Playwrights’ Center is thrilled to announce the newest Core Writers joining our incredible cohort of some of the most exciting playwrights in the field. We welcome playwrights Blossom Johnson, JuCoby Johnson, and Christina Pumariega as Playwrights’ Center Core Writers through the 2028-29 season.
The Core Writer program is designed to support a diverse group of playwrights from across the country, giving them the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. For the next three years, these Core Writers will receive financial support for play development workshops with the Center, in collaboration with prominent directors, actors, dramaturgs, and designers.
The two Johnsons (no relation) are far from strangers to Playwrights’ Center. Blossom Johnson is Yé’ii Dine’é Táchii’nii, and her maternal grandfather is Deeshchíí’nii. She is a storyteller, playwright, teaching artist, dramaturg, and screenwriter, who first came to Playwrights’ Center as a 2022-23 Jerome Fellow. When it comes to joining Playwrights’ Center again as a Core Writer, she says she is excited to “have support for the next three years to work on dream projects I am passionate about with a community of artists that I respect.”
A New York-based playwright, actor, and screenwriter, JuCoby Johnson has previously been a Many Voices Mentee and McKnight Fellow in Playwriting. His play Help! Help! Want. Want. Want. was workshopped at Playwrights’ Center last season during PlayLabs in October 2025. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be affiliated with Playwrights’ Center as both a writer and actor for over ten years now,” he says. “It has become a true artistic home and I can’t think of a higher honor than being named a Core Writer.”
The heart of our work at Playwrights’ Center is fostering this artistic home where playwrights are centered. Producing Artistic Director, Nicole A. Watson is delighted to not only invite longtime members of the Playwrights’ Center family back home, but to introduce new faces into this community of artists: “Both JuCoby and Blossom have been part of the Playwrights’ Center community for years and I am thrilled to welcome them back. I am equally ecstatic to welcome Christina Pumareiga to the Center.”
Christina Pumariega, who describes herself as someone who “acts and writes. Often simultaneously,” will round out this new group of Core Writers. As an actor, she has appeared on and off Broadway as well as onscreen. As a playwright, her work has been developed and produced across the country, including her Edgerton Award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated play ¡VOS!. She shares, “As a performer I’ve long revered Playwrights’ Center as a diverse haven dedicated to fearless experimentation. As a new parent and emerging playwright, I know the Core community will dare new plays out of me, while nurturing the ones I’m growing.”
We look forward to the fresh perspectives and brilliant new works these playwrights will bring to the Twin Cities. Nicole A. Watson adds, “These playwrights are exceptional writers, all with a commitment to their craft, each with a distinct voice. We can’t wait to support and nurture their artistry.”
Joining these writers at the heart of the Center will be the 2026-27 Core Apprentice: Liggera Edmonds-Allen. Director of Professional Resources and Education Hannah Joyce says the Core Apprentice program “is special because it supports emerging playwrights who are currently in or coming right out of a college or university program at a moment when they are finding their way as artists. Liggera will receive professional mentorship, education opportunities, and a new play development workshop of their play, Disability Town Hall Meeting, during their year with us.”
Liggera is a playwright from Poughkeepsie, NY, who believes comedy and absurdity are ways to access vulnerability and emotional truth. During their Core Apprentice year, they are excited to return “to where it all began: making people laugh on the playground, building puppets out of pipe cleaners, and singing with my friends. To receive Playwrights’ Center’s support in my weird experimentation makes me feel as though queer, absurdist storytelling has a place in the American Theater, and that I can go full-steam ahead with my wild ideas.”
Playwrights’ Center is ready to be inspired by each of these artists, as well as the stories they will bring to life within these walls. We humbly invite these brilliant artists on board as we start a new season.
About the playwrights
Liggera Edmonds-Allen (they/them) is a playwright from Poughkeepsie, New York. They believe in comedy and absurdity as a way to access vulnerability and emotional truth. They also believe that vulnerability keeps comedy from becoming a shield. Please talk to them about poetry, Jim Croce, and tiny chirping birdies.
Blossom Johnson is Yé’ii Dine’é Táchii’nii, and her maternal grandfather is Deeshchíí’nii. She is a playwright whose work has been developed and supported by New York Stage & Film, Perelman Performing Arts Center and Playwrights Horizons, Bag&Baggage and Native Performing Arts Network, Mixed Blood Theatre, Durango PlayFest and many others. Her work has earned support through First Peoples Fund, The Playwrights’ Center, UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She is currently a 2025-28 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a 2025 Democracy Cycle recipient, and is thrilled to be a 2026-29 Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center.
JuCoby Johnson is a New York-based playwright, actor, and screenwriter originally from Jacksonville, Florida. His plays have been developed or produced by The Playwrights’ Center, South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, Alliance Theatre, Round House Theater, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Page 73, IAMA Theater Company, Echo Theater Company, Jungle Theater, NC Black Rep. His screenwriting credits include The Runarounds (Amazon). Johnson is an alumnus of The Juilliard School’s playwriting program, the recipient of McKnight and Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships, is a member of the 2026 Page 73 Writers Group and a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer. jucobyjohnson.com.
Christina Pumariega (she/her) acts and writes. Often simultaneously. Her Edgerton Award-winning, Pulitzer-nominated play ¡VOS! was developed at Ojai, premiered at Two River Theater, and receives its second production this summer at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. She holds commissions with MTC/Sloan, CTG and the Denver Center. TV writing includes Disney+ and NBC. Acting on and Off-Broadway and onscreen, Pumariega has cross-examined Coach Taylor, made out with the Fly, and set a Cuban pharmacy ablaze in a corset. MFA Acting, NYU.