Writing is Live 2026

Chair Patricia Ybarra

Chair, Professor

Department Faculty Kate Burton Visiting Professor of the Practice of the Arts Michelle Bach-Coulibaly Associate Teaching Professor Jayna Brown Professor Constance Crawford Adjunct Lecturer Sarah dAngelo Associate Professor, DUS, Associate Chair (Spring 2026) J Dellecave Assistant Professor of the Practice Nancy Dunbar Senior Lecturer Emerita John Emigh Professor Emeritus Spencer Golub Professor Emeritus Renée Surprenant Fitzgerald Assistant Teaching Professor Leon Hilton Associate Professor, DUS, Associate Chair (Fall 2025) Julia Jarcho Associate Professor, Head of Playwriting Aileen Wen McGroddy Writing is Live Festival Creative Producer, Adjunct Lecturer Kym Moore Professor Iván A Ramos Associate Professor, DGS Patricia Seto-Weiss Assistant Professor of the Practice, Head of Dance Sydney Skybetter Associate Professor Deborah Salem Smith Adjunct Lecturer (Spring 2026) Julie Adams Strandberg Distinguished Senior Lecturer Emerita Barbara Tannenbaum Teaching Professor Elmo Terry-Morgan Associate Professor Emeritus Paula Vogel Professor Emerita Richard Waterhouse Adjunct Lecturer

Department Staff Jo Bynum Ron Cesario

Student Affairs Manager Costume Shop Manager, C/C Lecturer, Designer Alexander Eizenberg Sound Designer, Audio & Video Engineer, C/C Lecturer Alex Haynes John Street Studio Technical Director, C/C Lecturer Timothy Hett Technical Director, Lighting Designer, C/C Lecturer Tylar Jahumpa Theatre Technician Kristopher Laliberte Audience Services Coordinator Alex Nurkin Academic Events and Facilities Manager Max Ramirez Associate Technical Director Chris Redihan Academic Department Manager Barbara Reo Production Director, Stage Manager, C/C Lecturer Fran Romasco Costume Shop Coordinator Brianne Shaw Communications & Audience Services Manager Laura Stokes Performing Arts Librarian, University Library Abigail Wang Theatre Technician Brown/Trinity Program Faculty Shura Baryshnikov DGS, Associate Professor of the Practice Curt Columbus Interim Director of MFA Programs, Artistic Director of Trinity Rep, Professor of the Practice Rebecca Gibel Visiting Lecturer, Professional Development Brian Mertes Head of Directing, Professor of the Practice Max Rosenak Head of Voice & Speech, Visiting Assistant Professor of the Practice Sophia Skiles Head of Acting, Associate Professor of the Practice Brown/Trinity Program Staff Jeremy Chiang Sammi Haskell Jill Jann Tristen Moseley

Technical Director MFA Program Coordinator MFA Academic Coordinator Production Manager

A Note from Theatre Arts & Performance Studies Chair, Patricia Ybarra In times of crisis, it can be easy to question the value of art because there are so many other things that seem more urgent. It may seem even harder to argue for the theatre, given that so many political pundits use the word theatre to gesture to the false, the fake, and the unnecessarily histrionic actions of those in public life. I believe that theatre and performance are more important than ever before, however. This is because the creative world-making on stage, backstage, and off stage allows us to imagine otherwise at a time in which our imaginations are constrained and visions of common flourishing are scarce.

In this season, that does not mean only staging joyful possibilities; Machinal and The Flick discuss reactions to gender and class violence openly, even when they stage moments of intimacy; Muses’ focus on love is not without obstacles; our Writing is Live Festival of new works speaks to both history and the current moment in ways we have not yet anticipated. Our Festivals of Dance, too, emerge from the virtuosity of embodied movement in our current cultural moment. Rather than being a synonym for the false, our performance season is in fact a series of embodiments of truth, which display multiple viewpoints for various audiences. These productions allow us to consider each other in all of our complexities, a quality often absent in many forms of contemporary media. We invite you join us for each and every performance.

writing is live new plays by Brown MFA playwrights

March 4 - 8, 2026 Leeds Theatre Ashamu Dance Studio 83 Waterman Street Providence RI 02912

The lighting designer of Writing is Live is represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the I.A.T.S.E

- THESIS PRODUCTIONS -

private Parts

by Brian Dang ‘26 MFA directed by Gregory Keng Strasser 3/4 8PM | 3/6 8PM | 3/7 1PM | 3/8 8PM Leeds Theatre

eternity, Arizona

by Jimmy Fay ‘26 MFA directed by M Sloth Levine 3/5 8PM | 3/6 1PM | 3/7 8PM |3/8 1PM Leeds Theatre

- STAGED READINGS -

breed

by Savannah Lyons Anthony ‘27 MFA directed by Sarah Blush 3/5 5PM | 3/8 6PM Ashamu Dance Studio

Deliver Us!

by James La Bella ‘27 MFA directed by Sammy Zeisel 3/7 4PM | 3/9 6PM Ashamu Dance Studio

- READING -

bad maidens

by Reed Flores ‘28 MFA directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy ‘22 MFA 3/7 3PM | 3/8 3PM Ashamu Dance Studio

undergrad underground 3/6 8:30 PM Ashamu Dance Studio Excerpts from:

DOLLHOUSE by ivy Rockmore ‘27 She. Here. Now

by Kendall Ricks ‘27 CemetEry Play

by Fiona Mathews PENTACYCLE

by Nina Zhong ‘26

Festival Staff Head of MFA Playwriting.................................... Julia Jarcho Creative Producer.............. Aileen Wen McGroddy ‘22 MFA Production Director / Producer......................... Barbara Reo Audience Services & Communications Manager...................

Brianne Shaw Audience Services Coordinator.............. Kristopher Laliberte Technical Director..................................................... Tim Hett Sound Designer/ AV Engineer....................... Alex Eizenberg Associate Technical Director............................. Max Ramirez Technical Director/John Street Studios/Props Mentor...........

Alexander Haynes Costume Shop Manager.................................... Ron Cesario Costume Coordinator..................................... Fran Romasco Head Electrician............................................... Abigail Wang Professor of the Practice & Head of Directing for Brown/ Trinity Programs...................................................Brian Mertes Associate Professor of the Practice & Head of Acting for Brown/Trinity Programs..................................... Sophia Skiles Program Coordinator of Brown/Trinity MFA Program.............

Sammi Haskell

Use of recording devices, cameras, and cell phones is not permitted. As a courtesy to patrons and performers, please silence all electronic devices. The video taping or other video or audio recording of this production by any individual not expressly directed to do so by Brown University is strictly prohibited. All or portions of Brown University events and their participants may be captured by photography or video and used for news or Brown promotional purposes.

