(UPDATED December 8, 2021) YVETTE HEYLIGER is a playwright, producing artist and activist. Author of What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women, she has contributed to many anthologies including She Persisted: 30 Ten-Minute Plays by Women Over 40, She Persisted: Monologues from Plays by Women Over 40, ARTemis Arts Wisdom Anthology, Performer Stuff, The Monologue Project, Short Plays on Reproductive Freedom, Later Chapters: The Best Scenes and Monologues for Actors over Fifty, WE ARE THEATRE, 24 Gun Control Plays, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2003 and The Best Stage Scenes 2003. Textbooks include Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away, The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice. Other writings include various theatre industry-related articles and blog posts for HowlRound, The Dramatists Guild Blog, The Dramatist, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, and Black Masks: Spotlight on Black Art. Awards: AUDELCO Recognition Award for Excellence in Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwright Award and her play also won Dramatic Production of the Year, NAACP’s Annual Theatre Award Best Playwright nomination, among others; grants and residencies upon request. Yvette and her twin sister Yvonne are producing artists dba Twinbiz. They are co-recipients of the National Black Theatre Festival Emerging Producer Award and a Resolution, City of Los Angeles. Memberships: Dramatist Guild, AEA, SDC, and AFTRA-SAG. Current Service: Dramatist Guild’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee, the executive committee of Honor Roll!, and the Legacy Council of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is also the creator and co-chair of LPTW’s Rachel Crothers Leadership Award. Yvette lives in Harlem, USA with her husband of 33 years.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://newplayexchange.org/users/30298/yvette-heyliger

MORE ABOUT ME:
I am part of the 93.9% of women of color whose work does not reach production in this nation.  Early on I realized that in order to grow as a playwright, I needed to see my work living and breathing on the stage, so I became a producing artist.  To ensure that future generations know I was here and had something to say in the American Theatre, I turned to self-publishing.  I have street-cred and the respect of my peers, but not the nationally recognized awards and accolades that garner the attention of regional theatres and Broadway producers.  Moreover, now in my early sixties, me thinkith I am probably too old to be the next theatre-darling.

My longevity in the theatre is due to how I measure success.  I measure success in service.  This is not some big turnaround in my thinking.  Service alone has defined the trajectory of my life.  Case in point; my play about the church, sex, and HIV called, What Would Jesus Do?

A local producer who had picked up the show, wanted me to cut words like “penis” and “gay” from the play, lest I offend her church-going audiences.  But I held firm because this play was a dramatic demonstration of God guiding my hand as a playwright, shepherding the plot and speaking through me on behalf of the characters.

I remember watching her sold-out church-going audiences talking back to the stage, shouting favorite lines, singing along, laughing and crying with the characters—some even declaring, “that’s my story”.  There was a lot of healing going on and a lot of awareness being raised, all while entertaining.  Standing there, I knew my play was anointed.  Any doubt I had about the calling I received to write for the theatre was dismissed by the standing ovations. By my measure, I was feeling as successful as the 6.1%.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am currently doing research for a new play about Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (later known as Queen Charlotte whom fans of Netflix’s Bridgerton have met!). She is the direct decedent of the black branch of the Portuguese Royal house and by becoming the wife of King George III, is reported to be the great grandmother of today’s Queen Elizabeth. Queen Charlotte precedes actress Megan Markle as the first mixed-race member of the Royal Family, and it is the young Queen Charlotte who is the subject of my play.

KEYWORDS
​Spiritual, Family, Political, Historical, BIPOC, Dramady, Equity, Social Justice, Women+, Parity, Black Lives Matter​

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Cheryl Davis’ play Maid’s Door was produced at the Billie Holiday Theatre to excellent reviews, received seven Audelco Awards, and was presented at the 2015 and 2017 National Black Theatre Festivals; it was also a finalist for the Francesca Primus Prize. She received the Ed Kleban Award for her work as a musical theater librettist, and her musical Barnstormer about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman flyer (written with award-winning composer Douglas J. Cohen), received a Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award under the auspices of the Lark Play Development Center. She received a Writers’ Guild Award for her work on the daytime dramatic serial As the World Turns and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on that show as well. She currently writes for Law & Order: SVU on a freelance basis, and her episode “Garland’s Baptism by Fire” aired on April 2, 2020.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
cldplay.com

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in the theater was when, in one of my first plays, I had a character pose a heartbreaking question - and the audience fell completely silent, watching and waiting to hear the response.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
A short musical called Don't....Stay...Safe

KEY WORDS
​Black, Woman, Historical, Musical

Lucy Wang rose to national prominence with her Kennedy Center award-winning play Junk Bonds which earned her critical acclaim and a two-page profile in the New York Times. Junk Bonds also won Best New Play with social, political, economic significance from the Katherine and Lee Chilcote Foundation.

Lucy’s work is dedicated to fighting for social justice, creating more inclusive roles, and inciting laughter. She is one of the Outstanding Female Artists featured in the Look What She Did! Artists of Los Angeles series. Two Artists Trying to Pay Their Bill is a comical look at how artists are expected to give their work away for free and still support themselves. This short won an international comedy prize and inclusion in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2020. Down There is a hilarious biting monologue that shows how languages shape our body images.  

Lucy also writes for young audiences. A conservatory for Orthodox Jewish girls commissioned her to write plays. Excerpts from her play Teen Mogul are being used in the classroom as part of StudySync.  Her monologues Pretty for an Asian Girl, No Joy No Luck, My Superpower were written upon request to address the dearth of material created for Asian American youth. Suffragette Sixteen is part of the New Shokan Kitchen Island Project to showcase women who deserve statues to commemorate their achievements.

