Summer Shorts: Homegrown Edition

Playwrights are led by HOMEGROWN Miami Master Playwright

VANESSA GARCIA is a Cuban-American multidisciplinary writer -- screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and journalist/essayist -- who has written and worked for Sesame Street, Caillou, and other shows.  , White Light, which won an International Latino Book Award and was one of NPRs best books of 2015. Her first Picture Book for children, What the Bread Says, launched October 1, 2022. Theatrically, she’s the author of The Amparo Experience, an immersive hit that People en Español called “Miami’s Hottest Ticket.” Other plays include: Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas, which she co-wrote with Richard Blanco, and #Graced, premiering 2023. Her journalism, essays and thought pieces have appeared in The LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, National Review, ESPN, The Hill, Catapult, Narrativel.ly, and numerous other publications.  She holds a PhD from the University of California Irvine in Creative Nonfiction. Her dissertation focused on Cuba. www.vanessagarcia.org

JOEL CASTILLO is a theatre artist and educator from Hialeah, Florida. His passions include teaching, directing, designing, acting, and playwriting. He has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Miami. His favorite credits include Mamma Mia! (Director/Scenographer) with the Seminole Theatre Players, Euridyce (Scenographer) at New York Film Academy, and the role of Jackie in The Motherf*cker with the Hat at the University of Miami. He has written many plays presented at his schools. Most recently his adaptation: “The Bacchae: The Rituals of the Oppressed” could be seen performed at the District 8 Thespian One Act Festival. He now wishes to take his playwriting work out to the community. He hopes to inspire the people of Miami, young and old, of all races and backgrounds, so all can experience and have access to the magic of the theatre.

ARIEL CIPOLLA is a Mexican-Argentine playwright and dramaturg living in Miami, FL. He recently graduated from Florida International University with degrees in Broadcast Media and Creative Writing. Ariel is proud to announce that he is returning to City Theatre as a member of their first-ever HOMEGROWN cohort, after forming part of their NEXT GEN YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS program in 2017. During the day, Ariel works as a Television Producer, focused on creating content that engages with the communities of South Florida. But at night, he constructs his devious little plays that explore the darkest sides of human behavior and desire. Recently, a workshop production was presented at FIU for his full-length play, "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAY?"

CHRIS ANTHONY FERRER is a proud first generation American of Cuban descent whose family immigrated to Miami, FL in the late 60's. In May '22, Ferrer had his professional playwriting debut at Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, GA for the production of his play, Swindlers. Screenwriting credits include: The Branded, Other Than Honorable, Catapult Joe, and Waiting to Inhale. Ferrer is also a filmmaker and classically trained actor. Member: The Dramatists Guild of America. Ferrer earned a BFA from New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL. Instagram: @chris_anthony_ferrer Website: doortothedome.com

SEFANJA RICHARD GALON is a Surinamese-American playwright, director and actor. He was born in Miami, Florida, but when he was eight moved to Paramaribo, Suriname and was raised there. He works now in the Miami area as an actor and playwright. He has a B.F.A. in Theatre from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. During his tenure there he was President of the Student Government Association, wrote A Secret for the Mad, a one person show and Oskuneru, a full length play. His next original play, Jealousy, can be seen performed in local hotspot, Thank You Miami in Little Havana, and will be making his professional directorial debut at Main Street Players directing the show Sweat by Lynn Nottage His past credits include Sibling Rivalries/Spooks in an Ivory Tower (Sheldon Henderson), Ragtime (Ensemble) and In the Red and Brown Water (Shango).

LUIS ROBERTO HERRERA is currently a South Florida based Colombian-American playwright with a B.F.A.  in Acting from the University of Florida and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The New School. He was a resident playwright in the GREENHOUSE Residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm and a Fellow at Athena Theatre in 2019.He has had work produced at the Fort Lauderdale Fringe Festival, and the New York Summer Theatre Festival. His full-length plays include; Poolside Glow, Born Still, SAA(not that one),  and BLOOD ON THESE HANDS. He was most recently a part of the LatinX Playwrights Circle 2022 Mentorship Intensive and is a member of the 2022-2023 HOMEGROWN Playwright Residency with City Theatre. www.luisrobertoherrera.com

IVAN R. LÓPEZ is a Cuban-American playwright and theatre artist born and raised in Miami. Ivan is on the theatre faculty at Florida International University and has directed and acted in Miami, New York, Denver, and Atlanta. Most recently, he directed the world premiere of Swindlers at the Aurora Theatre. He also works for Healthy Humor as a healthcare clown at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut. His first full-length play, The Lion Tamer, was selected by The Greenhouse at FIU for a one-week new play development residency this past summer. Ivan has an M.F.A. in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory.

PHANÉSIA PHAREL is a playwright that grew up on a Dragon Fruit farm in Miami. Full lengths; LUCKY (New York Stage and Film) . BLACK GIRL JOY (Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Finalist Prize, Jane Chambers Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist, O’neill Semi-Finalist). Other Honors include City Theatre National Short Playwriting Finalist. Phanésia is a member of the Obie award-winning EST/ Youngblood group, The Wish Collective and serves as the Interim Artistic Director for viBe Theater Experience. Commissions include City Theatre Miami, the Latinx Playwrights Circle & Pregones/PRTT Greater Good Commission and Thrown Stone Theatre. Residencies include New York Stage and Film, Echo Theater Company of Los Angeles, the Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship and the Inaugural 068 Magazine Thrown Stone Theatre Fellowship. Publishing: Concord Theatricals, Smith and Kraus Best Plays of 2020, Reset Coalition 2020 Anthology and the City Theatre Anthology. BA: Urban Studies, Barnard College of Columbia University. MFA: UCSD 25’

LOLITA STEWART-WHITE is an African American playwright, poet and screenwriter from Liberty City. Her work has appeared in The Boston Review, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, and was most recently anthologized in Black Fire This Time. Lolita’s films have been exhibited at the Los Angeles Pan African Film & Arts Festival, The Langston Hughes’s Seattle Film Festival, and The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art’s New Art: South Florida. She has been awarded a Miami Individual Artist Stipend and fellowship from the South Florida Cultural Consortium. Lolita has been a fellow at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab Intensive, Cave Canem Poetry Retreat, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work pushes the envelope of expression by experimenting with genre and form. Stylistically, she utilizes linguistic economy and manipulates words in white space as a form of resistance. She is obsessed with vernacular that interrupts colonial literary hierarchy, converses with the ancestors, and manifests solidarity.