Advance Gender Equity in the Arts Awards $10K Grants to Lee Cataluna, Denmo Ibrahim, and Anya Pearson

Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE) has announced Lee Cataluna, Denmo Ibrahim, and Anya Pearson as the recipients of the 2025 AGE Legacy Playwright (ALP) grants.

Each playwright will receive a $10,000 unrestricted award, designed to support mature, emerging writers of color who have been historically underrepresented and underserved because of gender, race, and age.

The ALP grant program was founded in 2022 by AGE’s founder Jane Vogel Mantiri, and is underwritten by the deNovo Initiative. Over four years, AGE has awarded more than $200,000 to playwrights and finalists. This year’s program saw a record number of applicants, prompting AGE to close submissions early.

Cataluna, who grew up in rural Hawaii, reflected on her love of theater: “The only live theater I saw as a kid was the high school production of Tell-Tale Heart performed in the gym. Somehow, though, I always knew that I loved theater and that I wanted to write plays.” Pearson added that her work “allows me to interrogate whose voices have historically been excluded and to offer a new vision: one where our presence is undeniable, powerful, and transformative.” Ibrahim described the award as an opportunity to “help move my work from page to stage, and support my evolution from solitary writer to connected theatre-maker.”

Program Director Andréa Morales noted, “What a joy it is each year to learn about, explore, and fall in love with these playwrights’ work. I cannot wait to share their stories with Portland communities and others beyond.” Mantiri added, “We wish to be curative and healing… respecting our recipients’ dignity and judgment. We are giving fully and freely, knowing that our recipients will make the world a better place.”

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