FORKED Creator Sarah Goeke Awarded Grant To Adapt Award-Winning Web Series For The Stage
The web series creator will develop a theatrical adaptation during a residency in the Hudson Valley.
By: A.A. Cristi Dec. 18, 2025
Actor and writer Sarah Goeke has been awarded the Playwriting Residency Grant from the Jeffrey L. Nissen Arts Education and Development Fund to adapt her original web series Forked into a theatrical production. As part of the award, Goeke will spend January 2026 developing the work in residence at the Hudson Valley Writers Residency.
The announcement comes ahead of Forked’s upcoming screening at Dances With Films NY 2026, which will take place January 15–18 at Regal Union Square. The series will screen as part of Pilots Block 4 on Saturday, January 17 at 10:30 a.m. Now in its 28th year, Dances With Films is a long-running festival focused on independent film and emerging voices.
Created by and starring Goeke, Forked centers on a newly sober woman who returns to her Bible Belt hometown to care for her ill father while confronting unresolved family dynamics, religious conditioning, and a hidden side job narrating dragon fantasy erotica audiobooks. The series blends comedy and drama while addressing themes of sobriety, shame, identity, and self-expression.
The six-episode series has received multiple awards, including Best Series at New York CineFest, Best Webisode at the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival, and Best Screenwriting at New York Indie Shorts Awards. It was also nominated for Best Comedy Short at the Cindependent Film Festival and screened at Sidewalk Film Festival, Lighthouse International, Big Apple Film Festival, and NoHo CineFest. Prior to production, the script won Best Script honors at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival and the Toronto Indie Filmmaker Festival, and was ranked among Coverfly’s Web Series Comedies of the Year.
“Forked is about confronting inherited shame and re-learning pleasure, autonomy, and voice,” says Goeke. “Adapting it for the stage opens up exciting opportunities to explore that transformation in real time—with breath, bodies, and proximity. I want the play to feel as intimate, awkward, and disarming as the inner world it depicts.”
In addition to the Hudson Valley Writers Residency, Goeke was recently named a 2025 Fellow at the Woodward Residency in Ridgewood, New York, where she spent four months developing new writing. Her performing credits include appearances on the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
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