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freshwater grass by Ezequiel González Camaño

Ezequiel González Camaño is a Uruguayan-American (play)writer, performer, and multimedia artist based in New York City. His work situates itself at the intersection of radical queer political art, decolonial resistance, and experimental performance. He questions the constant surveillance of queer/Latinx subjectivities and desires, utilizing digital and analogue techniques of fragmentation and manipulation to obscure, to move, to persist, and to rebel.
As an interdisciplinary artist, González Camaño animates his anthropological training with a fresh, Gen Z flavor: in sum, a Sagittarian, Latinx eco-storyteller at the cusp of the digital revolution. 

González Camaño’s work has been developed through The New Cosmopolitans and the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator and he is currently an artist-in-residence with the Orchard Project Greenhouse. His performance art persona, @yackiekennedy, can be found on Instagram or on the streets of Manhattan (whenever you least expect them).

Twitter Feed by Sandy Lam

Sandy Lam is a storyteller, writer, performer, musician, facilitator, producer, and cat enthusiast. She wrote, performed in, and produced So Lucky, a play depicting themes of mental illness and intergenerational trauma in Asian American communities. Currently, she is co-facilitating (with local musician Casie Luong) an APIDA Community Circle that aims to foster connection and solidarity for participations through writing and discussion. In her work, she hopes to use art to have difficult conversations, tell stories about diverse populations, and bring communities closer together.

Principal’s Office by Cris Eli Blak

Cris Eli Blak is an award winning and internationally produced writer for the page, stage and screen. His work has garnered him a Bronze Remi from the Worldfest Houston International Film and Video Festival, the Christopher Hewitt Award in Fiction, a Pushcart Prize nomination and honors from Vectis Radio, Negro Ensemble Company, Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Clocktower Players and A is For. His work has been produced, performed and/or published around the world, from Off-Broadway (Urban Stages and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), West Coast (Theatre of NOTE, Theatre West, Common Ground Theatre, Left Edge Theatre and Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble), Collegiate (Columbia University, York College of Pennsylvania, Salem State University, Academy of Arts University and Wellesley College), London (The Quean’s Company and Flawstate), Australia (Melting Pot Theatre), Canada (Ryerson Community Theatre) and Ireland (Eva’s Echo). He is developing new work with American Stag, The Road Theatre, Imaginarium Theatre Company, and Et Alia Theater. He was the resident playwright at Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency and was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize. He continues to strive to create work that reflects the world that we live in, with all of its different and diverse colors, creeds and cultures.

Love is a Rollercoaster by Rita Anderson

Rita Anderson, an internationally-published and award-winning writer, has an MFA Creative Writing and an MA Playwriting. Rita is Dramatists Guild Regional Rep, and she went on scholarship to The O’Neill. Her play, Frantic is the Carousel, was the National Partners American Theatre nominee, and Rita won the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award, the top national prize from The Kennedy Center for “Best Body of Work.” She has had over 100 productions and as many literary publications to include APPLAUSE’s BEST NEW 10-MINUTE PLAYS (in 2019 and again in 2020) and in their BEST NEW WOMEN’S MONOLOGUES (years 2019 & 2020) and with SMITH & KRAUS too. Early Liberty, Final Conversations, and The 27 Club (www.offthewallplays.com) are on the publisher’s “Best Selling Plays” list, and Next Stage Press just published her comedy, Woman Hollering Creek, which is already a “runaway Best Seller.” Rita has had work developed with The Kennedy Center, The 24-Hour Plays Project, HBMG Foundation and Creede Repertory Theatre, The PlayGround Experiment (NYC), The Barrow Group (NYC), Mildred’s Umbrella (Museum of Dysfunction), Moving Parts Theatre (Paris, France), and she was a pilot playwright for Hyde Park Theatre Writers’ Group. Rita is Producing Artistic Director of Mélange Theatre Company, and she is Faculty at Interlochen, but the highlight of her emerging career so far was sitting on a playwriting panel with Christopher Durang. Rita’s poetry books: The Entropy of Rocketman (Finishing Line Press) and Watched Pots (A Lovesong to Motherhood), have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Contact Rita at her website www.rita-anderson.com

Minifest Artist Workshops

Literary Committee Members: Simone Alexander, Mia King, and Eva McQuade