Lineup Set for 2025 Emerging Writers Group Spotlight Series at The Public
The staged readings will run from Monday, April 21 through Tuesday, May 20.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 25, 2025
The Public Theater has revealed the line-up today for the Emerging Writers Group’s Spotlight Series, a collection of free performances where members of the current cohort present their full-length plays. The staged readings will run from Monday, April 21 through Tuesday, May 20. A full schedule of performances is included below.
The 2025 Spotlight Series will feature full-length plays by members of the 2023-2025 Emerging Writers Group: Karina Billini, Tommy Endter, Jesse Jae Hoon, Humaira Iqbal, Celeste Jennings, Nina Ki, Gloria Oladipo, Valen-Marie Santos, Amita Sharma, and Al Sierra.
These works are directed and performed by experienced artists from the theatrical community. Admission to the EWG Spotlight Series is free. If interested in attending a reading—or the whole series—please visit the 2023-2025 EWG Spotlight Series page at publictheater.org to RSVP.
The Emerging Writers Group is a fellowship at The Public Theater for playwrights and other generative artists at the early stages of their professional careers. For over 15 years, Emerging Writers Group has brought artists together to create and develop their work in conversation with their peers and The Public Theater community. EWG is a cornerstone of The Public’s mission to celebrate and support new generations of storytellers.
2025 SPOTLIGHT SERIES SCHEDULE:
Monday, April 21 at 1:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
SAVED, PART ONE: THE GIRL AND THE SKY
By Jesse Jae Hoon
SAVED, PART ONE: THE GIRL AND THE SKY is the first play in a two-part drama about the South Korean adoption industry, from its Cold War origins to its transformation into a lucrative business empire built by systemic fraud and negligence. Three epic stories spanning six decades across Oregon; Washington D.C.; Vermont; Seoul; and Jeju Island, SAVED explores what happens when we kill the parents and raise the children.
Tuesday, April 22, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
BEIGE IN AMERICA
By Humaira Iqbal (she/her)
“Beige,” a young optimistic woman from London, has arrived in New York City, where she hopes her deepest dreams will thrive. Over the span of three years hustling in the big city, “Beige” will meet people who profoundly change her future and leave her questioning who she is—for better or worse. This modern-day immigration story challenges stereotypes of colorism and classism and explores what it means to be truly free.
Monday, April 28, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
THE TRAGEDY OF KEYSHAWN, LAST PRINCE OF EAST FLATBUSH; OR, THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF WHITENESS ON A YOUNG BLACK MALE
By Al Sierra (he/they)
Keyshawn Bien-Aime is a college-bound, first generation, Haitian-American honor student from Brooklyn filled with a world of ambition and promise—but he soon realizes that his dream school might actually be a nightmare. Absorbed into the backdrop of an idyllic Ivy League university and the “whitest frat on campus,” Keyshawn finds himself struggling not only to maintain his grades, but the deepest parts of himself too.
Tuesday, April 29, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
RAVAGE
By Nina Ki (xe/she/they)
Yuli, a self-described teenage vampire hunter, moves from California to New York after what she believes was a run-in with a powerful vampire, who has kidnapped her sister. As Yuli learns to open up again, she is haunted by visions of her sister and embarks on a quest to seek revenge—only to instead come face-to-face with the fractured remnants of her past.
Monday, May 5, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
APPLE BOTTOM
By Karina Billini
Brazilian Butt Lifts are sweeping the wallets of the women in Miami, and the staff at the post-BBL recovery house, Apple Bottom Spa, hopes to ride on this wave. When a humble childhood neighbor and a high-strung Blackfishing social media influencer arrive post-surgery, the women who run Apple Bottom struggle to keep both patients and the house afloat. An intimate examination of female-to-female caregiving, body dysmorphia, and what it means when the brown/Black female body is both ostracized and commodified.
Tuesday, May 6, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
BIRTH OF A MOTHER
By Amita Sharma
Amita is reckoning with the overwhelm and spill of emotions that accompany new motherhood, rendering her broken and powerless. That is, until she discovers the power—and other women—that she has carried all along. A coming-of-age story through parenthood, BIRTH OF A MOTHER is a bold, brutally honest, and divine journey through motherhood and ancestry.
Monday, May 12, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
INTO YOUR HANDS
By Tommy Endter
The world never stops ending, and neither do we. After a six-year-long stay in a psychiatric ward, Kenneth Grey has finally returned home to their reservation in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Now living with and working for the parents of their lifelong friend, Zanj, Kenny, and the other denizens of Alexandria Trading Post must navigate the trepidations of love, trust, and the power of secrets, as a trickster spirit sets their sights upon the store, and those within. INTO YOUR HANDS is the story of this spiritual battleground and the cycles it is victim to.
Tuesday, May 13, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
PERREO
By Valen-Marie Santos
When aspiring reggaetonera Vicki suddenly goes viral, she begins to see stardom before her. With her bestie Yesica and skeptical cousin Alicia along for the ride, Vicki’s journey unfolds amid the heat of a Miami summer and pulse of the infectious dembow rhythm. But who gets to claim an ever-changing and ever-blending culture? And what will Vicki have to sacrifice to claim what’s hers?
Monday, May 19, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
THE CARE AND KEEPING OF SCHIZOPHRENIA (AND OTHER DEMONS)
By Gloria Oladipo
Charity has just turned 25 and plans to move to California with her 41-year-old girlfriend, despite her family being in shambles after her brother’s mental health emergency. But Charity is visited by an obnoxious, bossy Sleep Demon who demands Charity “deal with her shit.” An absurdist, humorist romp, THE CARE AND KEEPING OF SCHIZOPHRENIA (AND OTHER DEMONS) asks: can Charity take control of the pressures bearing down on her or will she succumb to the waves?
Tuesday, May 20, 1:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
POTLIQKA
By Celeste Jennings
POTLIQKA is a three-act epic about Black history in the Antebellum South, spanning from 1790–1820, following James Hemmings, the founding father of soul food; a southern family—Esther, Freeman, and Missy (based on young Malinda Russell, the first Black woman to publish a cookbook in 1866); and Abina Kisi, Yawo Abayie, and Ama Nanny, a family who remembers the Middle Passage and their stolen Ghanaian culture. It’s a story of love, loss, and freedom, told one plate at a time.
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