Life Jacket Theatre Company has named C. Quintana the inaugural recipient of their $10,000 commission for Trans+ playwrights, which includes gender non-conforming, gender-expansive, and nonbinary individuals. 

Quintana was selected from hundreds of applicants after a national open call. The commission will support Quintana as they create a new play based on in-depth interviews with Trans+ people living across America. 

“I am most looking forward to the conversations—the big human heart of this play,” Quintana says. “I want to lean in and celebrate the good stuff: Trans+ victories, loves, exuberance, resilience, quiet joys. From the smallest moments to the grandest in scale.”

Quintana has previously worked with companies including Audible, The Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Diversionary Theatre. The new work they develop using the commission will receive an industry reading in NYC in late 2024, which Life Jacket will produce. 

“We launched this new commission to uplift and celebrate Trans+ voices during an alarming rise in Trans-phobic violence and an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation,” says Travis Russ, Life Jacket artistic director. “We are excited about Quintana’s unique vision to create a new theatrical work that pulls Trans+ stories from the margins and places them center stage where they belong.”

Life Jacket Theatre Company was founded in 2015, with a commitment to "championing undertold stories—those that are currently or historically rejected, erased, or forgotten." 

Visit LifeJacketTheatre.org to learn more.