Visionary Playwrights

Announcing
Our 2023 Visionary PlaywrightS!

Matthew Libby is a writer and actor based in Brooklyn, by way of Los Angeles. His play DATA won the Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, and was adapted as a digital production presented by the Tony-winning Alliance Theatre in May 2021, a production featured in a New York Times review of virtual theatre works that “clear a path toward continued innovation and growth of the form.” Matt is a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, Theater Masters Visionary Playwright, Neukom Award winner, two-time Princess Grace Award finalist, three-time O’Neill Playwrights Conference semifinalist, and Blue Ink Playwriting Award featured finalist, and his work has been produced and developed by theaters across the country, including Alliance Theatre, Northern Stage, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Theater Masters, The Barrow Group, The Road Theater Company, WNYU’s Theatre-in-the-Sound, and others. With Stanford Repertory Theater, he helped devise and acted in THE MANY FACES OF FARCE, which was nominated for a 2018 Bay Area Critics Award for Best Production. As a TV writer, he is developing a pilot for Hulu with producer Beau Willimon, and his screenwriting work has been recognized by The Black List and Script Pipeline. Matt studied cognitive science and creative writing at Stanford University, and received his MFA in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was awarded the Chair’s Award for Distinguished Achievement. He is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild of America.

J.C. Pankratz (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, transgender playwright and educator writing genre-defying work about gender, class, trauma, and magic.Their plays include Egg Tooth (Distinguished Achievement, Jean Kennedy Smith Award), Redeemer Mine (Finalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference), and Joyless Eye (Semi-Finalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference; Runner-up, Jean Kennedy Smith Award). Previous collaborators include the Kitchen Dog Theater, Lily + Joan Theatre Company, Seattle Theatre Works, and the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. They are the recipient of the 2021 FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language from Synecdoche Works for their play Seahorse.

MEET THE 2022 VISIONARY PLAYWRIGHTS

LYNN ROSEN is a playwright and TV writer. She recently sold two pilots to a major network/studio and has more in the pipeline. Her plays have been seen at many theatres, including: New Georges, San Francisco Playhouse, Women's Project, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Centerstage Baltimore, Studio Theatre, Working Theater, The New Group. Recent: Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan commission for “The Overview Effect”, a play about the race to space and the emotional and spiritual costs of risk-taking (her third EST/Sloan commission); “The Claudias” Red Bull Theatre’s inaugural new play commission; and “Girls! Gurlz! Gyrls!”, a new musical about feminists Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown, and Florynce Kennedy, commissioned by Tony-winning Theatreworks Silicon Valley. Lynn is co-writing the book with Pia Wilson, music by Paula Cole. Lynn is co-founder of the playwright-driven, pop-up theatre company The Pool, now in its third incarnation. Lynn co-wrote/co-created the award-winning web series “Darwin”, directed by Carrie Preston and Greg Ivan Smith, as well as the upcoming comic web series “Hot Air,” starring Chad Kessler. She is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

JULIA IZUMI is a writer and performer who makes plays, musicals, and other theatrical nonsense. Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Club, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Bushwick Starr, WP Theater, The COOP, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Seattle Rep, ArtsWest, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights' Workshop, Barn Arts Collective, BMI’s Librettists Workshop, CAATA’s National Asian-American Theatre ConFest, Rorschach Theatre, and Pork Filled Productions. Honors for her work include O’Neill Finalist, Kilroys List Honorable Mention, and Theater Masters’ Take Ten. She received the inaugural OPC Dr. Kerry English Award, KCACTF’s Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award, NY Society Library's Emerging Women's Artist Grant and a Puffin Artists' Grant. She is a New Dramatists Resident and is currently under commission from True Love Productions, MTC/Sloan, Playwrights Horizons, and Seattle Rep. MFA: Brown University. www.juliaizumi.com

CAYENNE DOUGLASS has had work developed and/or produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Theatre Masters, Fresh Ink Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre Company, Dixon Place, The Tank, Clutch Productions, City Theatre Miami, FEAST: A Performance Series, and Manhattan Repertory Theatre. She has participated in The First Stage Residency through The Drama League, The Barn Arts Residency, and The Emerging Artists Residency at Tofte Lake. Cayenne has been a finalist for The Bay Area Festival and The Playwrights’ Center Core Apprenticeship two years in a row. She has been published by Smith & Kraus and Concord Theatricals/Sam French. Cayenne is currently in The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and Company One Theatre’s Volt Lab 2022. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. For more information visit: www.cayennedouglass.com or follow Cayenne on IG: bruteful_theatre.