Festival Support:

Trip Kujawa ‘29, Yandelyn Patricio Cordova ‘26, Court Cummings ‘26, Angel Rivas ‘28, Olivia Sydnia Bailey Taylor ‘26, Yagmur Delal Cengiz ‘29, Dove Idayatova ‘28, Julia Schimmenti ‘26, Nathan Scarborough ’26, Mia Hermann ’29, Paul Hyman ‘27, Olivia Bartsch RISD, Thomas Foley ‘28, Max Zimmer ‘27

Special Thanks:

Trevor Elliot, Providence College and Trinity Repertory Company Writing is Live is made possible through support from the Ben Brown Memorial Fund, the Kathryn and Gilbert Miller Theatre Arts Endowment, the Irene Lewisohn and Alice Lewisohn Crowley Endowment, support from an endowed fund established by the estate of Adele Kellenberg Seaver

You can support or learn more about the indigenous history of Rhode Island by visiting the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter.

The mission of the Tomaquag Museum is to educate all relations (everyone) on Indigenous cultures of the Dawnland (focus Southern New England) through engagement and shared dialogue to reconcile the past and empower present and future generations. https://www.tomaquagmuseum.org/

Private Parts

by Brian Dang ‘26 MFA directed by Gregory Keng Strasser Cast: Myca: Kathy Ng ‘25 MFA, ‘17 Renee: Luyuan Nathan Father/John Landis/Dorcey Wingo: Erin Lockett ‘26 MFA Mother/Vic Morrow/Richard Ebentheuer: Riley Ratcliff ‘24 MFA Voice of Rod Serling and others: Dave Rabinow Crew: Set Designer: Renée Surprenant Fitzgerald Costume Designer: Christine Mok ‘13 PhD Associate Costume Designer: Jessie Darrell Jarbadan Lighting Designer: Nic Vincent Sound Designer: Alex Eizenberg Props Designer: Grey Rung Fight Choreographer: Mark Rose Playwriting Dramaturg: Cathy Linh Che Production Dramaturg: K Yin Stage Manager: Tristen Moseley ‘18 Sleight of Hand Consultant: Stephen Millis Assistant Director: Diqiu Liu ’27 Assistant Stage Manager: Austin Meadows ‘26 Props Assistant: Sydney Merrill ‘26 Props Assistant: Erin Allison ‘28 Run Time: Act 1: Approximately 55 minutes 10-minute Intermission Act 2: Approximately 50 minutes.

Content Warning: This production contains strong language; frank discussions of gore and violence; depictions of war, specifically the Vietnam War; and events surrounding the death of three actors.

Sensory Warning: This production features strobe lights, loud noises, loud sound effects, and the use of sand. Please note that sand will create dust during the performance.

A Note from the Playwright The last three years of writing in this program have been framed by ongoing genocide in Palestine, increased ICE detention and violence, and a school shooting on this very campus. We have been forced to witness and endure a magnitude of violence I have no words for. Writing has both saved and failed me at each impasse. It has been both insufficient and healing. I have often arrived at a simple answer: crisis requires action and organizing. Where does this leave art?

Last April was the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, loosely translated and known as the War of American Aggression. The country continues to reconstruct itself in this “after.” The “war,” as it exists in my mind, was created by a series of facsimiles, movie after movie after image after image. The war, as it exists in my body and language, has been passed on to me in ways I still cannot parse. The question I am asking, of myself as an artist, but also as an American: how do we metabolize violence? Both the violence we endure, but also the violence that is ongoing, we are tainted with, assimilated into, built by, and must keep watching?

Special Thanks from the Playwright Thank you to those whose words have been borrowed for this play: John Landis, the National Transportation Safety Board, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Solmaz Sharif, Hannah Hanoi, Stanley Kubrick, Richard Ebentheuer, Cathy Linh Che, Orson Welles, Dorcey Wingo, Bhanu Kapil, Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius, and the Heritage Flight Museum. Thank you, Mary, for telling me the story first. Thank you to the Writing is Live team. Thank you to this wonderful PP team. Thank you to the playwrights and plays this one gets to grow with in this festival; of course, thank you to my cohort mate Jimmy for making it this long with me. Thank you to every ear and hand and heart that helped me make it through this year, the list is long, I love you. Thank you, My-ca and Renee, we are thinking of you.

Brian Dang (they/she), or simply “b,” is a Vietnamese/Chinese poet/playwright and teaching artist based in Providence, RI by way of Seattle, WA. Their plays are a mixture of devised and scripted elements, often about the political domestic. For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing and an opportunity to be common.

Brian was a proud resident playwright at Parley (Seattle), a 2021 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and 2023 Lambda Fellow. Her plays include Grandmother/Bathtub (Theater Mu New Eyes Festival, Yale Cabaret, O’Neill Finalist ’25, Sparkfest Finalist ‘24) and This time (Undermain Fund for New Work, O’Neill Finalist ‘22, Many Voices Fellowship Semi-Finalist ‘22) and their poetry work includes 49 words I wish I could write in my family’s language, a collaborative translation project. They are currently a 2025-26 Core Apprentice at the Playwrights’ Center. They really like bread. Website: brianeatswords.com Gregory Keng Strasser is a director and writer. His work spans theatre, opera, video games, and film and has been performed in New York City; Washington DC; Baltimore and Bethesda in Maryland; Arlington and Winchester in Virginia; and abroad in Bangkok, Thailand; Holstebro, Denmark; and in Ubud, Indonesia. DIRECTING: Private Parts (Brown), The Rice Eaters (Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, NYC; KaniniFest, AR), Por Lo Que Soy (The Tank, Lime Festival) The Chinese Lady (American Stage), The Infinite Tales (4615 Theatre), Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Shenandoah University), Hin und Zuruck by Hindemith/Les Mamelles de Tiresias by Poulenc (with Alison Moritz, Peabody Opera Theatre), 410[GONE] by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (Rorschach Theatre), Doi Nang Non (K-Bank Siam-Pic Ganesha Theatre), Dark City: A Solarpunk Noir Video Game (4615 Theatre), The Odyssey (BCPA) and countless new play workshops, readings, short films, commercials and more. WRITING: Strasser has received commissions in film, theatre, and games from Arena Stage (May 22, 2020; The 51st State), Shenandoah University (Song of Achilles), 4615 Theatre (Dark City and The Infinite Tales), Rorschach Theatre (Rep

Us All); Adventure Theatre-MTC, the Brighton Center for the Performing Arts, and others. Strasser was an artist-in-residence at Roundabout Theatre Company (Roundabout Directors Group #6) and recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship from 2020-2024. He was the ‘19-’20 Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, assisting directors Molly Smith, Seema Sueko-Low, and Carey Perloff. Outside of Arena he has been the associate or assistant to Gordon Greenberg, Beth Dinkova, Chay Yew, and Ken-Matt Martin. He completed a year-long stay in Bangkok where he taught English, drama and made theatre with Thai artists and various NGOs. You can find out more on www.gregorykengstrasser.com or stalk him on IG: @lil.scallion.pancake Tristen Mosely (Stage Manager) is a stage/production manager & librettist based in Providence. Recent SM work includes Spring, directed by Brian Mertes, and Is Cry You Cry’n?, written by Dhari Noel & directed by Marissa Joyce Stamps. Recent libretto work includes The Watering Hole, written alongside Willem Oosthuysen with recent productions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music & the University of Connecticut. Tristen is celebrating a 10 year anniversary of their first time stage managing in the Writing is Live Festival!

