The Subtext is a podcast where playwrights talk to playwrights about the things usually left unsaid. In a conversation that dives into life’s muck, we learn what irks, agitates, motivates, inspires, and ultimately what makes writers tick.

Brian visited Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Veil’d) in her Washington Heights apartment, where they talked about gentrification in the neighborhood and feeling part of that gentrification despite being a person of color.

After attending Marymount Manhattan with a focus on playwriting (despite the fact she was initially wait-listed for the musical theatre program), Monet had to juggle five jobs, including working a fancy gala for theatre folks she wished she could have attended rather than working. Several years of this hard work and hustle paid off with a series of successes, starting with becoming a Lab member at WP Theater, a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatist, and joining the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater. Then Monet found an agent, leading to her being staffed on “Law & Order: SVU” (and being able to quit her other jobs, finally).

Monet is a fierce advocate for women and people of color, and has consistently worked to raise others up while cultivating her own career, believing that “when one person goes, we all go together.”

Download the episode here.

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