Trans Playwright Panel

Uprising Theatre and Mixed Blood present a special conversation:

On October 9 at 7pm there will be a A panel discussion featuring trans and nonbinary playwrights talking about theatre. We’ll discuss how trans identity influences (or doesn’t) each writer’s process, where they see the future of trans made theatre heading, and so much more.

Streamed on Mixed Blood Theatre’s Facebook page, you’ll be able to watch live and ask questions.

To get a link emailed to you (as well as a reminder), RSVP here!

Meet the panelists!

Sharifa Yasmin (she/her) is a trans Egyptian-American director and playwright. She has completed fellowships with The Drama League, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Manhattan Theatre Club, Geva Theatre, Hypokrit Theatre and is a 2020 Eugene O’Neill national directing fellow. Yasmin graduated cum laude from Winthrop University with a B.A. in theatre performance and a minor in sociology. She uses these areas of study to produce pieces of theatre that are not only powerful, but focus on socio economic issues and marginalized communities, reflecting the intersection of queerness and Arab-American identity.   www.sharifayasmin.com

Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a multi-award-winning Black queer theatre maker from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Recipient of Waterwell New Works Lab’s 2021 Commission, Kilroys List 2020 playwright, recipient of Parity Productions’ 2018 Annual Commission, Winner of Downtown Urban Arts Festival’s 2018 Best Play Award, and the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest. Azure’s full-length play “Crooked Parts” will be published in the forthcoming anthology The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. His full-length play “Mirrors” received its world premiere, produced by Parity Productions, at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop February 29-March 22, 2020. Unfortunately, this production closed early on March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. azureosbornelee.com

Leanna Keyes is a multi-hyphenate theater professional. Her most known play is Doctor Voynich and Her Children, which premiered at Uprising Theatre Company this year. That play will be included in the groundbreaking anthology The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, which she co-edited. She recently founded her own company, Transcend Streaming, to provide high-quality fully live digital event and performance production services. Other recent productions include Legal-Tender Loving Care (FUSE Theatre, 2019) and Love Serving Love (Valiant Theatre, 2020). Learn more at leannakeyes.com

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, a PWC Core writer, and a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Winner. His full-length plays include FloodThe Empty Place (NYU commission), The Betterment Society (upcoming publication), The Shaking EarthDraw the Circle (productions: PlayMakers Rep, Mosaic Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; published: Dramatists Play Service; winner Lambda Literary Award), andTank & Horse(world premiere: Berkshire Fringe Festival). Deen’s work has been presented/developed/supported by a number of institutions including New Dramatists, Sundance Institute/Ucross, Blue Mountain Center, The Public Theater, NYTW, MacDowell Colony, Bogliasco Foundation, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Target Margin Theatre, Keen Company, New Harmony Project, Phoenix Theatre, Chesley/Bumbalo Foundation, Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, InterAct Theatre, Page73, Ma-Yi, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Georgetown University, BEAT Festival, PACE University, Hampshire College, Averett University, Dixon Place, Passage Theatre, Queens Theatre in the Park, Tofte Lake Center, and the Berkshire Fringe Festival. He has also received a 2017 Kilroy’s List Honorable Mention, been a Jerome New York Fellowship finalist (twice), O’Neill Conference semifinalist (thrice), Weissberger Award nomination, Playwrights Center Core Writers finalist (twice), and has received a James Baldwin Award, and Dennis Johnston Playwriting Prize honorable mention. He is a member of the NYTW Usual Suspects, Ma-Yi Writers Lab, founding member of the Public Theater Alumni Writers Group, and the Dramatists Guild. He earned his MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School/New School for Drama. He is represented by the Gurman Agency. In his spare time, Deen is also a participating citizen and a man of too many hobbies.

Moderated by:

Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who’s playwriting is obsessed with big questions told through small stories. He is committed to work by and for marginalized communities, using writing to create a new future for all of us. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Uprising Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN. Shannon is a recipient of the Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow for 2019. He was awarded a spot in the HBMG Foundations’ Winter Playwright Retreat in 2018 and 2019. He has participated in Pillsbury House Theatre’s Chicago Avenue Project writing plays for and with children. He was a finalist for the Equity Library Theatre of Chicago’s Reading Series, the 2019 TransLab, and the American Stages 2019 New Play Festival. He was a semi-finalist for SPACE on Ryder farm in 2020. He also teaches storytelling and playwriting for youth and adults. Shannon’s plays include Body and Blood, in a stand of dying trees, Line of Sight, Twisted Deaths, The Resistance of My Skin, and Who Has Eyes To See.