Lincoln Center Theater to Launch Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab

Lincoln Center Theater has created The Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab, through a generous gift of $4.25M to LCT over 5 years from The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation. Through this donation, effective immediately, Maria Manuela Goyanes will now serve as the 'Helen Gurley Brown Artistic Director of LCT3 and Producer,' with the newly appointed Kalina Ko serving as 'Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab Manager and Associate Producer.'

The Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab at Lincoln Center Theater is an exciting new home for writers developing new work for the American theater. HGB Lab fellows will be given the space, financial resources, and strategic development opportunities to bring their work to the stage. “The Theater Lab is designed to incubate the next canon of new American theater for the stage of Lincoln Center and beyond,” says Maria Manuela Goyanes. The inaugural group of writers participating in the Theater Lab includes Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, Avery Deutsch, James Ijames, Martyna Majok, and Ro Reddick.

As previously announced, the 2026-2027 LCT3 season at the Claire Tow Theater, the second curated by Goyanes, includes the world premiere of creation stories and all the important importants, the new play by Nigerian American playwright Mfoniso Udofia currently playing (which was also presented as part of the 2026 Reading Series at Lincoln Center Theater), directed by Tamilla Woodard; Pretend It's Pretend, a new play by Emma Watkins, with direction by Annie Tippe; and the return of The Comedy Series in the spring of 2027 with artists to be announced.

Kalina Ko

Kalina Ko (Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab Manager and Associate Producer) (she/her) is a new works producer and dramaturg joining Lincoln Center Theater as the Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab Manager and Associate Producer. Prior to Lincoln Center Theater, she worked as Director of New Play Development at Atlantic Theater Company where she managed the new work development pipeline, oversaw the Judith Champion Launch Commissions, and co-produced the annual Judith Champion MixFest Reading Series. While at Atlantic, she supported productions of plays by Abby Rosebrock, Eliana Theologides Rodriguez, Bubba Weiler, as well as readings and workshops of numerous other artists. Kalina has also co-coordinated the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab since 2022, redesigning it to better suit the current needs of AAPI artists. She has previously worked at Roundabout Theatre Company and Manhattan Theatre Club and served as dramaturg for plays by Rachel Lin, R. Forest Malley, and Victoria Kneubuhl. She is thrilled to be a part of the BOLD Women's Leadership Circle of the Helen Gurley Foundation.

Abigail Barlow

Abigail Barlow is a Grammy Award Winning singer, songwriter, and performer. She's best known for her viral pandemic pop songs and her composing work with Emily Bear, including The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album and Disney's Moana 2. In addition to her writing endeavors, she made her 2026 Broadway Debut as Katherine Howard in SIX. Now, Abigail continues to develop her own projects as an artist and composer, with projects ranging from stage to screen in 2027.

Emily Bear

Emily Bear. Grammy and Emmy Award–winning composer, producer, pianist, and chart-topping recording artist Emily Bear has been redefining what it means to be a modern musician since her professional debut at age five. At just 24, she has already made history as the youngest composer to write the soundtrack for a Disney animated feature film, with Moana 2 grossing over $1 billion worldwide.

Her career began almost as soon as she could reach the keys: she started composing at age three, made her professional concert debut at five, and was named ASCAP Composer of the Year that same year, becoming the youngest recipient in the organization's history. By age six, her original compositions were already being performed on the world's most iconic stages, including Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, and the Montreux Jazz Festival.

At nine, Quincy Jones produced her chart-topping original jazz album, followed by an

Emmy Award–winning documentary on her life, honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and international arena tours. Bear recently signed with Sony Masterworks and is currently in the recording studio working on her Sony label debut.

At age 20, Bear became the youngest recipient of the GRAMMY Award in the Best Musical Theater Album for “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album” which she also produced. That same year, she also received an Emmy Award for her original score for a PBS documentary and was included on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list.

A major milestone followed with Moana 2, Barlow & Bear became the youngest duo, and the only all-female songwriting team, to write a full soundtrack for a Disney animated feature film, with Bear also serving as co-arranger, and co-producer of the songs.

