Melis Aker
Melis Aker (Playwright) is a London-and New York–based playwright/screenwriter, actor, and musician from Turkey. Her plays have been developed and presented Off-Broadway and regionally in the U.S. and U.K. at Signature Theatre Company in New York ( Fish, LaunchPad resident playwright), Theatre503 (Murmurs, 503Five resident playwright), The Old Vic (Hundred Feet Tall co-written with Benjamin Scheuer), Ars Nova and PlayCo (Hound Dog), and Williamstown Theatre Festival (Indigo Dreams). She has received commissions from Signature, Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle Eastern Mixfest), and La Jolla Playhouse, and has been awarded the American Theatre Wing’s Jonathan Larson Grant (Azul), named on the Kilroy’s List (Field, Awakening), and recognized as a “Woman to Watch” by the Broadway Women’s Fund. Her short play Scraps and Things was recorded for Playing On Air starring Carol Kane, where she was also co-star and composer.
Aker’s short film Baba in Graceland was developed with support from the Sundance Institute’s Interdisciplinary Grant and was an official selection for the 2025 Izmir Short Film Festival. Her feature screenplay ARI [Bee] was accepted to Maison des Scénaristes at Cannes, Berlinale Script Market, and the Proof of Concept Film Festival at the American Cinematheque. She is currently adapting The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, Mayte Garcia’s New York Times bestselling memoir for Crazy Legs Features, and developing an immersive game project with Sinan Eczacıbaşı of Curious Gremlin.
Aker was a NYTW 2050 Fellow, an Ars Nova Play Group member, a DGF Playwriting Fellow, and a screenwriter for Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment. She has taught playwriting/screenwriting at The New School, and prose fiction at King’s College London. She holds an MFA in Playwriting/Screenwriting from Columbia University and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at King’s College London. She is represented by CAA, Berlin Associates, and CURATE Management.
Tatiana Pandiani
Tatiana Pandiani (Director) is a New York City–based Latin American director, choreographer, and writer whose work spans theatre, film, and immersive performance.
Recent Off-Broadway projects include Torera (WP Theater/Long Wharf Theatre/Sol Project/Latinx Playwrights Circle) and Someone Spectacular (Signature, NYC). Her work has been seen at major regional theatres including Goodspeed Musicals, La Jolla Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Miami New Drama, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Long Wharf Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Perseverance Theatre. Upcoming projects include WOMB 2.0 by Marisela Treviño Orta at the Alley Theatre.
Tatiana’s original bilingual musical AZUL received the Jonathan Larson Award, and she is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Alcove Commission for her new play HINGE BABY. Her short film How to Fix Grief won the Film in Focus Award and the New York Film Academy Award in 2024.
Beyond traditional theatre, she has developed large-scale and immersive work for Warner Bros. Europe, RWS Global, and experiential projects including The Bluey Experience. She also conceived FOSSE VERDON: The Duet that Changed Broadway, a live dance documentary now running fleet-wide on Holland America Cruise Lines.
Tatiana holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and has taught at Yale, NYU Hofstra, and the Atlantic Acting School.
Signature Theatre
Signature Theatre (Co-Producer) is an artistic home for storytellers. Founded in 1991 in New York City by Jim Houghton as a theater devoted to artists across their bodies of work, Signature deepens the relationship between artists and audiences alike through their groundbreaking, and ever-evolving, residency and producing model that amplifies the resonances between an artist’s works.
Now under the leadership of Artistic Director Emily Shooltz and Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon, the organization continues to extend residencies to both playwrights and other visionary generative theater artists. Signature makes a singular—and extremely rare, in the theater world—commitment to its diverse cohort of Resident Artists by saying “yes” upfront to at least three productions. At Signature, it’s the storyteller who drives the conversation. That trust, in turn, yields incredible results from artists who are free to take chances and uncover new terrain in their work, while Signature provides holistic creative and professional support.
Signature audiences have gotten deep dives into the distinct visions of recent Resident Artists including Stephen Adly Guirgis, David Henry Hwang, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Anna Deavere Smith, Dave Malloy, Dominique Morisseau, Sarah Ruhl, Lauren Yee, and others; in 2025, the theater welcomed its newest resident, Heather Christian. Signature and its artists have been recognized with Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants, and Lucille Lortel, Obie, Drama Desk, AUDELCO, and Artios Awards as well as the 50/50 Award for Gender Parity in Theatre, among many other distinctions. In 2014, Signature became the first New York City theater to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award for its body of work and accomplishments as an institution.
