(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Art House Productions is proud to announce the 2024-2025 cohort of its INKubator New Play Program. INKubator is a year-long generative process for a select group of six playwrights in residence at Art House Productions. This year's playwrights are Michael Judson Berry, Phillip Gregory Burke, Sarah Cuneo, Molly Horan, Frank Murdocco, and M. D. Schaffer.
Playwrights will meet monthly alongside program director Alex Tobey to share new work, receive feedback, and develop a first draft of a new play. In the spring, each writer will team up with a director and actors to present a public reading as a part of the 7th Annual INKubator New Play Festival in May 2025. Audiences who attend the festival will have the opportunity to participate in conversations with the writers, directors, and actors following each performance.
Submissions were evaluated through a process coordinated by INKubator Program Director, Alex Tobey, in partnership with INKubator alum playwrights Upasna Barath and Amanda Sage Comerford and Art House Productions Executive Artistic Director, Meredith Burns.
Meredith Burns, Executive Artistic Director of Art House Productions, says, "We are thrilled to welcome such an outstanding group of playwrights to our 2024-2025 INKubator program. Each writer brings a unique voice and perspective, and we are excited to support them as they develop new and innovative works. INKubator has always been a vital part of Art House's mission to nurture emerging talent, and this year's cohort represents the depth of creativity and passion that drives our community forward."
The following finalists were also honored in this year’s submission process: Kimberly Bollard, Allyson Dwyer, Bess Frankel, Andrew Martini, and Layli Rohani.
2024-2025 INKubator Writers
Michael Judson Berry is an actor and writer with a BFA from Boston University and MA from LAMDA, but he is best known for creating the viral series “QuaranTeaTime,” a parody of Schitt's Creek’s lovably loquacious matriarch Moira Rose, which has received millions of views on socials and even garnered praise from Catherine O’Hara herself. Michael co-created two TV series which are currently in development, and is thrilled to begin work on his first play!
Phillip Gregory Burke is a Black American of Haitian, Creole, and Gullah-Geechee descent artivist, actor, playwright, and producer. His play A Mercy At Midnight Castle won the 49th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and will be published by Concord Theatricals. He won the 2024 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts Grant, is a 2024-2025 Bandung Resident, holds memberships in SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and The Dramatists Guild, and co-founded DIEZ. IG: @PhillipGBurke
Sarah Cuneo is a playwright, actress, director, aerialist, and founding member of Taproot Creatives. A semifinalist for the 2024 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellows Program, Sarah has had her writing featured at the New York International Fringe Festival, The Tank, Chelsea Film Festival, and Chain Film Festival. As an actress, she loves to develop new works. She collaborated with Tectonic Theater Project on workshops of their new play Here There Are Blueberries and has acted in new play festivals across the country.
Molly Horan is a lyricist, librettist, playwright, and novelist. Her play The Patron Saint of Other Women won Georgia College’s Arts & Letters 2021 Drama Prize. She is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop and Librettist Workshop. Her sophomore novel, Thanks For Listening, will be out this November. She currently teaches creative writing and literature at New York University and The School of Visual Arts.
Frank Murdocco is a New York-based actor and writer. Most recently, his solo show A Little Treat premiered at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His plays, which have been produced Off-Broadway and internationally, include I Didn't Mean to Scream So Loud, Legume, The Yearnings, and The Public and Private Deaths of Carol O'Grady. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and Actors Equity Association. @frankmurdocco, www.frankmurdocco.com
M. D. Schaffer (they/he) is a non-binary, Ashkenazi, African-American playwright, choreographer, librettist, and lyricist born in Houston, Texas, and residing in New York City. They are a proud alumni of Princeton University and the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University. They look to represent cultures honestly to create spaces for all people to speak, connect, and form a solidified resistance to damaging and oppressive structures.
Art House Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to fostering the performing and visual arts in Jersey City, NJ. From theater productions to visual art exhibitions and community programs, Art House champions artistic expression in all its forms. Visit the arts center at 345 Marin Boulevard in Jersey City.
Support for Art House Productions in 2024 is provided by the Albanese Organization, the Arts in Education Program and the Hudson County History Partnership Program from Hudson County Cultural Affairs, the Exchange Place Alliance, funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts a partner organization of the NEA, HDSID, the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation, Jersey City Health and Human Services, KRE, Liberty Harbor, Panepinto Properties, public funds from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, SILVERMAN, Super Buy Rite, the City of Jersey City, the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, Tito's, and by many other generous volunteers, donors, and sponsors.