Bear's work spans jazz, classical, pop, film, television, and musical theater, placing her among the most versatile creators of her generation. Her film, television, and media work includes projects for Netflix, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Hulu, Universal, and Google, as well as a wide range of other global media partners. She has scored two feature films for Netflix, both of which reached and held the No. 1 spot worldwide, making her the youngest composer to score a feature film released on a major streaming platform.

Currently, Bear is one of nine co-composers including Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard, and Michael Giacchino contributing to the score for Tony Gilroy's upcoming Searchlight Pictures feature film drama, Behemoth, starring Pedro Pascale.

Bear was the featured pianist for Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour and continues to collaborate across large-scale cinematic, commercial, and live performance projects. A founding member of the Recording Academy's Songwriters & Composers Wing, she remains deeply engaged in creative leadership and philanthropy

Her current slate includes the development of two stage musicals, multiple forthcoming film projects, and the release of her first solo music under the Sony Masterworks label, marking a major expansion of her work across stage, screen, and recorded music.

Avery Deutsch

Avery Deutsch is a playwright from Katonah, New York. Her play The Age of Mary won the 2025 Terrence McNally New Play Incubator, the 2025 Neukom Playwriting Award, and received a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. Her play Pleasers received a reading as part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival this past May. Her play Sick Day was nominated for the 2025 Venturous List by Eboni Booth. She is the winner of Clubbed Thumb's 2022 Biennial Commission and a proud member of EST/Youngblood. She recently graduated from UT Austin with an MFA in Playwriting. She has been in residence at Ucross and is a 2026 MacDowell fellow.

James Ijames

James Ijames is a Pulitzer Prize winning and Tony Award nominated playwright, a director and educator. James' plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Azuka Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre, JACK, The Public Theater (NYC), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Definition Theatre, Timeline Theater (Chicago IL) Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre and Victory Garden.

James is the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist recipient, and two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Brothers Size with Simpatico Theatre Company and Gem of the Ocean with Arden Theatre. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ....Miz Martha, a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama recipient and a 2023 Tony nominee for Best Play for Fat Ham.

James was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective. He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and a M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. James is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Columbia University where he serves as head of playwriting. He resides in South Philadelphia and the Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York, NY.

Martyna Majok

Martyna Majok was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her Broadway debut play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound and librettos for Gatsby: An American Myth, with music by Florence Welch and Girl, Interrupted, with music by Aimee Mann. Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Arthur Miller Foundation Legacy Award, Obie Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Academy of Arts and Letters' Benjamin Hadley Danks Award, Sun Valley Playwrights Residency Award, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Champions of Change Award from NYC Mayor's Office, Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, Lanford Wilson Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Merrill Playwright Award, Helen Hayes Award, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, ANPF Women's Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was an NNPN playwright-in-residence, PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Martyna is adapting Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for Broadway, has developed TV projects for HBO and is writing a number of feature films, including “Audition,” with Lulu Wang. Her first screenplay, Preparation for the Next Life, was nominated for a Gotham Award and The Humanitas Prize. In 2026, Martyna was named amongst Forbes' 250 Greatest Living Self-Made Americans.

Ro Reddick

Ro Reddick is a queer Black playwright, songwriter, and educator. She writes off-kilter comedies; the theme songs to your late capitalist nightmares. Her play Cold War Choir Practice won the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was produced Off-Broadway in a co-production with MCC, Clubbed Thumb, and Page 73. The play originally premiered in Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2025 (NYT Critic's Pick, dir. Knud Adams). Cold War Choir Practice was also produced in September 2025 at Trinity Rep (dir. Aileen Wen McGroddy).

Ro is the 2025 - 2026 recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from the Vineyard Theatre, where she is an artist-in-residence. Additional awards include the John Gassner Award for New American Play '26 and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play '26; nominations include: Drama Desk nods for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Music in a Play '26, Lucille Lortel, Drama League, and Dorian Theater Award nods for Outstanding Play.

Ro is a member of TFANA's Living Shakespeare Lab and an Audrey Resident at New Georges. She is an alum of the Page 73 Writers Group, the PWC Core Apprentice Program, the DGF Playwriting Fellowship, and People's Light QPA. Her plays have been developed by The Vineyard Theatre, The Ground Floor (Berkeley Rep), Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Williamstown Theatre Festival (NYC Reading, dir. Jamario Stills), and People's Light. Ro has an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University where she studied under Julia Jarcho.