Playwrights Revealed For The 2025 Bill And Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission

Cygnet Theatre has announced its lineup of playwrights for the 2025 Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission. In partnership with the UCSD MFA Playwriting Program, the commission supports Cygnet's commitment to new theatrical works, written by groundbreaking local and nationally recognized playwrights. The 2025 artists include MFA Playwright Katie Đỗ and local playwrights Jonah Gercke and Christopher Oscar Peña. The Finish Line Producer is Kian Kline-Chilton. Free public readings of all three plays will take place November 14-15, 2025 at Cygnet Theatre. 

Playwrights awarded The Finish Line Commission receive a week-long developmental workshop, culminating in a public reading, financial support, and the opportunity for a world premiere production at Cygnet Theatre.

“Finish Line has always been a cornerstone of joy in San Diego's new work landscape: a defining celebration of the incredible talent in our community,” said Commission Producer Kian Kline-Chilton. “What a perfect group to inaugurate the first festival at the Joan. As we approach the festival's 10-year anniversary, I feel deeply honored to be at the helm, supporting these artists and the vibrant community that makes it all possible.”

The Finish Line Commission is made possible thanks to the contribution of long-time donors Bill and Judy Garrett. "We happily support the nurturing of new playwrights who are exploring provocative, entertaining, contemporary stories and topics to add to the vast lexicon of theatrical works currently available to performers and audiences. We're delighted to be able to continue to help create new works for today's world," explained Judy Garrett. 

 The Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission provides: 

• Financial support to the playwright, actors, and director
• A Finish Line Commission grant for a local playwright and right of first refusal
• Rehearsal space and production support
• Public in-person readings of all plays 
• A series of public talk-backs and a playwright reception

The readings and surrounding events are FREE to the public. Seats may be reserved in person at the box office located at 2880 Roosevelt Rd. at The Joan in Arts District Liberty Station, by calling 619-337-1525 or online at https://cygnettheatre.org/show/upcoming-shows/the-finish-line/

RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND

By Jonah Gercke

Reading: November 14 at 7:00 PM

Right Hand Left Hand is a play that takes place over the course of a hot summer weekend in the Brooklyn neighborhood of BedStuy, where nonbinary journalist David sweats it out between the chaotic confines of an Israeli-owned juice bar and their illegal basement apartment. Caught between the cultural tensions that flare between their Israeli bosses (one of whom they might be seeing on the side) and their Palestinian friends getting married on the other end of town, David has to confront the inherent contradictions of life in the middle of a century-old conflict as the sweltering New York City heat drives everyone a little crazy. 

Jonah Gercke is a filmmaker, playwright, and journalist currently based out of New York City. They have filmed and produced documentaries in Palestine, Venezuela, China, and Greece, and have worked on film sets throughout the United States and India. Their narrative thesis film The Little Monk screened at Anthology Film Archive and the North Hollywood Cinefest. Their written work, including the feature article “A Bad Thing Haunts Slab City,” has appeared in outlets such as SPIN Magazine. They are a frequent collaborator of Jordan Howlett (more than 30 million followers across all platforms), and through this partnership they have written and edited content for Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler, and Jordan Peele. Their stage work has been produced at New Village Arts Theater in Carlsbad, California.

MARTINI

By Katie Đỗ

Reading: November 15 at 3:00 PM

Martini is a play about a trio of women falling in and out of friendship with each other, spanning many decades. The three women struggle at different points in time, switching what role they play in an ever-evolving dynamic. “Martini” looks at friendship under the tension of personal politics, the magic of “platonic” love, and the reckoning of self in the wake of secrets told too late.

Katie Đỗ (she/her) is a Vietnamese American woman with a mouth from New Jersey. She's a proud alum of the Sống Collective's Việt Writers Lab and the Public's Emerging Writers Group. Đỗ is also the inaugural recipient of Merrimack Repertory Theatre's Sokhary Chau Playwriting Fellowship. Her plays have been developed by South Coast Repertory (Pacific Playwrights Festival), Atlantic Theater Company (MixFest), The Sống Collective, The Public Theater, Orlando Shakes, and Artists at Play. Her play love you long time (already) was featured on the 2023 Kilroy's Web and who hurt you? was a 2025 Venturous Theater Fellowship finalist. She also wrote on the Netflix show Partner Track. She is a first year MFA Playwriting candidate at UCSD. kteado.com

LOS FELIZ

By Christopher Oscar Peña

Reading: November 15 at 6:00 PM

Set between Los Angeles and the fantasies it sells, Los Feliz is a sharp, funny, and deeply personal play about art, race, and the cost of being seen. When a rising filmmaker's project bends to studio pressure, his collaborator and closest friend challenges what success really means. Moving from a film set to a queer bar and beyond, Christopher Oscar Peña delivers a biting, meta-theatrical love letter to artists who risk everything to be authentic.

Christopher Oscar Peña (he/him) is a story-teller originally from California, now residing in New York and LA. In 2019 he co-directed the world premiere of Sean Daniels adaptation of Jack Kerouac's “lost novel” The Haunted Life at Merrimack Rep. The production marked the first time the Kerouac Estate had ever sanctioned an official theatrical adaptation of Kerouac's work. Most recently, as a playwright, the Clarence Brown Theatre commissioned and produced the world premiere of his play The Strangers. In New York, the Flea Theatre produced the world premiere of his play a cautionary tail. His work has been developed by Playwrights Horizons, the Goodman Theater, Public Theater, Two River Theater, INTAR, Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Old Vic, Orchard Project, Naked Angels, and New York Theatre Workshop, among many others. This upcoming season, his play how to make an American Sonwill have its world premiere in a co-production between Arizona Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in New York. A two-time Sundance Institute Theater Fellow, he has also held fellowships with the Lark Play Development Center, was a recipient of the Latino Playwrights Award, an Emerging Artist Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and was a part of the US/UK Exchange (Old Vic New Voices).B.A. UC Santa Barbara / M.F.A. NYU-Tisch School of the Art.