New Venture Reading Series 10-Minute Play Festival 2021
Over 160 submissions.
50 submissions in the 2nd round.
5 final selections.
Our Festival took place on February 14-15, 2021 online.
Stay tuned to this space for future announcements about the Festival for 2021-2022.
Inspired by the classics, five playwrights explore one unifying theme: Transformation.
Meet The Reading Committee.
Meet The Production Teams.
Over 160 submissions.
50 submissions in the 2nd round.
5 final selections.
Our Festival took place on February 14-15, 2021 online.
Stay tuned to this space for future announcements about the Festival for 2021-2022.
Inspired by the classics, five playwrights explore one unifying theme: Transformation.
Meet The Reading Committee.
Meet The Production Teams.
Festival Playwrights
Festival Directors
Antigone's Cave by Michael Narkunski
Directed by Mariah Ghant
Antigone awaits her death in her prison cave, pondering the nature of fate and the doom of obscurity. She decides to take matters into her own hands.
Michael Narkunski is a Los Angeles-based New Yorker whose plays have been presented by the HOT! Festival of Queer Culture, By the Light of a Match, From the Hip: 48-Hour Plays, and the Los Angeles Collegiate Playwrights' Festival, with the latter publishing his one-act, BUD, WISER, in their first volume. Beyond theatre, Michael writes overly-personal essays you can find in Out, The Advocate, Narratively, and several other magazines and anthologies. He also has a BFA from NYU, an MFA from Stony Brook University, and dedicates this play to his 4th grade teacher, Dr. Haupt (his Ancient Greece guru).
Mariah Ghant [she/hers] is originally from the suburbs of Chicago. An alumna of Vassar Collge, she relocated to Philly for the Arden Professional Apprenticeship (Class 26 WOOT!). Currently, Mariah is the Artistic Administrator at the Wilma Theater and is also a teaching artist with Arden Drama School and Delaware Shakespeare. Mariah continues to pursue her passion for creating art that is accessible for all and provides opportunities for those otherwise underrepresented to have a voice.
It's Pronounced SH by Joseph Ahmed
Directed by Cat Ramirez
Filmmaking meets an ancient play. Family traditions meet modern love. A Deer helps us through it all. Adapted from Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition by Kālidāsa.
Joseph Ahmed is a Philadelphia-based theater artist whose work expands into dance, circus, and interactive performance. He is a company member with the Barrymore Award-winning Tribe of Fools, and performed for several years as part of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre. With Daniel Park and Arianna Gass, he is a co-founder of the interactive performance company Obvious Agency, www.obvious-agency.com. His solo work, Half Magic, an exploration of bi-racial identity through circus, storytelling, and physical theater, is currently under development as part of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artist's Mini-Residency Program. As a director, actor, and dancer he has worked throughout the city with companies such as First Person Arts, ON THE ROCKS, Interact Theatre Company, Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, and IKANTKOAN Games. He holds a BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University. Connect at www.josephahmed.com.
Cat Ramirez believes in the small and large instances of care that happen during performance. They are ecstatic to be returning to PAC with their directing hat on! Cat has turned boiler rooms into dilapidated mansions, studios & galleries into living archives of local Asian American histories, and Zoom rooms into trippy Dionysian rituals. They work at the intersection of performance, activism, and administration to create a work where all people can tell their stories without shame or fear. As a theatre director, they have worked with Simpatico Theatre, InterAct Theater Company, Power Street Theatre Company, Lxs Primxs, Arcadia University, Villanova University, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Director’s Gathering (among others). They currently serve as the Creative Director for Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists and the Beardmobile Line Producer at The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Next up: Cat will be directing PANDEMIC by Katie Lu with Philadelphia Young Playwrights Feb. 16-19
Goat Song by Jessica Moss
Directed by Damon Bonetti
In Ancient Greece, drama is changed forever, when one actor dares to step out of the chorus. A tale of bravery, breaking norms and the power of standing alone.
