Season 2, Episode 5: Behind every summer is a community that keeps Fire Island alive. This episode explores the history of the beloved Pines Pantry through the eyes of its iconic Pantry Girls, alongside the volunteer firefighters of The Pines and Cherry Grove who protect the island from fires, hurricanes, beach erosion, and an uncertain future.
IAMA Theatre Company Reveals 2026-27 Emerging Playwrights Lab Members
The cohort includes Brianna Barrett, Brandon Bautista, Diana Yifei Dai, Mylan Gray, Kimberly Joy McBride, and Caity-Shea Violette.
By: Stephi Wild
IAMA Theatre Company has announced the members of its 2026-27 IAMA Emerging Playwrights Lab, led by Lab alumnus Nicholas Pilapil. The IAMA Emerging Playwrights Lab is an artistic home for early-mid career Los Angeles-based playwrights who, over the course of a one-year residency, meet monthly to share and develop a new full-length play in a peer-guided format.
The 2026-27 Emerging Playwrights Lab members are Brianna Barrett, Brandon Bautista, Diana Yifei Dai, Mylan Gray, Kimberly Joy McBride, and Caity-Shea Violette.
Alumni of the IAMA Emerging Playwrights Lab have reached Broadway stages, including Max Wolf Friedlich, whose play JOB began in the inaugural Lab. IAMA's first collaboration with Geffen Playhouse—the world premiere of Closing Costs (March 31 – May 2, 2027) by Grace McLeod—was originally developed as part of IAMA's 2024-25 Emerging Playwrights Lab. Members of the Lab are given dramaturgical support from the Artistic and Literary staff at IAMA Theatre Company the Lab concludes with readings of each member's full-length play in a free reading series July 2027.
“Since we started the Lab the caliber of LA based playwrights has exceeded our expectations—and this year's cohort is no exception.” says Artistic Director Stefanie Black, “We are so lucky to have such a strong group of writers calling IAMA home this season.”
“Being part of the inaugural cohort and now leading the Lab has been one of the most rewarding journeys. I've seen incredible writers find their voices, and their plays go on to thrive in the world,” says Program Director Nicholas Pilapil, whose play The Bottoming Process—developed in the inaugural Emerging Playwrights Lab—was produced by IAMA Theatre Company in collaboration with the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “I'm thrilled for another year of emerging talent and can't wait to see how these new stories will grow.”
ABOUT THE EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS
Brianna Barrett's writing explores identity, double lives, mortality, and forgotten histories. A recipient of the Theater Masters' Visionary Award, an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, and twice named Portland's Best Storyteller by Willamette Week, this Portland-born writer's plays include Acts of Creation (KCACTF's Mark Twain Prize in Comic Playwriting), Still Harvey Still (Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama), 36 Perfectly Appropriate Mealtime Conversations (George Burns and Gracie Allen Fellowship in Comedy), Florence Fane in San Francisco (O'Neill Finalist), The Lucky Break (New Musical Project Finalist, CITSTS Emerging Writers Residency Top 10) and After This Episode (Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival Finalist). Selected short plays are published by Concord Theatricals and Applause Books.
Brandon Bautista is a Filipino-American writer/actor from the Bay Areaaaaa! A graduate of NYU Drama, his plays include HELL HATH TURNED OVER. F*CK (Ars Nova and The Makers' Ensemble), VULGAR TITLE THAT DEALS WITH RACE (Kennedy Center's John Cauble Award 2nd Place, The Tank, & NYU), and exhibition: Fil-O-PiNOS (NYU). Brandon strives to be somebody for his ancestors and family, whose ABBA records and chicken adobo serve as the impetus to his storytelling.
Diana Yifei Dai (they/she) is a playwright and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. Originally from China, they moved to the U.S. alone at age 14 to pursue dreams of being a professional storyteller. They are passionate about history, human migration, and queer representation, and their work often explores the boundaries of Americanness. Diana holds a B.F.A. from Florida State University's College of Motion Picture Arts. They live with their wife and their two cats.
Mylan Gray is an Eagle Scout and Kansas State Debate champion turned playwright. He has received the Lorraine Hansberry Award from the Kennedy Center for his play Buried in Blood and is a graduate of Stanford University, where he received the Kennell Jackson Jr. Award. His work has been developed by the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Portland Center Stage, Cygnet Theatre, Tank Theater, Workshop Theater, Kansas City Public Theater, Whim Theater Company, the Mid-America Theater Conference, Whitman College, Loyola Marymount College, and the Writing Downtown in Las Vegas. Currently, he is under commission from La Jolla Playhouse for a play about AI companions, masculinity and intimacy.
Kimberly Joy McBride is a writer, actor, and producer based in Los Angeles. A Bronx native and magna cum laude graduate of Northwestern University, she writes for the stage and screen and works across poetry and prose. Her two-hander Pater Noster received its first reading in New York and a staged reading at Atwater Village Theatre in September 2026. Her plays and screenplays explore generational wounds, faith and authority, moral ambivalence, and the collision of the political and the personal, (hopefully) balanced by some type of dry humor.
Caity-Shea Violette is a scrappy Midwestern playwright and screenwriter obsessed with tenderness, spectacle, and women breaking out of systems. Her plays include RX MACHINA (Kennedy Center's Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award, Clauder Competition Gold Prize), REAP THE GROVE (Kennedy Center's Jean Kennedy Smith Award), SLOW JAM (Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival Winner), TARGET BEHAVIOR (Kennedy Center's National Partners of American Theatre Award), and others. Her work has been developed, commissioned, or presented by Roundabout Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Portland Stage Company, The New Harmony Project, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Climate Change Theatre Action, San Pedro Playhouse, and more. Her pilot CULTURE FIT was a semifinalist for Austin Film Festival's Drama Teleplay Pilot Competition and the AMC One-Hour Pilot Award. Caity-Shea's plays are published by Concord Theatricals and Applause Books. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. When not writing, you can find her playing D&D, reading romantasy novels, and baking utterly average desserts. She lives in LA with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of cats, reptiles, and amphibians. More at www.caitysheaviolette.com
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