I am encouraging my students to be students of the world: to look around them, to see what’s happening, see how their lives are affected by world events and the changes of our society because that’s fodder for future plays that they may write or that they may participate in as artists.

YVETTE HEYLIGER Playwright/Director/Producing Artist/Author is a lifelong theatre artist, as well as an educator, and the author of What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women. Yvette is a long-time activist for women in the American theatre and was recently named a finalist for the Advance Gender Equity in the Arts 2022 AGE Legacy Playwright Grant.

The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY students on race and social justice, offers the perspective of past and present CUNY students–some, now faculty–on the success of this experiment.
Join us in the James Gallery at the CUNY Graduate Center to celebrate the launch of the book with an evening of readings by the book’s contributors Connie Gemson, Yvette Heyliger, Jose Lopez, Kate McCaffrey, Lee Painter-Kim, Javier Riveros, Cynthia Tobar, and Alison Wong who will be joined by the editors Rose M. Kim, Grace M. Cho, and Robin McGinty, followed by a discussion lead by scholar, editor, and activist Conor Tomás Reed on the writing of the book as well as the current state of CUNY and public higher education.
Date and time
Thursday, September 15, 2022
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Location
The James Gallery
365 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10016
YVETTE HEYLIGER is a playwright, producing artist, educator, activist, and author of What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women. Yvette has contributed to many anthologies including On Holy Ground: The National Black Theatre Festival Anthology, ARTemis Arts Wisdom Anthology, She Persisted: 30 Ten-Minute Plays by Women Over 40, She Persisted: Monologues from Plays by Women Over 40, Performer’s Stuff, The Monologue Project, Later Chapters: The Best Scenes and Monologues for Actors over Fifty, Short Plays on Reproductive Freedom, 24 Gun Control Plays, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2003, and The Best Stage Scenes 2003. Yvette has also penned theatre industry-related articles for magazines, blogs, a scholarly journal, and textbooks including The Children of the People: Writings By and About CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice and Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away. Realizing that in order to grow as a playwright she needed to see her work living and breathing on the stage, Yvette hung up her shingle and became a producing artist. Yvette’s plays, including her one-woman show, have been presented in theatre festivals in NY and LA, as well as at the prestigious National Black Theatre Festival. Yvette is a long-time activist for women in the American theatre and currently serves as a member or in a leadership capacity with Honor Roll! (an advocacy group for women+ playwrights over 40), Dramatists Guild’s Diversity Equity Inclusion Access committee, the League of Professional Theatre Women, and 50/50 in 2020. Awards: Finalist – Advance Gender Equity in the Arts 2022 AGE Legacy Playwright Grant finalist, AUDELCO Recognition Award for Excellence in Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwright Award, National Black Theatre Festival Emerging Producer Award, and Best Playwright nomination NAACP’s Annual Theatre Awards, among others. Memberships: Dramatist Guild, AEA, SDC, and AFTRA-SAG. Yvette Heyliger | New Play Exchange
Social Media:
Facebook: Yvette Heyliger | Facebook
Twitter: Yvette Heyliger (@Twinbizness) / Twitter
Instagram: Yvette Heyliger (@twinbizness)
LinkedIn: Yvette Heyliger | LinkedIn
Karen Cecilia: Challenging the New Normal
Karen Cecilia She/Her/Hers (Playwright, Screenwriter, Director) Her work has been seen in NYC at 3LD, La Mama, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Theater For The New City, Theatre Odyssey, Sarasota FL, The Coalescence Theatre, Illinois and The Firehouse Theatre, Richmond, VA and Jermyn Street Theater, London England.
As a writer, I feel it is a privilege to tell the stories of people’s lives and show their deepest struggles as well as their greatest triumphs. I strive to engage the audience with my writing, provoke thought about the world around us, and create a new narrative through characters with agency who do not fall into the standard conventions of the past. ~ Karen Cecilia
Perfectly Normal (previously named Mea Culpa) was chosen for the #Shepersisted festival in Bloomington, Illinois and received Semi-Finalist award from The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in 2019. Play Workshops: The Cry Havoc Theatre Company and IVP Productions. She was the winner of the Walter Prichard Eaton Prize for Playwriting Excellence from Hunter College in 2014. She was a co-screenwriter on Daughters of Solanas produced by The Women’s Weekend Film Challenge ‘19. Karen is a frequent guest on City World Radio speaking about theatre and playwriting.
In addition to her playwriting career, Karen founded a theatre company The Call Theatre in 2021 and also has been coordinating, producing and hosting local events that supports community and the arts. The Call Theatre’s mission is to inspire, educate, and truly represent the people of the community through story and community service.
The Call Theatre conceives that theatre can and should happen in any type of space and is in pursuit of claiming spaces in the community for the neighborhood to have access to theatre. *This is an independent theatre company and produces work in any city.
The Call Theatre respects its audiences, believing that public discourse is essential to a democratic society and that stories of underrepresented people are vital to our lives as individuals and as a collective.
The Call Theatre welcomes ALL to the theatre and supports community collaborations.
The Call Theatre conceives that theatre can and should happen in any type of space and is in pursuit of claiming spaces in the community for the neighborhood to have access to theatre. *This is an independent theatre company and produces work in any city.
The Call Theatre. Named to ask the audience, HOW WILL YOU ANSWER THE CALL?
Want to be involved?
email us at thecalltheatre@gmail.com
Instagram: thecalltheatre.brooklyn
Selected works: Ivy Walls-play finalist and produced at the Second Annual Theatre
Odyssey One Act Play Festival; Top Finalist Honors 2019 Ivoryton Women
Playwright’s Initiative. Perfectly Normal- Finalist #Shepersisted festival,
Bloomington, Illinois; Semi-Finalist The Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 2019,
Semi-Finalist The Athena Project, CO. Play workshops: The Cry Havoc Theatre
Company and IVP Productions. Winner: Walter Prichard Eaton Prize for
Playwriting Excellence Hunter College ’14. Co-screenwriter on Daughters of
Solanas produced by The Women’s Weekend Film Challenge ‘19. Writer/Director
(short) Vanish’d Sight. Video Director for the song Thinking About Leaving from
Kate Dulcich on her album Wrong Me.
Karen has an MFA in Playwriting from The Actors Studio Drama School, Member
of the the Playwright/Directors Workshop at The Actors Studio NYC, The
Dramatists Guild of America and on the Board of Directors for The League Of
Professional Theater Women. Publications: 100 MONOLOGUES FROM NEW
PLAYS 2020 — WOMEN Limelight Editions/The Applause Acting Series. “Zaza”
Monologue from STRIKE: All Women Stand United.
Instagram karen.cecilia6