The People's Theatre Reveals 2025 Playwrights Unit Cohort

The People's Theatre has seleced three exceptional playwrights for its 2025 Playwrights Unit: Rudy Bamenga, Alyssa Haddad-Chin, and Victoria Lino. Now in its second year since the program's relaunch, the Playwrights Unit continues to provide a platform for emerging and mid-career writers to develop new full-length plays that center the voices and experiences of immigrant, Latine, Black, and Queer communities. Each playwright will receive an award of $1,500.

The Playwrights Unit offers a robust creative process from August through December, including bi-weekly workshops, readings, and professional development sessions. Each playwright will receive individualized mentorship from The People's Theatre's Literary Manager, Marco Antonio Rodriguez, and artistic support from returning 2024 Unit members Montserrat Méndez and Christin Eve Cato, who join this year as mentors.

The program will culminate with the New Horizons Play Reading Festival, presenting the playwrights' original plays over three consecutive evenings in December 2025 at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center, 530 W 166th St, New York, NY 10032.

Executive Artistic Director Mino Lora shared her thoughts on this year's cohort:
"We first launched our Playwrights Unit over 15 years ago, and I am thrilled to see it come back with such exciting energy, led by the wonderful Marco Antonio Rodriguez. The People's Theatre is a theatrical home for new artistic voices that speak to the stories and experiences of New Yorkers and immigrants uptown and across the city, and the Playwrights Unit is essential to this mission. I look forward to experiencing the exciting new plays that Rudy, Alyssa and Victoria will develop this year!"

Literary Manager and mentor Marco Antonio Rodriguez also expressed his enthusiasm:
"I am beyond thrilled and grateful to lead The People's Theatre's 2025 Playwrights Unit, a space that champions the voices, visions, and truths of immigrant, Latiné, Black, and Queer communities. This program is more than a creative incubator-it's a place where our stories are nurtured with care, rigor, and joy. To develop new work in an environment that honors culture, community, and craft is both a gift and a responsibility I hold close to my soul. I am excited to share the journeys and discoveries that will blossom from this truly powerful collective."

"In the Playwrights Unit, we share culture, food, creative sparks, and plenty of laughter," said Creative Producer Jiawen Hu. "This is where fresh new plays take root, fueled by the energy and the collective genius of the artists in the room."

The 2025 Playwrights Unit Reading Festival will serve as both a culmination and celebration of the work developed during the program. Audiences are invited to engage with these powerful new plays, which reflect a shared commitment to justice, imagination, and collective transformation.

Meet the 2025 Playwrights Unit Members:

Rudy Bamenga

is a French-born, NYC-based artist of Congolese descent. His play Last Call at Libby's was selected as a winning play to receive a staged reading as a part of Houston's inaugural Fade to Black Arts Festival in June of 2025. Before The People's Theatre, Rudy has had the privilege of having his work developed and presented through Classical Theater of Harlem, Liberation Theatre Company, National Black Theatre, Quick Silver Theatre Company, and Untitled, a writer's lab sponsored by the All Stars Project. Rudy currently works as the Arts Administrator for Circle in the Square Theatre and has been providing his services as writing assistant for the upcoming Broadway-bound production of Wanted the Musical. Bamenga expressed his excitement: "It is such an honor and privilege to be a part of this year's Playwrights Unit. I look forward to the play that I will curate through these next few months, the bond I will develop with my cohort through this program, and the fellowship I will foster with The People's Theatre family through our time together."

Alyssa Haddad-Chin

is a Brooklyn-based, Lebanese American playwright, educator, and arts facilitator from Upstate, NY. Her play, You Should Be So Lucky, received the 2025 American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award for Playwriting. She has developed work at New York Theatre Workshop, The Playwrights Realm, Keen Company, Premiere Stages at Kean, The Mercury Store, B Street Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Art House Productions, and others. A collection of her short plays, And Now a Little Something for the Ladies (among others), is published with 1319 Press. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, is a Resident Artist at Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. More at alyssahaddad.com. She is the Company and Community Manager at Target Margin Theater. Haddad-Chin stated, "I'm delighted to join The People's Theatre's Playwrights Unit. The People's Theatre represents to me the intersection of community and creative defiance, the two core roots of my work, and I look forward to nurturing both in the upcoming months among other artists."

Victoria Lino

is an Afro-Dominican multidisciplinary artist from the Bronx, NY. She is an actress, poet, host, and she is thrilled to be making her playwriting debut with The People's Theatre Project! Notable roles include Noemi in Malcriada at Atlantic Theatre Company's Caribbean Mixfest; and Mona in In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too at Powerhouse Theatre. She can be seen in Netflix's Giving Voices. Most recently she starred in Tigueronas which premiered at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) 2025. Honoring ancestors through these dreams & the work. IG: @victoriarlino. She shared her gratitude, stating, "I'm so grateful to have this opportunity and to work on this play in this capacity. I'm honestly just excited and looking forward to all the blessings this collaboration will bring. Thank you for having me."