Lower Depth Theatre Announces Inaugural 'Cycle Of Poverty' Commission Fellowship Cohort

Los Angeles-based theatre company Lower Depth Theatre is launching the first cycle of their new Playwright Commission Fellowship with a diverse cohort of playwrights. The four selected playwrights for the 2022 Fellowship include DeLane McDuffie, Marlow Wyatt, Sage Martin, & Vasanti Saxena.

Lower Depth's commission fellowship program is designed to address the inequity of female and BIPOC voices in the new play space by creating and supporting a pipeline of BIPOC and/or women-identifying playwrights. The four selected fellows will finish a full-length play during the 11-month process. All participants of the program will be paired with a mentor who is best suited to serve each playwright's unique needs.

The 2022 theme is "the Cycle of Poverty", a systemic social and racial issue that our marginalized communities face here in the United States. Each of the playwright fellows must develop a new play with BIPOC voices at the center of the story that explores various states of racial & generational poverty.

Lower Depth Theatre's initiative is to generate narratives within the Commission Fellowship that will elevate consciousness, deepen our understanding of a moral and social issue while triggering a call to activism.

DELANE MCDUFFIE (He/Him) is a Southern-bred, cornbread-fed, LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and poet. His play The Inaugural was part of Lower Depth's BIPOC Voting Plays in 2020. Other plays include Amy & Neil, Cop & Fiske, For the Love of God, Monomachia, Granddaddy Long Legs, and Mascot Race War. His work has been produced by Towne Street Theatre, showcased at the Fade to Black Play Festival in Houston, and selected for production by Seoul Players in Seoul, South Korea. He earned BA English and MFA Film degrees from Morehouse College and the University of Miami, respectively, and attended Royal Holloway, University of London.

SAGE MARTIN (She/Her/Mx) is an actor and writer devoted to human rights, southern folklore, and ghost stories. She is a proud graduate of Paul McCartney's Institute for Performing Arts (Liverpool, UK), performed at the Sam Wanamaker Festival (The Globe, London), and recently joined the Radical Hospitality Team at Actor's Theater of Louisville. She has had the distinct honors of presenting at the StateraArts National Conference, testifying in Washington D.C. for survivors of abuse, and speaking on tour with Senator Bernie Sanders. Sage's work is fueled by very late nights, MoonPies, and the people she is fortunate enough, tasked, and blessed to know. www.Sage-Martin.com

VASANTI SAXENA (She/Her) is a writer whose work explores the fissures of family and relationships, memory, and historical legacy. Her plays have been produced/developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Chicago Dramatists, Silk Road Rising, Chalk Rep, Company of Angels, East West Players, The Road Theatre Company, and Santa Monica Rep. Her play Sun Sisters was the winner of East West Players Pacific Century Playwriting Competition, a finalist for Chicago Dramatists Many Voices Project, and a semi-finalist for both the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Princess Grace Award. It is published in Contemporary Plays by Women of Color (London, UK: Routledge 2017). Fellowships and commissions include: 2017 Outfest Screenwriting Lab (with the screen adaptation of Sun Sisters), NYTW Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship, and an EST/Sloan commission.

MARLOW WYATT (She/Her) is a writing artist, actor and community advocate. She received her BFA (magna cum laude) in Acting from Howard University College of Fine Arts. Her thirst to share the richness and beauty of Black culture manifested into playwriting. Marlow was born and raised in America's heartland; nurtured by a large and colorful family of urban linguists and storytellers who intimated their experiences in dive bars and beauty shops. Inspired by their truth and authenticity, she learned to capture the complexities of the seemingly ordinary lives of disenfranchised people while connecting to the commonalities of all humanity. Marlow believes stories that spotlight Black culture are American stories and must be normalized and included in the canon of American Theater without question. As a playwright Marlow has been fortunate enough to share her creative expression with audiences across America. Some of her works include: SHE (2022 World Premiere Latino Theater Company, Long Beach Playhouse New Works Winner, HUMANITAS Finalist, NBTF A-List Reading Series) Robbin, from the Hood (2021 Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist, 2021 New Works Pipeline/SBT), Red Ribbons (2022 Voices for Victory Reading Series, 2021 Headwaters New Play finalist, NBTF -A-List Reading Series) Listen, A Black Woman Is Speaking (2021 Playwrights Union First Look Reading), Mourning of the Sons (LACMA-Theater at the Museum), American Dreamers (St. Brigid Catholic Church Benefit)Sweetie's Confession (Fade to Black, NESONA Festivals), Say Something (AWOT Festival, Moving Arts), The Village, What Would Billie Sing and Red, White & Blue-Trilogy (Girl Blue Project) www.marlowwyatt.com

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