By both supporting the development of new works and allowing artists to revisit previous work with fresh eyes, Signature residencies are tailored to artists needs and career trajectories, helping them to make lasting contributions to the American theatrical canon. Additionally, by building out its Launchpad Residency (supporting early career artists) and Legacy Lab (a development lab for alumni residents), the organization seeks to foster a multigenerational artistic community. In the words of Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins, “there is nowhere like [Signature] for a playwright to grow, experiment, and create.”
Signature’s devotion to its audiences is as strong as to its artists: the organization believes every New Yorker should have access to theater, and counteracts the trend of increasingly prohibitive ticket costs throughout the city with Signature Access, its robust ticket subsidy and community outreach program, made possible in part by Lead Partner Pershing Square Philanthropies. The program democratizes access to the arts and provides tickets at affordable rates for all audiences, with tickets starting at $20 for students, $30 for audiences under 30, and $40 for a range of other demographics for every Signature production.
In 2012, Signature Theatre moved into a permanent home: The Pershing Square Signature Center, the capacious and dynamic three-theater facility on West 42nd designed by Frank Gehry Architects. The Center supports and encourages collaboration and cross-pollination among artists, cultural organizations, and local communities, and serves as a meeting place and watering hole for the larger theater community.
In 2025, in anticipation of its 35th Anniversary Season, the organization made a bold move to accelerate further evolution, introducing a vision for its present and future with its $10 million Next Act Campaign. This plan ensures the organization stability and sustainability; embraces and evolves its residency model (including a return to presenting artists’ works in closer succession—nodding to the founding model of seasons devoted to single playwrights); introduces the Legacy Lab and expands its Launchpad program to multiple writers; and rethinks the identity of the Signature Center as a multi-company Off-Broadway complex, exploring ways to collaborate and thrive alongside other organizations.
New Light Theater Project
New Light Theater Project (NLTP) nurtures a Collective of artist-practitioners by presenting compelling stories across theatrical genres.
NLTP believes in the strength of ensemble work and is committed to fostering our Collective, composed of writers, actors, directors, stage managers, designers, and other artist-practitioners from diverse backgrounds. At least 50% of an NLTP production engages our Collective, while the rest of the production team consists of innovative artists with whom we hope to cultivate deeper relationships.
NLTP strives to provide sustained opportunities for our Collective. What started as a weekly Sunday gathering of friends over pancakes, coffee, and plays has evolved into a community of artists who care about the work we contribute to the theatrical makeup of New York City, and ultimately, seek to ensure a work environment that embodies a brave, communal spirit.
Since 2013, NLTP has been a twice Drama Desk-nominated company that has mounted over 50 full productions which have received critical praise including numerous Critics’ Picks, Best of Theater 2019 (The Stage + Slant Magazine), Best of Theater 2014 (The L Magazine), induction into Indie Theater Now’s People of the Year/Indie Theater Hall of Fame, and received residencies from 59E59 Co Op Resident Company, Theatre Row on 42nd Street, The Flea Theater’s Anchor Program, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Residency Fellowship, Chicago Dramatists Grafting Project, IRT 3B Residency, 13th Street Rep, Access Theater Residency Program, and the New Theater at 45th Street (now Davenport).
NLTP is proud to call NYC home, but our work has also been seen in London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Louisville (KY), East Hampton (NY), Saranac Lake (NY), Woodstock (NY), Ridgefield (CT), Sylva (NC), and Redlands (CA).
NLTP is a 501(c)3 organization.
Noor Theatre Company
Noor Theatre Company (Consulting Producer) is an Obie-winning company dedicated to supporting, developing and producing the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian and North African descent. Noor was founded in 2010 in order to serve these artists; we develop and amplify their voices for diverse audiences. As New York City’s only company with this mission, we provide an important space for MENA/SWANA voices to be heard. In doing so, we counter negative stereotypes, share nuanced work that reflects the unique perspectives of our artists, and ensure that our communities are represented and celebrated in the larger theatre ecosystem.
