NewYorkRep Names Emily Dzioba 2026 Curtain Rising Grant Recipient

​NewYorkRep has named Emily Dzioba as the recipient of its 2026 Curtain Rising grant, a play development initiative committed to fostering bold new voices in playwriting. The grant recognizes Dzioba's play, make one left purlwise, which will receive an AEA 29-hour staged reading, with a carefully-curated creative team to bring the work to life in a presentation before an audience of industry leaders on Monday, June 15 at 7PM at Houghton Community Arts Center.

An award reception will follow the presentation, at which Dzioba will be presented with a $1500 stipend for future development of her work.

In Dzioba‘s make one left purlwise, it's March 2023, and the Purls of Wisdom Society has gathered for their biweekly fiber arts meeting in the upstairs multipurpose room of the Fairview Library. Stephanie and Taylor have welcomed newcomer knitter Sandy to their mix, despite the strange crowd gathering downstairs. Donna, head children's librarian and leader of the Society, arrives and reveals that they are, in fact, a mob of protestors. The source of their ire? A banned books display created by Donna. make one left purlwise examines what it means to make something and why people knit themselves together. 

Emily Dzioba

is a playwright and dramaturg based in Jersey City. This reading marks her professional playwriting debut. Emily was named as a finalist for the 2026 Art House INKubator Program for a full-length play she is developing about Ellis Island and Hudson County. Her writing on chronic illness was workshopped and performed at the 2025 NJ Theatre Alliance's "Healing Voices" showcase at Premiere Stages. Emily is interested in creating work that feels like a potluck dinner: something to gather around, with a little bit of everything at the table to take and give. Dramaturgical collaborations have included work with The New Jersey Play Lab, Premiere Stages, Art House Productions, Theater Masters, The Strides Collective, and Blinking Light Productions in Sydney, Australia. She has studied Tectonic Theatre Project's Moment Work method, and remains interested in the world of devised theatre. She is a script reader for the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill, The Playwrights Foundation, She NYC Arts, and 1319 Press. 

The June 15 presentation of make one left purlwise will be directed by Dev Bondarin, a New York City-based theater director and Artistic Director at Prospect Musicals. She specializes in developing and directing new musicals and has also served as the artistic director of the Astoria Performing Arts Center where she directed critically acclaimed and award-winning revivals including Raisin and Merrily We Roll Along (both winners of NY Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Musical), Follies, and Caroline, or Change (AUDELCO Award winner for Outstanding Musical Revival).