CAST Kathy Ng (Myca) is a playwright, director, teacher, and craft-guy from Hong Kong. Recent works include Kingdom, Sky Rats, and Beautiful Princess Disorder. Beautiful Princess Disorder was recently produced by the Catastrophic Theater in Houston, Texas. Kathy has a BA and MFA in playwriting from Brown and is currently teaching at RISD. Luyuan Nathan (Renee) is an occasional actor and theater maker in Providence. She is delighted to return to WIL and put her inner child on full display. Recent credits include “Pierrot <3 Moon” at FringePVD, Romeo & Juliet (Nurse) with

Reverie Theatre, and POTUS (Chris, Stephanie u/s) at Trinity Rep. She is honored to tell the story of Renee Shin-Yi Chen as part of Brian’s magical vision. Gratitude to Aileen and Jarcho for fostering a wonderful community of writers and actors, and for welcoming this townie into the fold. Love to Eric and Geoffrey. If you are reading this, please get this play to John Landis.

Erin Lockett (Father/John Landis/Dorcey Wingo) (she/ her) is an interdisciplinary theater-maker originally from Oakland, CA with a practice of puppet making and solo performance work. She received her BFA in Acting from Ithaca College in 2020 and is proud to be a part of the Brown/Trinity class of ‘26!! A few of her favorite acting roles have been Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Brown/Trinity Repertory), Annie Easley in Commanding Space (Syracuse Stage), and Mia in Bee Trapped in Inside the Window (HartBeat Ensemble). She is so happy to be in Private Parts and wants to personally thank Brian, Greg, Diqiu, Kathy, Riley, Lu, Tristen, and Austin for being the highlight of her days for the last month and change :).

Riley Ratcliff (Mother/Vic Morrow/Richard Ebentheuer) (they/she) lives in the West End. They received an MFA in literary arts from Brown University in 2024. More of their work can be found at rileyratcliff.com.

Eternity, Arizona

by Jimmy Fay ‘26 MFA directed by M Sloth Levine Cast: Bloody Charlie: Eli Nixon ‘18 MFA Maggie: Evie Dumont ‘26 MFA Pearl: Rosalyn Tavarez ‘26 MFA Preacher: Daniel Shtivelberg ‘26 MFA Lawrence: Justin Mitchell ‘26 MFA Sunday: Dave Rabinow Crew: Set Designer: Renée Surprenant Fitzgerald Costume Designer: Christine Mok ‘13 PhD Associate Costume Designer: Jessie Darrell Jarbadan Lighting Designer: Nic Vincent Sound Designer: Alex Eizenberg Props Designer: Grey Rung Fight Choreographer: Mark Rose Playwriting Dramaturg: John Caswell Jr. Stage Manager: Maxime Hendrikse Liu ‘23 Dialect Coach: Rebecca Gibel ‘10 MFA Intimacy Coordinator: Jackie Davis Sleight of Hand Consultant: Stephen Millis Assistant Stage Manager: Sydney Meza ‘26 Assistant Director: Alexis Campbell ‘26 AM Props Assistant: Sydney Merrill ‘26 Props Assistant: Erin Allison ‘28 Run Time: Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Content Warning: This production contains gun violence, death, sexual exploitation and child abuse, mentions of suicide, and offensive language.

Sensory Warning: This production features strobe lights, loud noises, loud sound effects, and the use of sand. Please note that sand will create dust during the performance.

Allergy Notice: During the performance, approximately four pecans will be cracked on stage. The cracked nuts and shells remain on stage for the remainder of the show, approximately 30 minutes. Audience members with tree nut allergies should take this into consideration.

A Note from the Playwright This is a play about gun violence. After the horrific shooting at Brown in December, I was not sure how we could perform it responsibly. I am aware that there is not a stage in the United States on which a western like Eternity, Arizona could be performed outside the context of senseless mass shootings, misconceived individualism, the trauma of living in a gun-worshipping country founded on and steeped in colonialist cruelty. The recent tragedy at Brown has thrown these truths into stark, gravely-felt relief. I am sad and angry and, I’m sure like many of you, terrified of the future.

After extensive conversations, the team behind Eternity and I decided the answer to “how do we take care of each other right now?” wasn’t to completely strip this play of its violence. I wrote the violence because I believe in reckoning with the danger of our dailiness under empire—an empire whose pompous and bloody self-mythologizing took shape, in many ways, along the wagon trails of the American frontier. I wrote it because I love trans people and I hate America and I am from Arizona. It is my hope that we have created a safe container for this exploration of unsafety.

Thank you for watching it.

Special Thanks from the Playwright Special thanks to Ari, Gery, Judy, Maggie, Mo, Savannah, James, Reed, Dhari, Kathy, Ro, Harley, Jarcho, Aileen, my dramaturg John, my friends and collaborators in the city, my mom, Granny Fay and especially b <3

Jimmy Fay is a writer, director and performer from Arizona.

They live and work between Providence and New York.

M Sloth Levine (they/them/theirs) is a director, playwright, and designer based in New York City. They are drawn to work that explores the line between reality and imagination, stories that thrive in the Ridiculous and grotesque that play with mythologies both ancient and contemporary, and finding the most obscure ways to say “I like fairytales and monsters.” Recent directing projects include developmental workshops of Rent-a-Butch by Diana Lobontiu (Dyke Theatre Company) and Hell Is Real by Genevieve Simon (Skidmore College.) They are a member of the ‘25/’26 Roundabout Directors Group and were the Script Supervisor on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella.

Sloth’s plays have been developed at thousands of coffee shops around the country, Roundabout Theater Company, Company One, Theatre [Untitled], Sparkhaven Theatre, Central Square Theatre, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and University of Wisconsin Madison. At Hotel MacGuffin was the 2021 Parity Development Award recipient from Parity Productions. The Interrobangers premiered in Boston in 2024 with Company One Theatre and The Theatre Offensive and will be published in the third volume of The Methuen Anthology of Trans Plays. The Castle of Ghoul Hammond and How It Fell Into The Void was a 2025 nominee for The Venturous Prize. In 2020 their live web-series Tales from Camp Strangewood was produced with a grant from the Mayor’s Office of Boston. They graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Theatre Studies: Directing & Playwriting. www.mslothlevine.com Maxime Hendrikse Liu (Stage Manager) (she/her) is a stage manager, fight and intimacy director, and voiceover artist based in Providence. When not befriending the local theater ghosts, she enjoys playing and designing tabletop games. Maxime has been delighted to work with Sloth, Jimmy, Sydney, Alexis, and the rest of the Eternity, Arizona cast and team, and gives her warmest thanks to the Brown-Trini-

ty MFA Ensemble and everyone who makes Writing Is Live so special year after year.

Alexis Campbell (Assistant Director) is the Assistant Director for Eternity, Arizona. A Spelman College graduate and master’s student at Brown University, she brings her orchestra experience to the stage and is excited to explore theatre as a new canvas for her creativity. When she’s not in rehearsal, she enjoys writing for her travel blog and scrapbooking.

