How is dramatic writing a well-suited avenue for exploring grief? How is it uniquely challenging?

Dec 01, 2025

Top L-R: Kermit Frazier, Chelsea Marcantel, Laura Shamas, Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro; Bottom L-R: Denmo Ibrahim, a.k. payne, Tara Moses, Steve Yockey

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Kermit Frazier

’s plays have been produced at theaters all over the country. In addition, he’s written for several television series, and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary magazines and in The New York Times Book Review. His memoir, First Acts: A Black Playwright Comes of Age, was published in 2022. www.kermitfrazierwriter.com

Chelsea Marcantel

was raised by Cajuns in southwest Louisiana. She completed a Playwrights Fellowship at Juilliard and has received the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre, the Osborn New Play Award, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Plays include Airness, Everything Is Wonderful, Tiny Houses, The Upstairs Department, and new musical Wild Heart. www.ChelseaMarcantel.com

Laura Shamas

lives in Los Angeles. Her award-winning play Four Women in Red about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, is published by Broadway Play Publishing. She is a Chickasaw Nation citizen. Website: LauraShamas.com

Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro

’s full-length plays have been produced at the Huntington, New Theater, Pan Asian Repertory, East West Players, and the Magic Theater. She is a former Huntington Playwriting Fellow and MCC Artist Fellow in Playwriting. Her shorter plays have been widely anthologized.

Denmo Ibrahim

is an American playwright and actor of Egyptian descent. Her plays include Arab Spring (Finalist: O’Neill, Princess Grace Award), BABA (TBA Award for Best Original Script), and A Country Made of Salt (Winner of Legacy Playwrights Award, O’Neill Semi-Finalist). www.denmoibrahim.com

a.k. payne

(she/they) is a theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh. Their plays love on and engage Black lives and languages beyond the confines of linear time to find/remember stories that might create conditions for our collective liberation(s). She is a 3x finalist and the 2025 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the largest and oldest international award for women+ writers.

Tara Moses

is a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, a multi-award winning playwright, director, and co-founder of Groundwater Arts. She is an associate member of SDC and a Dramatists Guild member. She holds an MFA in Directing from Brown/Trinity Rep. www.taramoses.com

Steve Yockey

is a Los Angeles-based writer. His plays are published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. He holds an MFA from NYU Tisch. Steve is the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated creator/showrunner of HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant. He is also the creator/showrunner of Netflix’s cult hit Dead Boy Detectives.

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