2 COMMISSIONS IN THE WORKS!
We are continuing our work with commissioned playwright Antoinette Nwandu and are thrilled to announce our 3rd commission, (and 2nd partnership with the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation!). Congrats to playwright Lily Padilla!
Lily Padilla makes plays about sex, intersectional communities and what it means to heal in a violent world. They just received their M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego, where they were mentored by Naomi Iizuka, Deborah Stein, Allan Havis and Kim Rubinstein. Padilla’s work has been developed with the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Victory Gardens Theater, INTAR Theatre and San Diego Repertory Theatre. Her immersive audio installation And Then You Wait, co-created with Dylan Key, reimagined an abandoned grain silo as an apocalyptic fallout shelter in the 2017 La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival. (w)holeness was a finalist for the 2018 Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval of New Work and will be featured in the 2019 Colt Coeur Parity Plays Festival. Padilla facilitates playwriting workshops with the La Jolla Playhouse/TCG Veterans & Theatre Institute. They hold a BFA from NYU Tisch, ETW & Playwrights Horizons. She is also a director, actor and community builder who looks at rehearsal as a laboratory for how we might be together.
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CoCo Residents 2018-2019: Playwrights & Directors
The Residents program provides an intimate group of playwrights & directors with the invaluable resources of space, community, and a small stipend. Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and company members meet with the Residents on a quarterly basis.
BIOS
Will Arbery is a playwright from Texas + Wyoming. Plano premiered at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks in June 2018. Evanston Salt Costs Climbing premiered at New Neighborhood/White Heron in August 2018. Wheelchair is published by 3 Hole Press. He’s currently under commission from Playwrights Horizons. He’s a member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a member of Youngblood, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group. His plays have been developed at Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Cape Cod Theater Project, The New Group, EST/Youngblood, The Bushwick Starr, Alliance/Kendeda, and Tofte Lake Center. Dance work: Pioneer Works, MCA Chicago, Watermill Center. MFA: Northwestern. BA: Kenyon College. Willarbery.com
Melissa Crespo is a NYC based director of theater, opera, and film. Recent credits include: graveyard shift (San Francisco Playhouse); In the Blue Hour (Lil’ Explosions); Brother Toad (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); The Review or How to Eat Your Opposition (WP Theatre); eat and you belong to us (NYU Tisch); ¡Figaro! (90210) (The Duke on 42nd Street & LA Opera); ABC Talent Showcase (Disney NYC); Destiny of Desire (Garden Theatre); Tar Baby (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & London Vault Festival); Fellowships/Residencies: Time Warner Fellow (WP Theatre); Usual Suspect (NYTW); The Director’s Project (Drama League); Van Lier Directing Fellow (Second Stage Theatre); Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow (Arena Stage). Melissa received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama. http://www.melissacrespo.com
Justice Hehir graduated from Hunter College in May 2018 with an MFA in Playwriting, under the tutelage of Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. She holds a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies and English from Rutgers University (2016). Her thesis play, fury, or the frat play (directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt) was awarded the Rita and Burton Goldberg Playwriting Prize and is currently a semi-finalist for the DVRF Playwriting Program. Her work has been seen/heard/developed at the Tribe Theater Company, the Kenyon Playwrights Conference, and Dixon Place. Her play, Night Creatures, will receive its first production in the Tribe’s 2019 season this spring (NYC).
Natalie Margolin is a playwright and actress. Her full length plays include The Power of Punctuation (New York Stage and Film Founders Award Finalist, James E. Michael Playwriting Award, Thomas Turgeon Memorial Award) which premiered Off Broadway in 2016, and Tutus. Her short plays include Welcome to the Neighborhood, Lemons, and Rugby. This past year Natalie produced the first annual She LA playwriting festival, a festival dedicated to developing and producing new work by women. Natalie assisted Theresa Rebeck on her play, What We're Up Against at the WP Theatre in NYC. She has also worked as a dramaturg for Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild) on Lucy's piece titled, Throw Me On The Burnpile And Light Me Up.
Whitney White is a director and musician based in Brooklyn. Upcoming: What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris (The Movement). Recent work: This Land Was Made by Tori Sampson (Vineyard Theatre Lab), Br’er Cotton by Tearrance Chisholm (Endstation Theatre), Rita Tambien Rita by Tony Menses (Juilliard), and Othello (Trinity Rep). She has developed work at: Ars Nova, The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, Joe's Pub, Juilliard, Bushwick Starr, NYU Tisch, Playwrights Realm, Page 73, Bard College, Luna Stage, Princeton University, SUNY Purchase, The Tank, The Lark, and more. Whitney is currently in residency with Ars Nova as part of their 2018 Makers Lab, where she is developing Definition an original concert-play, and The Drama League as part of their Next Wave Residency where she is developing an original adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters with music. She is an Associate Artist at The Roundabout and was a 2050 fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. MFA Brown University / Trinity Rep. More at: www.whitney-white.com.
(Top row: Melissa Crespo // Natalie Margolin // Whitney White
Bottom row: Justice Hehir // Will Arbery)