(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Art House Productions is proud to announce the 2025-2026 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 Allyson Dwyer, Oded Gross, Cristina Luzárraga, Erin Mallon, Kyle Mazer, and Ferdinand Moscat.
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 8th Annual INKubator New Play Festival in May 2026. 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 alumni playwrights Neil Levi and M. D. Schaffer, Art House Productions Executive Artistic Director Meredith Burns, and Art House Productions Producing Director Joshua Feder.
Meredith Burns, Executive Artistic Director of Art House Productions, shared, “We are delighted to welcome this exceptional group of playwrights into the 2025–2026 INKubator program. INKubator has become known for the meaningful support it provides and for offering a unique generative space for new work. Playwrights, even when working independently, benefit from being in community with their peers during the earliest stages of a play's development. This year’s cohort reflects the imagination and ambition that make New Jersey’s theater community both distinct and forward-looking.”
“We were overwhelmed by both the quantity and quality of the applications this year, which made the selection process especially challenging,” says program director Alex Tobey. “This year’s cohort promises to be a diverse and exciting group of writers, each with strong roots in the great state of New Jersey, and I can’t wait to spend the year with them developing brand new plays.”
The following finalists were also honored in this year’s submission process: Kimberly Bollard, Aliyah Curry, Emily Dzioba, Andrew Martini, Matt Minnicino, and Christopher Lysik.
2025-2026 INKubator Writers
A theater artist from New Jersey, Allyson Dwyer’s work has been supported by or seen at The Brick, The Exponential Festival, Clubbed Thumb, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Workshop Theater, The Road Theatre Company, Theater Accident, and more. Finalist: Soho Rep Writer Director Lab, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, Alpine Fellowship, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Semi-finalist: Ars Nova Play Group, Pipeline PlayLab, Colt Coeur Artist Residency, Princess Grace Award. She is the founder of mind dream theater, an experimental new theater where the venue is your mind.
Oded Gross's plays have been produced at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and Boston Court Pasadena. His adaptations include The Imaginary Invalid, The Servant of Two Masters, and The Government Inspector. Among his original plays, Annelies was part of the Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Conference, Heart Attack With A Knife was produced at Kentucky’s YES Festival, and Dantino’s, an original commedia about gay marriage, was a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference.
Cristina Luzárraga is a playwright from New Jersey who recently returned home from Minneapolis. She is a current Core Writer at Playwrights’ Center where she was also formerly a Jerome Fellow and McKnight Fellow. She wrote the book for the hit musical I Am Betty about Betty Crocker, and her play Autorefract will be featured this fall at Playwrights’ Center’s PlayLabs Festival. She was recognized last year in American Theatre magazine as a Twin Cities Theatre Artist to Watch.
Erin Mallon is a playwright, USA Today Bestselling Author, and narrator of 800 audiobooks. Her play These Walls Can Talk is an Independent Audiobook Award Winner for Humor. Some of Erin’s full-length plays include Branched (Original Works Publishing), The Net Will Appear (Broadway Play Publishing), Skin Hungry (Broadway Play Publishing), Pale Blue Dot(s), Come Find Me, Soft Animals, and Out of the Woodwork. Erin lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and Three J’s.
Kyle Mazer is a playwright, poet, producer and composer from Millburn, New Jersey. He studied playwriting under Donald Margulies at Yale University where he was awarded the T. Whitney Blake Prize for excellence in English, Music, and Community Building. His writing credits include The S.S. Cancelled, ORCA: A One-Whale Musical, STALLED, KEEP THE CHANGE, Rusty Utopia, The Woman in Green, and Dog Eat Dog.
Ferdinand Moscat is a writer, actor, and director from Vineland, NJ currently based in New York City. Previous plays include Fan Service, Colin/Peter, Abuela Won’t Die, and Paternity. Recent directing credits: RENT, Dog Sees God, and Hypertension. Currently, he is developing a new play about Felix-Gonzalez Torres with The Cult Collective in New York City.
Art House Productions is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization committed to advancing the performing and visual arts in Jersey City. Through professional theater productions, visual art exhibitions, and community programs, Art House fosters creativity, inclusivity, and accessibility across all artistic disciplines.
Art House’s 2025 programming is made possible through the generous support of: An Anonymous American Foundation, Hudson County Cultural Affairs, City of Jersey City, Exchange Place Alliance, New Jersey State Council on the Arts (a partner of the NEA), Genova Burns, HDSID, Jersey City Economic Development Corporation, Jersey City Health and Human Services, KRE, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Panepinto Properties, Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, RWJ Barnabas Health | Jersey City Medical Center, SILVERMAN, Super Buy Rite, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, the NJ Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, and many dedicated donors and volunteers.
