Past Writing Fellows

NASTARAN AHMADI
Exile

Nastaran is a Brooklyn based playwright whose plays have been developed or produced at New York Theatre Workshop, Actors Theater of Louisville, Lark Play Development Center, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, The Yale Cabaret and The Yale School of Drama. She is a recipient of the LMCC 2012 Workspace Residency and has been a finalist for The Princess Grace Award, The O’Neill Playwrights Conference and The Leah Ryan Fund. Her play,Doctoring, received an Honorable Mention in 2010 from the Jane Chambers Award, and she received an Honorable Mention for the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award.   Nastaran holds an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama where she received the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize for excellence in Playwriting.  www.nastaranahmadi.com

MIA CHUNG
You for Me for You

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J.C. Lee
The Inexplicable Disappearance of Hector Villaraigosa

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ETHAN LIPTON
Red-Handed Otter

MATTIE BRICKMAN
Five Second Chances
As a playwright, Mattie’s productions include Playground: The Hallie Flanagan Project (commissioned by Vassar College), STARBOX, American Catnip, The Imaginary Audience, If Found Please Return to Charles Darwin, The Redundant Colon (also performed), Civil War, Bill Clinton Goes to the Bathroom (or It Might As Well Be Spring) (also directed), and Max Out Loud, a children’s musical adapted from books by Maira Kalman. Mattie is an associate artist of art.party.theater.company. She has been a playwright-in-residence at The Millay Colony for the Arts, New York Stage & Film, and The O’Neill at Yale in Provincetown, MA. Her work has also been developed at The Lark. As a journalist, Mattie wrote for Money magazine, The Santa Barbara Independent, and the Montecito Journal. Mattie holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The Yale School of Drama (Eugene O’Neill Scholarship) and a B.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She trained in ballet and modern dance and was Artistic Director of Expressions Dance Company at Princeton. Mattie is from Santa Barbara, CA.

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BEKAH BRUNSTETTER
Hey Brother
Bekah Brunstetter – whose play To Nineveh won the NY Innovative Theater Award for Best New Full-length Play in 2006 – has had her work read, produced and/or developed by New York Stage and Film, the Williamstown Theater Festival, Luna Stage, Babel Theatre Project, The Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, Ohio Theater (Think Tank), New Georges, NYU, Centenary Stage, NC New Voices, The New School for Drama, Working Man's Clothes, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Old Vic/New Voices, Boston Theatre Works, Manhattan Theatre Source, SPF, The Alliance Theater, and The Atlantic. In addition to To Nineveh, her works include: House of Home, OOHRAH! (Atlantic Theatre Company), Miss Lily Gets Boned, Sick, Green, Space, I Used to Write on Walls, Fat Kids On Fire, You May Go Now: A Marriage Play, Arms, Le Fou, Happy Birthday/I’m Dead, Celebrity, Torch Number 2 and Fucking Art. Her plays are published by Sam French, Playscripts, Original Works, and Smith & Krauss. She is a member of The Primary Stages Writer’s Group, At Play Productions, and the Naked Radio writing team. She is an alumna of the Women's Project Writer's Lab and the Ars Nova Play Group. She was the 2009 playwright in residence at Ars Nova. She is the 2010 Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theater, London. BA (Theater/Fiction Writing) from UNC Chapel Hill and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.

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CHRISTOPHER OSCAR PEÑA
Icarus Burns
Christopher Oscar Peña has developed work at The Public Theater, NYU Graduate Acting, INTAR, the UCSB Summer Theatre Lab, Theatre C, The Studio (New York), the Ontological Hysteric Incubator and New York Theatre Workshop. His works include: Maelstrom, One of Us, 5 Letter Word (or How Orpheus Became Learned), Mnemonic, Point of Reference, How Should I Address You?, …And the Rain…And the Rain…And the Rain…And the Rain…, and the collaborative piece X+Y=Z. His Current projects include the musical (E)Vaporate: A Screwed Up Reinvention of Orpheus & Eurydice in the Form of a Made-Up Love Song with composer Parker Ferguson, the play The Suicide Tapes. He is the co-creator of 80/20, a new web series launching this fall in which he will also be co-starring.

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STEFANIE ZADRAVEC
The Electric Baby

Amy Herzog, 2009
After the Revolution
Amy received the 2008 Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights. Her plays have been produced at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Yale School of Drama; she has had readings and workshops at Manhattan Theater Club, New York Stage and Film, Arena Stage in Washington DC, Black Dahilia in Los Angeles, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, among others. Amy has received commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival, and her short play 508 was included published in “Best American Short Plays: 2008-2009.” Amy is an alumna of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theater, Play Group at Ars Nova and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She teaches playwriting at Bryn Mawr college and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama.

Alex Lewin, 2009
Rent Control
Alex Lewin’s plays have been developed and presented at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, MCC, The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, the New Harmony Project, and New York Theatre Workshop, where he is an Artistic Associate. He is the recipient of the Ted & Adele Shank Professional Playwriting Fellowship, and a commission from Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Alex has been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, the Heideman Award, and the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, among others. Alex holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego. He was 2009–10 Playwrights Realm writing fellow and a member of the 09–10 P73 writers group. He is also a member of the MCC Playwrights’ Coalition and the Dramatists Guild. Alex co-authors the film-review blog They’ll Love It in Pomona. He lives in Manhattan with his cat, Charlie Chaplin.

Joe Tracz, 2009
In The Woods Where Wolves Are
Joe Tracz is a New York-based playwright with an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His play In the Woods Where Wolves Are received a staged reading at the Public Theater as part of NYU’s MFA Thesis presentations. Other full-length plays include Boy Wonders (readings: NYU Festival of New Works; American College Theatre Festival; Performance Network of Ann Arbor, MI); Song For A Future Generation (readings: NYU Festival of New Works; Bridge Theater) and Phenomenon of Decline (Long Wharf Theatre’s Next Stage Productions; ACTF). His ten-minute play Man Up and Away has appeared in festivals from Aspen to Williamstown, including an Off-Broadway showcase at 59E59. His original TV pilot FANG! premiered at the 2007 Chicago Comedy Festival. Joe is a member of Aspen Theater Masters and the director of New Play Development for the Bridge Theater Company. He holds a BA in English from Kalamazoo College, Michigan, where he recently returned to teach as a guest artist.