Winner: Darren Canady
False Creeds
Darren Canady hails from Topeka, KS. His work has been produced at the Alliance Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Aurora Theater, Congo Square Theater, Horizon Theatre, London’s the Old Vic Theatre, M Ensemble, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, American Blues Theater, and others. His awards include the Alliance Theater’s Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award, Chicago’s Black Excellence Award, the Black Theatre Alliance Award, and the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award. His work has been developed at numerous festivals including the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwright’s Conference. His play You’re Invited appeared in The Best American Short Plays 2010-2011. His work has been seen or developed at the Quo Vadimus Arts’ ID America Festival, the Fremont Centre Theatre, Premiere Stages, the BE Company, Penumbra Theatre, and American Blues Theater. Darren is an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Juilliard School. He is a current member of the Core Writers Program at the Playwrights’s Center and Midwest Dramatists Center. He is an artistic associate with American Blues Theater and Congo Square Theatre. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.
Beth Brandon Jensen
girls
Beth Brandon Jensen | Former Reality TV Producer | Freelance Grant Writer
After graduating from Florida State's MFA in Screen and Playwriting program, I headed to LA just as the 2007 writers strike hit, launching me into a ten-year + career producing Reality TV for shows including "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Vanderpump Rules,” and the "Real Housewives” franchise. Becoming a parent shifted my focus, leading me to retire from the hustle of TV and embrace freelance content writing, including developing and growing my blog at thedgafmom.com. I also became a ghostwriter for several well-known health and wellness websites and served as a social media manager at the start of the pandemic for Princess Cruises.
In the past year, I’ve again transitioned to become a freelance grant writer. I’ve been mainly collaborating with arts and humanities nonprofit organizations, which allows me to channel my passion for storytelling and love for the arts while providing expert guidance to help fund these organizations. Based in Southern California, I juggle it all with my husband who works in the mental health sector, while we raise two boys, aged 7 and 9.
Carson Kreitzer
Flesh and the Desert
CARSON KREITZER is a playwright, lyricist, and librettist, and recent Guggenheim, McKnight, and MacDowell Fellow. Her musical Lempicka, co-written with Matt Gould and directed by Rachel Chavkin, just finished its run at the La Jolla Playhouse. Other projects include Capital Crime!, a play with songs set in Gilded Age New York, and a trio of plays about the climate crisis: green, TIMEBOMB and a new play inspired by her time in Svalbard, sailing with The Arctic Circle Artist and Scientist Residency Program. Her plays include The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Rosenthal New Play Prize, Stavis Award), The Slow Drag (New York and London), SELF DEFENSE or death of some salesmen, Flesh and the Desert, Slither, Behind the Eye, and Lasso of Truth (NNPN Rolling World Premiere). Her plays have been produced or developed by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Public Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, Portland Center Stage, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Mabou Mines, and the Actors Gang, among others. Ms. Kreitzer is an Affiliated Writer with The Playwrights’ Center, an alumna of New Dramatists, and was the first Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at the Lark. She has received support from the NEA, TCG, the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, and the Jonathan Larson Award. Her collection Self Defense and Other Plays is available from No Passport Press.
Chris Levya
Solamente Una Vez
Chris is a playwright and director based in Columbus, OH. He’s also a husband, dad, and lover of animation.
Chris’ plays grow from curiosity. He uses humor to ask big questions and to foster empathy. He focuses on creating entertaining, meaningful, and lasting experiences for audiences. His plays take place in heightened worlds and are grounded by authentic characters. Chris was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and he has collaborated with and had his plays developed by The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, CLIMB Theatre, MadLab Theatre, the Human Race Theatre Company, the Alliance Theatre, Curtain Players New Play Initiative, Great Plains Theatre Conference,and the Columbus School for Girls, among others.
He received an M.F.A. from the Playwrights Workshop at The University of Iowa, a B.A. in Directing from Coe College, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Ruth McKee
The Nightshade Family
Ruth McKee's Kendeda Finalist play The Nightshade Family was subsequently produced in New York as a part of the SPFNYC festival. After her MFA she moved to Los Angeles where she helped found the site specific company Chalk Repertory Theatre, and produced plays in unconventional spaces across Los Angeles, including her own works Stray, Full Disclosure, Hell Money, and In Case of Emergency. She still lives in LA with her husband and two kids, and spends her time writing, reading, teaching, and playing outside as much as she can.
