The Cell Announces 27 Resident Artists for its 2027-28 Season

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Grantees receive a stipend and a 1-5 week space grant at the cell, a multi-purpose art venue in the heart of Chelsea.

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the cell has revealed a brand new cohort of resident artists who will be presenting a plethora of developmental readings, workshops, and fully staged productions as part of their 2027-28 season.

Get all the top news & discounts for Off-Broadway & beyond.

The cell's Artist-in-Residence Program is for playwrights, composers, theatrical designers, choreographers, and interdisciplinary artists who are developing new and experimental work.

This year the cell has committed to 22 new projects with over 27 resident artists for the 2027-28 cycle. The 2027-28 cohort includes Deepa Purohit , Nancy Sun , Rebecca Salzhauer , Rosie Glen-Lambert , Petron Dee Brown, Salwa Meghjee , Adin Lenehan, Eliyah Smith, Lila Blue , Regan Moro, Spencer T. Campbell, Theresa Buchheister, Piper Hill, Mizuho Kappa, Drew Woodson, Preston Crowder, Miles Purinton , Allison Frasca , Benjamin Benne , Phoebe Farber, Kate Kremmer, Chloe Claudel , Mitchell Polonsky , Kerrigan Quenemoen , Cori Diaz , reid tang, Dominic Finocchiaro, and Erika Ji.

Grantees receive a stipend and a 1-5 week space grant at the cell, a multi-purpose art venue in the heart of Chelsea. The staff at the cell offers each AIR a suite of services including creative development, dramaturgy, casting assistance, technical support to execute theatrical designs, administrative services, 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship, marketing, ticketing, videography, and photographic documentation. Projects range from full ticketed events to closed workshops.

Deepa Purohit

Mxx: The Dignity Project January 2027

Deepa Purohit has MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College, the City University of New York and made her Off- Broadway debut at The Atlantic Theater Company in New York City with the World Premiere of her play, Elyria in February/March 2023 (2023 Drama League Award Nominee for Outstanding Production of a Play). She's the recipient of the 2024 Hermitage Greenfield prize, a two-year commission for M[xx]: The Dignity Project, and also a 2024 Asian Women's Giving Circle grant recipient for its development. M[xx]: The Dignity Project will have its first public performance at The Exponential Festival in Brooklyn from January 11-17, 2027. Deepa received the 2023 Laurents/Hatcher Playwriting Award: Citation for Excellence in Playwriting and the 2022-23 Edgerton Foundation Award for her play Elyria. She's a 2023-2030 New Dramatists Resident and a 2022 Atlantic Theater Company commissioned artist (w/NYSCA) for her play Mai & Maa also developed with The Public Theater /Brooklyn College Summer Residency Program (2024). Deepa adapted her play Elyria into a TV series with the 2025 Orchard Project Episodic TV Lab. Deepa co-founded and ran Rising Circle Theater Collective (2000-2012) - centered on the stories of people of color - for 12 years. Member of Ma-Yi Playwrights Lab 2014-2020. Deepa also holds a master's in public health (MPH) from Columbia University, and a BA in History/African Studies: Northwestern University and trained as an actor at the Harlem Theater Company. A former public-school teacher, Deepa teaches/has taught playwriting in the MFA programs at Brooklyn College and The New School and is a communications/public speaking coach for executives working in public education.

Rebecca Salzhauer & Rosie Glen-Lambert

Krav Maga in the Temple Basement Starting this Sunday (bagels to follow) January 2027

Rebecca Salzhauer is a writer and actor from New York City. A graduate of Yale University, her plays have been developed with Jewish Plays Project, Primary Stages/ESPA, and The Actors Center and recognized by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, and Premiere Stages at Kean University. As an actor, she's worked on new plays at Clubbed Thumb , Bay Street Theater, The Tank, St. Lydia's, and LaMaMa. Rebecca is an alum of The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals and a member of the Actors Center's Mentorship Cohort for Emerging Artists. Her writing has been published in the Forward, HowlRound, and the New Haven Independent, as well as awarded Yale's James S. Metcalfe Prize. She co-created and starred in the web series i'm so happy for you!!!!!! and does improv at UCB with her comedy trio, Stress Dream. rebeccasalzhauer.com

Rosie Glen-Lambert (She/Her) is a bicoastal theatre director, writer, and Drama Desk Nominee originally from Los Angeles currently based in Brooklyn. She is Artistic Director and Founder of The Attic Collective, an award-winning Los Angeles theatre company which focuses on new work, radical reimaginings, and devised performances. Rosie served as the Literary Manager and in-house dramaturg of Inkwell Theater in Los Angeles from 2019 to 2022 before leaving to pursue her masters in directing at UC San Diego. Off-Broadway: and her Children (SoHo Playhouse, Drama Desk Nomination), Associate Director A Walk on the Moon (Laura Pels Theatre, Directed by Sheryl Kaller ). Other Theatre: Associate Director Bliss (Edinburgh Fringe-ATG and Susan Edelstein Productions, Directed by Sheryl Kaller ), Associate Director Babbitt ( Shakespeare Theatre Company , La Jolla Playhouse, Directed by Christopher Ashley ), Half-Life (HERE Arts Center), Swallows (La Mama), Iphigenia in Splott (Attic Collective). Awards/Honors: Top Of Fringe 2025 and 2019 (Hollywood Fringe Festival), Directing Fellow 2025 (Moxie Arts Incubator Lab), Theatremacher (Alliance for Jewish Theatre). Affiliations: Member of The Kilroys, SDC Associate Member. MFA in Directing: UC San Diego. rosieglenlambert.com