CAST Eli Nixon (Bloody Charlie) concocts low-tech public spectaculah. They are a settler-descended transqueer clown, a cardboard constructionist, and a maker of plays, puppets, pageants, parades, drawings, suitcase theaters, and primordial interventions in modern human time. Eli proposes a new holiday in homage to horseshoe crabs- everyone is invited! BLOODTIDE- their illustrated manual for celebrating this DIY holiday, is available locally and from 3rd Thing Press. Eli was part of the 2025 Pvd Commemoration Lab through which they amplified the Public St. Right-of-Way via invitations to enjoy and protect this vital foothold in the fight for environmental justice in South Providence. Eli was part of The Public Theater’s 2023-24 cohort of the Devised Theater Working Group.

They are a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a member of brotherdykes unlimited. Eli believes in the transformative power of “free time”, friendship, naturedrag and snacks.

Thanks to Ida, JM, the Highsmiths and all the other organisms making their participation in this show possible.

Evie Dumont (Maggie) (they/them) Trinity Rep: A Christmas Carol, By the Queen (u/s, performed), Becky Nurse of Salem (u/s, performed). Brown/Trinity Rep: A Lunar Rhapsody (Lola), SPRING (Antigone), Twelfth Night (Sebastian/ Maria), Kingdom by Kathy Ng, Cold War Choir Play by Ro Reddick. National Tour: The Macallan Manor. Regional:

Titles, Berkshire Playwrights Lab; Love/Sick, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Much Ado, Adirondack Shakes; Winter’s Tale, Adirondack Shakes; Comedy of Errors, Adirondack Shakes; The Three Musketeers, Black Hills Playhouse. Commerical: Uno’s Pizzeria, Monster.com (national radio), Fanduel (print), Planned Parenthood, among others. Education: MFA, Brown/Trinity Rep (26’); BFA, Adelphi University and LAMDA. Other: LA MAMA Playwright Retreat Resident (2025), Foreign Guest at Estonia’s Centennial Theatre Festival DRAMAA (2018), Barn Arts Collective Hamilton Resident (2017).

You will often find them writing poems or clowning around. eviedumont.com Love to Jomar, Oso, and Tillie.

Daniel Shtivelberg (Preacher) is thrilled to be back in Writing is Live and collaborating with playwright Jimmy Fay again, having played Jason in Straight Wedding last year.

He also directed James La Bella’s first year reading of Document Everything, Pluck Out Your Eyes last year, as well as playing Chelbo and Emil in Harley Elias’ thesis production of Scourge two years ago. Other theaters: Potsdam, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra; Mother Courage and Her Children, Spring (Hermoine and Antigonick), Twelfth Night, Skin of Our Teeth, Brown/Trinity Rep; Becky Nurse of Salem (u/s), Trinity Rep; Dying For It, Ironbound, The Artistic Home; Romeo y Julieta, Teatro Vista; Punk, The New Coordinates; For Annie, The Sound; God of Carnage, Dunes Summer Theater.

Daniel is an actor originally from Chicago, IL, currently in his last year MFA Acting at Brown/Trinity Rep. Thank you to Dr. Andre Willis for your support and mentorship this semester. www.danielshtivelberg.com.

Justin Mitchell (Lawrence) (he/him) Trinity Rep: La Tempestad, Marley (u/s), A Christmas Carol (2022). Brown/ Trinity Rep: Mother Courage, Lunar Rhapsody, Twelfth Night, Money Shot, The Skin of Our Teeth. Regional: Reverie, Azuka Theatre, Psalm 46, Simpatico Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, My General Tubman (u/s), Arden Theatre Company, Troilus and Cressida, Alterra Productions. Education: BA, Arcadia University; MFA, Brown/Trinity Rep Class of 2026.

Justin is a Philly native and glad to be here in Providence.

He can be found on Instagram @jvsvincent.

Rosalyn Tavarez (Pearl) (she/her) Trinity Rep: La Broa’. Brown/Trinity Rep: Fugitive Songs, Imogen, True West. Spanish theater: La Pasion Segun Antigona Perez, Ifigenia en Aulis-Main Street Players; Crimes of the Heart, Eight Women, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress-ARTEFACTUS. Education: BFA, Florida International University; MFA, Brown/Trinity Rep (2026). Rosalyn is a Venezuelan-Dominican actress in her final year in Brown/Trinity’s MFA Program. It is her greatest desire to pursue work that celebrates diversity & inclusion. Her mission to advocate for stories that highlight the underrepresented themes of la comunidad latina and allow women of color a voice to soar.

She thanks the entire Eternity, Arizona team for graciously sharing this journey.

Dave Rabinow (Sunday) is a local performing artist and musician. He was recently seen in productions of A Man Of No Importance at Speakeasy Stage Co and Small Mouth Sounds at the Wilbury Group. He is a teaching artist with Trinity Rep and the Gamm, a member of Improv Jones, a frequent guest with the Empire Revue, and a faculty member at Providence College. His latest folk/Americana record Here & Gone is available to stream/purchase via www. daverabinow.com or on your favorite streaming service. He is a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory.

Thesis Productions Creative Team Mark Rose (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Fight Choreographer) is a NY based fight choreographer, stuntman, actor, and Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. He has appeared on TV shows like “Blacklist”, “Quantico”, and “Gotham”, and done motion capture for “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” and the 2023 “Lords of the Fallen”. His work has also been seen at theme parks like Walt Disney World, Legoland NY, Idlewild & Soak Zone, as well as numerous Regional Theatres such as Trinity Rep, Asolo Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Gulfshore Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and more. You can find more at: www.mark-rose.com, and you can follow him on Instagram: @Mark.Rose.Stunts Renée Surprenant Fitzgerald (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Set Designer) is the Lecturer of Set Design and resident Set Designer & Scenic Charge Artist in the Brown TAPS Department. She has designed the past several iterations of the thesis productions in the Writing is Live! festival, including Kingdom and Is Cry You Cry’n (2025), Cold War Choir Practice and Scourge! (2024), Play House and Spread (2023), Golf Girl and cheeky little brown (2022), and Dry Swallow and kemps (2019). Her other recent local design work includes: Machinal, Potatoes of August, and Angels in America (Brown TAPS); Antigonick, 1984, and Promenade (Connecticut College); Machinal, Peter and the Starcatcher, Into the Woods, and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (University of Rhode Island); and DNA, Fefu and Her Friends, and Something Rotten! (Providence College). For more, see reneesfitzgerald.com.

Christine Mok ‘13 PhD (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Costume Designer) Writing is Live: kemps, Dry Swallow, Golf Girl, Scourge, Cold War Choir Practice. Off Broadway: The Far Country (Atlantic Theater Company), Harvest (La-

MaMa). Regional: Fun Home, Sojourners, The Heart Sellers (Huntington), The Heart Sellers (Milwaukee Rep), Snow in Midsummer (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Madama Butterfly (Opera Theatre of St Louis), The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island. Education: Ph.D (Brown University), MFA (Yale School of Drama). Member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. wingspace.com/christine Jessie Darrell Jarbadan (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Associate Costume Designer) Jessie is a free-lance designer and fabricator in the Southern New England region and resident designer and Associate Professor of Practice at Clark University where she is currently the Director of the Theatre Arts program. Her work has been seen onstage at The Gamm, 2nd Story Theatre, Opera North, Opera Providence, Brown/Trinity MFA program, Brown University, and Rhode Island College. She is a proud graduate of the Hartt School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and of the Independent Masters Program at Rhode Island College.

