CLUBBED THUMB’S 23/24 NEW PLAY DIRECTING FELLOWSHIP

Miranda Cornell is a Jew-panese theater director and creator with a passion for stories that engage the dialectic, the sincere, and the strange. She has directed and developed work with Roundabout, Ma-Yi, Playwrights Realm, Yale Summer Cabaret, Mercury Store, EST/Youngblood, 24 Hour Plays, The Brick, Leviathan Lab, YES Theatre, New Ohio/Ice Factory, NYMF, and universities around the country. Select associate/resident director credits: ‘The Outsiders’ (La Jolla Playhouse & upcoming Broadway), ‘Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord’ (NYTW/LJP/PCS), ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ (Broadway/Tour), ‘The Doctor’ and ‘Enemy of the People’ (Park Avenue Armory), and The TEAM. She was the 2020 Van Lier Fellow in Theater with the Asian American Arts Alliance, a member of the Roundabout Directors Group, and a 2050 Artistic Fellow at NYTW. BA: Vassar College. mirandacornell.com

Hayley Stahl is a writer from Michigan. Her work has been supported by MacDowell, Yaddo, and Clubbed Thumb. She holds a BA in film from the University of Michigan and an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College.

Lauren Zeftel (she/her) is a Brooklyn based storyteller who creates with and for those whose experiences defy simple expression. Recently, Lauren directed the world premieres of AMBITION by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, CIRCUS TRICK by Addie Ulrey, and …COLLECTIVE NOUN… by Haleh Roshan. For three years, she was a founder, co-producer, and resident director for PLAYxPLAY which presented the work of 15 playwrights, 23 directors, and over 200 actors. Lauren served as the Associate Director to Rachel Chavkin on the commercial run and national tour of Bess Wohl’s SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS and on James + Jerome’s INK: A PIECE FOR MUSEUMS (co-dir. Annie Tippe, Under the Radar/The Met Museum). She is a two time Drama League Resident Artist, a former Playwrights Horizons Directing Fellow, and an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Mercury Store Directors Lab, and the Williamstown Directing Corps. BFA: NYU/Tisch, MFA: Brooklyn College. www.laurenza.me

Julia Izumi (she/her) Plays include Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons/WP Theater), miku, and the gods. (ArtsWest), Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea (Rorschach Theatre), and others. Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Club, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Bushwick Starr, The COOP, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Seattle Rep, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights’ Workshop and CAATA’s National Asian-American Theatre ConFest. She received the inaugural OPC Dr. Kerry English Award, KCACTF’s Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award, Theater Masters’ Visionary Playwright Award, NY Society Library’s Artist Grant and a Puffin Artists’ Grant. Former LMCC Workspace Resident, Civilians R&D Group Member, and Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers’ Group Member. Current New Dramatists Resident. Current commissions: True Love Productions, MTC/Sloan, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Rep 20×30. MFA: Brown University. www.juliaizumi.com

Carsen Joenk is a multidisciplinary artist who embraces the weird, wild, and unfamiliar within ensemble-driven processes. As a director, she is a cardboard, glitter, and dance-pop enthusiast interested in work that uses stylized theatricality as a means of entertainment, conversation, and dissidence. Much of her work lives at the intersection of sound and story; as a sound designer, her work has been heard across theatre, film, podcasts, and new media. Carsen is the co-artistic director of Rat Queen Theatre Company, a member of the 2020-2022 Roundabout Directors Group, and a resident artist with New Light Theater Project. Carsen has been a Wingspace Directing Mentee, FAIR recipient at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, National Alliance of Musical Theatre directing observer, and member of the Mercury Store’s Directing Lab. She has developed and presented work with Colt Coeur, Rattlestick, Fresh Ground Pepper, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Seattle University, Ice Factory // New Ohio, La MaMa ETC, Art House Productions, and more.

Justice Hehir is a doula and playwright whose work explores sexuality and the mechanics of vulnerability. She is a member of Youngblood at EST, a 2023/2024 New Georges Audrey Resident, and a 2023 New York Theater Workshop Adelphi Resident. She is developing her play “the deodand” this fall with The Alcove New Play Program at the Lucille Lortel Foundation. She received a Clubbed Thumb Constitution Commission and with the support of New Georges co-authored “the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater,” a free, downloadable play about abortion rights released May 2022. She is currently under commission by Lin Manuel Miranda’s Family Foundation, along with her co-authors, creating a companion piece for “the wish.” MFA, Playwriting, 2018, Hunter College (under the tutelage of Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins); BA, 2016, Women’s and Gender Studies and English, Rutgers University.