Rattlestick Theater Announces May Treuhaft-Ali and Minghao Tu as Van Lier Fellows

May Treuhaft-Ali and Minghao Tu will join Rattlestick as Van Lier New Voices Fellows, a program that has been recently rehomed from the Lark Play Development Center. This program provides substantial support to two playwrights of color under 30 annually, including a $35,000 living stipend, a $5,000 artistic fund, mentorship with a chosen mentor playwright, workshops and readings of new work, as well as participation in Rattlestick's larger artistic network. The Van Lier New Voices Fellowship is funded by New York Community Trust and the Jerome Foundation.

May Treuhaft-Ali is a playwright, director, and dramaturg. She is a member of Ars Nova's Play Group and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab, and an alumna of Clubbed Thumb's Early-Career Writers' Group and The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship. She is a recipient of the 2022 Elizabeth George Commission at South Coast Repertory, the Constitution Commission at Clubbed Thumb, and the 2021 Visionary Playwright Award at Theater Masters. She recently served as Associate Director on SHHHH by Clare Barron at Atlantic Theater Company, and her play ABCD will be produced at Barrington Stage Company in July 2022. May is the Literary and Community Engagement Assistant at Playwrights Horizons.

Minghao Tu is a playwright from Wuhan, China. He is a 2022/23 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center. He has been a resident playwright of Pipeline Theatre Company's 2020/2021 PlayLab, and a 2021 Travis Bogard Artist-in-Residence at the Eugene O'Neill Foundation. His works have been presented/produced at Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America, Tofte Lake Center, Voyage Theater Company, New York Public Library, Ground Floor Theatre, Lucky Chaos Productions, and UT New Theatre; and featured on The Steppenwolf Theatre's The Mix. He has been a James A. Michener fellow at UT Austin (MFA: 2020), a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and the 2021 Woodward/Newman Award at the Bloomington Playwrights Project; and a semifinalist for PlayPenn, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and Shakespeare's New Contemporaries at American Shakespeare Center.

The Van Lier Fellowship program will be overseen by Artistic Director Daniella Topol and Rattlestick's new Associate Artistic Director, Danilo Gambini. For the last two years, Danilo has created vibrant artistic work and made strong connections with Rattlestick's extended communities as Rattlestick's Directing Fellow. During his tenure, Danilo directed last year's New York Times Critics' Pick production of Ni Mi Madre and led several programs including their Young Writers group and GenSpeak.

About Rattlestick Theater

Founded in 1994, Rattlestick Theater produces ambitious plays to inspire empathy and provoke conversation that will lead to positive social change. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has a deep commitment to producing fierce works, in partnership with community organizations, that challenge and stimulate audiences to confront the complexities of our culture. Notable productions include Arturo Luís Soria's Ni Mi Madre, Mansa Ra's In The Southern Breeze, Jonathan Payne & Martin Boross Addressless, Diana Oh's {mylingerieplay}, Dael Orlandersmith's Until the Flood, Samuel D. Hunter's The Few and Lewiston/Clarkston, Jesse Eisenberg's The Revisionist, Jonathan Tolins' Buyer and Cellar, Adam Rapp's The Hallway Trilogy, and Martyna Majok's Ironbound.

Rattlestick Theater produces mainstage productions; creates artistic development opportunities for artists to hone their craft; and provides opportunities for artists to engage with innovative work through residencies, fellowships, and special performances.

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