Cristina Luzárraga is a playwright and teacher from New Jersey who, until recently, lived in Minneapolis where she was a Jerome and McKnight Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center and recognized by American Theatre Magazine as a Twin Cities Theatre Artist to Watch. She's a current Core Writer at Playwrights' Center and a member of INKubator at Art House is Jersey City. She wrote the book for I Am Betty, a musical about Betty Crocker (lyrics and music by Denise Prosek), and has developed new work with Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, and Teatro LATEA. Her play La Mujer Barbuda (Blank Theatre) was a Princess Grace Award Finalist. She has taught playwriting at Macalester and in high schools. BA: Princeton; MFA: Ohio University. When she’s not writing dark comedies about unruly women, she’s usually taking care of her two little kids.
Free
Online via Zoom
March 11 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm CDT
Our own Pirronne Yousefzadeh invites McKnight Fellow Whitney Rowland and Core Writers Cristina Luzárraga and Nathan Yungerberg to share a bit about their journeys on the wild ride of the parent-artist experience.
They’ll discuss managing drafts and diapers, balancing the sublime with the mundane, and staying present as a parent while holding your shape as an artist.
As our lives expand and create new demands on our time and attention, how can theaters help keep parent-artists in the field?
Come listen to these frank, funny, and fearless voices sharing their wisdom and their stories…and you might find out.
This conversation was recorded on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Watch the recording below and read the full transcript here.
Cristina Luzárraga
Whitney Rowland
Nathan Yungerberg
Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Cristina Luzárraga
Whitney Rowland
Whitney Rowland is a Minneapolis-based playwright, screenwriter, and game writer, and a current Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center. She currently writes for Quantic Dream and has previously worked with Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Quebec, and Ubisoft Shanghai. You can see her writing in the AAA game titles ASSASSIN'S CREED SHADOWS and AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA. Whitney’s plays have been developed at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festivals, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and PlayPenn, where she was named a 2019 Haas Fellow. Her work has been produced at Here's the Exit Theatre Co, Synchronicity Theater, Pittsburgh New Works, Northwest Children’s Theater, and colleges around the country. Whitney has a Bachelors from the University of Kansas and MFA from Carnegie Mellon.
Nathan Yungerberg
Nathan Yungerberg is a Brooklyn-based Afro-surrealist storyteller who writes for television, audio dramas (podcasts), and theater. He currently serves as the head writer for the award-winning podcast Live from Mount Olympus, co-directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston. He was also a freelance writer for Sesame Street and script editor for the podcast Cultureverse, narrated by Yara Shahidi and Kelly Marie Tran.
His plays have been developed or presented by New York Theatre Workshop, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Apollo Theater, JAG Productions, Roundabout Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company, Crowded Fire Theater, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Prime Productions, The Fire This Time Festival, Blackboard Reading Series, 48 Hours in Harlem, The Playwrights’ Center, and others.
He was commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, published by Concord Theatricals and adapted by BBC Radio. His play Esai’s Table was featured in Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mentor Project, mentored by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Danya Taymor.
His honors include a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, the National Black Theatre I AM SOUL Playwright Residency, the Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Residency, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The Drinking Gourd Fellowship, a 2025 Democracy Cycle Commission from PAC NYC, and a Spring 2026 Hi-ARTS Space Residency.