workshop intensive Spring 2026
Sixteen talented playwrights are selected to participate in The Workshop Intensives, which are collaborative dramaturgical sessions uniquely designed to support each writer wherever they are in the development of their script.
Ayibatari Owei
is an Illinois-born, Maryland-raised playwright who writes plays about Black women’s rage and how violence can manifest in the smallest of actions. She received her BA in Theatre at Smith College. Currently, she’s attending Carnegie Mellon University for her MFA in Dramatic Writing. In 2025, her play, Born All Wrong, was selected as a Semi-Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference and a finalist in Rorschach Theatre’s Magic in Rough Spaces New Play Lab. Her play, La Mer, was selected for Abingdon Theatre Company’s Virtual Festival of Short Plays in 2024, and her most recent short play, A Terrible Fixation, was produced by Sapphest NYC in early 2026. On a regular day, Ayibatari can be found cracking jokes and singing along to ABBA.
Ryan Stevens
(He/They) is a playwright/director currently based in Queens, NY. They received an MA in Theatre from USC and an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, and served as Playwriting Fellow at Emory University from 2023 to 2025. Stevens has worked with Silver Spring Stage, The Impostors Theatre, Inkwell Theatre, St. Croix Falls Festival Theatre, Queen City Theatre, New American Theatre, Whiskey Radio Hour, Theatre Viscera, Festival D’Avignon, Broken Slate Productions, The Plagiarists Chicago, Corn Productions, Stage Left Theatre, Philadelphia Dramatists Center, T. Schreiber Studio, Seoul Players, Astoria New Play Festival, The Playground Experiment’s Faces of America Series, Limelight Theatre, and Theatre Above The Law among others.
Emma Mueller
(she/they) is a queer multi-hyphenate theatermaker based in NYC. Their play My Immortal: A Fanfiction of A Fanfiction is currently in development with the Workshop Theater’s Writer’s Intensive, and most recently Emma adapted & co-produced a 20th anniversary reading of the fanfiction My Immortal at Brooklyn Art Haus. As a playwright, Emma’s work has been showcased & developed with the WorkShop Theater, The Tank, Step1 Theatre Project, Imaginarium Theatre Company. Emma has produced works Off-Broadway with SheNYC at Classic Stage Company/Lynn F. Angelson Theater, The Tank, The Rat, and New York Theater Festival. Emma is a member of Hamlet Isn’t Dead’s Resident Acting Company, and will be performing as Witch 1/Macduff in their upcoming live-stream event, Mac13eth. Emma produced, wrote & acted in her short film retelling the myth of Bloody Mary through the lens of abortion before, during, and after Roe v Wade (currently in post-production). The screenplay was a Finalist in Be Afraid Horror Fest & Semi-Finalist in Athena Film Fest’s Abortion Pipeline Project. www.emmarosemueller.com
Catherine Weingarten
is a friendly jewish chick from an obscure area of Pennsylvania! Honors Include: the Scott McPherson Award and the Tennessee Williams Scholarship through the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. She is a new georges affiliated artist and has previously developed her “girly, trashy” work with Dixon Place, The Tank, Less Than Rent, Sam French OOB Short Play Festival, Last Frontier Theater Conference and has been awarded residencies through Bethany Arts Community, The Studios of Key West, Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB and Monson Arts. Catherine has participated in Art House Production’s INKubator Writer’s Group, New Perspective’s Women’s Work Short Play Lab and The Shelter’s Virtual King Lear project. BA: Bennington College MFA: Ohio University catherine-weingarten.squarespace.com/
DJ Hills
(they/them) is a cross-genre writer for the page, stage, and screen. DJ’s plays include Horsegirl & Cowdaddy (the Wilma/Soho Rep), come straight home (Great Plains Theatre Commons), TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG (The Queer Ensemble), Adult Things (Carnegie Mellon University), and I SWEAR TO GOD (University of California Los Angeles). DJ's plays have additionally been developed with The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, Boston Court Pasadena, and Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Their short plays ...in daylight and big and small were part of Theater Masters TAKE TEN 2022 and 2023, respectively, and subsequently published by Concord Theatricals. TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG was shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series. Their poetry chapbook Leaving Earth was published by Split Rock Press. Fellowships and residencies include the Substratum writing residency and Tofte Lake Center's National Emerging Artist Residency. Proudly born and raised in Northern Appalachia, DJ currently divides their time between home and other Mid-Atlantic cities. Find them online at www.dj-hills.com.
