Kirya Traber (she/her) is a nationally awarded writer, performer, and cultural worker. Her plays include Lucky (in development, New York Stage and Film 2020), IF This Be Sin' (excerpted, Musical Theatre Factory + Joe’s Pub 2020), and Both My Grandfathers, (workshop, Lincoln Center 2015). She is the recipient of a NY Emmy Nomination (First Person PBS), a Robert Redford’s Sundance Foundation award for Activism in the Arts, an Astrea Foundation award for Poetry, and the New York Stage and Film Founders’ Award. She has been a commissioned artist of notable New York arts institutions such as the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Education, WNET Thirteen, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Orchestra of St Luke's, Ping Chong + Company, and others. Throughout her ambitious performance and writing career, Kirya has continuously utilized her art for social change as a cultural organizer. More at kiryatraber.com

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The Founders' Award

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Chrysalis - A Black Healing Project

What is freedom beyond structural oppression, beyond whiteness? Throughout time, Black people have answered these questions through ritual, the griot, the liminal realm between what we embody and what we imagine. Chrysalis invites Black theater artists and healers to weave alchemy and (re)imagine how healing might be a transformative and generative force in their lives and in Black communities.

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Lucky

It’s 1999 and someone said the world might end this year, but Cece isn’t sure she cares. She’s 14 going on 15, and she’s already over everything. Here, on the Mendocino coast, where the ancient redwood trees meet the vast Pacific Ocean, nothing ever changes anyway. Except... the mill did close last year, and a lot of her mom’s friends have gotten into “farming” (*cough* growing weed *cough*), and there have been a lot more wildfires this summer, and maybe everybody seems to be a little more on edge than usual. But other than that, nothing really ever changes… except she did meet this guy, this black guy, at a party other day. Her best friend Luce says he looks like a dirty soiler, and a drug dealer, but for some reason Cece can’t stop thinking about him. So that’s definitely different. But other than that. Nothing ever changes, and maybe if the world did end, things would finally get interesting.

Hailing from Nigeria, Adaku Utah (she/her) is a teacher, organizer, healer and ritual artist committed to cultivating movements that are strategic, sustainable and mutually nourishing.  For over twenty years, her work has centered in movements for radical social change, with a focus on gender, reproductive, race, youth and healing justice. She is the co-founder and co-director of Harriet's Apothecary, a healing village led by Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans healer, artists, and organizers committed to living out Harriet Tubman's legacy of centering healing, wellness, and safety as movement building strategies to deconstruct legacies of trauma and galvanize communities to shape generative transformation. She is also the Interim Organizing Director at the National Network of Abortion Funds. She teaches with BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity) and the Generative Somatics teaching team and proudly serves on the board of Soul Fire Farm as a commitment to ending the racism and injustice in the food system. In her spare time, she loves nerding out about astrology, herbs, erotica, and sci-fi.

Tiffany N. Robinson (she/her) is ecstatic to work with the amazing Chrysalis team. Tiffany is a native of Philadelphia and holds a BFA in Theater Arts Administration from Howard University. Selected Shows: MJ The Musical (Broadway Spring 2021), The Cher Show (Broadway/Chicago), Motown the Musical (Broadway/1st National), Memphis (1st National), Three Sisters (Classical Theatre of Harlem) and Dreamgirls (National Tour).

Troy Anthony (he/him) is a composer, activist, and theater maker based in NYC practicing Black queer joy. He has presented work at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Prospect Theater Company and the Musical Theater Factory (MTF). He's received commissions from The Shed, Atlantic Theater Company, and The Civilians. Troy has been seen in the Public Theater’s Twelfth Night and As You Like It, as well as Prospect Theater Company’s Tamar of the River. He leads the Public Theater’s Public Works Community Choir and focuses on the intersection between art and social justice at the DreamYard Art Center. He’s also a 2019-2020 Musical Theater Factory Maker.

Nissy Aya (she/her) is a Black girl from the Bronx. She and all her younger selves tell stories and tall tales. While helping others do the same. They lead workshops, too. As a facilitator and cultural worker, we believe in the transformative nature of storytelling, placing those most affected by oppressive systems in the center, and examining how we move forward through healing justice and afrofuturist frameworks. Our creative work reflects those notions while exploring the lines between history and memory, detailing both the absence and presence of love, and giving all the life (and then some) to Black Femmes. 

