Fellows Showcase

Marge J. Buckley is a playwright and painter based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work examines radical systemic change by transforming the serious into the ridiculous, and vice versa. Her plays include “God is a Woman” (NYC International Fringe 2015), “The Earth Room” (Fresh Ink Theatre 2019), “Detective Chunk, the Multiverse, and Me” (Commutator Collective 2021, 2024), “Grainville Cereals Incorporated” (Commutator Collective 2022), and “Guillotine City” (Commutator Collective 2026). She also writes text for an ongoing series of experimental one-night warehouse-based theatre-and-dance parties.

Marge is a co-founder of Commutator Collective, a Minnesota-based theatre company for which she currently serves as Playwright-in-Residence. She is a 2025-2026 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center.

Vinecia Coleman is a playwright and actor based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, whose artistic aim as a writer is to tell stories that focus on the Black female experience. Her plays have been developed at the Great Plains Theatre Commons Conference, Boise Contemporary Theatre’s BIPOC Playwright Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab, id Theater’s Seven Devils Playwrights’ Conference, and others. Her play Christiana Lysistrata had its 2024 premiere at Main Street Players in Miami, FL. As an actor, she has worked at Penumbra Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, Jungle Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Playhouse, and more. MFA: University of Idaho.

Twin Cities-based playwright, Michelle de Joya, is a ‘25-’27 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center, following their previous Many Voices Mentorship in ‘23-’24. A few notable moments for their writing include: a publication in Playground Experiment’s 2021 Faces of America Monologue Anthology; in 2023, their play COYFISH was produced by THEATER23 in the Minnesota Fringe Festival; and they were commissioned for multiple Audio Plays in Wonderlust Productions’ Hidden Herald Series, Seasons 1 and 2. They were a two-time semi-finalist at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale for Playwriting and a member of the ‘22-’23 and ‘24-’25 Exposed Brick Theatre’s Emerging Writers' Cohort. Lastly, they’ve received support from many notable organizations such as: Minnesota State Arts Board, Penumbra Theater Company, Theater Mu, Theater Latte Da and more. You can keep up with any other upcoming projects at facebook.com/dejoya.michelle

Gemma Irish is a playwright, educator, and occasional performer based in Minneapolis. Her plays tend to be funny and smart, with shades of magical realism. She can't seem to stop writing about death. 

Her work has been seen all over Minneapolis and New York City, and she is a proud founding member of the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. Gemma holds an MFA in Playwriting from Goddard College (RIP); and a BA in playwriting from Eugene Lang College, The New School.

C.A. Johnson is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from Metairie, Louisiana. Her plays include All The Natalie Portmans (MCC Theater); Thirst (2017 Kilroys List, CATF), The Climb (Cherry Lane Mentor Project, InterAct Theatre Company), An American Feast (NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School), Lagniappe, I Know I Know I Know, Somebody’s Body, and The Witnesses (upcoming at Chautauqua Theater Company in 2025). Most recently, she was awarded the Horton Foote Award by the Dramatists Guild and a Helen Merrill Award by the New York Community Trust.  She is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists and was previously the Tow Playwright in Residence at MCC Theater, the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a Van Lier Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, a Core Writer at Playwrights’ Center, and a Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow. Her work has been commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep, Page 73, and Chautauqua Theater Company. C.A. also has an active career in film and television. BA: Smith College MFA: NYU

Bianca Nkwonta (she/her) is a consultant and writer originally from Eagan, Minnesota. She writes stories about the Black and African diaspora, as well as its intersections with Midwestern-ness, womanhood, youth, health, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness. She was one of the inaugural fellows in the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Morgan Jenness (Experiments in Playwriting) Fellowship. MFA: NYU

Skye Reddy is a South Asian writer, filmmaker, and performance artist. They are a Loft Literary Center Mentor Series Fellow (2025-26), a Film Score Fest BIPOC Scholarship recipient (2025), and were a Pillsbury House + Theatre Naked Stages fellow (2024), a member of the St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) Spotlight Shorts documentary cohort (2024), and the Production Management Fellow at Children’s Theatre Company (2022-23). Skye has previously worked with The Southern Theater, Black Ensemble Productions, Red Eye Theater, MN Opera, Theater Mu, LimeArts, and on various Twin Cities-based short films. They hold a degree in Theater and Dance from Macalester College.

A Tejana playwright, dramaturg, and photographer. My theatrical language comes from rusty dirt and technicolor skies, complex women disrupting time, communities wrestling with impossible dreams, and the unpredictability in witnessing and memory. Creating new mythologies and narratives for BIPOC women and LGBTQIA+ communities empowers us to be masters or destroyers of our own destiny, where we can challenge and question our own roles in society and history. As a dramaturg, I am passionate about discovery through process and devising, facilitating productive and constructive dialogue and collaboration, and getting to the heart of connection. Within my photography, I use tension, heighten realism, and my own body to create stories of mystery, danger, and connection to personal trauma and a search for self.

MFA: Writing for Performance, California Institute of the Arts. Residencies & Fellowships: Many Voices Fellow 2025-2027: Playwrights’ Center, F.A.I.R.: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwright Observer: Eugene O’Neil Theatre Center, Core Member: The Orchard Project, and Playwrights Group: Hyde Park Theatre. Awards: Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival - Latinidad Playwriting Award, Frontera Fest Best of the Week and Best of Fest; semi-finalist for the Prince Grace Awards - Theatre, National Playwrights Conference, the Goodman Theatre New Stages Residency, and the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation. Playwriting and Dramaturgy: Mixed Blood: Equitable Dinners, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Frontera Fest, TimeLine Theatre, ScriptWorks, Austin Latinx New Play Festival, The Story Theatre, and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and performer for Harry Gamboa, Jr.

Sharifa Yazmeen (she/her) is a trans Arab-American playwright and director whose work explores the intersection of Queer and Arab identities. Her work has been published in Overheard, a collection of monologues by and for TNB2S+ artists, and Faces of America Monologues. Her play Bone by Bone was selected for the 2025 MixFest at Atlantic Theater Company and the 2026 Great Plains Theatre Festival. Her play The Devils Between Us was a featured finalist for the Blue Ink Award and published in the first volume of The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. Her play Close to Home was published in the second volume, recognized by the American Theatre Wing at the Antoinette Gala, included on the 2023 Kilroy’s List, selected for the 2023 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2024 National New Play Showcase, and premiered at Pillsbury House + Theatre in 2025. She holds an MFA in Directing from Brown/Trinity Rep, has completed fellowships with The Drama League, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Geva Theatre, and was a Eugene O’Neill National Directing Fellow. She is the inaugural recipient of the SCDF Barbara Whitman Award (2021) and the Abe Burrows Award (2024). She is currently a Jerome Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center. Learn more at www.sharifayazmeen.com.