Meet the 2021 Visionary Playwrights

LAUREN YEE was the second most produced playwright in America for the 2019/20 theatrical season (as per American Theatre Magazine). Her plays include Cambodian Rock Band  (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, City Theatre, Merrimack Rep) and The Great Leap  (Denver Center, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, InterAct Theatre, Steppenwolf). Honors: Doris Duke Artists Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, Horton Foote Prize, Kesselring Prize, Primus Prize, Hodder Fellowship, #1 and #2 plays on 2017 Kilroys List. New Dramatists, Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab, Playwrights Realm alum. TV: Pachinko (Apple), Soundtrack (Netflix). BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD.  www.laurenyee.com

SP O'BRIEN: Hailing from the smallest state in the country, SP has also lived in Vermont, New York, Arizona, California, and France. He was a 2016 Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, a 2016 Best of Fringe Winner in the FringeNYC, and a 2017 Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award. He was a 2019 recipient of Theater Masters’ Take Ten Play Lab where his short play SUCKERS was workshopped and subsequently produced. It was published by Samuel French in 2020. SP holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. He’s so excited to have another opportunity to work with Theater Masters.

MAY TREUHAFT-ALI is a playwright and new-play dramaturg. After graduating from Wesleyan University, she completed an M.Phil in Theatre and Performance Studies at Trinity College Dublin on a George J. Mitchell Scholarship. She is a Writing Fellow at The Playwrights Realm, an alumna of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers’ Group, and a recipient of two commissions from Adventure Theatre MTC. She has worked as a dramaturg at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Ars Nova ANT Fest, and Haven Theatre Chicago. Her dramaturgical essays have been published in Playwrights Horizons’ Almanac and Table Work Press’ Two Plays. May is currently the Literary Fellow at Playwrights Horizons.

THADDEUS McCANTS is a Brooklyn-based Playwright, Television Writer, and Performer originally from Madison, Wisconsin. As a TV Writer, he is currently developing series for both BET & Audible. As a playwright, he is a Theater Masters Visionary Playwright, an O’Neill Semi-Finalist, and a Finalist for the Goldberg Play Prize. As a performer, he has appeared in National TV commercials, Originated Disney Musicals, and worked on-screen with HBO, MTV and more. He holds an MFA from NYU Tisch and a BFA from Ithaca College.

“The writer cannot be a mere storyteller; they cannot be a mere teacher; they cannot merely X-ray society's weaknesses, its ills, its perils. They must be actively involved shaping its present and its future” – Ken Saro Wiwa”

MEET THE 2020 VISIONARY PLAYWRIGHTS:

AVA GEYER received her BA from Princeton University in 2015 and MFA in playwriting from UC San Diego in 2019. Geyer is currently the Shank Resident Playwright at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, a member of EST/Youngblood, and under commission by La Jolla Playhouse. Her play Monster was a finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. She was a finalist for the 2019/2020 Jerome Fellowship and semi-finalist for the Ingram New Works Lab. Her play Fruit Snacks appeared in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as part of the Hopeful Decade event celebrating new work by female playwrights. Past plays include SERE (Wagner New Play Festival 2018) and Baby Teeth (WNPF '17).

PHILLIP HOWZE is a theater maker whose work includes Self Portraits (BRIC-Arts Media) and Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr). He is currently a Lucas Artist Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center and a Resident Writer at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3. He was recently named the Lecturer in Playwriting at Harvard University’s new Theater, Dance & Media program.

MEET THE 2019 VISIONARY PLAYWRIGHTS:

JESSICA HUANG is a playwright and producer from Minneapolis, based in New York City. Jessica’s work has been developed, commissioned, and/or produced by New York Theatre Workshop, The New Group, Atlantic Theater Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, History Theatre, Theater Mu, and many more. Jessica is a MacDowell Fellow; two-time Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow; and Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow; and has received awards from the Sloan Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council/McKnight.
Jessica cofounded and co-directs Other Tiger Productions, a theatrical production company with a mission to pursue multidisciplinary collaborations, intentional inclusivity and a re-examination of traditional theater practices. She is a member of the Civilians R&D Group, Ars Nova Play Group, Page 73's Interstate 73, and she is a resident playwright at Chance Theater. She attends the Playwrights Program at Juilliard.

