The Primary Stages and Einhorn School of Performing Arts Creative Access Grants are a new initiative providing financial, educational, artistic, and community support to playwrights nominated by four culturally specific NYC-based theater companies, providing support to historically underrepresented communities and amplifying the artists and work of these vital arts organizations. The four 2021/22 Creative Access Grantees will each receive a stipend and two free classes at Primary Stages ESPA during our Fall and Spring semesters, giving these playwrights resources for their creative and professional development, and expanding their network of connections through support from the Primary Stages ESPA community of fellow artists. As a member of the Primary Stages family, playwrights will have access to free tickets for all Primary Stages productions, talkbacks, and artistic events. Playwrights will also be invited to participate in roundtable discussions about their creative process and their experience in the theater industry. The Creative Access Grant program will culminate in public presentations of the artists’ works in collaboration with the nominating theater company, celebrating this artistry through our joined communities. We hope for this Grant program to further expand the Primary Stages community of artists and collaborating theaters, developing long-lasting partnerships to ensure that playwrights’ voices are supported and amplified.
Primary Stages is collaborating with Latinx Playwrights Circle, National Black Theatre, National Queer Theater, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre on the Creative Access Grants. We are thrilled to announce our grant recipients: Tyler Dobies, Roger Q. Mason, Derek Lee McPhatter, and Justin Santory.
The Creative Access Grants program is made possible, in part, through the generous support of The Ellen M. Violett and Mary P.R. Thomas Foundation.
Our upcoming presentation of Roger Q. Mason's THE PINK: An Intimacy Ritual will be held on Monday, April 3 at 7pm.
Learn more and RSVP here.
TYLER DOBIES is a theater maker currently occupying the lands of the Lenape people. He is the product of aspen trees, bumpy dirt roads, curiosity, homeschooling in his parent's basement, and the feeling of not being good enough, among other things. Tyler is an inaugural recipient of Primary Stages' Creative Access Grant, nominated by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Tyler's play Barrel Men received its Off-Broadway staged reading debut with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and his play We Must See These Things was included in Pan Asian's NUWORKS 2021. His playwriting and poetry has been seen at Intiman Theatre, American Legacy Theatre, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Theatre Crude Fringe Festival, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, and Fremont Abbey Arts Center. Additionally, Tyler is a writer with The PlayGround Experiment's Voices of America Writers Workshop #10. He holds a BFA in Acting/Directing from Pacific Lutheran University and Master of Music from NYU. www.tylerdobies.com
Nominated by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.
ROGER Q. MASON (they/them) is a writer and performer who uses the lens of history to disrupt the biases that divide rather than unite us. Their playwriting has been seen on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway; and regionally. Mason's world premiere of Lavender Men was lauded by the Los Angeles Times as "evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris and Michael R. Jackson." As a filmmaker, Mason has been recognized by the British Film Institute, Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, SCAD Film Festival, AT&T Film Award, and Atlanta International Film Festival. Their films have screened in the US, UK, Poland, Brazil, and Asia. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. They are a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group, and Primary Stages Writing Cohort; the co-host of Sister Roger's Gayborhood podcast; the host of This Way Out Radio's Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage; and lead mentor of the Shay Foundation Fellowship and the New Visions Fellowship. Instagram: @rogerq.mason
Nominated by National Queer Theater.
DEREK LEE McPHATTER creates forward-thinking narratives at diverse cultural and technological intersections. A 2021 Creative Capital Awardee, he is currently developing the NightQueen Performance Suite as a triptych of evening-length works spanning theater, music, opera, spoken word, and new media. In addition to his work with Primary Stages, Derek has received recent commissions and residencies from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Prop Thtr, and Chicago Dramatists, among others.
Derek has written five musicals for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Bring the Beat Back is his queer, black, afro-futuristic, music-theatre passion project -- a 2020 O'Neill semi-finalist, and a featured presentation in the 2019 Polyphone Music Festival. He is a founding playwright with The Fire This Time Festival, and an inaugural playwright in the 48 Hours in Harlem Festival. Derek splits his time between Chicago, NYC, and Los Angeles. Derekleemcphatter.com for more.
Nominated by National Black Theatre.
JUSTIN SANTORY is a gay native Nuyorican playwright and performer. He is a graduate of AMDA New York and later received his B.A. in Media Studies from Queens College. He rediscovered his love for writing after a Latinx Playwrights Circle reading event at Primary Stages. In July 2021, his first play Three’s a Party had its world premiere as part of the Juntos Project with Teatro Bravo and Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona. He has contributed to DIQUE, a commissioned piece for the Arte Pa Mi Gente Festival at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center. Justin has participated in readings of When the Earth Moves, We Dance by Nelson Diaz-Marcano and El Condor Magico by Noelle Viñas. Justin’s goal is to write plays that add a pinch of adobo to the American theatrical canon.
Nominated by Latinx Playwrights Circle.