Photos: Go Inside Vineyard Theatre's Emerging Artists Celebration

Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern just presented Ryan J. Haddad with the 2021-2022 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award at the Vineyard Theatre's annual Emerging Artists Celebration.

The Emerging Artists Celebration is a celebration of Vineyard Theatre's ongoing artistic development and education programs, which give artists support and resources to develop new plays and musicals, and offer free arts learning opportunities to local public high school students. For more information, call Penn Genthner at (646) 931-4742 or email development@vineyardtheatre.org.

Ryan J. Haddad is an actor, playwright, and autobiographical performer based in New York. His acclaimed solo play Hi, Are You Single? was presented in The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival and subsequently produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with IAMA. His plays include Good Time Charlie (Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, Public Theater Emerging Writers Group), Dark Disabled Stories (in development with The Bushwick Starr), Hold Me in the Water (commissioned by Noor Theatre), and My Straighties (Ars Nova/ANT Fest). He recurs as Andrew on the Netflix series "The Politician." and has been seen in the cabaret show Falling for Make Believe at Joe's Pub/Under the Radar. He most recently wrote the libretto for an episode of Boston Lyric Opera's streaming miniseries desert in and contributed as a writer/performer to Signature Theatre's The Watering Hole, created by Lynn Nottage and Miranda Haymon. Haddad is a recipient of IAMA Theatre Company's Shonda Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission and Rising Phoenix Repertory's Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award. His essays have been published in the New York Times, Out Magazine, and American Theatre. He is an alum of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow, and a former Queer|Art Performance and Playwriting Fellow, under the mentorship of Moe Angelos. Haddad can be found on social media @ryanjhaddad and ryanjhaddad.com.

The Emerging Artists Celebration is a project of the Vineyard Council, an active group of Vineyard friends and advocates: George Alexander, Sergia Cruz, Meredith Marks, Craig Manzino, Kate Mulgrew, Kate Robards, David Thompson, and Sophie von Haselberg.

Past recipients are Tarell Alvin McCraney (The Vineyard'sWig Out!, Moonlight), Rajiv Joseph (The Vineyard's The North Pool, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Kara Lee Corthron (Julius By Design, Alicegraceanon), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Vineyard's Gloria, Appropriate), Erika Sheffer (Russian Transport, The Fundamentals), Christopher Chen (Caught, You Mean To Do Me Harm), Clare Barron (Dance Nation, You Got Older), Boo Killebrew (Miller, Mississippi; "Mrs. America"), Kate Tarker (Thunderbodies, Laura And The Sea), Antoinette Nwandu (Pass Over; Tuvalu Or, The Saddest Song, in development at The Vineyard), Jeremy O. Harris (The Vineyard's "Daddy", Slave Play), Charly Evon Simpson (The Vineyard's upcoming sandblasted, Behind The Sheet), and John J. Caswell, Jr. (Wet Brain, Man Cave).