OPC’S 2023 SUMMER CONFERENCE AND
NEW WORKS FESTIVAL PLAYWRIGHTS

NGOZI ANYANWU, 2023 OPC New Works Festival Playwright
Ngozi Anyanwu’s (she/her) playwriting credits include: Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk Award); The Homecoming Queen (Kilroys list 2017, Leah Ryan Finalist), world premiere at The Atlantic theater (2018); Nike… (Kilroys List 2017), workshopped at The New Black Fest in conjunction with The Lark and The Strand Festival in conjunction with A.C.T and Space on Ryder Farm and New York Stage and Film. Anyanwu wrote and starred in Good Grief (Kilroys List 2016, semi-finalist Princess Grace, Humanitas Award), produced at Center Theatre Group (2017) and The Vineyard Theatre (2018) and The Last of the Love Letters, The Atlantic Theatre Company (2021). She has had multiple playwright residencies and commissions and has extensive credits as an actor. Anyanwu is currently Artist-in-Residence with the National Black Theatre. Education: UCSD (MFA Acting), Point Park University (BA).

BENJAMIN BENNE, 2023 OPC New Works Festival Playwright
Benjamin Benne’s (he/him) plays include Alma (World Premiere '22: Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre, L.A. & American Blues Theater, Chicago; ArtsWest, Seattle '22; Curious Theatre, Denver '23; Central Square, Cambridge '23), In His Hands (World Premiere '22: Mosaic Theater, D.C.), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (World Premiere '23: Pillsbury House, Minneapolis). He’s a winner of Portland Stage's Clauder Competition Grand Prize, Arizona Theatre Company's National Latinx Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center's KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues' Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the Playwrights' Center's McKnight and Many Voices Fellowships, and was named part of "LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, investigators, and power players breaking through barriers” by the L.A. Times. Commissions: South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep. MFA: Playwriting, David Geffen/Yale School of Drama '22.

JUNE CARRYL, 2023 OPC Writer-in-Residence
June Carryl (she/her) is originally from Denver and studied Political Science and English Literature at Brown University. Her plays include Blue (Rogue Machine), N*gga B*tch (Residency, Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre, Vagrancy Theatre's Blossoming Project), Girl Blue (CTG L.A. Writer’s Workshop), Florence & Normandie (Golden Tongues – Diversifying the Classics Initiative – UCLA/Playwrights Arena), The Good Minister From Harare (Playwrights Arena Summer Series, ADAA Saroyan/Paul Award), and the life and death of (Vagracy Theatre), Colossus (Semi-Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and Stone Angels (Finalist, the Killroys). Part One of her collaboration with composer Jason Barabba about Aunt Jemima premiered as part of Overtone Industries.  

MATHILDE DRATWA, 2023 OPC New Works Festival Playwright
Mathilde Dratwa's (she/her) plays include Milk and Gall (Theatre503, London), A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein, Dirty Laundry, and Esther Perel Ruined my Life. Her work has been presented by the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Rattlestick, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Playwrights’ Center, Audible, and the Young Vic. On the film/TV side, Mathilde has developed content for Picture Start, Endeavor, LuckyChap, Dirty Films, FX, Red Wagon, Sony/TriStar, Chernin and wiip.

JULIA IZUMI, 2023 OPC New Works Festival Playwright
Julia Izumi’s (she/her) works include Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons/WP Theater), miku, and the gods. (ArtsWest), Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea (Rorschach Theatre), and others. Her work has been developed at MTC, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Berkeley Rep, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and more. Honors for her work include the OPC Dr. Kerry English Artist Award, O’Neill Finalist, and KCACTF’s Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award. Current New Dramatists Resident, LMCC Workspace Resident, and Civilians R&D Group Member. Current commissions: True Love Productions, MTC/Sloan, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Rep 20x30. MFA: Brown University.

MADELINE SAYET, 2023 OPC Writer-in-Residence
Madeline Sayet (she/her) is a Mohegan theatre maker who believes the stories we pass down inform our collective possible futures. She has been honored as a “Forbes 30 Under 30” in Hollywood & Entertainment, TED Fellow, National Directing Fellow, NCAIED Native American 40 Under 40, and a recipient of The White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. As playwright: Up and Down the River, Antigone Or And Still She Must Rise Up, Daughters of Leda, The Neverland. Her play Where We Belong has been performed at The Public Theater, Seattle Rep, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, The Goodman Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, and Baltimore Center Stage as part of a national tour produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with The Folger Shakespeare Library and published by Bloomsbury. Her performance of Where We Belong at the Goodman Theater earned her a Jeff Award nomination for Best Solo Performance. As director: Long Wharf Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Perseverance Theatre, Connecticut Repertory Theater, TheatreSquared, Delaware Shakespeare Festival, South Dakota Shakespeare Festival, The Krannert Center, Glimmerglass Festival, 59e59, and more. She is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, and Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP). www.madelinesayet.com 

DELANNA STUDI, 2023 OPC Writer-in-Residence
DeLanna Studi (she/her) is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry. She has over 25 years of experience as a performer, storyteller, educator, facilitator, advocate, and activist. Theater credits include the first national Broadway tour of August: Osage County; Gloria: A Life at the Daryl Roth Theatre; Informed Consent at the Duke on 42nd Street; and several regional theaters. DeLanna originated roles in over 18 world premieres including 14 Native productions. She wrote and performed And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears, based on retracing her family’s footsteps along the Trail of Tears with her father, which has been produced throughout the country and was the first American play chosen for the Journees Theatricales de Carthage in Tunisia, Africa. DeLanna has extensive acting credits in film and television, and has had residencies and workshops at universities and organizations across the country. She is a recipient of the Butcher Scholar Award, MAP Fund Grant, and Cherokee Preservation Grant. Since 2007, she has served as the chair of the SAG-AFTRA National Native Americans Committee.

ANNE WASHBURN, 2023 OPC New Works Festival Playwright
Anne Washburn (she/her) is a California-born Brooklyn-based playwright whose plays include 10 out of 12, Antlia Pneumatica, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, A Devil At Noon, I Have Loved Strangers, The Internationalist, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Mr. Burns, Shipwreck, The Small, and transadaptations of Euripides' Orestes & Iphigenia in Aulis. Her work has premiered with 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Fogler, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Two River Theater Company, Vineyard Theater and Woolly Mammoth.