UPCOMING + NEWS
NECK DOWN @ WE ARE HERE X EXPONENTIAL FESTIVAL 2025
by Nic Adams + directed by Marissa Joyce Stamps
January, June 9-12, 2025 | We Are Here | tickets and info here
Full circle moment here directing my buddy Nic Adams' new play, Neck Down, which made its start during our time in Brooklyn College's MFA Playwriting program! | It’s the morning before an ancient coin auction in NYC and early-career artist Ciel is stuck working yet another menial temp assignment. An old money collector arrives early to inspect the legal tender he wants to bid. So begins a daydream about lottery winnings, caskets, sex fantasies, delulus of grandeur, and Big Oil Banks. Inner thoughts take center stage, mounting a tragicomic class stand-off and a toast to the relentless spirit of artists living on the brink of precarity.
LETICHE AND THE [WONDROUS] PURSUIT OF ELVIS NAMED A FINALIST FOR
2024 O'NEILL NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE
I'm happy to announce that Letiche and The [Wondrous] Pursuit of Elvis is a finalist for the 2024 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. I'm honored to be in such great company of the amazing finalists. View the complete list of finalists here.
SELECTED FOR ROUNDABOUT'S DIRECTORS GROUP (COHORT 6)
I'm happy to share that I was selected for Roundabout's Directors Group (Cohort 6). RDG was created to offer resources and provide career assistance to the next generation of directors for the American Theatre... RDG creates an RDG creates an artistic community for directors at similar stages of their work, fostering camaraderie, lateral mentorship, access to expanded professional networks, and insight into the workings of a large not-for-profit institution.
MORTAL COMBAT SELECTED FOR LUCILLE LORTEL'S 2024-2025 ALCOVE COMMISSION
I'm happy to share that I was selected for Lucille Lortel's Alcove Commission (Year 3). For this commission, selected playwrights are asked to think and reflect on the current climate crisis and to imagine possible futures. | In Mortal Combat, it’s Counselor Training Week, and a sleepaway camp is swarmed with 20somethings ready to make their summer coin. One cabin of trainees finds themselves to be quick besties in the midst of team-building exercises’ forced kumbaya. But once their training ventures out of the safety net of the pristine, state-of-the-art man-made grounds into the real wilderness of the rugged and hostile Mortal Combat [with Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!], their faux niceties are nowhere to be found and beasts are unleashed.
SELECTED FOR NEW GEORGES THE JAM 2024-2026
I'm happy to share that I was selected to join New Georges The Jam 2024-2026! | The Jam is a collaboration-based “performance gym” for theatermakers in all disciplines. The Jam is artist-driven and artist-led. Artists meet bimonthly to talk, eat, build community, and share work
made in collaborative groupings.
JOINING TAG @ THE TANK
I'm happy to share that as of November 2024, I've joined TAG, a resident group at The Tank! |TAG is an artist-led collaboration group. We workshop new material, hear from guest speakers, and participate in group-led talks/discussions about collaboration. TAG is a place to foster new connections with other theater artists, develop new plays, and form a community. It’s really fun!
CONTRIBUTOR TO THE 53RD STATE OCCASIONAL NO. 3
Wow! In the wake of Kingda Ka, here's another opportunity to publicly express my obsession with rollercoasters this year in The 53rd State Occasional No. 3! | For each edition of the Occasional, guest editors invite artists, thinkers, and members of our community to consider questions that we have and topics that move us. For Occasional No. 3, playwrights Lucas Baisch and Emma Horwitz have invited theatre artists to respond to the question, “What are you obsessed with? And how are you holding it?”
CONTRIBUTOR TO FUCKED AND JOLLY:
TEN YEARS OF THE EXPONENTIAL FESTIVAL
Catch me in dialogue with Nic Adams in Fucked and Jolly, discussing the downtown theatre, movement and stillness, legacy, and all that jazz! | Fucked and Jolly is a reflective compendium of artist-to-artist interviews commemorating a boffo decade of The Exponential Festival. Squinny at the banters between playwrights, choreographers, and clowns as they encounter one another’s work and discuss prevailing trends of performance in the new millennium, the radical experiments being conducted to bring online onstage (and vice versa), and the post-Downtown performing arts ecosystem.
REVIEW IN 3VIEWS FOR DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU'S
BAD KREYÒL AT THE SIGNATURE
Check out my review with 3Views on Dominique Morisseau's newest play, Bad Kreyòl (directed by Tiffany Nichole Green), currently playing at The Signature until December 1st, |
RECENT
DIRECTED AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE'S MFA PLAYWRITING'S
WEASEL FEST 2024 @ BAM
September 14 + 15 | BAM | info here
I had the pleasure of directing 2024 graduates Madison Wetzell's Choreomania and Leslie Gauthier's Proverbs of The Mojave in the HELL Program | This year’s plays are all inspired by The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by the 18th century poet, artist, and iconoclastic visionary William Blake, common source material suggested by program directors Sibyl Kempson and Dennis A. Allen II.
