Playwrights’ Center continues its generative partnership with the Minnesota-based McKnight Foundation, and today is thrilled to announce the six recipients of its three fellowships supported by the Foundation each year.
During the 2026-27 season the Center will welcome McKnight Playwriting Fellows Rachel Lynett and MK Tuomanen, along with McKnight Theater Artists Sarah Bahr, Jason Hansen, and Will Sturdivant. McKnight National Residency and Commission recipient Andrea Assaf will complete this exceptional cohort.
The McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting recognizes and supports mid-career playwrights living and working in Minnesota who demonstrate a sustained body of work, commitment to their craft, and distinct artistic vision.
The news that 2023-25 Jerome Fellow MK Tuomanen will return to the Center was cause for great delight throughout 710 Raymond Avenue and beyond. MK’s 2025 Terrence McNally Award winning play Night Science was developed at Playwrights’ Center during their previous fellowship.
“The stewardship of the Playwright’s Center is a lifeline for artists–it means feeling at home, feeling safe, feeling free to do our bravest and best. It confers dignity to our labor in an economy that denies it to so many of us. Artists can imagine actually thriving in their practice because of the extraordinary work of the McKnight Foundation.”
MK will be joined by queer Afro-Latine playwright, producer, and teaching artist Rachel Lynett who will “take my time to develop a play I really adore while also writing about a community I’ve come to fall in love with. If my goal is to be a full-time writer by 2028, this fellowship helps lay down the groundwork to not only make that possible but also long-lasting. I’m so incredibly excited to work with a group of artists here who are dedicated to both craft and community, and to re-align myself with my long-term goals.”
The McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships at Playwrights’ Center recognize mid-career theater artists other than playwrights who are living and working in Minnesota. Selection is based on a commitment to theater arts, evidence of professional achievement, and a sustained body of work over multiple years.
Minnesota-based music director, composer, orchestrator, and performer Jason Hansen has proven his dedication to the Twin Cities theater over the course of two decades, and is now “thrilled for the chance to explore my own creative voice and further my skills as a theater orchestrator and composer.”
Costume and scenic designer Sarah Bahr has become a committed advocate for supporting designers and technicians, and wants to create meaningful mentorship opportunities for emerging theater artists. She’s “overjoyed to be a part of the legacy of excellence in the Twin Cities’ theater community” and plans to use this fellowship to “reflect upon my body of work and continue to hone my craft.”
Actor, director, playwright, and educator Will Sturdivant works from an artistic foundation built in Minnesota, and now wants to work locally to ensure that young artists have opportunities to succeed. This fellowship will support his “expansion into text coaching and directing, and help me build upon a critical audition workshop series I believe can elevate Twin Cities high school seniors who want to audition for BFA acting programs.”
The Center’s third annual McKnight fellowship, The McKnight National Residency and Commission, invites an established playwright from outside of Minnesota to work within our renowned theater ecosystem.
In exciting news for the Twin Cities, nationally-recognized Lebanese American poet, playwright, director, performer, and cultural organizer Andrea Assaf will be joining the community for the Center’s upcoming season. She says that the support this program offers “will allow me to finally write a story I have been carrying for too many years, and to develop a vision of storytelling that I look forward to sharing with the world.”
Producing Artistic Director Nicole A. Watson invites these newly-named fellows to make Playwrights’ Center their artistic home, where they’ll find the resources to develop their visions. “The McKnight Foundation’s commitment to supporting the arts in Minnesota is unparalleled, and we are grateful that they are making it possible for us to uplift these incredible artists. As we continue to expand our partnerships around the Twin Cities we’re dedicated to both showcasing Minnesota-based theater makers and inviting the most extraordinary playwrights from around the country into this incredible creative community. These fellows will be an important part of that work this year, and we can’t wait to celebrate them!”
Whether new to the Cities or returning to their roots, each fellows will enrich the field with their artistry. Will Sturdivant is “thrilled to continue growing within the Twin Cities community that shaped my early artistic life.”
And Rachel Lynett speaks for many of the Center’s fellows past and present when she says that her “favorite part of playwriting is collaboration,” and adds that “getting this fellowship feels a bit like rediscovering myself and challenging myself to push beyond the limits of what it means to be an artist in today’s current landscape.”
Playwrights’ Center is honored to once again partner with the McKnight Foundation and these singular artists as they joyfully collaborate, push limits, and share their necessary stories.
