Young Writers of Color Collective

Roselle Asunka is a sophomore at Las Lomas High School, (Go Knights!) and is super excited to be a YWoCC playwright! She is thrilled to join this cohort, as she has been writing for a very long time now and is exhilarated by this opportunity! Rosie is interested in seeing comedic shows made by teens for teens and is looking forward to watching cohort come together! 

Kayen Manovil is a senior at Berkeley High School. She is excited to work alongside other young creatives of color and produce an impactful, thought-provoking piece. She is interested in seeing specific underrepresented experiences on the stage, rather than the same broad struggles typically tied to minority communities. 

Chris Safein is a senior at Las Lomas High School. What he remembers most from his childhood are all stories from the TV shows and movies that he used to watch. He’s written for and hosted his school's Student Cabaret twice. He’s super excited to get the opportunity to flesh out his ideas and collaborate with other creative minds. He’s interested in seeing clever comedic writing on the stage.

Azucena Uribe is excited to channel her different forms of artistic expression, such as poetry and dance, into playwriting! She is thrilled to learn more about finding new ways to express creativity, by building new skills and opening myself to new worlds. They are also looking forward to working alongside a community of incredible people! She is interested to see writing that breaks binaries and brings to life messages that unite people and help them connect back to their purpose. 

Nominations for our 2025/26 cohort will open November 15, 2025. Students may not apply on their own; each student must be nominated by a teacher or mentor.

Please read through our nomination requirements:

Bay Area high school students (grades 10–12) who racially/ethnically identify as a young person of color are eligible to be nominated for this program. Upon recommendation, students will be invited to an interview process before final selection decisions are announced.

YWoCC is a playwriting program, but writers of all disciplines are welcome to apply (i.e., playwriting, poetry, spoken word, fiction/non-fiction, etc.). No formal writing experience is required.

Ideal applicants are highly motivated, serious-minded individuals who will commit to a year’s worth of training, meeting time, and mentorship, while maintaining academic success outside of the program.

The Young Writers of Color Collective will offer:  

1. Mentorship—Students will receive direct mentorship from a working and produced BIPOC playwright, a BIPOC dramaturg, and the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre Staff throughout this 9-month residency.  They will also each have their new project workshopped and presented with professional directors and actors from the Bay Area's robust artist community.   

1. Skill Building—During their residency, students will meet twice per month to receive specific training in dialogue, character, conflict, and plot development. They will also learn new ways to play with form and style, within and beyond realism. 

1. Community Building—Not only will students be working with members of their cohort, but they will also serve as hosts for our Open Saturday Workshops in which any student can come and experience a playwrighting workshop with a local or national playwright. As they are finding new ways into sharing their stories, they will also learn how to open doors for their peers' stories. 

How we build a more equitable theater and world, begins with the stories we tell. As a writer of color, it is common to be faced with unfair expectations from potential producers, expectant audiences or even the very communities that we are commissioned to represent.  

 So it only makes sense that we seek and create spaces where we can learn from and with each other! Together. Not in isolation. I believe that especially as young writers of color, having space that provides support, understanding and community is integral to creating fearlessly and without limit. 

My approach with young writers is deeply informed both by my experience as a minority in a small town and as a teacher in a multilingual learning environment. My most intentional practice is making space for the diversity of students’ experiences—cultural, linguistic, and beyond. I find it not only comfortable, but joyous to navigate differences, help students learn from each other, and facilitate a space of empowerment and self-love. 

Plays need time to cook, so let's play with cooking in the time that we have. In this workshop, we'll play with speed: you'll get a list of ingredients, then you'll use these ingredients to cook up a short play!

Instructor: Leigh M. Marshall is a multidisciplinary writer/performer and the Theater & Film Editor online for BOMB Magazine. Her work has been selected for Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Residency, Live Design International, the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Iowa New Play Festival, the Prague Quadrennial, et cetera. She is currently a resident playwright at the Playwrights Foundation and Crowded Fire Theatre.

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We’ll explore an AfroSurreal lens to activate liberatory portals and conjure new worlds.Star will provide inspiration images and writing prompts for us to delve into as a group.

Instructor: Star Finch is currently the Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Campo Santo and Crowded Fire Theater. She’s also an alumni of Playwrights Foundation's Resident Playwright Initiative (2018-2022). Her plays include H.O.M.E. [Hookers on Mars Eventually] and Bondage (Relentless Award honorable mention) Josephine's Feast, and Shipping & Handling (Rella Lossy Award). She's contributed to various collaborative projects including TheaterFirst’s Participants and Campo Santo’s Ethos de Masquerate. She’s held residencies in Crowded Fire’s R&D Lab and AlterTheater's Alter Lab.

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In this workshop, you’ll dive deep into character with image and story. Think color markers, drawing, and telling stories. No drawing experience necessary; you’ve got your imagination!

Instructor: Eugenie Chan is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and artistic director of Eugenie Chan Theater Projects, dedicated to telling the untold stories of Chinese in the American West. Her recent collaboration with Paul Dresher and Shadowlight Theater, Sojourner ZY, an Asian American Sci-Fi Fantasy, played to full houses of multigenerational audiences at the Presidio Theater. Her first feature, The Truer History of the Chan Family, a vaudeville, will debut in 2025 at ArtsEmerson, Boston.. Her work has been produced and developed in theaters and communities across the United States, including Northwest Asian American Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, Houston Grand Opera: East + West Stories @ the Chinese Community Center of Houston, Ma-Yi, Pan Asian Rep, Chinese Historical Society of America, Cameron House, Great Star Theater, Public Theatre, Cutting Ball, the Magic and Playwrights Horizons.

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Words are not disconnected from the body, and theatre is not disconnected from the ensemble. We will explore how we write with movement and ensemble building as embodying a physical way into storytelling on the page. Come prepared to move.

Instructor: victor cervantes, jr is a theatremaker, educator, and community organizer hailing from Phoenix, AZ, and currently serves as the Associate Producer of New Work at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. They are the Founder and CEO of la mission project, a social impact production company that specializes in the development and execution of wide-scale, immersive arts projects and their intersection with community mobilization. They aim to support and uplift BIPOC+ Queer and Trans artists and stories to more visible platforms, and to reach communities that have been pushed to the margins; as such, they are the Creative Producer for New Roots: A Queer Artist Residency at Walhalla Farm, a Core Faculty Member at The National Theater Institute within The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and a Mentor for The Miranda Family Fund Fellowship.

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