WORDS MATTER
Intrepid Museum, Pier 86, W 46th St, New York, NY 10036, USA @ 7:00 pm
Each year, The Workshop Theater commissions four writers to create short plays inspired by prompts related to a non-profit organization. We're thrilled to welcome this year's playwrights for Words Matter:
Monet Hurst-Mendoza
Mariana Carreño King
Phanésia Pharel
Caridad Svich
This year, we've partnered with Veteran's Spouse Project. Each playwright was paired with a veteran spouse from VSP and created a new play based on those conversations. The four new plays are cast and produced for an evening celebrating the work of that non-profit, with contributions directly benefiting Veteran's Spouse Project.
Please make plans to join us on The Intrepid for readings of 4 new plays, starting at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish, with a recommended contribution of $25 per person.
What Remains by Monet Hurst-Mendoza with Jacqueline Guillén and Karsten Otto
That Thing Over There by Mariana Carreño King with Cindy De La Cruz and Pascale Armand
I Need Somebody Club by Phanésia Pharel with Joy Suprano and Jasmine Batchelor
Battle Buddies by Caridad Svich with Vivia Font and Sarah Killough
Stage Directions: Sharahya Carter
Monet Hurst-Mendoza is an NYC-based playwright and TV writer from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays have been developed with The Sol Project, Latinx Playwrights Circle, WP Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, The Alley Theater, Rising Circle Theater Collective, Keen Company, Astoria Performing Arts Center, The Flea, and Westport Country Playhouse, among others. Monet is an alumna of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, R&D Group at The Civilians, Fresh Ground Pepper's Playground Playgroup, WP Theater's Playwrights Lab, and the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. She has been an artist-in-residence at New Harmony Project, The Watermill Center, MacDowell, Millay Arts, La MaMa Umbria, Stillwright, The MITTEN Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, where she now serves as a board member. Remezcla has profiled her as one of the "8 Most Exciting Latino Playwrights Making Work Right Now." Monet is a graduate of the 2025 WGAE Showrunner Academy and was a writer/producer for seasons 21-24 of “Law & Order: SVU.”Episodes she co-wrote garnered multiple Imagen Awards nominations (and three wins), honoring positive portrayals of Latinos in media, as well as a nomination for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Teleplay. She has guest lectured at Fordham University, Columbia University, and Harvard University, and is an adjunct professor of playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College. From 2018-2025, Monet was a member of The Kilroys, a theatre artist-activist group that advocates for parity on American stages by uplifting women and TGNC+ playwrights. Monet is a recipient of the Helen Merrill Award, Parity Productions Development Award, New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, and is a proud member of The Dramatist Guild and WGAE.
Jacqueline Guillén is a bi-lingual New York based actor from México. Guillén received her BFA in Acting from Texas State University & studied with The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon before relocation to NYC. Her TV/Film credits include, “The Equalizer”, “Orange Is The New Black”, “Search Party”, “Blue Bloods”, “Bull”, “The Good Cop”, & “Crabs In A Barrel” currently on HBOMax. Theatre credits include “Torera”, “I Wanna F*ck Like Romeo And Juliet", “Bodies They Ritual”, “ Mancave", "72 Miles To Go..." , “Truckers”, “Then They Forgot About The Rest" , amongst others. She voices Mrs. Martinez in Almas Way . She's been a two-time finalist for the Nosotros' Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam hosted by NBC
Karsten Otto (he/him) is a ghost of NYC downtown theater. Passionate about new play development, he has developed and originated roles in numerous Off- and Off-off Broadway plays. He is making his directorial debut this summer with Taming of the Shrew (La Mama) as part of 'Shakespeare, CSE' a program he co-created with Small Boat Productions. He is also the founder of kotto Productions, a film and theater production company. Following along at www.karstenotto.com IG: @kotto_ Substack: @ottotune
Mariana Carreño King is a playwright, stage director and translator. Mariana has worked with Intar, LAByrinth, The Lark, La MaMa, The Atlantic, Stages Repertory, Iati, and Mabou Mines, among others. Mariana’s plays include Truckers (Intar Theatre, Humanitas, LA); Sasha's House of Love, and The Red Gene (LAByrinth); Miss 74489 (2014 Winner, MetLife Nuestras Voces, Repertorio Español Prod.); and Ofelia’s Lovers (Mabou Mines); among others. She has translated many plays from English to Spanish, including The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kris Diaz and Worship by Eduardo Machado; and from Spanish to English, such as Decomposition by Alfonso Cárcamo and Schnauzer Duck by Saul Enríquez (No Passport Press); and the book of short stories Love that Kill by Rosa Beltran. Mariana is a member of LAByrinth Theatre Company, and Alumna, Hispanic Playwrights in Residence Lab (HPRL) at Intar. Mariana is an Associate Professor of Playwriting at SUNY Purchase College.
