SERIES AT THE TANK

LIT COUNCIL

The 2022 Lit Council Cohort.

ABOUT LIT COUNCIL

In partnership with The Tank, LIT Council is a development intensive for Male Identifying Playwrights of Color who build their plays alongside Womyn Directors and Dramaturgs of Color. The intent of LIT Council is to provide an affinity space for its artists to create and interrogate their specific identities while engaging with their creative process. 

During our season, writers are developing new plays internally, to present to the public in the fall through readings. During this time of building, they will also be in conversation, both within the group and through outside expertise, about how to shape and promote their work, in regards to challenges, privileges, leadership, expectations, and more. 

Leadership at LIT includes, founder Akin Salawu, Facilitators Mel Nieves and Jerome A. Parker and Member Mylan Gray.

 

First Lit(e) Reading Series

This Spring, we are excited to begin our 2022 programming with four table readings of new plays workshopped by our members in our bi-weekly meetings. We are grateful to the Tank theater for producing our readings and giving us a chance to see them on their feet with actors

June 2nd, 6-9 PM (Jesse Jae Hoon)
I'VE GOT A SINKING FEELING IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH by Jesse Jae Hoon
Directed by Charlotte Murray
The Great War is over. The Kaiser has abdicated. Chaos rules in 1920 Berlin. Greta and Christa spend their days on opposite sides of the boxing ring and their nights cuddling in a disheveled little apartment. But they will soon find themselves on opposite sides of a building coup d'etat in this tragic romantic thriller about loyalty, courage, and the fight to stay alive.

June 4th, 1-5 PM (Brandon Bogle)
DRAGON IN THE RIVER by Brandon Bogle 
A girl is found by the river. Who is she? A little child that needs to be taken care of? A maternal sister to look up to? A kindred spirit to love? Or an enigma to desire? In this den of make-believe, we explore how others define women. What is expected of them, what they're told to be and how they're told to act. But when this woman takes ownership of herself, how wrong were we? 

June 4th, 6-9 PM (PJ Johnnie)
AMORPHOUS by PJ Johnnie 
Jo is a rising, talented sculptor in NEoYork City and is in the middle of his “Breakthrough moment” in his career. His best friend Pepper joins him to celebrate but soon realizes that Jo is not in the middle of one major moment but two. Both will have lasting side effects, which will forever alter his life and perception of it. Together the two friends decide they will embark on an adventure to navigate these two moments; this excursion quickly becomes a supercharged mystery-solving caper.

June 5th, 4-7 PM (Mylan Gray)
WHEN BOYS // SOFT by Mylan gray 
Though Marcus’ romantic experiences haven't always been the most "straight," the pressure of a young, budding, gay love weighs heavily on a newly queer Marcus. Too gay for the heterosexuals, yet not solely gay, Marcus struggles to live and fully enjoy his second adolescence. Though he knows it's a beautiful thing to be queer, he just can't toss away all the years of hardening he has done to survive. Through spoken word, photography, and some good old explorative masturbation, Marcus learns to soften into the fullness of his sexuality despite his inner fears. This play is one big embrace of all the awkwardness, shame, and fear we feel in the long journey of learning how to love whomever we love. 

 

BIOS

AKIN SALAWU

Akin Salawu is a playwright, director and TV editor. A two-time Tribeca All Access Winner with a BA from Stanford and a Screenwriting MFA from Columbia, Akin was a member of The Public Theater’s Inaugural Emerging Writers Group, Ars Nova’s Uncharted Musical Theater residency, Rising Circle's Inktank Incubator, American Theater Company's 5 x 5 Ferguson Plays, The University of the Arts’ 2017 Polyphone Festival, and the Inaugural Mentorship Matters TV writing program. Akin founded LIT Council, a playwriting intensive for male playwrights of color at the Tank , wrote Chapter 5 in the book, The Obama Movement, & frequently works as a freelance tv/ video editor.

Time Out New York included Salawu in their "Black LGBTQ+ playwrights & musical-theater artists you need to know"

ArtsIndependent Piece:

JEROME A. PARKER

Jerome A. Parker is a theater-maker/screenwriter/librettist/composer from NYC whose works champion black and brown heroes.  Highlighted works for the stage and screen include BLISS: A SOLDIER'S TALE (Public Theater EWG); LIKE JOHNNY IN THE DARK (Dramatist Guild); KAYA: TASTE OF PARADISE (New York Film Academy); and BLACK QUEEN SCREEN TESTS (The Tank NYC, Artistic Resident 2020).  As a collaborative librettist with Experiments in Opera NY, his commissioned pieces for EVERYTHING FOR DAWN will premiere on PBS online in the fall of 2022. 

Currently he's developing his opera FREIDA, originally commissioned by Intiman Theater. And as a director, dramaturg and producer, he's working on a new musical, Chary and Gwinn's QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME. 

He's an alumnus of Williams College, The Juilliard School (Production), UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, the Public Theater’s EWG; and his fellowships include the Dramatist Guild, MacDowell, New York Stage and Film, Freedom Train Productions, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Writers Guild of America East.

