The Outrage

Jessica Charles writes dark comedies and absurd realities. As a Black queer storyteller, her work sits at the intersection of Fabulism and Protest Theater to uplift historically underrepresented voices. She is a member of National Black Theatre’s 2025-26 Keep SOUL Alive Micro Development Reading Series, a finalist for the 24/26 NBT I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency, a SPACE on Ryder Farm 2024 Creative Resident, and a finalist for The Lark’s Van Lier New Voices Fellowship.

AZ Espinoza is an afro-futurist-trans-masculine-feminist making magic through theatre. As a playwright, director, mover and maker their praxis is grounded in community building, embodiments of queer joy, and decolonial ritual practice. Full-length works include Caribbean King (Cannonball Festival Special Presentation 2025), All My Mothers Dream in Spanish (2023 world premiere at Azuka Theatre y Teatro del Sol), and Homeridae (2024 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays).

Mark-Eugene Garcia is a Chicano playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild. Awards include: 2025 Candela Playwright Fellow, 2021 Jerry Harrington Award For Outstanding Creative Achievement in Musical Theatre, and 2018 UnFringed Festival Best of Festival Award. He is part of the Management Team of The Drama Bookshop and co-hosts THE DRAMA BOOK SHOW! on the Broadway Podcast Network.

C. Julian Jiménez is a Queer, Puerto Rican and Dominican playwright. Awards include: New Dramatists Residency (Class of 2027), 2019/2020 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop Fellow at The Lark, 2017 & 2018 Pipeline Theatre Company PlayLab, and 2018 LaGuardia Community College’s LGBTQIA+ History Project Grant. They are a co-producer and co-writer of the hit web series, ‘Bulk,’ and Professor and Chair of the Communication, Theatre, & Media Production Department at Queensborough Community College.

Francesca Pazniokas is a playwright and filmmaker making social surrealist work about disability, illness, queerness, and radical alienation. She was a member of SPACE on Ryder Farm’s 2024 Working Farm Residency, recipient of the 2023 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, winner of Clubbed Thumb’s 2020 Biennial Commission, finalist for the Franklin Furnace Fund, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award, and CartHorse Fellowship.

reid tang writes plays and things shaped like plays. Their work includes Isabel (NAATCO), DEBT (co-written w/ Adrian Einspanier), WORK HARD HAVE FUN MAKE HISTORY (Clubbed Thumb Summerworks), FUTURE WIFE (Relentless Award Honorable Mention, Goethe-Institut Beijing, Theatertreffen Stückemarkt), and Party in a Google Sheet (New Georges). Currently a resident at New Dramatists, they have been part of Ars Nova’s Play Group, New Georges Jam, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship.

Garrett Zuercher is a two-time recipient of the Jean Kennedy Smith playwriting award. His narrative piece, INSIDE/LOOK, about a collection of diverse Deaf theater artists, was commissioned by The Shed. He is a member of BMI’s bookwriting for musical theater cohort and is the founding artistic director of Deaf Broadway, producing all-Deaf, all-ASL musicals in collaboration with Lincoln Center, including Jeanine Tesori’s VIOLET in Alice Tully Hall. He is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild.