We are thrilled to welcome three additional artists:
playwrights Bleu Beckford-BURRELL, Adrienne Dawes, and Noelle Viñas;
as well as extend the Residency of four of last year's cohort:
directors Tara Elliott, J. Mehr Kaur, and Portia Krieger, as well as playwright Emma Goidel
Now in its 4th year, the CoCo Residency provides an intimate group of playwrights & directors with the invaluable resources of community, space to work, and a stipend. Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and Managing Director Bailey Williams meet with Residents on a quarterly basis with an emphasis on forging authentic creative collaborations and amplifying these artists' voices. We also invite luminaries from the field to join us for conversations. This past February, we had the privilege of sitting down with auteur directors Tina Satter, Tamilla Woodard and CoCo Resident alum Whitney White.
(All of last year's residents were offered the option to extend through 2021, due to the unique impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Here is a bit more information about this incredible cohort:
Bleu Beckford-Burrell is a first-generation Jamaican-American actor/playwright. Born and raised in New York City, she works for non-profit organizations where she teaches acting to teens, as well as write and direct plays. Her plays include: P.S.365 (2019 O’Neill Finalist) showcased at EST (Youngblood Workshop Series) and The National Black Theatre (Keep the Soul Alive reading series). Lyons Pride (2018 BAPF, Princess Grace Award Finalist, 2019 The Kilroy’s Honorable Mention, and Yale Drama Series Runner Up) showcased at Playwrights Realm (Ink’d Festival of New Plays) and EST (Bloodwork Reading Series). La Race (2020 Normal Ave Finalist and O’Neill, BAPF Semi-finalist) up-coming showcases at Faultline Theatre (Irons in the Fire) and Page73 (Virtual Residency). She is The Playwright Realm Fellow (2018), PWC New Voices Fellowship (2018, Finalist), P73 Fellowship (2020, Finalist), NYTW/2050 Fellowship (2019, Finalist) as well as an I73 playwright (2020), Colt Coeur resident (2021), PWC Core Writer (2020, Finalist), WP Lab (2020, Finalist), Working Farm (2019, Finalist), et cet. She received the Playwrights Horizons, Jody Falco & Jeffrey Steinman Commission for Emerging Playwrights (2020) and has been nominated for South Coast Repertory, Elizabeth George Emerging Writer Commission (2021). M.F.A. Rutgers University. BleuBeckford.com
Adrienne Dawes is a playwright, producer, and teaching artist originally from Austin, TX. Her work has been developed with Queen City New Play Initiative, The Workshop Theater, Stages Repertory, B Street Theatre, Teatro Milagro, National Black Theatre, North Carolina Black Repertory, English Theatre Berlin, and more. Adrienne has been an Alice Judson Hayes Fellow (Ragdale Foundation), a Literary Fellow at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (George Kaiser Family Foundation), and she was recently awarded a 2020 MAP Fund grant for her play Casta (slated to premiere at the Blanton Museum of Art in 2021). Adrienne is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ScriptWorks, and a company member of Salvage Vanguard Theater. www.adriennedawes.com
Emma Goidel is the 2020 Playwriting Fellow at Page 73. Her plays include The Gap (Barrymore Award, Kilroys List 2019), Two Minutes To Midnight (Clubbed Thumb Emerging Writers Group, mentored by Sheila Callaghan), A Knee That Can Bend (Nominee, ATCA/Steinberg Award & Lanford Wilson Award), Local Girls (Finalist, Princess Grace Award), and We Can All Agree To Pretend This Never Happened (EST, Òran Mór, Tiny Dynamite/InterAct). Her work has been presented by Ars Nova, Clubbed Thumb, InterAct, LAByrinth, Playwrights Realm, Playwrights’ Center, NYSAF, and PlayPenn’s the Foundry. She is a co-founder of the Barrymore Award-winning producing playwrights collective Orbiter 3, and a Kilroy.
J. Mehr Kaur is a director & producer of theatre and film. She created “Kultar’s Mime,” a movement theatre piece written in verse, about the 1984 anti-Sikh program. Recently, she directed the NY premiere of “Queen” by Madhuri Shekar (APAC) and served as Producing Director for Rat Queen Theatre Co, developing devised musicals. Mehr is the assistant director to Adrienne Campbell-Holt on the new musical “Other World.” She is an MFA candidate at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, a graduate of Smith College, Colt Coeur Resident Artist, WTF Directing Corps member, MTC Directing Fellow and recipient of a Fulbright.
Noelle Viñas is a playwright, educator, and theater-artist from Springfield, Virginia and Montevideo, Uruguay. She is a resident playwright at Playwrights Foundation, a resident artist at Colt Coeur, and 2020-2021 member of The Civilians R&D Group. Her play Derecho won the 2019 John Gassner Playwriting Award, along with being part of the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her one-act play, La profesora, was commissioned and produced by TheatreFirst and is currently in development to become the podcast Abuelito with We Rise Production. Recent commissions include Weston Playhouse for her short play Zoom Intervention (NY Times Critic's Pick) and Shotgun Players. She is currently an MFA Playwriting Candidate at Brooklyn College under Erin Courtney, Tina Satter, and Anne Washburn.