“The WP Lab was an amazing experience for me. To have my ideas and creativity fostered in a group of talented women playwrights, producers, and directors was empowering. Not only has the Lab helped me to feel clearer about my voice as a playwright, it has inspired my confidence as a woman with something important to offer our greater theater continuum. I am extremely thankful to WP for continuing to nurture my art.”
– Dominique Morisseau, WP  Playwrights Lab Alum, Obie Winning and Tony Nominated Writer

Founded in 1994, the Playwrights Lab allows its members to develop new work in a productive environment. In addition to the full-Lab meetings, the playwrights’ group meets monthly to hear their work read aloud and receive feedback.

Amara Janae Brady

Amara (she/her/hers) is a generative artist & cultural dramaturg from Chicago. Her purpose is to show the humanity and divinity of Black women and connect underserved communities with experiences that mirror their own. Favorite Credits: “my dick is david duke” or The Sad Fat Negress Can’t Get a Date (Ars Nova- Star; Writer; Producer), This is Where We Go (MCC- Actor + Writer), NYT’s Critic Pick, Jillian Walker’s SKiNFoLK (Bushwick Starr- Assistant Producer). YouTube series, ‘Skinny & White’ Aren’t Character Traits. Resist, check your privilege, & then make some space. Ashé to the ancestors. All Power to all people.
Website: https://linktr.ee/ajbrady

Christin Eve Cato

CHRISTIN EVE CATO (Playwright) is a playwright and performing artist from the Bronx. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University and completed her BA in Political Science and Philosophy at Fordham University. Cato is also a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts. She is affiliated with NYC theater companies, Pregones/PRTT (ensemble member & former Resident Dramaturg), INTAR Theatre (UNIT 52 ensemble member), and the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Cato’s artistic style is expressed through Caribbean culture and the Afro-Latinx diaspora, honoring her Puerto Rican and Jamaican roots. Recent Off-Broadway productions include The Good Cop (DUAF 2022) . Recent productions include, Sancocho (Vision Latino Theatre Company/ Destinos, 5th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival); American Made (Samuel French OOB Festival/ NYC); and an audio play journey, The Mayor of Hell’s Kitchen Presents: A Time Traveling Journey Through NYC’s Wild West (The Parsnip Ship & Playwrights Horizons/ NYC). www.christinevecato.com

Queen Esther

(she/her) Raised in Atlanta GA and embedded in Charleston SC’s Lowcountry, Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America. A graduate of The New School, she developed solo performance with PS 122, Dixon Place, Samuel Beckett Theater, The Royal Theater Company and the Public Theater, and held performance residences with George St. Theater, PS NBC at HERE and The Apollo Theater as well as an artist residency at Gettysburg National Military Park. Playlabs include Liberation Theater Company, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Perspectives Theater Company and American Theater Group. A 2018 TED Resident with a TED Talk about the roots of country and bluegrass, a 2022 Artist Fellow with the National Arts Club and a recipient of the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater, she is a proud member of The Recording Academy, Actor’s Equity, SAG/AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild. 

Amina Henry

Amina Henry (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright. Productions include: The Animals, Ducklings, Hunter John and Jane and The Johnsons (JACK), P.S. (Ars Nova), Little Rapes (The New Group/Long Island University), Troy (HERO Theatre), The Great Novel (New Light Theater), and Bully produced by Interrobang Theater, Clubbed Thumbs 2019 Winterworks, and SUNY Purchase, among other venues. Her work has been produced by/ developed by/presented at: The New Group, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Flea, Page 73, Project Y Theatre, National Black Theater, Little Theater at Dixon Place, The Brooklyn Generator, The Brick, Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the 2013 Black Swan Lab Series, Kitchen Dog Theater, The Brick, Brooklyn Public Library, the cell, and HERO Theatre. She has been a member of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group, Page73’s writers group, and the 2017-2018 Ars Nova writers group. She was a 2017-2018 recipient of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Space Residency and is a 2018 recipient of a space residency at Dixon Place. She is a 2020 recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award. She is an affiliate artist of New Georges. 

Else Went

Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer whose work often deals with the formation and continuance of outsider communities. Their work has been incubated in groups at The Public Theatre (EWG), Ars Nova (Play Group), WP (Trans Lab), Playwrights Realm (Fellow), and Bechdel Group (Resident Artist). Fellow at MacDowell, Stillwright, and Barn Arts. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else’s plays have been finalists and semifinalists for the O’Neill, Princess Grace, ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, and the Carlo Annoni Prize, among others. Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theatre.