Manhattan Theatre Club Reveals Latest Round of Sloan Playwriting Commissions

Manhattan Theatre Club has revealed their latest recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions for new theatrical works surrounding themes of science, math, and technology. The commissioned writers are Waleed Akhtar, Chris Bush, and Christina Pumariega.  
 

Waleed Akhtar

is an award-winning writer and actor. His play The P Word won an Olivier for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, alongside a nomination for Best Play at the WGGB Awards. He was the recipient of the Peggy Ramsay/Film 4 bursary and was awarded an MGC Futures bursary. He won Most Promising Playwright at The Offies and was nominated for the equivalent at The Evening Standard Awards. Work for theatre includes: The Real Ones (Bush Theatre); The P Word (Bush Theatre); Kabul Goes Pop: Music Television Afghanistan (Brixton House, Mercury Theatre, & HighTide); Sholay on the Big Screen (Off Stage Theatre, Bush & Nubian Life); I Don’t Know What To Do (co-creator - Vault Festival). His translation work includes Alexis Michalik’s The Art of Illusion (Hampstead Theatre). He currently has commissions from the Almeida and The Unicorn and is on attachment at The Royal Court. Work for screen includes: “The Road Trip” (Paramount+/42MP); “Famalam” (Season 4 contributor); “Lost Paradise” (Short film B3 Media/UK Film Council), and a television adaptation of his hit play The P Word (House Productions). He was selected for the BBC Studios Spotlight scheme and is developing an original drama with Bonafide. His original audio play Mrs. Bibi was released by Audible in March 2025.

Chris Bush

is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter. Her awards include an Olivier Award, a South Bank Sky Arts Award, three UK Theatre Awards, the Hermitage Major Theater Award, the Perfect Pitch Award, a Brit Writers’ Award, and the Theatre Royal Haymarket Writers’ Award, and she was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her recent musical theatre work includes the Olivier Award-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Theatres/National Theatre/Gillian Lynne Theatre) and Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Kenny Wax, UK Tour), adapted from Kate Pankhurst’s book of the same name. Chris has also adapted A Doll’s House (Sheffield Theatres), Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic Theatre), The Odyssey and Pericles (National Theatre), and Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong/Lyric Hammersmith). Her original works include the trilogy Rock/Paper/Scissors (Sheffield Theatres), Otherland (Almeida Theatre), Hungry (Paines Plough), and (Kein) Weltuntergang / (Not) the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin), among others. Chris grew up in Sheffield and is now based in London.

Christina Pumariega

acts and writes. Often simultaneously. She is the author of VOS! (Two River Theater, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), Vidas Privadas (New York Stage and Film), Joan Dark (DCPA Colorado New Play Summit, Jane Chambers Prize runner-up, O’Neill NPC finalist), Lei Chiede/She Asks (O’Neill NPC finalist) and Her Math Play (BAPF finalist). Her plays have been developed at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, the New Harmony Project, the Lark, New Georges, Hartford Stage and Ammunition Theatre Company. She is currently under commission by Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Two River Theater and the EST/Sloan Foundation in collaboration with Hartford Stage. TV writing credits include “Turner & Hooch” (Disney+) and “Bluff City Law” (NBC). Acting on and Off-Broadway and in television and film, Pumariega has cross examined Coach Taylor, made out with the Fly and set a Cuban pharmacy ablaze in a corset. MFA, NYU Graduate Acting Program.