She lives in Warwick, RI with her family and is grateful for this community and the opportunity to tell stories.

Nic Vincent (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Lighting Designer) is a Brooklyn-based lighting designer who began his career in Canada’s contemporary dance scene. Now specializing in theatre, dance, and opera, he has since designed award-winning productions Off-Broadway and regionally across North America. To Nic, the environment is the voice of the subtext; he enjoys rigorous explorations using light to bind rhythm, physicality, and emotional truth.

He is drawn to work that boldly inspires hope and fosters understanding, particularly those rooted in long-form dramaturgical collaboration. New works are a favourite, as are innovative readings on classics. He loves long walks on frozen lakes. Recent NYC / Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout, The Atlantic, The Apollo, Carnegie Hall, Theater Row, 59E59, Mabou Mines, New Ohio, NY Live Arts, Rattlestick. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Geva Theatre,

Alabama Shakespeare, Yale Rep, Indiana Rep, People’s Light, Arkansas Rep, Portland Opera, Sacramento Opera.

Other work: NIGHTGOWNS (Sasha Velour / Quibi), many new-play developments. M.F.A.: Yale. @nicjvincent, nicvincent.com Grey Rung (Private Parts & Eternity, Arizona, Props Designer) is a New England based designer and scenic artist.

He earned his BFA in Theatre Production and Design from Westminster University in Salt Lake City, UT. Grey’s recent credits include; Brown University TAPS’ Machinal (Props Designer). Burbage Theatre Company’s Memory of Water and The Legend of Georgia McBride (Scenic Designer). Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Good Breeding, Little Women, and Legally Blonde (Scenic Charge Artist). University of Rhode Island’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pride and Prejudice (Props Designer). Metrowest Dance Company’s Nutcracker, Wizard of Oz, and Snow White (Production Stage Manager).

Breed

by Savannah Lyons Anthony ‘27 MFA directed by Sarah Blush Cast: Brianna: Lucia Aremu ‘26 MFA Breffu: Kayla Bennett ‘26 MFA Petra: Lily Kops ‘26 MFA Attorney Christian Wyatt / Christian: Henry Nwaru ‘26 MFA Judge/Sonographer/OJ: Miles Hardingwood ‘28 Atty. Rebecca Star/ Maryama: Svannah Lyons Anthony ‘27 MFA Crew: Stage Manager: Ellie Chang ’27 Dramaturg: Sofia Smith, PhD Student Assistant Director: Makiyah Holder, PhD Student

Program note This play is dedicated to my great-great aunt, Lillian Smith, the best and baddest in all the land.

Run Time: Approximately 90 minutes.

Content Warning: This production contains the use of strong language as well as descriptions, depictions, or discussions of slavery, stillbirth, gun violence, and suicide.

Savannah Lyons Anthony is a writer and performer from St. John, Virgin Islands. She studied dance at Bard College. She enjoys making work across theater, dance and film.

Sarah Blush directs, writes and develops original projects for theatre, TV and more. Select directing: Lightning Rod Special’s Lions (Cannonball Festival); Racecar Racecar Racecar by Kallan Dana (A.R.T./NY); Bailey Williams’ Coach Coach (Clubbed Thumb), Events (The Brick), & I thought I would die but I didn’t (The Tank/TimeOut Critics Pick); Future Wife: Party in a Spreadsheet by reid tang (New Georges); Sehnsucht (JACK/NYT Critics Pick). New work developed with: P73, Ars Nova, Rattlestick, The O’Neill, Playwrights Center, Williamstown Theater Festival, HERE, Bushwick Starr, The Public, etc.

Residencies/Awards: Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, New Georges Audrey Residency, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Coffey Street, Colt Coeur, Barn Arts, New York Society Library’s Emerging Female Artist Grant. Guest directing/ Teaching: NYU Graduate Acting, AADA, UAlbany, NYU Meisner, Playwrights Horizons & Atlantic Studios. Sarah’s original TV pilot (co-written with Sofya Levitsky-Weitz) was developed with Lionsgate and Peacock.

Makiyah Holder (BREED, Assistant Director) is a first year PhD student in the American Studies Department at Brown.

Their admission was precipitated by the convergence of two major concerns—for a growing class of people who struggle to meet their most basic needs, and the role of the culture industry in manufacturing the conditions wherein anything but struggle seems to be foreclosed. Though this is their first time being part of a theater project, Makiyah has been involved in the arts almost their entire life. Makiyah initially saw Writing Is Live as an opportunity to orient themself in the university space while also trying something new, but Breed has also allowed them to feel closer to the Caribbean as the region from which their immediate family hails, and to take seriously the powers of intuition and good-faith collaboration when navigating and negotiating what is allowed to exist in the Atlantic Slavetrade’s Wake (Sharpe 2016).

Ellie Chang (BREED, Stage Manager) Hello! I’m an aspiring fantasy novelist with a weirdly large amount of dabblings in theatre. You may have seen me last year as a purple yeast creature in Kathy Ng’s Kingdom but more likely you’ll find me wrapped in fluffy pink blankets reading about worlds of magic, mythology, and morally grey characters. I’m proud to call seven countries home, and even prouder to be welcomed into the bold, beautiful family that is WIL. Thank you to my family for never thinking theatre was just a phase. <3 Special Thanks: B REO! Thanks for taking a chance on a tiny freshman all those years ago. :)))

CAST Lucia Aremu (Breanna) (she/her) Brown/Trinity Rep: Mother Courage, Cold War Choir Practice, Spring, Is Cry you Cryin’?, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Skin of Our Teeth, Becky Nurse of Salem. Other Theaters: Truth: A Biofictional Choreopoem - La Mama, Death and the Brokenhearted - Liberation Theatre Company, Story Wrangler - Paramount Theater Austin. Ada - Yale Cabaret, Other: Lucia is a Third year MFA actor at Brown/Trinity Rep. She currently lives in Providence, RI but originally from Lagos, Nigeria. She reads and writes in her mother tongue; Yoruba and she has a phobia of cats.

Kayla Bennett (Breffu) Trinity Rep: Mrs.Cratchit A Christmas Carol , U/S Angel & Delia, Blues for an Alabama Sky..

Off-Broadway: Generation Rise, New Victory Theater.

Other Theaters: Is Cry You Cry’n?, Writing is Live Festival; Nia In the Continuum, Shadowland Stages; Ensemble The Color Purple (concert), Raylynn Blood at the Root, Paul Robeson Theater. Podcasts: Live From Mount Olympus (Gold Winner at New York Festivals Radio Awards for Educational Podcast). Other: Kayla is from the Bronx in New York City. She acquired her B.A in theater from Buffalo State College, and is a current Third-year MFA actor in the Brown/TrinityProgram. She thanks God, her mother, and

her entire village for the constant support and love while she continues to act. IG: iamshe_kaylab Lily Kops (Petra) is in her final year at the Brown/Trinity MFA Acting Program. She most recently played Kattrin in Mother Courage and Her Children at Brown/Trinity Rep. Other credits include: A workshop production of Lunar Rhapsody (Isla) with José Rivera at Brown/Trinity Rep, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena) and Pericles (Thaisa/ The Bawd) at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, La Tempestad- a bilingual production of The Tempest (Miranda) at Trinity Rep, and Twelfth Night (Viola) at Brown/Trinity Rep. Previously in the Writing is Live festival, she had the most wonderful time playing Tiff in the second year staged reading of Sky Rats

by Kathy Ng ’25. All that’s left to say, is that Writing Is Live!