Emma Y. Lai
is a Taiwanese playwright and new works director. Emma’s plays have been developed with Workshop Theatre, The Tank, Melancholics Anonymous, Jersey City Theatre Center, Picnic Basket Theatre, and Frank Silvera’s Writers Workshop. She was a Finalist for Pipeline Theatre Co. 's PlayLab, the BIPOC Festival at Boise Contemporary Theatre, and a Semi-Finalist for The Many Voices Fellowship at Playwrights’ Center and the Signpost Fellowship. She is writing the book for the horror musical, LOCUST, commissioned by Trademark Theatre with frequent collaborator Hannah Bakke. Emma is attending Carnegie Mellon University for a MFA in Dramatic Writing. emmaylai.com
Tabetha McNeal
(she/her) is a playwright, actress, and voice artist whose work interrogates identity, ambition, faith, and the quiet fractures beneath community. Based in Virginia (757), her writing has been developed with the Stowe Story Labs Writers’ Room, Seventh Wave Narrative Shifts Residency, The Robey Theatre Playwrights Lab, and the Black Creative Social Club. Her work centers on complex Black characters navigating calling, ego, and belonging, often blending humor with a bit of southern twist.
Jacquelyn Reingold
Jacquelyn Reingold’s plays have been seen in New York and at theaters across the country. FEAR LESS, a 2025 O’Neill finalist, had a November workshop at EST directed by Tamilla Woodard. KISS ME SOMEWHERE ELSE read at The Tent theater 2025, directed by Melia Bensussen. Honors include: Lilly Award, Kennedy Center, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, Yaddo, MacDowell. Published “Women Playwrights: Best Plays,” “Best American Short Plays,” DPS, Smith & Kraus, Applause. Several plays recorded by “Playing on Air.” Jacquelyn’s a member of EST, an alum of New Dramatists, a co-founder of Honor Roll! Jackie and Cheryl Davis are in their third year of meeting with every theater in NY to advocate for under- recognized women+ playwrights over-50. She’s also a mentor for Young Playwrights Ukraine.
Aja Houston
is a nomadic writer and actor from Everywhere, USA, due to an army brat adjacent childhood. Writing for theatre and film, she employs socio-politics and magic to boldly build off-kilter, uncanny worlds that tell monolith-breaking Black stories. Starting as an actress in London, she moved to LA to focus on writing the stereotype-defying stories she longed to act in. Aja received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC. Her thesis play, Journey to Alice, was a Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference Semi-Finalist. Aja’s other plays have been developed at theatres such as ESTLA, The Road Theatre, and Inkwell Theatre. Aja recently came out of acting retirement to star in the short film, “Missing Rhythms,” which she wrote. It has won Best Sci-Fi/Thriller at the 2026 Micheaux Film Festival and was nominated for Best SAG Indie Short at the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts 2025 Film Festival. www.ajahouston.com
Grace Ward
(she/her) is a screenwriter, playwright and opera librettist from the wildflower-filled foothills of Boise, Idaho. Raised on the road with her parents’ rock band, she writes stories about girlhood, neurodivergence and women claiming power in unexpected ways. Her work has been developed by theaters and festivals nationwide including Seattle Opera, Boise Contemporary Theater and The SheDFW Festival. She holds an MFA in Writing from Antioch University LA, is an alum of the National Theatre Institute and remains committed to creating bold, funny roles for women and girls. While not writing, Grace works full time in a special ed classroom and enjoys flower picking, trail running and mountain biking.