Upon learning that Lucy sold a half-hour TV comedy pilot, feminist icon Gloria Steinem urged her to do stand-up – which was so exhilarating that Lucy developed and performed two one-woman shows to sold-out audiences.  You can see comedy bits here:  https://youtu.be/IbcqZCYZbik and find more plays at Original Works Publishing,YouthPLAYS, One-Act Play Depot, Amazon, Applause Books, Meriwether Publishing and Pioneer.

Her manuscripts are archived at the Huntington Library.  Lucy currently teaches at escript.ws and freelances for AJN.  

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
www.lucywang.net
FB: lucy.wang
TW: @SensuousGourmet
IG: @theSensuousGourmet

MORE ABOUT ME
What was your most gratifying moment in the theater?*
Fortunately I've had many, but you always remember your two firsts. First time as a playwright, it was a scorching hot summer night, the A/C was out and the house was full, so the audience used their programs as fans.  That is, until the action grew too tense when everyone stopped fanning themselves in unison and fell silent, gripped in suspense.  My second first best moment as a writer-performer was when two men approached me after I performed standup comedy, and told me they laughed so hard they peed in their pants.

What play or production changed your life?*
A Chorus Line.  I learned all the songs and dances, but one specific lyric still haunts me.  Dance: Ten, Looks; Three which I live as Dance: Ten; Looks: Too Chinese.

I feel most like myself when I am writing, when I am playing the piano, and when I'm in the theater.

How do you overcome disappointment?*
Two mottos.  Joy in spite of everything which I learned from Tom Robbins.  Over and Next! from Norman Lear.
Laugh, cry, eat, hike, sing, cook, whatever it takes to find the joy and then move on. Onward and upward.

If you could bring one change to theater, what would it be?*
More representation, more equality, more laughter.

What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?*
I love to read, teach, garden, and travel.  

Why do you keep doing theater?
I need the community, the world of possibilities, and the magic.

​WHAT I'M WORKING ON
My three big projects are a musical comedy about racism, The John and Yoko Club; a youth play about suicide and bullying; and a thriller, Fill or Kill.

KEYWORDS
Asian American, BIPOC, Comedy, Comic, Equality, Feminist, Historical, Jewish, Monologues, Multiracial, Musical, One-Person Shows, One-Woman Shows, Political, Racism, Social Justice, Stand-up, Thriller, Young Audiences

 Writer-performer Stacie Chaiken’s solo plays include The Dig, death, Genesis + the double helix (2017 Los Angeles Stage Raw Theatre Award; 2019 premiere with original music by Yuval Ron); What She Left; and Looking for Louie. Recent work: Saint Vibiana, PRAY4US (2018) and Don’t Flinch (2019) are studies for [working title] Yuvaar:Porciuncula:Terraine Vague (Ceremonial Place:Little Portion:Empty Lot), a site-specific performance/public art project about the history of one square block in Downtown Los Angeles.

From 2014 to 2020, she served as story consultant for the Los Angeles-based New Ground: a Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, where she facilitated group-process writing and performance workshops. 2013 to 2014, she served as International Creative Director of Kwibuka, the 20th commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda, for which she designed and produced national memorial events in Rwanda, and around the world.

Formerly on the performance faculty of the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts  and NYC’s Circle Repertory Company, Stacie runs an LA-based workshop for writers and performers called What’s the Story? and teaches master classes for people who want to create powerful stuff based on personal material.

Chaiken’s work has received the generous support of Wallis Annenberg Helix Project; Center for Cultural Innovation; Durfee Foundation; Fulbright Foundation; University of Southern California Visions & Voices program; California Arts Council; Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; USC Arts Initiative; Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity; and Hebrew Union College Artist in Residency program.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
 staciechaiken.com
https://www.facebook.com/stacie.chaiken
https://www.facebook.com/StacieChaikenArtist/
​Twitter: @staciechaiken

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment in the theatre, thus far, was the April 2019 realization of my vision for The Dig, the play I was commissions to write in Israel, in the middle of the Second Intifada. It took me sixteen years from the commission to the premiere, and another three years to raise the money and get a venue to commission and produce the musical accompaniment for the play, as I’d always imagined it. We were set to tour this year and next; luckily I have a really good feature-quality film of the play with music.

I feel most like myself when I am performing, or preparing to perform work based — or loosely based — on personal material

I overcome disappointment by getting back to work.

I imagine telling stories in these times via audio, not so much via video or virtual media. Not sure why. I think Maybe because it leaves so much to the imagination. I like radio theatre, for that reason. It asks a lot of actors, and I like that.

I also imagine creating theatre in spaces that are safe for a live audience, in these times. My friend Jon Rivera’s company Playwrights Arena is producing a play in the parking garage at the LA LGBT Center; Yuval Sharon is doing the same with an opera in Detroit. One of my creative partners is the parking lot company that owns the land I’m writing about in Yovaar…. They’ll let me use one of their lots for a performance. After the election.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON
Staying safe and sane; keeping my family safe; doing what I can to transform the political reality; preparing my play Looking for Louie for publication. Breathing.

KEYWORDS
Feminist, Jewish, Interfaith, Thriller, Political, Equality, Historical, Memoir, Immersive/Site-Specific, Radio Plays, Verse, Global Stories, Immigration, World War II, Holocaust, Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Resistance, Los Angeles, Middle East