Deliver Us!

by JAMES LA BELLA ‘27 MFA DIRECTED BY Sammy Zeisel Cast: Boy 1: Sara Kasen ‘26 MFA Boy 2: Michael Yussuf Greene Boy 3: Omar Laguerre-Lewis Boy 4: Ellen Zahniser Jackson: Guilherme de Moura Sequeira ‘28 The Children of the Queen Chapel Royals: Eric Hadley ‘26, Ben Flaumenhaft ‘27, Patrick Whiteford ‘27, Phaedra Valetta ‘29, Josephine Hatch ‘29, Gabriela Richter ’28, Joshua Ho ‘29, Evan Gray-Williams ’28, Aliza Sapiro Polishook ‘29, Annelie Delgado’27, Alex Chun ‘29 PhD Crew: Assistant Director: Mohammad Abasi ‘27 RISD Stage Manager: Nora Nisson ‘29 Dramaturg: Fiona Mathews ‘26

Special Thanks: Sam Bell, Jake Collins Run Time: Approximately 90 minutes.

Content Warning: Deliver Us! explores sensitive themes, including suicide, rape, misogyny, colonial violence, gun use, and paranoia. This production contains the use of explicit sexual language and moments of onstage violence, including selfharm.

Sensory Warning: Loud noises.

James La Bella is a writer and dramaturg. His writing has been seen onstage with NYU Skirball, Joe’s Pub, The Prelude Festival, PS21, Invisible Dog, WNYC’s Greene Space, Life World, IDFA DocLab, and in print in McSweeney’s, The Washington Square Review, The Maine Review, and Extended Play. James is a Lambda Literary Fellow, Civilians R&D Group member, O’Neill Finalist, and has held residencies at The Orchard Project, Fresh Ground Pepper, and The Celebration Barn. James is a frequent collaborator of The Civilians (8+ shows) and of Clubbed Thumb, where he assistant-directed the Obie-award winning Grief Hotel.

Jameslabella.com Sammy Zeisel is a director, filmmaker, and teacher residing in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA in Directing from Yale, where he was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize for Excellence. Recent work includes the original puppet musical Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure (The Bushwick Starr), The Undercity (Culture Lab LIC, Jim Henson Production Grant 2026); The Seagull (Quinnipiac University); Abby Paj Tries to Stay Alive, (The Neo-Futurists); and a workshop of Tremolo, Regan Moro’s queer reimagining of The Seagull (Fault Line Theatre).

He has worked with institutions such as The Civilians, Rattlestick Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Lookingglass Theater, and Actors Theater of Louisville. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University and was the Directing Fellow at Rattlestick Theater 2025/26.

He is a lecturer at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Representation: Bonnie Davis at Bret Adams, Ltd. Website: sammyzeisel.com.

Nora Nisson (Stage Manager) worked in tech crew throughout high school, helping to build sets and handle scene changes for a variety of productions. She has always loved the feeling when a team comes together to put on a great show. As a freshman undergraduate, Nora is thrilled to be working with the amazingly talented Deliver Us! team and is looking forward to getting more involved in theater

at Brown.

Mohammad Abasi (Assistant Director) is a film student at the Rhode Island School of Design with aspirations of becoming a cinematographer. Born in Afghanistan and now based in Texas, his artistic voice is deeply rooted in personal narratives. He is drawn to intimate stories that explore love, grief, and the emotional landscapes that shape who we become. In his own work, Mohammad often examines intimate memories that have guided people to their present moment, using visual storytelling as a way to explore memory and identity. As the Assistant Director for Writing is Live, he brings both cinematic sensitivity and a deep appreciation for performance to the rehearsal room. His love for theater and acting continues to inform his collaborative approach to storytelling. Mohammad is grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such a talented cast and crew.

Special thanks to James La Bella for welcoming him onto the team!

CAST Omar Laguerre-Lewis (A Boy) (he/they) is a Providence based actor, teaching artist, and lover of Shakespeare.

They have performed with The Gamm Theatre, Burbage Theatre Company, Shit-Faced Shakespeare, Reverie Theatre Group, The Contemporary Theatre Company, and more. He would like to say A.B.W.L. (All Boys Write Live) Ellen Zahniser (A boy) is a Providence-based performing artist and writer; they have presented work at FringePVD, The Wilbury Group (PVD), AS220 (PVD), The Dirt Palace (PVD), Vanishing Performance Festival (NOLA), Philly Fringe, The Brick (NYC), Life World (NYC), and other delightful venues around the east coast! As a longtime WIL fan, they are SO EXCITED to be here, and are especially hyped to celebrate James’s incredible work with this epic team of artistes!!

Sara Kasen (A Boy) MFA Acting student at Brown/Trinity.

Film Producer and Financier at Quiet Riot Productions.

Wilbury Theatre Board Member. @saraekasen Michael Yussef Greene (A Boy) After participating in the WIL Fall ‘25 Incubator Series, Michael is thrilled to make his Writing is Live debut. Selected Credits: Octet, NOISE, Wilbury Theatre Group; ¡Qué Diablos, Fausto!, ¡Alguien Más!, Rhode Island Latino Arts; Fatso Goes to McDonalds (and other short plays), Fringe PVD 2025; The Legend of Georgia McBride, The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong, Sense and Sensibility, Everybody, Burbage Theatre Company; Queer Voices Festival 2025, Boston Theatre Company; Someone Will Remember Us, The Inheritance: Part Two, Sueño, Trinity Repertory Company; First Page Festival 2024, Lyric Stage Company; The Solito Plays, Manton Avenue Project. Michael is also a director, theater technician, educator, and queer MENASA theatremaker in the RI/MA Area. IG: aggressive_koala Guilherme de Moura Sequeira (Jackson) is thrilled to be making his Writing is Live festival debut as part of James LaBella’s Deliver Us!. Past credits include Brown: Machinal (Prosecution Attorney), Cyrano (DeGuiche), antler (boy), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Hamlet); New York: Present Laughter (Garry Essendine), The Seagull (Nina), The Liar (Arlecchino), and many more. Gui’s long history with writing that is live started many years ago with children’s TV commercials, and he is over the moon to continue this tradition with this festival today. He wants to thank his family, the entire Brown TAPS department, and, of course, James and Sammy for bringing him along on this imaginary journey. Love ya!

Eric Hadley (Boy Chorus) grew up in Pennsylvania, outside of Philly, and has been performing since he was a little kid.

He’s an undergraduate student at Brown University studying Theatre Arts and American Sign Language, and is expected to graduate in May 2026. Eric recently directed The Flick by

Annie Baker for the TAPS department’s Senior Slot this past fall and is excited to take part in Writing is Live again this year, after acting in James La Bella’s Document Everything.

