C. Quintana Named Recipient Of Life Jacket Theatre Company's 2023-2024 $10,000 Commission For Trans+ Playwrights

Life Jacket Theatre Company has announced that C. Quintana (CQ) is the inaugural recipient of the 2023-2024 commission created exclusively for Trans+ playwrights, which includes gender non-conforming, gender-expansive, and nonbinary individuals.

This $10,000 commission will support Quintana as they create a new, full-length verbatim play based on in-depth interviews with Trans+ people living across America.

"We launched this new commission to uplift and celebrate Trans+ voices during an alarming rise in Trans-phobic violence and an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation," said Travis Russ, Life Jacket's Artistic Director. "We are excited about Quintana's unique vision to create a new theatrical work that pulls Trans+ stories from the margins and places them center stage where they belong."

Quintana was competitively selected among hundreds of applicants via a national open call. Panelists adjudicating the final round of interviews included Danny Marin, David Mendizábal, Pooya Mohseni, Shakina Nayfack, and Rad Pereira.

"Quintana deeply impressed the entire panel with a body of work that pushed the form forward and an unrelenting passion for amplifying and theatricalizing LGBTQ+ stories on stage." Russ noted.

Quintana, who proudly celebrates Cuban heritage and New Orleans roots, has developed work with and been produced by Audible, Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Diversionary Theatre.

Quintana will spend the next year interviewing Trans+ individuals across the country. "I am most looking forward to the conversations - the big human heart of this play," Quintana noted. "I want to lean in and celebrate the good stuff: Trans+ victories, loves, exuberance, resilience, quiet joys. From the smallest moments to the grandest in scale."

Quintana's new work will receive an industry reading produced by Life Jacket in New York City in late 2024.

LIFE JACKET THEATRE COMPANY, founded in 2015, is committed to championing undertold stories - those that are currently or historically rejected, erased, or forgotten. The company is equally committed to uplifting underserved communities and has built outreach partnerships with the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, Sam and Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth, GLSEN, LOFT LGBTQ+ Community Center, City Lore's Urban Explorers, and Children of Promise. @lifejacketnyc / www.lifejackettheatre.org