Join us Saturday, February 17 from 11am-1pm ET for a free online experience led by C1 Resident Playwright Kirsten Greenidge and guest panelists Hana Sharif, Anne G. Morgan, Lynde Rosario, and Beth Blickers!
With the loss of national generative new play institutions and festivals, the conversation around producing new work has shifted drastically. How can we move beyond chasing the next big thing and focus on what it truly takes to become a theatermaker capable of creating producible and collaborative works within the American Theatre landscape?
Join us for a moderated panel discussion and Q&A on new work development and opportunities for emerging writers, featuring artistic leaders from the field.
RSVP required; this is a Pay-What-You-Want experience with $0 minimum. All proceeds support C1's mission to build community at the intersection of art and social change.
>> About the Panelists
Hana S. Sharif (she/her)
Hana S. Sharif has enjoyed a multi-faceted theater career, including roles as an artistic leader, director, playwright, and producer with a specialty in strategic and cross-functional leadership. Hana began her professional career as an undergraduate student at Spelman College. She is currently the Artistic Director at Arena Stage. From 1997 to 2003, Hana served as the co-founder and Artistic Director of Nasir Productions, a theater dedicated to underrepresented voices challenging traditional structure. Hana joined the Tony Award-winning regional theatre, Hartford Stage, in 2003. During her decade-long tenure at Hartford Stage, Hana served as the Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Development, and Artistic Producer. Hana launched the new play development program, expanded the community engagement and civic discourse initiatives, and developed and produced Tony, Grammy, Pulitzer, and Obie Award-winning shows. Starting in 2012, she served as Program Manager at ArtsEmerson, a leading world theater company based at Boston's Emerson College. During her tenure at ArtsEmerson, Hana launched an Artists in Residency program, led a research program assessing barriers to inclusion across the region, and leveraged her regional theater experience to freelance produce for smaller theater companies looking to expand and restructure their administrative teams. Hana was Baltimore Center Stage's Associate Artistic Director from 2014 to 2019 and was the architect of the innovative CS Digital program: a platform that pushes the boundaries of traditional theater and looks at the nexus point between art and technology. Her other achievements at Baltimore Center Stage included prototyping the Mobile Unit focused on historically underserved audiences, strengthening community engagement, producing multiple world and regional premieres, and helping to guide the theater through a multi-million dollar building renovation and rebranding effort. Hana became the first Black woman to lead a major regional theater in 2018 when she was named the Augustin Family Artistic Director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. During her tenure at The Rep, Hana guided the organization through a strategic alignment, revolutionized the New Works program, expanding access to underserved communities, and centering equity and anti-racism as the organization's foundational values.Hana holds a BA from Spelman College and an MFA from the University of Houston. Hana is the recipient of USITT's 2023 Distinguished Achievement Award, Spelman's 2022 National Community Service Award, the 2009-10 Aetna New Voices Fellowship, EMC Arts Working Open Fellowship, and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Fellowship. Hana is a founding member of The Black Theatre Commons (BTC). She serves on the board of directors for the TCG, BTC, and the Sprott Family Foundation.
Anne G. Morgan (she/her)
Anne G. Morgan is a dramaturg and arts leader. She currently works as the Programs Director for the National New Play Network, an alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays.
Anne received the 2019 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for her work on Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, a groundbreaking new play initiative at the American Shakespeare Center. Prior to her work at ASC, Anne spent five years as Literary Manager & Dramaturg at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She regularly freelances with the Playwrights Realm, Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center, and more, as well as collaborating with playwrights individually. She serves as Board Co-Chair for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
A lifelong New Englander (despite a brief time in the south), Anne currently lives with her husband and daughter in Rhode Island.
Lynde Rosario (she/her)
Lynde Rosario is a Dramaturg and the Director of Fellowship Programs at Playwrights’ Center. She is also the President of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Current and former affiliations include: National New Play Network, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, The Latinx New Play Festival, The Playwrights Realm, Working Theater Company, Unicorn Theatre, TheatreLab, Curious Theatre Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, The Catamounts, Local Theater Company, Creede Repertory Theater, Athena Project, Letter of Marque Theater Company, and The Anthropologists. She holds a B.A. in Drama from Hofstra University, and a M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from The American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.
Beth Blickers (she/her)
Beth Blickers is an agent at IAG, where she represents artists who work in theatre, opera, dance, television and film. She started her career at the William Morris Agency, where she began work after graduating from NYU. Beth has served on the jury panel for the Weissberger Award, the Ed Kleban Award, the Lark’s PONY Fellowship and Playwrights Week and facilitated industry related workshops and panels for organizations around the country.
She is the Past President of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and is the Board Chair Emeritus of Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, a New York company that works with artists with disabilities.
Kirsten Greenidge (she/her)
Kirsten Greenidge’s work presents African American experiences on stage by examining the nexus of race, class, and gender. Kirsten is currently a Playwright in Residence at Company One Theatre in Boston Massachusetts, where she helps run Company One’s playwriting program, PlayLab. She is the author of Baltimore, a commission from the Big Ten Consortium at the University of Iowa, which toured to the National Black Theatre Conference; Bud Not Buddy, an adaptation of the children’s novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, with music by Terence Blanchard, which will be produced this winter at Metro Stage Company in St. Louis; The Luck of the Irish (Huntington Theatre Company; LTC3); and Milk Like Sugar (La Jolla Playhouse; Women’s Theatre Project; Playwright’s Horizons), which was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and received an Independent Reviewers of New England Award, and San Diego Critics Award, and an OBIE Award. She is a 2016 winner of the Roe Green Award for new plays from Cleveland Playhouse for Little Row Boat; Or, Conjecture, a play about Sally Hemings, James Hemings, and Thomas Jefferson, commissioned by Yale Rep. Her play As Far As a Century's Reach toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, after being part of the Royal Exchange’s B!RTH Project. She is a proud author of Audacity, part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s EVERY 28 HOUR PLAYS, and she’s enjoyed development experiences at Family Residency at the Space at Ryder Farm, the Huntington’s Summer Play Festival, Cleveland Playhouse (as the 2016 Roe Green New Play Award recipient), The Goodman, Denver Center Theatre’s New Play Summit, Sundance, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Sundance at Ucross, and the O’Neill. Kirsten is currently working on commissions from Company One, La Jolla Playhouse, OSF’s American Revolutions Project, The Goodman, and Playwrights Horizons. She is an alum of New Dramatists, and has proudly graced the Kilroys list of New Plays by women and women identified Playwrights several years running. Her play Familiar`, a winner of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival New Play Award, was presented by Harvard’s A.R.T. Institute this winter. She is an alum of Wesleyan University, and the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa. She oversees the Playwriting Program at the School of Theatre at Boston University. https://www.kirstengreenidgeplaywright.com/
>> About C1's Open Writes
C1’s Virtual Open Writes are free, monthly Saturday morning meetings open to all writers and theatremakers dedicated to new work. Led by Resident Playwright Kirsten Greenidge, each meeting features a special guest writer who leads exercises and writing time.
This season, our Open Writes focus on The Art of Criticism. How do we hold space to examine and explore how we create and respond to art in our craft?