Pluck Out Your Eyes. and assistant directing Dhari Noel’s Is Cry You Cry’n? during last year’s Writing is Live festival.

Outside of Brown theater, you might find Eric clowning with the Wilbury Theatre Group’s Booboisie!

Ben Flaumenhaft (Boy Chorus) is a junior Comparative Literature concentrator. He likes to act. Last spring, he acted in the reading of James La Bella’s Document Everything. Pluck Out Your Eyes.

Josephine Hatch (Boy Chorus) is a first-year undergraduate student at Brown University. She has taken part in a range of theatre at Brown including plays, musicals, and improv, and can’t wait to keep exploring with Writing is Live!

Gabriela Richter (Boy Chorus) is a Sophomore studying Psychology and Modern Culture & Media. She is so incredibly excited to be in her first Writing is Live! play. In her free time, she enjoys singing in her acapella group, watching movies, and writing. She wants to thank her Mom and Dad! Evan Gray-Williams (Boy Chorus) is overjoyed to be a Child of the Queen Chapel Royals. Reared in several locales across America, most recently Portland, Oregon, Evan now spends his time alternating between the Ratty and the Campus Center. In addition to Deliver Us!, he has performed at Brown as Whizzer in Musical Forum’s Falsettos, Le Bret in Production Workshop’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and Polonius in SoTG’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Outside of theater, Evan is an editor for The College Hill Independent and is double-concentrating in English and Anthropology (the money-makers!). He would like to thank his parents; his sister, Amaya; his lovely friends, near and far; and, of course, James La Bella and Sammy Zeisel for

Making It All Possible. He would not like to thank his high school yearbook for giving him the senior superlative of “Biggest Theater Kid”—that was embarrassing.

Aliza Sapiro Polishook (Boy Chorus) is a first year undergraduate student at Brown University. She has been acting since 2nd grade and is so excited to continue her journey with Writing is Live!

Alex Chun (Boy Chorus) is a third-year PhD student in the Department of American Studies. He sends lots of gratitude and love to James and Sammy for including him in this project, and he is beyond thankful for his friends and family for making his life wonderful every single day.

BAD MAIDENS

by REED FLORES ‘28 MFA Directed by AILEEN WEN MCGRODDY ‘22 MFA Cast: Mary: Giselle Latty: Anna Basile Euphemia: Evelyn Dearbourn Agnes: Anna Slate Jean: Lauren Farnell, PhD Student Crew: Assistant Director: Shannon Constantine, PhD Candidate Stage Manager: Jocelyne Lioe ‘29 Dramaturg: Berkem Yanikcan, PhD Student Dialect Coach: Rebecca Gibel ‘10 MFA

Run Time: Approximately 90 minutes.

Content Warning: Please be advised that this production features descriptions of sexual acts, and interaction with bodily fluids.

Sensory Warning: This production features loud noises and sound effects.

Reed Flores ‘28 is a playwright and director from the Bay Area. He’s very Brown (CHamoru/Filipino kine) and hella gela’/bakla — his work usually is too. Reed has worked around the country at cool places like Seattle Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Bindlestiff Studio, among others. Most recently, his play CUCKOO EDIBLE MAGIC had its World Premiere last year with SFBATCO at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco — it was hella cute. www.reedflores.com Special Thanks: Jarcho & the MFA Playwrights, Mickey Skinner, Elana Swartz, Gwynnevere Cristobal, Vivienne Truong, Kristy Aquino, Jeffrey Lo, Raven Douglas.

Aileen Wen McGroddy is a theatre director based in New York and this is her third year as the Creative Producer of the Writing is Live Festival at Brown. She is also Co-Artistic Director of TUTA Theatre Chicago and a current resident artist with New Georges. Upcoming work includes the world premiere of Talene Monahon’s Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret at Northern Stage. Past Writing is Live shows: Kingdom by Kathy Ng, Cold War Choir Practice and Throwback Island by Ro Reddick, On The Y Axis by Lucas Baisch, and Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt

by Julia Izumi. Other past work includes: Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt... (Woolly Mammoth), Cold War Choir Practice and A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep); Tom and Eliza and Attempts on Her Life (TUTA Theatre Chicago); The Chinese Lady (Kitchen Theatre and Geva Theatre Center); Sisters and Sense and Sensibility (Northern Stage); Airness (Breckenridge Backstage Theatre); The Glass Menagerie, Or, Dani Girl (Winnipesaukee Playhouse); Knuffle Bunny and The Snowy Day (Emerald City Theatre); Ulysses (The Plagiarists). She has developed new work at New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, The Playwright’s Realm, NY Classical Theatre, and Northern Stage. Fellowships: Roundabout Directors Group, 2050 at NYTW, Drama League, and BOLD Resident Director at Northern Stage. MFA in Directing from Brown-Trinity. Special Thanks: Lu & Eric Nathan

Jocelyne Lioe (Stage Manager) is a first-year undergraduate at Brown University. She is very excited to stage manage her first TAPS production. She has previously worked as an assistant stage manager on Machinal and as the stage manager of Brown Musical Forum’s Concert Musical: Company. While she has been involved in theatre since high school, her recent interest in stage management derived from her fulfilling experience in her Stage Management class last semester. She is grateful for the chance to watch the writing develop in real-time with her amazing company, and she can’t wait for the audience to enjoy the festival!

CAST Anna Basile (Latty) is an actor and teaching artist from Rhode Island. She earned her BA in Theatre from Northwestern and MFA in Devised Performance and Physical Theatre from University of the Arts. Acting and directing credits include: Center Aquidneck (Life After Life), The Wilbury Theatre Group (Great Comet, The Flick), Burbage Theatre Company (A Play in 5 Betty’s), Brown Arts Initiative (Poly Play), Filament Theatre and The Actor’s Gymnasium, as well as multiple original works performed at the PVD Fringe (Ye Who Enter Here, Come Home Soon, Out There). Anna has worked as a performing arts educator for more than ten years with educational institutions across the state.

These include Rhode Island College, Lincoln School, Trinity Rep, Beacon Charter, Rocky Hill, Studio Playground, and more. Creating works of physical theatre and clown with high school and college aged performers is Anna’s absolute favorite thing to do, second only to being onstage.

Evelyn Dearbourn (Euphemia) tattoos, instructs clawhammer banjo, pours herself into a co-operatively owned house, and tells fortunes in Providence. She is a largely self-taught student of her ancestral histories, languages, literary and musical traditions. She seeks ways to let her presence illuminate and circumvent imposed order, from the methodical ritual of handpoked tattoos to playing banjo in a chamber music setting. The daughter

of a Southern Baptist missionary preacher and a military veteran, she was born in the Ozarks at the peak of the Satanic Panic. She came of age between the sprawling dairy farms, caves, church signs, and billboards of Southern Missouri, and the rocky shorelines, redwood forests, and queer straightedge veganism of the Bay Area. Calling New England home for the past 15 years has deepened her antipathy toward puritanism and colonialism, and honed her sense of art as a pathway to liberation and memory where it has been denied.

