Raúl Castillo -
Raúl Castillo is a proud member of LAByrinth Theater Company, the Public Theater’s inaugural Emerging Writers Group and the Hispanic Playwrights in Residence Lab at Intar Theater. He was born and raised on the border between McAllen, TX and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He studied Playwriting, Theater Studies, Spanish Literature and Acting at Boston University where he was a member of the East Coast Chicano Student Forum. He is the author of the play KNIVES AND OTHER SHARP OBJECTS which premiered in April 2009 at the Public Theater’s Public Lab in a co-production with LAByrinth directed by Felix Solis. His one-act THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE EVER premiered in March 2010 at Intar’s New Works Festival as part of an evening of shorts entitled ONE NIGHT IN THE VALLEY; FOUR PLAYS BY SOUTH TEXAS WRITERS, which he co-produced. With LAByrinth he has developed the full-length plays CITY OF PALMS and BUS ACCIDENT PLAY, both of which were featured in the company’s Barn Series Festival at the Public. His one-act play DEATH ON MY MIND is published by Dramatic Publishing and has been produced by the Cherry Lane and the Bloomington Playwright’s Project. Theater Acting credits include: Cusi Cram’s A LIFETIME BURNING (Primary Stages, dir. Pam McKinnon), REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT (Abroad Stage Co., dir. Pippin Parker), THROAT (Intar), SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (LAByrinth/Public Theater, dir. Mark Wing-Davey), OPEN HOUSE (Foundry Theatre, dir. Melanie Joseph), FLOWERS (Ensemble Studio Theater), CAMINO/MONTANA (Intar), MINOTAUR (LAB’s Barn Series). Film and TV credits include: Aaron Katz’s COLD WEATHER (SXSW Film Festival, recently acquired by IFC), Cruz Angeles’s DON’T LET ME DROWN (Sundance 2009), AMEXICANO (Maya Entertainment, Tribeca 2007), NURSE JACKIE, LAW AND ORDER.
Kara Lee Corthron -
Kara Lee Corthron’s plays include ETCHED IN SKIN ON A SUNLIT NIGHT (2010 PlayPenn Conference, world premiere: InterAct Theatre, 2011), JULIUS BY DESIGN (world premiere: Penumbra Theatre, 2011), HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN (Princess Grace Award), SPOOKWATER (O’Neill Conference Finalist), and WILD BLACK-EYED SUSANS (Helen Merrill Award). Kara recently received The Vineyard Theatre’s 3rd Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. Other honors include: Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), an E.S.T./Sloan Commission, the Theodore Ward Prize, the New Professional Theatre Writers Award, residencies at MacDowell, Skriðuklaustur (Iceland), the Millay Colony, and Ledig House and she was twice finalist for New Dramatists membership (‘08 and ‘09). Current commissions: South Coast Rep, InterAct, New Georges, and Naked Angels. Play development: African Continuum (D.C.), ACT Seattle/Hansberry Project, CenterStage (Baltimore), Electric Pear Productions, Horizon Theatre (Atlanta), Naked Angels, New Dramatists, New Georges, Page 73 Productions, Penumbra, The Shalimar, the Vineyard Theatre, and Voice and Vision among others. TV: staff writer for NBC’s KINGS (2008-2009). Kara is a Juilliard alumna and member of the 2010 Play Group at Ars Nova, ‘Wright On! Play Group (co-founder), Blue Roses, the Dramatists Guild and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist.
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas-
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’s many awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts; as well as the Helen Merrill Award; “playwright of the year” in El Nuevo Herald’s 1999 year-end list; a Writers Community Residency from the YMCA National Writer’s Voice; and the Robert Chesley Award, among others. His first play MALETA MULATA was produced by Campo Santo + Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco. His second play SLEEPWALKERS was produced by the Area Stage in 1999, where it was awarded a Carbonell Award for Best New Work given by the South Florida Critics Circle. SLEEPWALKERS was further developed and remounted by the Alliance Theatre in 2002. TIGHT EMBRACE was produced by Intar in New York, and his play BLIND MOUTH SINGING recently completed runs at Chicago’s Teatro Vista, and the New York based National Asian American Theatre Company, productions the Chicago Tribune praised as having “visionary wit” and that the New York Times called “beautiful and strange”. His plays have been published by Playscripts and TDR/The Drama Review. He has been commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, New World Theater, Hartford Stage and Playwrights Horizons. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and a member of New Dramatists.
Cusi Cram-
Cusi Cram’s plays include DUSTY AND THE BIG BAD WORLD (Denver Theater Center), LUCY AND THE CONQUEST (Williamstown Theater Festival and O’Neill Playwrights Conference), ALL THE BAD THINGS (LAByrinth Theater Company at the Public Theater), FUENTE (Barrington Stage, and O’Neill Playwrights Conference), and THE END OF IT ALL (South Coast Repertory), LANDLOCKED (Miranda Theater) and A LIFETIME BURNING, which was a part of Primary Stages 2009/2010 season. She has received commissions from The Atlantic Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, The Actors Theater of Louisville, New Georges and The Echo Theater Company. Her work has also been produced and developed by: The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, PS122 and the Dag Hammarskjold Theater at the United Nations. She is the recipient of the 2004 Herrick Theater Foundation New Play Prize, a Camargo Foundation fellowship in Cassis, France and she will be a Bogliasco Fellow in Italy in September, 2010. Her work is published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts and Broadway Publishing. Cusi has also received three Emmy award nominations and a Humanitas nomination for her work in children’s television. Her play, DUSTY AND THE BIG BAD WORLD was recently optioned by Points West Films (Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt producers). She is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company and sits on New Georges’ Kitchen Cabinet and the board of Leah’s FEWW (Fund for Emerging Women Writers). She currently teaches playwriting with LAByrinth and at ESPA. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Lila Acheson American Playwright’s Program at Juilliard.