About the artists
Andrea Assaf is a Lebanese American poet, playwright, director, performer, and cultural organizer. She’s the founding Artistic & Executive Director of Art2Action, and Co-Director of the National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation (in partnership with Pangea World Theater.) Her work has been featured at the 2025 D-CAF festival in Cairo, Arab American National Museum, Detroit Public Theatre, BRAVA Theatre Center with Golden Thread Productions, Carver Community Cultural Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) at CAATA’s National Asian American Theatre Festival, La MaMa, The Apollo, The Kennedy Center, and more. She has also toured internationally to Egypt, Mexico, Canada, Nicaragua, Poland, and more. Awards and recognitions include: 2026 McKnight National Residency & Commission, 2025 Creative Impact Award, 2025 Venturous Playwright finalist, 2024 Joyce Award, 2021 Silk Road Film Awards Cannes (Best Experimental Feature), 2019 NEFA National Theatre Project, 2017 Freedom Plow Award finalist (Poetry & Activism), 2010 Princess Grace Award/Gant Gaither Theater Honor (Directing), and more. Andrea has a Master’s degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from NYU. She currently serves on the Board of the MENA Theatre Makers Alliance, and the Executive Committee of Alternate ROOTS. She was a founding Board member of the Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists (CAATA), and formerly served on the International Management Committee of Women Playwrights International (WPI). For more information, visit: https://www.art2action.org/andrea-assaf.
Sarah Bahr (she/her). As a costume and scenic designer for theater, opera, and dance Sarah has worked with companies including the Ten Thousand Things Theater, Theater Latté Da,Trademark Theater, Jungle Theater, History Theatre, Theater Mu, Artistry, Penumbra Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Minnesota Opera, Jacobs School of Music, BRKFST Dance Company, and Vail Dance Festival. She is a committed advocate for supporting designers and technicians, along with creating meaningful mentorship opportunities for emerging theatre artists. Her teaching credits include the University of Minnesota, Augsburg University, Macalester College, and the Textile Center. In 2024, Sarah was recognized by American Theatre Magazine as a ‘Roll Call People to Watch: Twin Cities’ and in 2018 received a MN Theatre Award for Exceptional Overall Production for her Costume Design for This Bitter Earth at Penumbra Theatre. Sarah holds a Design and Technical Theatre MFA from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a Studio Art MA from New York University, and a Design and Technical Theatre BFA from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and serves as a Central Region Board Member. Website: sarahbahr.com, Instagram: @sarahbahrdesign.
Based in Minnesota, Jason Hansen has held positions of music director, composer, orchestrator, and/or performer for 70 theater productions over the past two decades. His work has been seen and heard at Theater Latté Da, Children’s Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, History Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Ten Thousand Things Theater, Theater Mu, Illusion Theater, Stages Theater Company, Playwrights’ Center, Trademark Theater, Artistry, TigerLion Arts, Open Eye Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Northern Sky Theater, and the University of Minnesota. His diverse artistic abilities have paired him with projects covering widely varied musical styles from rock to classical to jazz to folk music. He has music directed and/or orchestrated many new works in workshop and full production, including several world premieres. He was a recipient of a MN Theater Award for Best Performative Direction in 2018. Jason is also a commissioned composer and arranger developing new music for choir and theater and is heavily involved with local community choirs and school districts. Jason lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and their two daughters, who teach him something new about music, art, and life every day.
Rachel Lynett (she/they) is a queer Afro-Latine playwright, producer, and teaching artist. Their plays have been featured at San Diego Rep, Magic Theatre, Mirrorbox Theatre, Laboratory Theater of Florida, Barrington Stage Company, Theatre Lab, Theatre Prometheus, Florida Studio Theatre, Laughing Pig Theatre Company, Capital Repertory Theatre, Teatro Espejo, the Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, TheatreSquared, Equity Library Theatre – Chicago, Talk Back Theatre, American Stage Theatre Company, Indiana University at Bloomington, Edgewood College, and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Rachel Lynett is also the 2021 recipient of the Yale Drama Prize for their play, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson). Lynett was the 2021 recipient of the National Latinx Playwriting Award and the runner-up for the 2022 Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition for their play, Black Mexican and was also recently a staff writer for THE WINCHESTERS. Their play, Do Trees Still Grow in Brooklyn? was also a 2026 Blue Ink Award finalist. Lynett received commissions from Barrington Stage Company, Florida Studio Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre.
William Sturdivant is an actor, director, playwright, and educator whose artistic foundation was built in the Twin Cities. A graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program, he began his career in Minneapolis–St. Paul and continues to return to the region as a collaborator and student of its vibrant artistic community. His work has been seen at theaters across the country, including in Minnesota at the Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things, and Great River Shakespeare Festival, to name a few. He is known for his clarity of storytelling, strong ensemble work, and grounded approach to classical and contemporary text.
MK Tuomanen (they/them) is the 2025 Terrence McNally Award winner for Night Science (developed at the Wilma, Playwrights’ Center, and Philadelphia Theater Company) and Philadelphia Award winner for their play, Peaceable Kingdom. Called “best theater artist” by Philadelphia magazine, MK tours their solo work across the country—recently receiving an MSAB grant for the 2025 premiere of Consider The Cow, a play about trans parenthood and intersex cows. Their play Marcus/Emma premiered at InterAct Theater in 2017 and was nominated for Best New Play at the Barrymore Awards. MK was educated at the Lecoq School in Paris. www.mkplays.com..