Donnay Edmund (she/her/they) Dreamer. Daughter. Dancer. Lover. Movement fairy. Earth adoring. Liberation believing. Donnay is a Brooklyn born Black Femme, raised by a collective of single, working class mothers. Donnay is an educator working towards collective liberation. She believes in transformative justice and the power of imagination to create new worlds full of justice and love. Donnay believes that we have the ability to care for one another as we unlearn oppressive ideas and remember and create new practices for communal care. She leads workshops that center healing justice, popular education, and anti-oppressive organizing to create a more just world. She is also a multidisciplinary artist. She fluidly moves from the realms of dance, theatre, and storytelling to somatics, yoga, and herbalism and seamlessly interweaves these elements into the cultural throughline of her work. Her practice explores the connection of mind, body, spirit, land, and ancestral healing.

Gethsemane Herron-­Coward (she/her) is a playwright from Washington, D.C. She has developed work with JAG Productions, The Flea, The Hearth, Magic Time @ Judson, The Ice Factory Festival at the New Ohio Theatre, Playwright’s Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Fire This Time Festival and Ars Nova, where she is a Resident Artist with Ars Nova’s Play Group. Additional residencies from The Liberation Theater Company, Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, VONA and the Millay Colony, where she was the recipient of the Yasmin Scholarship. Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Finalist for Space on Ryder Farm’s Creative Residency, the Dennis and Victoria Roth Playwright’s Program, and the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. MFA: Columbia University. Proud member of the Dramatist’s Guild. She’s enamored with Sailor Moon, witches and other magical girl warriors. She writes for survivors.

Tiffany Lenoi Jones (she/her/all intended & impacted with love) is an artist, educator, activist, storyteller, and healer. She is committed to unearthing the intersections of our stories to provide opportunities for transformation and healing. She believes in the power and alchemy imagination and creativity as essential tools of liberation. Her life mission is to provide a dose of TLC (tender love and care) within each interaction to foster a community that shares the ability to teach, learn, change, create and/or challenge (TLC). She is a full-time tenured Art Educator in the New York City Public School system. During her career as an art educator, she has created curriculum and experiences rooted in a critical pedagogy of love, liberation, healing, and transformative justice. She is a proud Harriet’s Apothecary Leadership Circle Member & Healer. She works collaboratively with the collective to foster spaces that encourages wellness, care, and liberation of black people through the creation of healing spaces.  She founded and was the first Educator in Residence for Art & Social Justice at the New Museum.  During her residency she co-founded and organized the New Museum’s Convening for Contemporary Art, Social Justice, and Education.

Nico Le Blanc (they) is a passionate, certified 200YT & meditation instructor and advocate whose primary focus is to create positive, safe, and empowering spaces that facilitate vulnerability and healing. Nico is committed to the upliftment, self-care, health and vitality of marginalized communities. This heart work has lead to Nico serving as a healer within Harriet’s Apothecary - an intergenerational healing collective of Black Cis, Trans, Queer, Women healers, activists, and artists. In addition to teaching yoga and serving as a healer, Nico is an AfroHouse/House DJ and serves as Associate Director for Diversity & Inclusion at New York University (NYU).

Shamilia McBean (she/her/they/them) is an herbalist, facilitator & community arts practitioner using her mediums to co-create liberatory community spaces. Inspired by familial and communal ancestors, she seeks to continue a legacy of healing, artistry and liberatory practice. Shamilia believes in art-making to inspire learning, spark movement, preserve culture and build community. In her practice, she supports and trains artists, educators and community workers to develop engaging, holistic methods within their practices. She focuses on immersive, participatory engagement with stories of transition, transgression, healing, love and liberation in marginalized communities.

jeremy o’brian (he/him) is a Mississippi-born, Brooklyn-based playwright who currently teaches at New York University. He is the recipient of the Liberation Theatre Playwriting Residency Fellowship (2019), Athena Theatre’s Athena Writes Playwriting Fellowship (2018), and the Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Voice in Playwriting Fellowship (2016). His plays include: egg; or anythin’ dipped in egg gone soften (Development: Athena Theatre), a curious thing; or superheroes k’ain’t fly (Development: American Academy of Dramatic Arts, JAGFest 4.0), and under one roof (Development: Liberation Theatre Co.). jeremy holds a Masters in African and African Diaspora Studies from UT-Austin and a BA from Tougaloo College. 