Jessica Moss is a performer, writer, and producer. She is the creator/performer of solo shows Modern Love, and Polly Polly. Her full-length plays include Next to Him, I Will Miss You When You’re Gone, Cam Baby, A Girl Lives Alone and others. Her work has been developed or presented at Great Plains Theatre Conference, Roundabout Theatre, Premiere Stages, Kitchen Dog Theatre, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Canadian Stage Festival of New Ideas and Creation, among others. As an actor, she has appeared in shows with Necessary Angel/Luminato, Tarragon Theatre, SummerWorks, Sudbury Theatre Centre, the NAC, and many times at the Toronto Fringe. She went to Juilliard.
Damon Bonetti is a Philly born director, actor and teacher. For the PAC he has directedThe White Devil, He Who Gets Slapped (with the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts), Blood Wedding (co-production with the Mandell Professionals in Residence Project at Drexel University), The Sea Plays, Changes of Heart and has appeared in The Duchess of Malfi, Creditors, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Maria Marten. He received a Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play for True Story at Passage Theatre. He is a professor at Rutgers – Camden where he has recently directed She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms and Hamlet. MFA: FSU/Asolo Conservatory.
Antigone by Marie Mayingi
Directed by Mariah Ghant
A retelling of Sophocles' Antigone, set in France, that examines grief and the Black Lives Matter movement. Two sisters struggle to deal with the after-math of their brother's death at the hands of police. Their brother appears to help them make sense of it all.
Marie Mayingi is currently studying English Law and French Law at the University of Exeter. She has published two poetry chapbooks, Ravings in 2018 and Happier in 2019.
Laundry is Not Enough by Nimisha Ladva
Directed by Cat Ramirez
A simple household task brings a Mother and Daughter together to examine what's really important and how two worlds can co-exist.
Nimisha Ladva is a writer and performer. Her storytelling has been broadcast nationally on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour (and others) and PBS’s Stories from the Stage. In 2020 she was named the “Best of the Best Storytellers in Philadelphia” by First Person Arts; she is also a Moth GrandSlam champion. In 2019, she performed with RISK! at the London Podcast Festival and was selected for the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive Workshop. Her solo performance play, Uninvited Girl, premiered in Philadelphia (with the support of a Leeway Foundation Grant) at the First Person Arts Festival in 2016, and in New York at the Women in Theater Festival in 2018. She has been published in theguardian.com and literary journals in the US and UK. She teaches writing and public speaking at Haverford College.
Directed by Mariah Ghant
Antigone awaits her death in her prison cave, pondering the nature of fate and the doom of obscurity. She decides to take matters into her own hands.
Michael Narkunski is a Los Angeles-based New Yorker whose plays have been presented by the HOT! Festival of Queer Culture, By the Light of a Match, From the Hip: 48-Hour Plays, and the Los Angeles Collegiate Playwrights' Festival, with the latter publishing his one-act, BUD, WISER, in their first volume. Beyond theatre, Michael writes overly-personal essays you can find in Out, The Advocate, Narratively, and several other magazines and anthologies. He also has a BFA from NYU, an MFA from Stony Brook University, and dedicates this play to his 4th grade teacher, Dr. Haupt (his Ancient Greece guru).
Mariah Ghant [she/hers] is originally from the suburbs of Chicago. An alumna of Vassar Collge, she relocated to Philly for the Arden Professional Apprenticeship (Class 26 WOOT!). Currently, Mariah is the Artistic Administrator at the Wilma Theater and is also a teaching artist with Arden Drama School and Delaware Shakespeare. Mariah continues to pursue her passion for creating art that is accessible for all and provides opportunities for those otherwise underrepresented to have a voice.
It's Pronounced SH by Joseph Ahmed
Directed by Cat Ramirez
Filmmaking meets an ancient play. Family traditions meet modern love. A Deer helps us through it all. Adapted from Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition by Kālidāsa.