MEL NIEVES

NYC born and raised. A graduate of The William Esper Studio. He is a member of the award winning LAByrinth Theater Company and The Actors Studio Playwright-Director Unit. He is 2017 Semi-finalist for The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference and a 2017/2019 Semi-finalist for The New Dramatist Princess Grace Playwright Fellowship. His plays PROSPECT AVENUE and THE SPIRIT, THE BODY & THE BLOOD are published through Next Stage Press. His one hour pilot script, ON THE BOULEVARD was a 2020 HollyShorts Semi-finalist and a 2021 Semi-finalist for The Hollywood International Diversity Film Festival.

Mel Nieves | New Play Exchange

MYLAN GRAY

MYLAN GRAY (they/he) studied playwriting and Black studies at Stanford University where he received the Kennel Jackson Jr. Departmental Award for his Honors thesis play, Buried in Blood: an afro-surrealist, ancestral conjuring. He is a member of the Tank Theatre’s LIT Council and He is currently in the 2022 Workshop Intensives at Workshop Theater. He has participated in the Writing Downtown Residency in Las Vegas working to work on a Black, dystopian Sci-fi television pilot. In addition to being a playwright, he is also a screenwriter and director. He has been produced virtually by the Lit Council at the Tank Theater. In the fall, he will study playwriting at UC San Diego.

JESSE JAE HOON

JESSE JAE HOON is a playwright, actor, and organizer. He combines raucous comedy with a deeply felt sense of urgency to investigate power relationships, class & labor dynamics, generational politics, the necessity of uniting against an exploitative system, and our responsibility towards a broader community. Plays include SOMEBODY IS LOOKING BACK AT ME, EMERGENCY WINE & CHEESE FUNDRAISER OF THE AMAGANSETT DEMOCRATS' ASSOCIATION, DONG XUAN CENTER, 12 CHAIRS, THE HOUSE OF BILLY PAUL, I'VE GOT A SINKING FEELING IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH, and CHICKEN IS CONDEMNED TO BE FREE. He is a member of Page Break and LIT Council w/ TANK NYC, as well as the The COOP's inaugural Clusterf*** cohort (February 2021). By day, he is an associate at Ma-Yi Theater Company. BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, MFA in Playwriting from CUNY Hunter College. Jessejaehoon.com

BRANDON BOGLE

Brandon Bogle is a multi-hyphenate artist based in NYC. He currently works as the Technical Director at the Lee Strasberg Institute and has worked on multiple shows around the city as a designer, actor and writer. He has been a member of the LIT Council since 2019 and is also the co-founder of Page Break, a writer's group based in NYC. His time in LIT has been instrumental to Brandon's development as a writer. The community and clarity that's come from this group has pushed a new idea of what plays can be that Brandon is excited to continue to pursue. Thanks to family, friends and to God!

PJ JOHNNIE JR

PJ Johnnie JR Is an NYC based, multi-hyphenated storyteller from the Deep South. He holds a BA in theatre arts with an emphasis in Directing ( Grambling State) as well as a MFA in acting( the New School). He has worked as an associate director on many NYC productions including the award winning world premiere of ONE IN TWO . PJ is also a teaching artist in NYC in addition to being a member of the Candy foundation of the Arts Acting Repertory company. Recently PJ has been inducted into the 2022 cohort of LIT COUNCIL, a development intensive for Male playwrights of color sponsored in part by the TANK. PJ, utilizing teaching skills , deep spirituality, love for new works and experience as a black queer performer, helps create and cultivate creativity in the birthing place of stories.

YUSEFF EL GUINDI 

Born in Egypt, raised in London and now based in Seattle, Yussef El Guindi’s work frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures and politics that face immigrants, Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans in particular. El Guindi holds an MFA in playwriting from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is the recipient of many honors, including the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the Stranger’s Genius Award, and the 2010 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. El Guindi's past productions include “Hotter Than Egypt” at Marin Theatre Company and ACT in Seattle; “People of the Book” at ACT; “Language Rooms” at Pony World Theatre in Seattle, and Broken Nose Theatre in Chicago; "Hostages" at Radial Theater Project in Seattle; "The Talented Ones" at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland (Santa Barbara Independent Indy Awards); "Threesome" at Portland Center Stage, ACT, and at 59E59 (winner of a Portland Drammy for Best Original Script); "Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World" (2011 Gregory Award) also at ACT, Center Repertory Company at Walnut Creek, CA, and at Mosaic Theater Company (DC). "Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat" was produced by Silk Road Rising and won the M. Elizabeth Osborn award. His plays "Back of the Throat" (winner of L.A. Weekly's Excellence in Playwriting Award for 2006), "Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World", "Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes", "Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda and Karima’s City” have been published by Dramatists Play Service. "Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith", "Collaborator", "Threesome", "The Talented Ones”, “Hostages" and “In A Clear Concise Arabic Tongue.” have been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. Bloomsbury/ Methuen Drama published "Selected Works by Yussef El Guindi". Currently a Core Company member at ACT in Seattle, a Resident Artist at Golden Thread Productions, and a member of the Lit Council Cohort.

ZACHARIAH EZER

Zachariah Ezer is a playwright whose work animates theoretical quandaries through dramaturgical forms. His plays include The Freedom Industry (New York Stage & Film), Address the Body! (The Echo Theater Company), and Speedrun (The Prelude Festival), among others. He is currently a James A. Michener Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, a Hi-ARTS Critical Breaks Resident, the Dramaturg-in-Residence at The Workshop Theater, and a performer in the alternative rock band Harper’s Landing.