2023 Playwrights
Kate Hamill
Playwright, Pride and Prejudice
Kate Hamill is a playwright and actor based in New York City. She has spent multiple seasons on the most-produced playwright list in American Theatre Magazine. Her most recent work includes Ms. Holmes & Mr., Watson- #2B at Kansas City Rep/Portland Center Stage, Emma at The Guthrie, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Little Women at Primary Stages/Jungle Theater and Mansfield Park at Northlight Theater.
Kate’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (in which she originated the role of Marianne Dashwood) had its world premiere off-Broadway, produced by Bedlam. It was named one of the “Top Ten Plays of 2014” by both Ben Brantley of the New York Times and by the Huffington Post, which called it “the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history.” It reopened in New York in 2016 at the Gym at Judson where it ran for almost 300 performances.
Other plays include Vanity Fair which debuted at The Pearl Theater with an extended run and was seen in a co-production between Shakespeare Theater in DC and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice started at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in a production that moved to Primary Stages. She is published by Dramatists Play Service and TRW Plays.
Chisa Hutchinson
Playwright, The Bleeding Class
Chisa Hutchinson (B.A. Vassar College; M.F.A NYU – TSoA) has presented her plays, which include She Like Girls, Somebody’s Daughter, Surely Goodness & Mercy, Whitelisted and Dead & Breathing at such venues as Atlantic Theater Company, Contemporary American Theater Fest, the National Black Theatre, Second Stage, and Arch 468 in London. Her radio drama, Proof of Love, can be found on Audible (with a boss rating). She’s been a New Dramatist, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Lark Fellow, a Humanitas Fellow, a NeoFuturist, and a staff writer for the Blue Man Group. Chisa has also won a GLAAD Award, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, a Helen Merrill Award, and the Lanford Wilson Award. She staffed on two television series—Three Women (Starz) and Tell Me Lies (Hulu)— and is currently creating another with producers Karamo Brown (Queer Eye) and Stephanie Allain (Hustle & Flow, Dear White People). Her first original feature, THE SUBJECT, in which a white documentarian deals with the moral fallout from exploiting the death of a black teen, is available on various VOD platforms after a successful film festival circuit during which it won over 30 prizes. To learn more, visit www.chisahutchinson.com.
C.A. Johnson
Commissioned Playwright
C.A. Johnson is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from Metairie, Louisiana. Her plays include ALL THE NATALIE PORTMANS (MCC Theater), THIRST (2017 Kilroys List, CATF), AN AMERICAN FEAST (NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School), and I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. Most recently she was the Tow Playwright in Residence at MCC Theater. She was previously the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow, The Lark’s 2016-17 Van Lier Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, A Core Writer at The Playwrights Center, a member of The Civilians R&D Group, a Sundance/Ucross Fellow and a 2018 Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow. She most recently served as a writer on Drew Goddard’s upcoming series at Hulu. She is also developing an original television project with Drew Goddard and his producing partner Sarah Esberg for ABC Signature. She will be writing the feature adaptation of GHOST IN THE MACHINE for Netflix, with Issa Rae and David Heyman producing. Previously, she wrote in the mini-room for FIVE WOMEN, an upcoming television mini-series from Marielle Heller and Big Beach.BA: Smith College. MFA: NYU
Mike Lew
Playwright, tiny father
Mike Lew is the co-bookwriter of the musical comedy Bhangin’ It, about a collegiate bhangra dance team, with songs by Sam Willmott and book by Rehana Lew Mirza which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse. Other plays include tiny father (Audible); Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse/London, Ma-Yi at The Public Theater/New York, Woolly Mammoth, Huntington Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse); Tiger Style! (South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse); Bike America (Ma-Yi, Alliance); and microcrisis (Ma-Yi, InterAct). He and Rehana Lew Mirza are former Mellon Foundation Playwrights in Residence at Ma-Yi where they co-wrote The Colonialism Trilogy.
Mike is a Dramatists Guild Council member, Tony voter and New Dramatists resident. Honors: Guggenheim, Lark Venturous and NYFA fellowships; Steinberg Playwrights, Kleban, PEN, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Heideman, and Kendeda awards. Education: Juilliard, Yale.
Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Playwright, Cannabis Passover
Sofya Levitsky-Weitz is a playwright and television and film writer, who splits her time between Brooklyn and Los Angeles. She is currently a Co-Producer on the upcoming Netflix series HATCHING TWITTER, based on the book by Nick Bilton. Within the past two years, she has been on the writing staffs of the Watergate series GASLIT for Starz, both seasons of THE BEAR for FX, and THE DROPOUT for Hulu. She’s worked with Michael Showalter on multiple features including THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE for Fox Searchlight. Sofya is also developing a half-hour erotic thriller meets stoner romcom about fate and desire for Peacock, with director Sarah Blush and Lionsgate Television and has original projects in development with OBB Media and Hat Trick Productions. As a playwright, Sofya’s play THIS PARTY SUCKS was optioned for Broadway, TV and Film by Mark Gordon Pictures and was on the 2019 Kilroys’ List. She was a 2022 MacDowell Fellow and is a proud alum of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. She’s developed work with EST NYC, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Flea Theater, and Chicago Dramatists, among others. She was a Jerome Fellow (2018-2019) and a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center (2019-2022) and has received commissions from the Penn State New Musical Initiative, the Sloan Foundation, Steep Theatre, The Motor Company, and Chinatown Soup. Her other plays include CANNABIS PASSOVER (2021-2022 finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference), BE MEAN TO ME, GEHINNOM, and INTUITIVE MEN. BE MEAN TO ME ran at the Wirtz Center at Northwestern University in November 2022. Sofya has an MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage from Northwestern University, where she now serves on their advisory board.
Harrison David Rivers
Playwright, Proximity
Harrison David Rivers is an award-winning playwright, librettist and television writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His works include WE ARE CONTINUOUS (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geva Theatre Center, New Conservatory Theatre Center), THE BANDAGED PLACE (Roundabout, NYSF), THIS BITTER EARTH (NCTC, Penumbra, About Face, Theater Alliance, Richmond Triangle Players, The Road, InterAct, TheatreWorks Hartford, Seattle Public, Blank Page), among others, and the musicals FIVE POINTS with Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar, WE SHALL SOMEDAY with Ted Shen and I PUT A SPELL ON YOU with Nubya Garcia. His television credits include ONE OF US IS LYING (Peacock), THE NEVERS (HBO) and WYTCHES (Amazon). Harrison is a recipient of McKnight, Jerome and Van Lier Fellowships, residencies with the Siena Art Institute, NYTW, Williamstown, Geva and Duke University, and commissions from Roundabout, Transport Group, Penumbra, Geva, La Jolla Playhouse and Minnesota Opera. He sits on the Board of Directors of The Movement Theatre Company and the Playwrights’ Center. MFA: Columbia University harrisondavidrivers.com