Cindy De La Cruz can currently be seen recurring on the new Fox series BEST MEDICINE. This past summer, Cindy could be seen on stage in Camino Real at the Williamstown Theatre Festival alongside Pamela Anderson. Cindy is an Obie Award recipient for her work as founding artistic producer of the Dominican Artists Collective. Previous television credits include BLUE BLOODS, THE VILLAGE and BLINDSPOT. Cindy is a 2025 graduate of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.
Phanésia Pharel is a Haitian-American playwright & screenwriter from a dragon fruit farm in Miami. She is the daughter of an immigrant teacher and farmer. She will make her Off-Broadway debut at the WP Theater with her play The Waterfall, running January 31–March 1, 2026. She is the incoming Playwriting Fellow (2025-2027) at Emory University, where she will serve as a visiting professor and have a new play produced by their repertory company. Her full-length plays include THE WATERFALL, DEAD GIRL’S QUINCEÑERA, BLACK GIRL JOY, and REFUSE IT: A BLACK WOMAN’S GUIDE TO 21ST CENTURY RAGE. Her plays have been developed at the Eugene O’neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, New Harmony Project, Playwrights' Center, New York Stage and Film, SolFest, Thrown Stone, Shattered Globe, and Echo Theater Company. She has received commissions from the Atlantic Theater, Lucille Lortel (Alcove), La Jolla Playhouse, Miranda Family Fund, Hero Theatre, City Theatre Miami, and the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Phanésia is a member of the Obie-winning EST/Youngblood group and The Wish Collective. As a screenwriter, she is a member of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Screenwriting Lab. Her honors include The Kilroys Web, five awards from the Kennedy Center, and an A is For Playwriting Award recipient. She holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California San Diego.
Joy Suprano, a Pittsburgh native, graduated from the Juilliard School Drama Division in NYC and has had numerous film, television, and theater credits since graduating. On television, she has been seen on “Best Foot Forward”, “Fleishman Is In Trouble”, “Harlem”, “Hightown, “Almost Family,” “Ray Donovan,” “ Law & Order: CI,” “How To Make It In America,” “ Law & Order: SVU,” and “Law & Order” to name a few. On film, “Westhampton”, “On A String”, “Magic Hour”, "Lonely Boy", "A Little Help" starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O'Donnell, and "We Are The Hartmans" opposite Richard Chamberlain. Miss Suprano also received rave reviews for her theatrical role of Jan-The-Sly in the NYC premiere of "Yeast Nation, A Triumph Of Life" by the Tony award-winning writing team of "Urintown". Joy will next be seen on television in a season-long recur in Peacock’s “Crystal Lake” and on film in Netflix’s “Don’t Say Good Luck”.
Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement. Her work has been seen in print, live and virtual stages at diverse venues across the US and abroad. Key plays in her repertoire include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls…, Red Bike and The House of the Spirits (based on Isabel Allende’s novel). Theatrical & transmedia world premieres in 2021-22: The Book of Magdalene at Main Street Theater, Houston, Theatre: a love story at Know Theatre, Cincinnati, The House on the Lagoon, based on Rosario Ferre’s novel, at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington D.C. Eva Luna, based on Isabel Allende’s novel, at Repertorio Espanol in NYC, Ushuaia Blue at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Bernarda Alba, the opera, at Cleveland Opera Theater. Among her recognitions are an American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize, the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, and National Latino Playwriting Award (which she has received twice). She has edited and/or authored several books on theatre, most recently Toward a Future Theatre published by Methuen Drama. Her second feature film Abilene (as screenwriter) is currently in post-production.
Vivia Font is an actor/director and maker. She recently finished directing The Comeuppance at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter with Princeton University students. As an actress, she has worked at many NYC and regional theatres including The Public, The Atlantic, PlayCo, Rattlestick, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Denver Center, Old Globe, McCarter, The Huntington, Hartford Stage, and more. She has appeared on “Law & Order”, “FBI: Most Wanted”, “For Life”, “Motor City”, “Love, Repeat”, “Shallow End”, and her own film, “HONK”. She has worked in English and Spanish in VO, commercial and film and theatre. www.viviafont.com
Sharahya Carter is an actor from Oklahoma who moved to New York at seventeen to study acting at NYU. She’s trained with Stella Adler, Bob Krakower, Larry Moss, and Catlin Adams, building a foundation rooted in both craft and curiosity. Outside of acting, she loves diving into sci-fi books and spending time in nature. She has two indie films set to release next year and is excited to return to theatre, where her passion for performing first began. Always growing and exploring, Sharahya brings authenticity and heart to everything she does.