Playwrights Zizi Majid & Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel speak with Associate Artistic Director Melissa Crespo about the plays they are developing as part of the Julie Lutz New Play Festival.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Zizi Majid is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. She is the inaugural recipient of the Julia Miles Playwriting Residency (WP Theatre) during which she wrote the play Milk. She was a 2022-23 Playwriting Fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation and is a proud alum of the WP Lab. She won the Pacific Rim Prize for Playwriting (Kumu Kahua Theatre/University of Hawaii Manoa Playwriting Contest), has been a finalist for the Princeton Arts Fellowship, a finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a thrice semi-finalist for the O'Neil National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Plays include They Came in the Night, Return to Fall, The Rejects, and How to Gild an Eagle. For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) garnering multiple awards during her tenure. She teaches playwriting and drama in context at Syracuse University. MFA: Columbia University. Website: zizimajid.com

Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel is a trans-Guatemalan playwright, born in Guatemala and raised in Connecticut. Her works are spiritual, hyper-theatrical narratives that give Black & Brown Queer/Trans voices a space to interrogate core wounds and offer them a path toward healing. Esperanza’s plays have been supported by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Roundabout Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Kennedy Center, the Tank, Breaking the Binary Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theater Workshop. Esperanza is the recipient of the Princeton Ward Prize for Fiction and Outstanding Achievement in Theater Prize, the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Scholarship from the Yale School of Drama, and the Paul Greene Award from the National Theatre Conference. Her play, Color Boy, received the Kennedy Center's Latinx Playwriting Award and Paula Vogel Playwriting Award (finalist), an Honorable Mention from the 2024 Relentless Award, a nomination for the 2025 Venturous Playwright Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center, and was named the Connecticut State Winner for the Clauder Prize from Portland Stage. Her play Lupe Finds Me in the Garden of Dreams was a finalist for the 2024 Leah Ryan Prize, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Van Lier Fellowship for New Voices at Rattlestick Theater, and is also a current finalist for the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Lupe Finds Me was developed through New York Theater Workshop’s 2024 Summer Dartmouth Residency and was presented at the 2024 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival at Playwrights Horizons. She is a two-time finalist for the O’Neill Theatre Conference and nominee for the Ollie Award, a one-time nominee for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award at the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and is a contributor to the second volume of Methuen Drama’s Anthology of Trans Plays. She is currently a Teaching Artist for the Public Theater, an IB Theater Advisor at Brooklyn Prospect Charter High School, and a Lecturer in Playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where she produced and mentored the playwrights working on the 2024-2025 Carlotta Festival and the Langston Hughes Festival of New Plays. BA: Princeton, MFA: Yale

Syracuse Stage’s Resident Playwright Kyle Bass talks with playwright Rogelio Martinez about his upcoming world premiere production with Rogelio Martinez’s The National Pastime, part of the Julie Lutz New Play Festival.

Rogelio Martinez (he/his) is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been workshopped and produced in theaters across the country and abroad. His play, Born In East Berlin, was first performed at the Stasi Museum, Berlin, in both English and German and then premiered at San Francisco Playhouse in February 2020. More recently, Martinez worked on The Seven Deadly Sins project for Miami New Drama. It was the largest theatrical production allowed by Equity during the pandemic. It won the Drama League Award - Outstanding Interactive or Socially-Distanced Theater. In 2021, Martinez worked on a new television project for Tom Fontana, based on the book, Year of Dangerous Days. His play, Blind Date, was produced at the Goodman Theatre under the direction of Tony-nominee Robert Falls, with Tony Award-winning actress Deanna Dunagan playing the role of Nancy Reagan, and was awarded an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Martinez is a recipient of a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, Princess Grace Award, and a Mid-Career Fellowship at the Lark Theater Company. His work has been workshopped and commissioned by various theaters across the country including the Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Atlantic Theater Company, Arden Theater, Asolo Repertory, and Ojai Theater Company, and many more. Martinez’s plays include Illuminating Veronica, Arrivals and Departures, All Eyes and Ears, Blind Date, Born in East Berlin, and I Regret She’s Made of Sugar (Princess Grace Winner). He is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Martinez teaches undergraduate playwriting at NYU and has also written for children’s television. Martinez was born in Sancti-Spiritus, Cuba, and came to this country on the Mariel boatlift.

About Rochele Royster

Rochele Royster is an artist, educator, and licensed art therapist dedicated to fostering mental health and wellness through creative expression. With over two decades of experience as a special education teacher in Chicago Public Schools, she has developed culturally relevant, arts-based approaches to promote critical thinking, resilience, and social change in underserved communities. Now based in Syracuse, Rochele leads the Me/We Creative Arts & Wellness Lab & Studio, offering accessible wellness services and advocating for inclusive, strength-based care for marginalized populations. Her work emphasizes the transformative power of art to build connections, amplify voices, and create spaces of belonging.

About Brian Cimmet

Brian Cimmet teaches courses in musical theater performance, literature, history, and audition technique. His recent Department of Drama credits include direction and musical direction for Avenue Q and music direction for Parade and Spring Awakening. Other Syracuse credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Seussical, Hairspray, Violet, Like You Like It, White Christmas, Cradle Will Rock, Rent, and Cabaret. Beyond the confines of Syracuse, Cimmet’s credits include the Broadway companies of The Drowsy Chaperone, Mary Poppins, and Grease; the original Off-Broadway productions of I Love You Because (also the cast album); and The Tin Pan Alley Rag, as well as too much regional and stock theater to remember. He has composed scores to Absolutely Anything, The Spirit of Reindeer, A Christmas Carol, Burn This, Stop Kiss, Let’s Play Two, and No Poop!, and his songs have been nominated for three MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs). In an entirely unrelated walk of life, Cimmet is a two-time award winner at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, co-creator and co-host of Lollapuzzoola (his own summertime crossword tournament, www.bemoresmarter.com), and contributor to several puzzle books, some of which are available at Barnes & Noble.

About Jessica Chen

Jessica Chen is an American dancer, choreographer, and director based in New York City known for creating "visceral ...emotionally charged movements and choreography." - Sarah Draugelis, HuffPost. Her work has graced prestigious platforms like New York Fashion Week at MoMA, Lincoln Center, and MACY's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Chen has choreographed for productions Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella at Geva Theater and Jersey Boys at Weathervane Theater, and Spring Awakening for Montclair State University, where she is currently an adjunct professor teaching Jazz. Chen assisted Director William Hayes in the World Premiere of The Messenger by Jenny Connell Davis for Palm Beach Dramaworks.Internationally, she has been featured at the World Expo-USA Pavilion in Shanghai and in a special showcase by Google Arts & Culture. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, a 501c3 nonprofit contemporary dance company with a mission to create dance works that emphasize identity, cultural diversity, and belonging. J CHEN PROJECT is thrilled to enjoy an open-ended run of AAPI HEROES in NYC beginning June 2024.Chen's accolades include being a 2021 GALLIM Moving Women Artist-in-Residence, a 2021 Dance Lab New York Choreographer, and a 2023 Bessie Award nominee for Outstanding Choreographer/Creator. Her current theater projects include AAPI HEROES, Cabaret, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Jessica is a Proud Member of SDC.