Joseph Ahmed is a Philadelphia-based theater artist whose work expands into dance, circus, and interactive performance. He is a company member with the Barrymore Award-winning Tribe of Fools, and performed for several years as part of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre. With Daniel Park and Arianna Gass, he is a co-founder of the interactive performance company Obvious Agency, www.obvious-agency.com. His solo work, Half Magic, an exploration of bi-racial identity through circus, storytelling, and physical theater, is currently under development as part of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artist's Mini-Residency Program. As a director, actor, and dancer he has worked throughout the city with companies such as First Person Arts, ON THE ROCKS, Interact Theatre Company, Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, and IKANTKOAN Games. He holds a BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University. Connect at www.josephahmed.com.
Cat Ramirez believes in the small and large instances of care that happen during performance. They are ecstatic to be returning to PAC with their directing hat on! Cat has turned boiler rooms into dilapidated mansions, studios & galleries into living archives of local Asian American histories, and Zoom rooms into trippy Dionysian rituals. They work at the intersection of performance, activism, and administration to create a work where all people can tell their stories without shame or fear. As a theatre director, they have worked with Simpatico Theatre, InterAct Theater Company, Power Street Theatre Company, Lxs Primxs, Arcadia University, Villanova University, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Director’s Gathering (among others). They currently serve as the Creative Director for Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists and the Beardmobile Line Producer at The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Next up: Cat will be directing PANDEMIC by Katie Lu with Philadelphia Young Playwrights Feb. 16-19
Goat Song by Jessica Moss
Directed by Damon Bonetti
In Ancient Greece, drama is changed forever, when one actor dares to step out of the chorus. A tale of bravery, breaking norms and the power of standing alone.
Jessica Moss is a performer, writer, and producer. She is the creator/performer of solo shows Modern Love, and Polly Polly. Her full-length plays include Next to Him, I Will Miss You When You’re Gone, Cam Baby, A Girl Lives Alone and others. Her work has been developed or presented at Great Plains Theatre Conference, Roundabout Theatre, Premiere Stages, Kitchen Dog Theatre, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Canadian Stage Festival of New Ideas and Creation, among others. As an actor, she has appeared in shows with Necessary Angel/Luminato, Tarragon Theatre, SummerWorks, Sudbury Theatre Centre, the NAC, and many times at the Toronto Fringe. She went to Juilliard.
Damon Bonetti is a Philly born director, actor and teacher. For the PAC he has directedThe White Devil, He Who Gets Slapped (with the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts), Blood Wedding (co-production with the Mandell Professionals in Residence Project at Drexel University), The Sea Plays, Changes of Heart and has appeared in The Duchess of Malfi, Creditors, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Maria Marten. He received a Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play for True Story at Passage Theatre. He is a professor at Rutgers – Camden where he has recently directed She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms and Hamlet. MFA: FSU/Asolo Conservatory.
Antigone by Marie Mayingi
Directed by Mariah Ghant
A retelling of Sophocles' Antigone, set in France, that examines grief and the Black Lives Matter movement. Two sisters struggle to deal with the after-math of their brother's death at the hands of police. Their brother appears to help them make sense of it all.
Marie Mayingi is currently studying English Law and French Law at the University of Exeter. She has published two poetry chapbooks, Ravings in 2018 and Happier in 2019.
Laundry is Not Enough by Nimisha Ladva
Directed by Cat Ramirez
A simple household task brings a Mother and Daughter together to examine what's really important and how two worlds can co-exist.
Nimisha Ladva is a writer and performer. Her storytelling has been broadcast nationally on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour (and others) and PBS’s Stories from the Stage. In 2020 she was named the “Best of the Best Storytellers in Philadelphia” by First Person Arts; she is also a Moth GrandSlam champion. In 2019, she performed with RISK! at the London Podcast Festival and was selected for the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive Workshop. Her solo performance play, Uninvited Girl, premiered in Philadelphia (with the support of a Leeway Foundation Grant) at the First Person Arts Festival in 2016, and in New York at the Women in Theater Festival in 2018. She has been published in theguardian.com and literary journals in the US and UK. She teaches writing and public speaking at Haverford College.
