The Movement Theatre Company to Launch New Commissions with The Black List

The Movement Theatre Company, an OBIE award-winning producer of herculean ideas and new works by artists of color, is proud to announce two new commissions. These awards reflect The Movement's deep commitment to artistic experimentation, community building, and advancing a bold vision of a world where the complexity and wholeness of artists of color are valued.

In partnership with The Black List, the renowned platform that connects writers, filmmakers, and storytelling industry professionals around the globe, The Movement is thrilled to award Ankita Raturi their joint Ladder Commission. Raturi will receive $10,000 and work alongside the artistic team at The Movement to write and develop a new play that will culminate in a workshop in 2027.

“The Ladder Commission is so exciting because of its genuine invitation to create something that explodes the theatrical form,” said playwright Ankita Raturi. “The play I'm going to work on is this wild experiment in both process and product. It's a synthesis of South Asian and western storytelling forms, an embodied writing practice in conversation with choreography and design from jump, deep research I plan to conduct in the jungles of India, poetry and puppetry and children's stories and Kathak. My own mind can barely grasp the enormity of what I hope to achieve. And The Movement said yes to that. It's extraordinary these days to be invited to take such a leap.”

Additionally, The Movement is thrilled to announce its newest commission, The Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Commission, has been awarded to Carolina Đỗ. She will receive $5,000 to write and develop a new play with the support of the artistic team at The Movement.

Playwright Carolina Đỗ said, “To receive a commission and the opportunity to collaborate with the visionary team at The Movement Theatre Company is both a balm for the daily barrage against all that is light and good in the world and a call to action to continue the work of witnessing. This commission deepens my commitment to finding a theatrical vessel for the lives and stories of Viet women who have survived countless injustices and nonetheless forged onward to become foundational pillars for their families and communities. It also serves as a reminder that artists, with our gift of being able to hold up a mirror to society, carry a moral responsibility to shape it as well.”

The finalist for the Ladder Commission is Aditi Pradhan. The semi-finalists are Diane Exavier, Jesse Jae Hoon, Utkarsh Rajawat, Nathan Yungerberg, Azudi Onyejekwe, T.J.L, Mariam Bazeed, Jaymes Sanchez, Leonardo Gonzalez Dominguez, Russell Nichols, Cris Eli Blak, Hera Anderson, Liz Morgan, and Sandra A. Daley-Sharif.

Deadria Harrington, Eric Lockley, Ryan Dobrin, and David Mendizábal, The Movement's Producing Artistic Leaders, said “The Movement strives to work with artists of color with herculean ideas, and Ankita and Carolina meet that goal and then some. Their thrilling ideas, collaborative spirits, and intrinsic interrogative spirits make them exciting new partners, and we can't wait to help shepherd those ideas into brand new plays over the next year.”

Franklin Leonard from The Black List says, “One of the highlights of my 2024 was sitting in the audience for the premiere reading of the Black List's first collaboration with The Movement Theatre Company: Marco Antonio Rodriguez's Walk-In. We are overjoyed to be joining them again to support unapologetically bold and authentic work, the hallmark of everything they do.”

The Movement first partnered with The Black List in January 2022 when the platform expanded into theater. Their first Ladder Commission was awarded to Marco Antonio Rodriguez for his play Walk-In. This year's Marco's adaptation of Junot Díaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao runs February 21 – April 5, 2026 at The Goodman in Chicago.