FACILITATED THE DRAMATIST'S NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT ROUNDTABLE
I had the honor of facilitating a New Play Development Roundtable in The Dramatists Guild's publication, The Dramatist (Summer 2024). I was joined by Che'rae Adams (PlayPenn), Jessica Bird Beza (Playwrights Foundation), Sean-Joseph Choo (Kamamo House), and Emily Morse (New Dramatists).
CAPTAIN HEAVEN AMERICA @ CONCH SHELL'S BLUELIGHT READING SERIES
by Petron B. + directed by Marissa Joyce Stamps
July 25th, 2024 @ 7:00pm | Flushing Town Hall | donation-based tickets here
In Petron B.'s Captain Heaven America & the Evil Foreign Hell Demon, Evil Foreign Hell Demons are lurking under the Foreign Boy’s bed as he dreams of rescuing his father from Hell. Will Captain Heaven America show up in time to save the day?
ROLLBACK @ CLUBBED THUMB'S SUMMERWORKS ECWG READING SERIES
by Marissa Joyce Stamps + directed by Dominique Rider
Tuesday, June 25th @ 3pm | The Wild Project | free rsvp + info here
Rollback (a new play of mine developed during my time in Clubbed Thumb's 2023-2024 Early Career Writers Group) will have a staged reading directed by Dominique Rider as part of Clubbed Thumb's annual Summerworks ECWG Reading Series. // After reports of a flying man shut down coveted coaster The Demolisher 3000, attendees on the ride’s 3-hour wait leave the queue. Keisha and her friends, on the other hand, stay put and wait it out until it’s back up and running. But, does thrill rely on potential or on kinetic energy?
WALK-BIKE-SKATE @ NEW DRAMATISTS/PRINCESS GRACE
St. Nicholas' Walk-Bike-Skate-a-Thon will receive a private reading this June 2024 to conclude New Dramatists Residency with the Princess Grace Foundation.
RUN AGAINST THE WIND: BLACK WOMEN FOR A LIBERATED PALESTINE
curated/written by Taji Senior + directed by Marissa Joyce Stamps
Friday, May 31st @ 7pm | JACK | donation-based tickets + info here
This reading features curated text from Ethel Minor, June Jordan, Ntozake Shange, and Aja Monet in conversation with one another. The selected work speaks on the history of Palestinian liberation efforts and its impact on Black radical movements here in the United States since the 1960s. This reading is meant to generate money to buy e-sims to keep our Palestinian comrades in communication with the world and provide as much aid and relief to the Palestinian people as possible.
LETICHE AND THE [WONDROUS] PURSUIT OF ELVIS
29-HOUR WORKSHOP @ NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE + KEEP SOUL ALIVE
In late April, I directed a private, 29-hour workshop and reading of my play, Letiche and The [Wondrous] Pursuit of Elvis through National Black Theatre's Special Projects. This workshop featured Raven Jeannette, Heather Alicia Simms, Jeorge Bennett Watson, Lizan Mitchell, Sean Boyce Johnson, Judson Jones, and Mandesia Sibiya with Stage Management by Shadie Thompson. | I was also named a Finalist for The National Black Theatre's 2023 I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency and am a member of the Keep Soul Alive 2023-2024 Cohort! With this honor, I collaborated with Lamar Perry, who directed a micro-development session of my play,
You Can Tell From the Twisted Juniper.
PLAYWRIGHT MENTOR FOR 24 HOUR PLAYS: NEW VICTORY
Saturday, May 4th @ 7:30pm | The Wild Project | free rsvp + info here
I'm so happy to be mentoring the next generation of theatremakers in this very special collaboration between 24 Hour Plays and New Victory!
It’s a star-studded race to showtime as seven young playwrights collaborate with professional actors and directors to stage their own original works live at the New Victory Theater—all on 24 hours’ notice! For one night only, experience the passions and perspectives of some of New York City’s brightest young creatives in a showcase of short plays conceived, written and rehearsed over a single day and night. There’s no rest for the revolutionary!
CO-RESIDENT DRAMATURG AT CONCH SHELL PRODUCTIONS
This March 2024, I've joined Conch Shell Productions as their Co-Resident Dramaturg for their 2024-2025 season! Conch continues to be an incredibly special organization to me, centering and uplifting Caribbean writers' voices.