Ianne Fields Stewart (she/they) is a Black, queer, nonbinary, transfeminine, New York-based storyteller working at the intersection of performance and activism. As a performer, Ianne has worked consistently in productions at NYC venues such as: Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La Mama, and many more.   Recent television appearances include Pose, The Bold Type and the upcoming Netflix series Dash and Lily.  Ianne can also be seen on Buzzfeed LGBT, GLAAD, Inside Edition, the You Had Me at Black podcast, the #Safewordsociety podcast, Podcast of Color, the Is it Transphobic Podcast, and serves as the cohost of the Topics Include Podcast. In the summer of 2017, Ianne was selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action's 2017 John Lewis Fellowship. During this fellowship, Ianne studied and organized with contemporary and historic civil rights leaders in Atlanta, GA exploring the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and its roots in present day social justice movements. Since then, Ianne has developed a theatrical consulting and teaching artist practice which spans from talkback facilitation to teaching artistry to community outreach and organizing. Spaces that have benefited from Ianne’s practice include: The Alliance of Resident Theatres, Lincoln Center Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Heartbeat Opera, Music Theatre Factory, NYC charter schools, and the Rose M. Singer Center on Riker's Island. 

Emily Waters (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based theater-maker, poet and educator. Emily helped to roll out #MeToo Curriculum with Girls for Gender Equity, focusing on joy and storytelling through theater. Emily has also co-created healing justice spaces and has facilitated workshops with Harriet’s Apothecary. Emily was an Emerge Fellow, '19, with Hemispheric Institute and was the headlining performer for the work in progress at Abrons Arts Center. They are also the recipient of the  Peace and Social Change Fellow with Columbia University where she supervised research on the healing capacity of theater for survivors of gender based violence. In December 2019, Emily was awarded the Mount Tremper Arts Family Residency. Emily has been a collaborator and performer in works presented at The Shed and Here Arts. She has also presented her original work at Jack Theater, The Apollo, NYC’s Highline, In Solidarity Conference, Novo Foundation Grantmakers of Color Conference, and Judson Church. Emily is currently a Performance Project Fellow with University Settlement and was a selected writer in Billie Holiday Theater’s annual 50in50. Most recently Emily is  creating work commissioned by the All For One Theater’s Solo Shorts Series and Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop’s Revolution Now! Podcast Series. 

Lisa Marie Rollins (she/her) is a freelance director, writer and new play developer.  She is a Sundance Institute Theatre Lab Fellow (Directing) and Directors Lab West member.  Regional directing /dramaturg work include Hedgebrook Women’s Play Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, American Conservatory Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, TheatreFirst, Berkeley Repertory Theater (Ground Floor), Shotgun Players, Custom Made Theatre, Magic Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, TheaterWorks (CO).  She has been a writing fellow with Hedgebrook, Djerassi, SF Writers Grotto, CALLALOO London, VONA, Just Theater Play Lab and Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency.  She was honored with a “Bay Brilliant” artist award from San Francisco’s KQED and received a 2019-20 Gerbode Special Award in the Arts for playwriting. She  is currently Literary Manager for Intiman Theater in Seattle, a Community Arts Panelist for Zellerbach Family Foundation and a Resident Artist with Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco.

