Candela Opens Applications for Fourth Annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship

Candela has announced the opening of applications for its Fourth Annual Playwrights Summer Fellowship, a.k.a. Summer Jam, taking place July 12-19, 2026 at the Dramatists Guild of America's Mary Rodgers Room in New York City.

This year, Candela reaffirms its commitment to uplifting Latine and Caribbean musical theatre writers, choreopoets, and playwrights with a continued focus on book writers, lyricists, and composers in the field. While musical theatre flourishes on global stages, there are few-if any-programs specifically designed to nurture Latine and Caribbean voices in this form. Candela seeks to change that.

Founded by writer-director and professor Darrel Alejandro Holnes and co-directed by scholar-director Dr. Daphnie Sicre, Candela lights the path toward higher-level training for emerging theater writers of Latin American and Caribbean heritage. The week-long program is completely free to all selected fellows, made possible through generous support from individual donors and partner institutions.

"For too long, theatre makers of Latin American and Caribbean origin have been asked to translate themselves for the mainstream and to separate by country, language, or color. Candela is where we stop translating and stop separating, and start building on our own terms, together," says Holnes.

Dr. Sicre adds, "While it's exciting to witness increased visibility for Latine stories on major stages, Candela is focused on what comes next. This year, we are deepening our commitment by expanding programs that uplift Latine and Caribbean writers at multiple stages of their careers. It's not enough to celebrate singular moments-we are building an ecosystem that sustains artists, fosters new musical theatre work, and ensures our stories continue to thrive long after the spotlight fades."

This year, Candela will accept around 10-15 musical theatre writers, playwrights, and for the first time choreopoets, who will take courses that support the development of their plays, books, lyrics, and musical compositions with Broadway and Off-Broadway professionals. Fellows will participate in writing workshops, guest talks, and cultural excursions, including visits to NYC institutions like The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and various arts and cultural institutions across Brooklyn.

Candela's curriculum blends culturally-responsive pedagogy, cohort-building, and practical professional development. In past years, keynotes, faculty and guests included luminaries such as Aurin Squire, Andrew Lippa, Benjamin Velez, Daphne Rubin-Vega, David Henry Hwang, Dominique Morisseau, Itamar Moses, Kristoffer Diaz, Michael R. Jackson, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Zhailon Levingston, among others.

In the past, we have had musical theatre artists from across the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean, representing languages including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Sranan Tongo, and Kreyòl. Fellows from past years have gone on to earn major grants, form collectives, and develop work with institutions like the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Juilliard, NYU, Princeton, and more.

Candela is proud to be in community with initiatives like the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC), who is producing the first ever Latine Musical Theatre Carnaval in 2026 spotlighting groundbreaking new works by Latine writers and composers. Candela 2026 is presented in partnership with the Dramatists Guild of America, Brooklyn Arts Council, Howard Gilman Foundation, Latinx Theater Commons, New York University, and Medgar Evers College, among other sponsors and contributors.

Applications are now open. Applications for this summer's program, link here, are open now and close May 15.

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