Jocelyn Bioh, Sarah DeLappe, Jiehae Park and More Slated for LCT's New Writers in Residence Program

In its ongoing effort to open its doors to the next generation of writers, Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop) has announced the creation of the LCT New Writers in Residence program.

Spearheaded by LCT3 Artistic Director Evan Cabnet and Associate Director Natasha Sinha, the year-long, no strings-attached residency will provide a home to new writers by providing them the use of free office space and other resources to enable them to create, hone their craft, and continue their creative growth in New York City.

Chosen by Cabnet and Sinha, this year's 8 participants in LCT's New Writers in Residence program are Ngozi Anyanwu, Jocelyn Bioh, Sarah DeLappe, Olivia Dufault, Julia Jarcho, Jason Kim, Phillip Howze, and Jiehae Park.

"We are so happy to be able to do this," said Andre Bishop. "All we want to do is to be helpful and supportive of these gifted young writers."

Ngozi Anyanwu is an actor, producer and playwright. She was recently awarded the inaugural Center Theatre Group/Humanitas Award for her play Good Grief (Kilroys List 2016) which is scheduled to have its world premiere at the CTG/Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2017. Residencies include Djerassi, SPACE on Ryder Farm and the summer program with Page 73. Ngozi holds an MFA from the University of California San Diego and is a producer for NOW AFRICA's Playwrights Festival.

Jocelyn Bioh is a Ghanaian-American writer and performer born and raised in New York City. Her plays include School Girls (Kilroys List 2016), Nollywood Dreams (Kilroys List 2015), African Americans, and The Ladykiller's Love Story with music and lyrics by Cee Lo Green. Her acting credits include Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons), An Octoroon (Soho Rep.), Neighbors (The Public), and the Tony Award winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A MFA Playwriting graduate of Columbia University, she has received commissions by Manhattan Theatre Club and Atlantic Theater Company.

Sarah DeLappe's play The Wolves was the recipient of the American Playwriting Foundation's inaugural Relentless Award and a finalist for both the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Yale Drama Series Prize. An alumna of Clubbed Thumb Early Writers Group and the New Georges Audrey Residency, she has also been a resident artist at Sitka Fellows Program, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and is currently a member of Ars Nova Play Group. She is in the process of completing her MFA at Brooklyn College.

Olivia Dufault's plays include Year of the Rooster, The Toom of King Tut (New York Times Critic's Pick); The Messenger; and For Want of a Horse. She is the recipient of the 2015 Playwrights of New York Fellowship, a 2013 Sloan Commission, the 2013 David Colicchio Emerging Playwright Award, the 2010 Lipkin Playwriting Award, and the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Harle Adair Damann Playwriting Award. She is a member of New Dramatists, and the Obie award winning Youngblood Playwriting Group. Olivia currently writes for the AMC television show "Preacher."

Phillip Howze is a playwright whose works have been developed at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, BRIC Arts-Media, Cutting Ball, Theater Masters, PRELUDE Festival, San Francisco Playhouse, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. A graduate of Yale School of Drama, he was the recipient of the 2015 Lincoln Center Education Artist Fellowship. Phillip is also a member of the 2016 Emerging Writers Group at The Public, and alumni of The Sundance Institute and Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group. Previously, he worked in advocacy at the Open Society Foundations, and was an educator at the US Embassy's cultural center in Rangoon, Burma. His play Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres will premiere at The Bushwick Starr in March 2017.

Julia Jarcho is a playwright and director with the company Minor Theater. Her honors include a 2013 Obie Award for Best New American Play for her play Grimly Handsome, and a 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award. Her work has been presented by Clubbed Thumb, 13P, Incubator, New York City Players, and Abrons Arts Center, where her upcoming play The Terrifying will premiere in March 2017. She is an assistant professor of English and Dramatic Literature at NYU, and a book of her plays is forthcoming from 53rd State Press.

Jason Kim is a Korean-born dramatist based in New York City. His work has been presented at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ma-Yi, Keen Company, Naked Angels, The Flea, Kennedy Center, Washington National Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Manhattan School of Music, and Opera America. Jason is the recipient of an IFP-Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film and a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. He is also a Screenwriters Colony Fellow and a Mark Campbell Chair Librettist Fellow in American Opera Project's Composers & the Voice. He holds an MFA from the New School and is a member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab and Ars Nova's Uncharted. Most recently, he was Executive Story Editor on HBO's "Girls."

Jiehae Park's plays include peerless (Yale Rep., Cherry Lane MP), Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Princess Grace, Weissberger, Leah Ryan Awards), Here We Are Here and contributions to Wondrous Strange (Humana/ATL). She has developed work through the Public's Emerging Writers Group, Soho Rep lab, p73, DG fellows, Sundance, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Ojai conference, and is a current Ma Yi labbie, NYTW Usual Suspect, and Hodder fellow. Commissions with Playwrights Horizons, McCarter, Yale Rep, Geffen, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. A UCSD MFA graduate, her recent performing credits include Sleep (Ripe Time/The Play Co.) and Every Angel is Brutal (Clubbed Thumb).