Latinx Playwrights Circle Announces 2026 Intensive Mentorship Playwrights

Latinx Playwrights Circle announced the playwrights selected for this year's Intensive Mentorship are Jaymes Sanchez and Nestor Guzman.

The Intensive Mentorship gives two playwrights the space and support to develop a full-length play while being partnered with a mentor to help guide the process. Participants of this program will be partnered with one of our mentors. The mentorship aspect of the program is designed to focus on the individual needs of the play. Along with an Artist Stipend and mentorship, participants will be able to take selective classes at The Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts. Over the course of the intensive, there will be a series of digital readings, table reads, as well as a public industry reading as a capstone to the program's goal of introducing artists and their work to theaters across New York City. Public staged readings will take place the summer of 2026.

Jaymes Sanchez is a Texan playwright, actor, and educator living in Brooklyn. Jaymes's plays have been supported by Latinx Playwrights Circle, New York Theatre Workshop, The Orchard Project, Broadway Podcast Network/Rattlestick Theater, The Lark, The Ucross Foundation, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Company One, and The Barn at Lee. He was a runner-up for the 2025 Venturous Playwriting Fellowship. Jaymes was an Inaugural Candela Summer Fellow in 2023; The 2023 Summer Fellows then formed a collective called DIEZ, which received an Artist Grant from the The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) in 2024. Jaymes received the 2020 Keene Prize for Literature and the second-place prize of Playing on Air's 2020 James Stevenson Award. Jaymes has been a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival, and the Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval. MFA: The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

"With a degree from The New School of Drama, Nestor Guzman has mastered their skill in stagecraft and storytelling from one of the biggest influences on Latinx theatre. Accomplished Writer/ Director with their film ""Broken Record"" premiering at the Brown Gaze Club Queer Film Festival, Nestor furthers their dedication to black and brown representation through authentic storytelling made for and by the community. Beyond filmmaking, Nestor is a Screenwriting Mentor at Slight Breeze Studios where they help mold and inspire young artists to find power in their own stories. Understanding representation is about the community at large, Nestor has worked for Queer Voices NYC Film Festival as a Film Screener, uplifting and bringing other queer filmmakers together to celebrate their art. Nestor has made it their mission to make a difference in any role to continue amplifying QTBIPOC voices. "

Latinx Playwrights Circle is an artist-led development and production organization for Latinx(é) playwrights. Founded in 2018 by playwrights Guadalís Del Carmen and Oscar A. L. Cabrera with the mission to build a network of Latinx(é) and Caribbean playwrights nationwide in order to promote, develop and elevate their work while making their plays accessible to theater makers looking to find the next generation of American Storytellers. Its programs include Sunday Service, Fresh Draft Series, Next Draft Series, Intensive Mentorship Program, LPC Community Nights, Media Luna One Act Series and Page-to-Stage, whose inaugural production was Sancocho by Christin Eve Cato. Recently, Domino Effect by Marco Antonio Rodriguez was the inaugural production of our Legacy Project Series. In 2020, LPC received a residency at Kabayitos Theater, located in the Clemente Soto Velez Center where it produces a portion of their programming. In 2022, LPC was awarded a Creatives Rebuild New York Grant as well as the HOLA Award for Excellence in Theater.

For more information on Latinx Playwright Circle and its many programs, please visit http://www.latinxplaywrights.com LPC embraces the ever evolving landscape of Latinidad and the names used to describe this community, including Latiné, Latinx, Hispanic, and the next generation of names to come. Like language itself, this is an ever-evolving name.