EMILY ZEMBA is a Brooklyn-based playwright, screenwriter, and creative producer. Her work has been seen and developed with places like The Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland, Exquisite Corpse Company, Williamstown Theater Festival's Professional Training Company, First Floor Theater (Chicago). Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Playwrights’ Center, Great Plains Theater Conference, The Party Line, GUIDED TOUR, and the Yale Cabaret. Emily holds an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is an Affiliated Writer with The Playwrights Center, affiliated artist with New Georges, co-founder of The Party Line, and founding member of Middle Voice at Rattlestick. She has worked with MCC Theater Youth Company’s Playwrights Lab as a mentor and director. Emily has taught playwriting with Tres Artis studio in NYC and at Wesleyan University.

HARMON. is a queer multiply neurodivergent writer/performer/visual artist. Harmon.’s works for the theatre include: Minden (The Tank, TBA); People Like Us, a musical autofiction (written with Lisbeth Scott, in development); No Land to Land In (Dixon Place, Director: Craig Lucas); Goodbye, Kansas, a new musical (KC Fringe Fest); Disability Romp (Folly Theatre, KCMO, a dance); M. (Bete Noire Online Theatre Festival, 2021); Visionary, a musical biography of Buddha (Elgin Theatre, Toronto, Director: Craig Lucas); True Blood musical (workshop 2017/18, Director: Pam McKinnon). Harmon. is a fellow at the Hermitage Artist’s Retreat in Englewood, Florida. As a performer, Harmon. has toured the country as a stand up and in sketch comedy and solo shows. Harmon.’s performative work explores trauma, sexual violence, mental illness, alter personalities and humor as a way to open up space for truth-telling and to build resilience/reduce fear among those who have survived abuse and to inform those who live in ignorance of the toll humanity’s hidden epidemic takes on victims and their communities. Over the past ten years, Harmon.’s paintings, videos and embroidered sculptures have been sought after by private collectors across the U.S. Harmon. is based in Hudson Valley, NY.

Professional Play Development Programs

In 2008, Theater Masters initiated the Visionary Playwrights Award, in partnership with the Aspen Institute and three of America's top regional theaters: Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, La Jolla Playhouse in California, and Playwrights Horizons in NYC. One playwright from each theater, was chosen jointly by Theater Masters and the participating theater, received a pass to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival and was commissioned to write a new full-length play. The playwrights were to draw inspiration from the Festival and reflect the Institute's philosophy of timeless values and powerful issues.

As this program has evolved, we now instead draw from Theater Masters' own pool of alumni, choosing two of our own playwrights each year to receive this prestigious Award, participate in The Aspen Ideas Festival, and receive a full-length play commission.

Since 2014, we have been able to add the additional commitment to this Award that Theater Masters will either do a developmental workshop and reading of the playwrights Visionary Play or will connect them with a theater able to so. This added commitment is meaningful to the playwrights as it gives them additional support to develop the play to the point of being ready for a production.

This program can boast an impressive list of alumni. Among the many Visionary Plays that have been written through this program, our first commissioned play, Milk Like Sugar, by Kirsten Greenidge, ran at La Jolla Playhouse, then at Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway where it won the Obie for Best Play. Another commissioned play, Marjorie Prime, by Jordan Harrison ran at Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway in November 2015 and was a Finalist for the Pulitzer.

New Play Development

Our New Play Development series invites a director, playwright, and cast to Aspen, New York, or Palm Beach, where workshops of a new play-in-progress culminate in a reading for the community and/or industry. In 2015 Theater Masters additionally launched a partnership with the O'Neill Playwrights Center for them to offer a residency to a Theater Masters playwright in the Fall. Plays and musicals developed have received a 1st Place in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the honor of being the critics choice as one of the 10 best plays of the year, Off-Broadway productions and a production at the Berkshire Theater Festival.

Talkabouts

As part of Theater Masters' education for audiences, our Talkabout programs feature world-renowned artists in a series of lectures and theatrical readings on a variety of topics. Past Talkabouts have included director Richard Digby Day and actress Dana Ivey discussing what theatre's great characters reveal about political ambition; Denver Center Theater's Kent Thompson on what it takes to be an artistic director; and Cheers' star Shelley Long on mastering stage, film, and television.

Theater Masters Presents

Theater Masters presents distinguished professional productions for Aspen/Roaring Fork audiences. These popular events have included Gareth Armstrong's Shylock, Frank Barrie's Playing Shakespeare, and the provocative plays Dearborn Heights and Open Admissions.

Our School Outreach program uses a Theater Masters production as a springboard to bring arts education to the high schools in the Roaring Fork Valley. A study guide is produced for students and teachers. The Theatre professionals visit classrooms to discuss the play Theater Masters is presenting, with a focus on how the themes relate to the students' studies and their own lives. This is followed by a trip to the theater where the students see the play for themselves and deepen their discussion.