about mothers and children, as well as the isolation and loneliness that everyone from every background can feel.  

Jennifer Rowland

JENNIFER is a Los Angeles based playwright whose plays have been produced at Skylight Theater (The Lost Child), Pacific Resident Theatre (The Indians are Coming to Dinner), Powerhouse Theater and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (The Contest). Her plays have also been presented as part of Antaeus Theatre “Lab Results” Festival, (Regular Joes, directed by Jonathan Lynn, and Ditmas Park directed by Michael John Garcés”), The Road Theater Summer Playwrights Festival, ( The Cold Inside and One Good Death), and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (The Cold Inside- Andrew Carlberg, producer) Her plays have been developed at Antaeus Theatre Company’s Playwrights Lab, Rogue Machine Theatre and Pacific Resident Theater. Jennifer is an alumnus of Harvard College and American Conservatory Theatre’s Young Conservatory. She is a former board member of Cornerstone Theatre and a member of the Dramatists Guild and currently serves on the Playwrights Panel of Antaeus Theatre’s Writers Lab. 

Yuliya Tsukerman

YULIYA is  a Brooklyn-based playwright and puppetmaker born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work juxtaposes poetic language, otherworldly bodies, and closely-observed details of everyday life to navigate the uncomfortable spaces between the ordinary and the alien. Her plays (Before And After, Freezing Point, Dennis, and The Black Sea) have been performed at St. Ann's Warehouse (Brooklyn, NY), The Brick (Brooklyn, NY), Nouveau 47 (Dallas, TX), and the Actors Studio Drama School, and she's been awarded residencies at St. Ann's Warehouse, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace program, and Mana Contemporary. Her marionette films (Mother in All Your Disguises, Mojave That Made Us, Rebeginning, Exordium/Outgrown) have screened in festivals around the world, in the USA, Japan, Colombia, and France. She's been featured nationally on CNN and MSN, and online at places like Slate, Gizmodo, and the A.V. Club. 

Zakeia Tyson-Cross

ZAKEIA is a native of Harlem, NY, Zakeia Tyson-Cross is a naturally gifted storyteller, playwright and performer whose passion for life, history and community inspires her creativity. She has a deep commitment to social change and for people of color, specifically in the areas of gender violence, reproductive justice,  and the preservation of historical time- periods within the black communities. As a member of the esteemed Harlem Writer’s Guild, Zakeia awakened to fertile ground on which to hone her craft to reach hearts and minds. Her poetry and other creative writings have appeared on numerous blogs such as Harlem World Magazine, Opportunity Agenda, and BK Nation, where she also served as their official blogger. Zakeia was recognized by The Billie Holiday Theater, 50in50: Women’s Voices Initiative curated by playwright Dominique Morriseau. A self-professed “life-long learner” she continues to find inspiration and motivation daily. A New Pain, a two-act play, is her debut. 

Laura Zlatos

LAURA is a Pittsburgh-born, Brooklyn-based playwright and librettist. Her plays include The Blue Whale (2019 Dr. R.J. Rodriguez Emerging Playwrights Contest, 2nd Place; 2020 O’Neill Playwrights Conference semi-finalist), Happily After Ever (2017 Woodward/Newman Drama Award; 59E59 Theaters; Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Bloomington Playwrights Project; The Advocate's Top 10 NY Theater of 2016, Honorable Mention), Three Hours (HERE Arts Center), Exposure (Gene Frankel Theatre), and the musical A Problem with the Pattersons (2020 O’Neill Music Theatre Conference semi-finalist) with lyricist/composer Andre Catrini. She was a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, the Jerome Fellowship, and the Core Writer Program at the Playwrights’ Center. Laura is a member of the Orchard Project’s NYC Greenhouse and was a resident playwright with the Exquisite Corpse Company. Her play “The Pill” was published in Short Plays on Reproductive Freedom. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU. 

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 has been acting and directing since she was 10 years old. After graduating from Towson University’s theater department with a concentration in directing, she produced and directed plays in Baltimore festivals for several years. She relocated to New York in 2012 to study with the Tom Todoroff Studio and began producing films as well as plays in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Recent credits include the “Once Upon a Dream” and “From the Shadows” festival at the John DeSotelle Studio, and Proof at Theatre54. www.karinpresents.com

Lauren Kiele Deleon

Lauren is an Uruguayan-American director, poet, and intimacy director. Her work focuses primarily on theatre for social change, climate change, and the female-presenting body on stage. Directing credits include City Theatre Next Generation; Men On Boats, FM, Let Me Explain…, Austentation(SUNY Purchase), Ladies of the Land(AD, Drama League), The One Minute Play Festival (INTAR), A Hannukah Carol(West of 10th), Playgrounds(The Lark), Serials(The Flea), Recipe for A Sellout(The Wild Project),Surely Goodness and Mercy (Asst. Dir., Theatre Row), Stork (Hudson Guild Theatre), Tonantzin (Nuyorican Poets Cafe), and Bad Penny(Asst. Dir., The Flea). Upcoming: Intimacy Director for a devised piece in NYC and multiple productions at SUNY Purchase and in Connecticut. Lauren is the Dev. Asst.at The Lark Theatre, a Resident Directorat The Flea, a member of Roundabout Theatre's Directors Group, and a director for 48Hours in...™ El Bronx!;a collaboration between Pregones Theater/PRTT and Harlem9, Inc.She is a graduate of SUNY Purchase with a BA in Theatre & Performance Directing and minor in Playwriting. www.laurenkdeleon.com

Christina Franklin

Christina is a Brooklyn based theatre artist and teacher. She received a BFA in Directing, Playwriting, and Production from the University of The Arts and went on to work with various companies including The Lark, National Black Theatre, The Signature, New York Theater Workshop, and The Public. Recent directing and assisting credits include; The Wolves(The Professional Performing Arts School), For Colored Girls…, White Noise(The Public Theater) and Slave Play(NYTW) . She has written and directed for Royal Family Productions and TADA! Youth Theater, earning several National Youth Theatre awards and nominations. Many thanks to everyone at New Perspectives Theatre Company. 

Chanon Judson

CHANON is a Choreographer, Director, and Performer with the critically acclaimed Urban Bush Women (Associate Artistic Director). 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!

Katie Pedro

Katie is a Brooklyn based director and theatre maker interested in making female centric work, plays with music, magical realism, and exploring queer narratives. Past directing credits includeA Short Life of Trouble: A Play with Appalachian Folk Music(Everyday Inferno) Samuel Beckett’s Play, Landsharks, and Third Bride (Troy Foundry Theatre), Monte, Tennessee andBuffalo Buffalo (Exquisite Corpse Company), Pioneer (Hunger & Thirst Theatre), Maria Irene Fornes’ Fefu and Her Friends (Sarah Lawrence College), Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (Dyckman Farmhouse Museum), Love Stories My Mother Told Me (Dixon Place). Associate Director: Hoodoo, Berlin, Germany. Associate Artistic Director, Troy Foundry Theatre. Apprentice, League of Professional Theatre Women. BS Russell Sage College, MFA Sarah Lawrence College. 

Daniela Ortiz (2020 Directing Apprentice)

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.