Industry NewsWP Theater Unveils 2018–2020 Lab MembersThe 15 playwrights, directors, and producers will be in residence at the Off-Broadway theatre for two years.
By
Olivia Clement
August 13, 2018
WP Theater has unveiled its next class of Lab residents, 15 playwrights, directors, and producers who will take part in the 2018–2020 WP Lab, a two-year residency at the award-winning theatre. The incoming Lab members will begin their residencies in August and their works will be presented at the biennial WP Pipeline Festival in 2020.
The 2018–2020 Lab members are divided into three groups based off their discipline, but spend their time at the theatre forming close relationships and collaborating with the other artists in residence. The residency provides Lab members with with a professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, rehearsal space, as well as opportunities for the development and production of new works.
The 2018–2020 playwrights are: Eboni Booth, a Juilliard playwriting fellow who is also an actor and was recently seen Off-Broadway in Dance Nation; Vanessa Garcia, a multi-disciplinary writer and author of White Light; Christina Quintana (CQ), whose play Scissoring was recently seen Off-Broadway; playwright, performer, and educator Charly Evon Simpson (Jump, Behind the Sheet); and Bryna Turner, whose play Bull in a China Shop recently premiered at LCT3.
The 2018–2020 directors are: Victoria Collado, assistant director on John Leguizamo's Latin History For Morons on Broadway, and who has directed for Repertorio Español, MCC Youth Company, Sheen Center, and IATI theatre, among other institutions; director and producer of theatre and new media and former co-artistic producer of Target Margin Theater, Sarah Hughes; Candis C. Jones, who has directed at Rattlestick, The Lark, National Black Theater, and Primary Stages, among other theatres; director, choreographer, and ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre Rebecca Martínez, who has worked with INTAR, Primary Stages, Signature Theatre, and others; and artistic director of Hypokrit Theatre Company Arpita Mukherjee, whose upcoming credits include Eh Dah: Questions for My Father at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, which she is directing, and Monsoon Wedding The Musical, for which she is attached as a book writer.
The 2018–2020 producers are Ilana Becker, a member of The Civilians’ R&D Group, the LCT Directors Lab, Fresh Ground Pepper’s PlayGroup, and a Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow; Marie Cisco, who has worked at MPAACT, The National Black Theatre, The New Black Fest, The Lark, and currently is a line producer for Readings and Artistic Development at The Public Theater; Lucy Jackson, a producing director for The Assembly (shows include Seagullmachine, Home/Sick, and I Will Look Forward to this Later); Stephanie Rolland, who is currently the artistic line producer for McCarter Theatre Center; and Alyssa Simmons, who most recently was the associate producer on Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and will serve as the producer on the 2018 Prelude Festival and as the general management associate on the 2019 Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater.
The WP Playwrights Lab is co-led by WP's producing artistic director Lisa McNulty and artistic producer Rachel Karpf; the Directors Lab is led by Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman and WP's associate artistic director Tamilla Woodard; and the Producers Lab is led by Stephanie Ybarra, who is the newly-announced artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage, and Roberta Pereira, the producing director at The Playwrights Realm).
For more information about the WP Theater and its upcoming productions, visit WPTheater.org.