Estefanía Fadul (she/her) is a NYC-based Colombian-American stage director and producer, focusing primarily on new plays and musicals. Current work includes Carla’s Quince, created with The Voting Project Ensemble, and La Paloma Prisoner by Raquel Almazán (Next Door @ NYTW). Recent directing includes Christina Quintana’s Azul (Southern Rep) and Scissoring (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s The Same Day (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska’s Agent 355 (Chautauqua), and James Anthony Tyler’s Pranayama (Juilliard). Estefanía has developed new work at the Public Theater, Playwrights' Realm, Long Wharf, Drama League, Repertorio Español, Artists Repertory Theatre, Milagro, and Musical Theatre Factory, among others. Alumna: O’Neill/NNPN’s National Directors Fellowship, Foeller Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Drama League Fall Fellowship and TV Directing Fellowship, Van Lier Fellowship at Repertorio Español, and NALAC Leadership Institute. She is a co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and SDC. B.A. Vassar College. www.estefaniafadul.com 

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The Pfaelzer Award

The Pfaelzer Award was created in honor of Johanna Pfaelzer's twenty-year commitment to nurturing artists and their developing stories at NYSAF. Selected in consultation with Johanna, the recipient receives artistic and administrative support for projects of their choosing throughout the year, culminating in a residency during NYSAF's summer season, which will include a reading, workshop, or other developmental activity that best supports the artist and their work. The recipient will be actively involved with the rich community of NYSAF artists and artistic staff and has the opportunity for project mentorship from Johanna Pfaelzer.

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Agent 355

The Culper Spy Ring famously helped George Washington win the American Revolution, but there’s one secret they never revealed: the identity of their sole female member, Agent 355. Now for the first time since 1783, a punk-pop band will finally reveal the truth about the unknown woman who helped America’s first spy ring “outwit them all.” Challenging a history written by men, Agent 355 explores the never-before-told stories of real Revolutionary women whose stories, sacrifices, and secrets shaped the nation.

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Carla's Quince

Carla's Quince is a bilingual immersive virtual theatre experience that invites audiences to become guests at Carla's Zoom Quinceañera. With the aim of increasing Latinx participation in the United States' electoral process, this non-partisan English/Spanish extravaganza will inform on the voting process, break down some of the issues at stake this election year, and provide space for individuals to reflect on how their voting choices affect their communities. Learn more here. 

Preston Max Allen (he/him) is a playwright, composer, and lyricist whose work has been featured at the New Amsterdam Theatre, Lincoln Center, Signature Theatre, Chautauqua Institution, Rattlestick, Musical Theatre Factory, Feinstein's/54 Below, Joe's Pub, York Theatre, and Second City Chicago. Preston’s musicals and plays include We Are The Tigers (L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation winner, Best Lyrics/Composition); Agent 355 (dramaturg/co-book Jessica Kahkoska); Never Better; The Rage: Carrie 2, An Unauthorized Musical Parody (Jeff Nominee for Best Musical); A Very Netfl*x Musical: No Streaming Live! (book by Edward Precht); and Modern Gentleman (Pride Plays 2020). Preston is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group (2019/20), graduate of the Second City Comedy Studies Program, and an alum of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. @prestonmaxallen

Jessica Kahkoska (she/her) is a writer/dramaturg most interested in work driven by history, research, and community collaboration. Projects include In Her Bones (Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 2020 Colorado New Play Summit) The Death of Desert Rose (with Elliah Heifetz, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, SBR Productions Commission), Agent 355 (with Preston Max Allen, Chautauqua Theater Company New Play Workshop, Marion International Fellowship in the Visual and Performing Arts), Letters to the President (dir. Michael Bello, The Cooper Union), Wild Home: An American Odyssey (Notch Theatre Company, 2020 NEA ArtWorks Grant), and Nia (dir. Sarah Wansley, Upcoming at New Light Theatre Project’s Darkroom Series). Her work has additionally been developed/presented by Ars Nova ANT FEST, Joe’s Pub, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the Drama League, UCROSS Foundation, Village Theatre, Denver University (Marsico Visiting Scholar in the Arts and Humanities), the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and the American Musical Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University. www.jessicakahkoska.com. 

Madeline Smith (she/her) - Broadway: Waitress (Piano/Conductor sub), War Paint (Key 1 sub), Mean Girls (reh. piano). Off-Broadway: An Octoroon (TFANA); Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (Ars Nova); Skin of our Teeth (TFANA); 1001 Nights (Atlantic Theater Company); FUTURITY (Ars Nova/Soho Rep). Regional: We Live In Cairo (ART); Loch Ness (FLMTF); Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat (ATF). TV: The Wiz! Live. Adaptations: Frozen Jr., Descendants (Disney Theatricals). Education: B.A. from Harvard University.