Anna Slate (Agnes) (she/her) is a Providence-based actor, singer, and performance artist. Recent theatre credits include: Leopoldstadt (Huntington & Shakespeare Theatre Companies), Cold War Choir Practice, La Cage aux Folles, By the Queen (Trinity Repertory), Indecent; Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 (Wilbury Theatre Group), Romeo & Juliet (Lanes Coven Theater), Handle with Care (North Carolina Stage Company), A Little Night Music, The Fantasticks (Four Seasons Theatre). Favorite opera credits: Xerxes (Berkeley West Edge Opera), Dido and Aeneas (Heartbeat Opera), Alcina (OperaRox). An enthusiastic & longtime fan of Writing is Live, Anna wants to send a huge thanks to bad maidens Aileen, Reed and the whole cast ‘n crew for having me on this ride with y’all! Up Next: Anna will be portraying the title role in Charlotte’s Web with Wheelock Family Theatre. www.annaslate.com Lauren Farnell (Jean) is a 2nd year PhD student in the Brown Theatre and Performance Studies Department. In addition to acting work, Lauren studies the intersections of performance, literature, identity, and queerness in the Hispanic Caribbean. Before PhD world, Lauren received a BA in musical theatre performance from American University, and an MA in Theatre and Performance studies at the University of Maryland. Lauren is very excited to get back to doing creative work, taking a break from the books.

Special thanks to my parents, Mabel, and my support system at Brown! special thanks to Reed for bringing me in to the process :)

D A R G R E UND D N U O R G UNDER

DOLLHOUSE by ivy Rockmore ‘27 Cast: Ashton Higgins ‘26 Sebastian Botero ‘27 Andres Martinez ‘27 Lane Bynum ‘27 RISD Jack Gould ‘28 RISD Content Warning: Gender essentialism, drug use, disordered eating, references to mental illness _________

She. Here. Now

by Kendall Ricks ‘27 Cast: Semaya Robinson ‘27 Destiny Smith Sarter ‘27 Alyse Harrell ‘28

CemetEry Play

by Fiona Mathews Cast: Benjamin Flaumenhaft ‘27 Evan Gray-Williams ‘28 Annabel Richards ‘26 Nan Dickerson ‘26 Content Warning: Death and miscarriage _________

PENTACYCLE

by Nina Zhong ‘26 Cast: Albert Lou ‘26 Joshua Ho ‘29 Maison Teixeira ‘27 Content Warning: Mentions of suicide; depictions of death

Ivy Rockmore is a writer. Her debut play, BI MEN, is forthcoming in print from 1319 Press. In 2025, she received the Michael S. Harper Memorial Prize in Poetry. She has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue India, Texas Monthly, The Advocate, and Town & Country. Her work explores the performance of closeness and the limits of language, especially as it relates to trans art. She served as assistant director for her mentor Brian Dang’s play What!! Ever!!

Major!! Loser!! at the 2025 Writing is Live festival. Born in Toronto and raised in Texas, she now studies Literary Arts at Brown University. ivyrockmore.com Kendall Ricks (she/her) is a writer born in Louisiana and raised in Louisiana and Texas. She is studying English and Modern Culture & Media. Currently she’s thinking about disturbed domesticity, desire, madness, absence as presence, and girlhood.

Fiona Mathews is a writer from Western Massachusetts.

They are a senior concentrating in History and Performance Studies, currently working on a thesis that explores gender and queerness in twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts through the lens of artistic and literary depictions of bodily fragmentation including castration, martyrdom, and relics.

Right now, they’re thinking about haunting, nonlinear time, intimacy, abstraction, and the medieval era.

Nina Zhong: Based in Boston, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, Nina Zhong ‘26 is an international playwright. Her experimental works explore the intersection of intercultural expression and shifting identities. Her projects have been showcased in various venues around the world, including Shanghai Grand Theater and School for Poetic Computation in NYC. Her upcoming play, Strictly Research, tells the tale of an Anthropology PhD candidate that must overcome her awkwardness and collaborate with her cousin’s hotshot boyfriend to find her missing cousin and hand in her dissertation on time. Outside of class, Nina can be found arranging music for gospel acapella, working as a student photographer, and watching k-drama. She wonders if her personal hero Gertude Stein also wrote about herself in the third-person. Instagram: kneennah.

Sock & Buskin Sock & Buskin (S&B) is the board that selects and produces the main-stage theatre season for the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies. It is a partnership between undergraduate students, faculty, and staff.

Founded in 1901 by Thomas Crosby, a professor in the Brown University Department of English, Sock & Buskin has maintained an unbroken string of performance seasons since being established.

Originally founded as an all-male organization, Sock & Buskin became a co-educational group in 1927 when it merged with an all-female theatre troupe from nearby Pembroke College.

The mission of S&B is to bring faculty, staff, and students together in the spirit of collaborative learning and artistry and to engage in open conversations among members of the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies and larger Brown community in order to select and produce the works of the main-stage theatre season. Throughout this process, S&B values include collaboration, curiosity, experimentation and expansiveness, mentorship and sharing knowledge, creativity, diversity, education, and creating challenging theatre.

Sock & Buskin Board Members Acadia Phillips '28, Alex Haynes, Alex Nurkin, Alyse Harrell '28, Avi Levin '26, B Reo, Brianne Shaw, Brodie Gross '28, Connie Crawford, Ella Piscatello '27, Eric Hadley '26, Ethan Ho '28, Gillian Gordon '26, Julia Jarcho, Kym Moore, Lottie Doughty '26, Miles Justice Hardingwood '28, Noah Martinez '27, Patricia Ybarra, Rashaun Bertrand '27, Renee Surprenant Fitzgerald, Saja Alagaad '28, Sarah dAngelo, Thomas Ward '27, Zane Elinson '28

Student Employees & Support Staff STUDENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS Olivia Sydnia St Bernadette '26, Kate Baker '27, Elaina Bayard '27, Leana Lee '28, Sabine Maas '28, Austin Meadows '26, Nathan Scarborough '26 JOHN STREET TECHNICAL DESIGN ASSISTANTS Chloe Rombaut-Enriquez '27, Sydney Merrill '27 Kano Mosher '27 Preston Rossi '27, Erin Allison '28, Taylor Conklin '26, Rand Abubakir '29, Gabin Ineza Rwigema '29, Angel Rivas '28, Eric Hadley '26, Jacqueline Zhang '27, Siona Lewis-Coffey ‘29, Finneas Tronnes ‘28 COSTUME SHOP ASSISTANTS Ava Gell '28, Plum Luard '26, Kayla Walford '26, Arya Vishwakarma '29, Alyse Harrell '28, Megan Kiruta '29 PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT

Sophie Rockwell '26

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS Dominique Aimee Marie Merci Iragena '28, Acadia Kotov '28 BECKER PERFORMING ARTS LIBRARY STUDENT LIBRARIAN Maureen Klaiber '27 CUSTODIAN COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT

Jorge Fortes Eric Hadley ‘26

FRONT OF HOUSE AND BOX OFFICE ASSISTANTS Grace Martin '26, Angela Nie '28, Aidan Pesce '27, Trinity Tolin '27