NEW YORK CITY: New York Theatre Workshop has selected 6 playwrights and directors for the 2050 Artistic Fellowship program. The 2022-23 season cohort includes Miranda Cornell, Thaddeus McCants, Aileen Wen McGroddy, Attilio Rigotti, Andrew Rodriguez, and Minghao Tu. Fellows are awarded both a stipend and an additional artistic development fund that supports projects, theatre tickets, research, or travel.
The fellowship is named in celebration of the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection that by the year 2050, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority in the United States. The 2050 Artistic Fellows are early-career artists who can engage with the community and offer unique perspectives on the transformations taking place in the American landscape.
“We are deeply humbled to welcome these six artists as 2050 Artistic Fellows for the 2022-23 season,” said Aaron Malkin, literary director and dramaturg, and Rachel Silverman, director of project development, workshops, and residencies, in a statement. “Miranda, Thaddeus, Aileen, Attilio, Andrew, and Minghao were selected from hundreds of applicants for their boundless curiosity and distinctive visions, and we look forward to supporting their growth as artists and building community throughout the year.”
The program consists of monthly fellowship meetings where fellows meet with each other and members of the New York Theatre Workshop community to discuss craft, aesthetics, and artistic development. Fellows attend a three-day weekend retreat at the start and end of the fellowship. They also receive access to rehearsal space, opportunities to share work-in-progress with the NYTW artistic staff, mentorship from the NYTW staff and contemporary theatre artists, as well as opportunities to participate in the artistic life of the theatre by attending staff meetings, developmental readings, dress rehearsals, and other NYTW special events.
NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 directing fellow Miranda Haymon will serve as advisor to the 2022-23 fellows, working directly with each fellow to design their individual fellowship experience as well as with the cohort and NYTW artistic staff to create community.
Miranda Cornell is a mixed-race Japanese American theatre director and generative artist. She has directed and staged work with the Roundabout Underground Reading Series, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The 24 Hour Plays, New Ohio/Ice Factory, Yale Summer Cabaret, Mercury Store, Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, Moxie Arts NY, the Asian American Arts Alliance, NYMF, and the Hunter MFA Playwrights Festival. As an associate and assistant, she has worked with directors such as Robert Icke, Danya Taymor, Chay Yew, Rachel Chavkin, and Michael Greif at theaters such as NYTW, Park Avenue Armory, The TEAM, and Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway and North American Tour). Miranda was the 2020 Van Lier Fellow in Theatre at A4 and is a proud member of the 2nd cohort of the Roundabout Directors Group.
Thaddeus McCants is a Brooklyn-based writer and performer originally from Madison, Wisc. As a playwright, he is a Theater Masters Visionary Playwright, KCACTF national finalist, Goldberg New Play Prize finalist, and a semi-finalist for both the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference & American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Award. As a television writer, he is currently a staff writer on the second season of HBO Max’s Julia, is developing his own series with BET+, and is cowriting Audible Originals with both VICE Media and Author James Patterson. As a performer, Thaddeus has worked Off-Broadway, on the high-seas, on the UCBNY Mainstage, and in the original cast of Disney’s Freaky Friday the Musical.
Aileen Wen McGroddy is a Chinese and Irish American theatre director, educator and producer of live events. She has roots in both New York, Chicago, and Providence. Her upcoming work includes Jar of Fat and Sense and Sensibility (Northern Stage), A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep), Murder for Two (Winnipesaukee Playhouse), and Indecent (Brown University). Her previous work includes The Chinese Lady (Kitchen Theatre and Geva Theatre Center), The Late Wedding, The Dumb Waiter, On The Y-Axis, Summer and Smoke, Akira Kurosawa Explains his Movies and Yogurt, and The Tempest (Brown-Trinity). She has assisted at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Trinity Rep, Court Theatre, the Actors’ Gymnasium, the Hypocrites, and the House.
Attilio Rigotti is a Chilean theatremaker, video-game designer, and teacher. He has performed, trained, taught, and developed productions around the world, including countries such as Poland, China, Egypt, Lebanon, India, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Cuba, the U.A.E. Along with Orsolya Szánthó, he founded the company GLITCH, creating work that seamlessly combines digital, interactive, and physical mediums with new forms of storytelling. The company’s video and technology design has been featured in collaborations with Kaki King, Mason Gross School of the Arts, MIT Music & Theatre Arts, The Juilliard School, as well as in the most recent production of Macbeth on Broadway. Their graphics and video work have been part of promotional campaigns of several Broadway shows such as Company and Girl from the North Country. Attilio’s work as a director has been featured at City Lyric Opera, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, NYU Tisch, Toronto Fringe, and Gamiotics Studios.
Andrew Rodriguez is a New York-based actor and director originally from Mirando City, Texas. Rodriguez remains dedicated to opening the theatrical canon by directing and developing new works not initially meant for the stage, including adapting novels, films, poems, and anthologies. Rodriguez is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin (BFA, 2019), a former acting apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and an alumnus of the Juilliard School’s Professional Apprenticeship Program. He currently works with Atlantic Theater Company’s Conservatory Actor Training Programs.
Minghao Tu is an immigrant playwright from Wuhan, China. He is a Van Lier Fellow at Rattlestick Theater and a 2022-23 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center. He has been a resident of Pipeline Theatre Company’s 2020-21 PlayLab, and a 2021 Travis Bogard Artist-in-Residence at the Eugene O’Neill Foundation. His works have been presented/produced at Tofte Lake Center, Voyage Theater Company, New York Public Library, Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America, Ground Floor Theatre, and UT New Theatre, as well as featured on Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Mix. He was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the 2021 Woodward/Newman Award at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, and a semifinalist for PlayPenn, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries at American Shakespeare Center. He has been a James A. Michener fellow at UT Austin (MFA: 2020).
The New York Theatre Workshop is an off-Broadway theatre company producing plays and musicals in full productions and workshops. As of 2020, NYTW had a budget of approximately $7.9 million.
