Roundabout Theatre Company Reveals 2025-2026 Underground Playwright Residencies

Roundabout Theatre Company has revealed the two playwright selections for the Roundabout Underground Residencies – Iraisa Ann Reilly and Liba Vaynberg. Introduced last season, the Roundabout Underground Residencies program is dedicated to recognizing outstanding playwrights by elevating new artists and offering them significant development opportunities. 

Reilly and Vaynberg are provided with time and space to work on one of their plays. Each writer is offered a multi-day workshop of the play, scheduled time at a desk in a shared workspace, and access to Roundabout resources and staff that they feel is helpful to their process and overall artistic development. 

Roundabout Underground fosters new works by emerging theatre artists. It exists to support early career writers by developing and producing their new works in a creative, low-pressure environment. It also offers opportunities for directors and designers to hone their storytelling skills. Writers are often at the very beginning of their New York careers, and those that receive an Underground production also receive a Roundabout commission in an effort to offer continual support to these emerging playwrights.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

IRAISA ANN REILLY

is a writer, actor and educator who is half-Cuban, half-Irish and whole New Jersey. She will be performing her one-woman show, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de Los Reyes Magos, 1998, Off-Broadway this fall. Bodega Princess is produced by The Lucille Lortel Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Latinx Playwrights Circle. As a writer her work has been developed and recognized by Teatro del Sol, Atlantic Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Two River Theatre, Arkansas New Play Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, Texas A&M University, Michigan State, Sol Project, Simpatico Theatre Company, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Art House Productions, and the Yale Drama Series. She is currently under commission with Arden Theatre Company and is a member of Soho Rep’s Writer/ Director lab, 2024-2025. As an educator, Iraisa Ann is an adjunct professor in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch and is a teaching artist with Roundabout Theatre Company, ESPA Primary Stages, and Dreamyard Inc. MFA Dramatic Writing from NYU. BA Theatre and English from the University of Notre Dame. iraisaannreilly.com

Liba Vaynberg

is a first-generation American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. The daughter of Ukrainian and Azeri Jewish refugees, she is bilingual in English and Russian. She studied Molecular Biology at Yale before receiving her MFA at Columbia. Her plays include The Matriarchs (O'Neill winner, Princess Grace finalist, Blackburn nominee, Theater J Abramson finalist, Blue Ink Award finalist, Civilians R&D), The Gett (starring Jennifer Westfeldt at Rattlestick, Blackburn Nominee, Colorado New Play Festival, Theater Ariel), Round Table (59e59, Irons In The Fire, TSQ's 10 Best of 2019), Scheiss Book (United Solo: Best One Woman Show, Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award, Dixon Place, Kitchen Theater), The Russian & The Jew (the tank). Television credits include the upcoming show Star City (Sony/AppleTV+). Her work has been supported by the Bronx Cultural Visions Fund, ART/NY, Venturous Theater Fund, and NYSCA. Fellowships include COJECO BluePrint, Sewanee Writers' Conference, IAMA Theater Residency, and LABA. As an actor, highlights include New Amsterdam (4 seasons), Annie Blumberg opposite Ed Asner & Tovah Feldshuh in the PBS broadcast of The Soap Myth, Now Jane in Bekah Brunstetter's Oregon Trail at WP, Golem of Havana at La Mama, and Lost In Yonkers opposite Marsha Mason (CT Critics' Circle Nom).