Nancy Sun

PANDAMONIUM! March 2027

Nancy Sun is a playwright, actor, and American daughter of Chinese immigrants. As a storyteller, she is interested in centering the narratives of 'supporting' characters and making invisible labor visible. In 2026 her play PANDAMONIUM! was named the 1st place winner of the 'A is For' Playwriting Contest, an official selection of the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, a finalist for the Ojai Playwrights Conference, and a semi-finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. At Primary Stages ESPA, she was a 2026 Rockwell Scholar and a member of their 2024-25 Echoes Writers Group. Finalist: 2026 Under Construction PlaywrightsGroup at Road Theatre, 2025 Target Margin Theatre Institute Fellowship; semifinalist: 2026 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, 2026 Cherry Lane Playwrights Collective, 2025 SignpostFellowship, 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency. As an actor, her select stage credits include Junk ( Arena Stage ), The Hard Problem (Studio Theatre), and Marginal Loss (world premiere, Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville). Onscreen, she has performed in Showtime's 'Homeland,' TVLand's 'Younger,' NBC's 'The Slap,' and the Warner Brothers ' film Going in Style. MFA: Hunter College, 2028. @thenancysun www.thenancysun.com

PETRON DEE BROWN

Stand Right There and Perish March 2027

Petron Dee Brown is a Bahamian-born multi-faceted writer and artist. He is the recipient of the Inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship for Playwriting and the Mabel P. Robinson Emerging Artist Award at the 2024 International Black Theatre Festival. He received an MFA from the University of Southern Mississippi where he was inducted into the Graduate Student Hall of Fame. He has also received both a Distinguished Achievement and Honorable Mention for the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, runner-up for the David Shelton Playwriting Award, and the KCACTF/LORT ASPIRE John Cauble Award, and was a 2025 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-finalist. Petron was recognized as the Live Arts: WATERWORKS x The Bridge Artist for his work. Petron also holds a dual bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and Theatre from the University of the Ozarks where he recently returned to direct the world premiere of his play, Tingum in Da Bush Ean Get No Name. In Hattiesburg, MS, He premiered a TYA play that he co-wrote as a part of a grant commission from the Hattiesburg Arts Council. He served as the Script Assistant to the Pulitzer-prize finalist Playwright Aleshea Harris on her World Premiere play, Feast of Rabbits, at Playwrights Horizons (2027). His work has been developed at the cell, Conch Shell Productions, Billie Holiday Theatre, HB Studio, New Federal Theatre, University of the Ozarks, and University of Southern Mississippi. He currently serves as the Playwriting and Acting Workshop Coordinator at New Federal Theatre, along with the Program Director of the NFT's Solo Performance Collective. At present, his ever-evolving identity as an artist lies in a Melting Pot of Caribbean/West Indian culture both clashing and combining with American culture.

Salwa Meghjee

Obligate Carnivores April 2027

Salwa Meghjee is a Muslim-Indian-Floridian writer. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Program at Juilliard, and holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Northwestern. She has developed plays with her and collaborator Sarah Marlin's production company Pizza Party Press, as well as Soho Rep, Playwrights' Center, The New Victory, Pipeline Theatre, and more. She is an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, and by day she is the Partnerships Associate at Play On Shakespeare. Her plays are surreal, darkly comic, lean into the serendipity of live theater, and illuminate the big unnameable feelings we all experience. They have fun titles such as Love Jihad <3 ( Clubbed Thumb Biennial Semi-Finalist), U-Haul Mesbians, Ender's Gay, D-Wording (EnActe NYC New Works Incubator Winner), Partners (Exponential Fest 2027), Never Forget That Jasper Cullen Was a Confederate Soldier, and, written with her twin sister Samah, The Better Banana (Brooklyn Publishers).

Adin Lenahan

Pooh Christ May 2027

Adin Lenahan is a writer and performer. They are the 2026 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. Their work has been seen at Abrons Art Center, Ars Nova, The Brick, Dixon Place, Culture Lab LIC, Judson Memorial Church, The Kraine, The New Ohio, The Tank, Theater for the New City, Paradise Factory, wild project, diners, drive-ins, and dives. Finalist: Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship. Semifinalist: Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Playwrights' Center's Jerome Fellowship, The Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship. They are a producer for Undiscovered Countries, an incubator of live performance based in Brooklyn. AdinLenahan.com

Eliya Smith

Biography May 2027

Eliya Smith is a writer from Ohio. Off-Broadway: Dad Don't Read This (NYT Critic's Pick, Phyllis Anderson Prize), Grief Camp (Atlantic Theater Company; Keene Prize Finalist, Venturous Grant), Two Girls (Upcoming, Cherry Lane Theatre ). Other plays: Deadclass, Ohio (with the Goat Exchange; Tank Core Season, Ice Factory Festival, Reboot Studios Grant), Memonica (HERE Arts Center), Then We'll Rest and Biography (ISLE Theater Company). Additional Support: American Repertory Theater, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ars Nova, Portland Theater Festival, Working Barn Incubator Program. Proud Member EST Youngblood; Company Member and Resident Playwright at The Goat Exchange. MFA UT Austin.

Lila Blue

Tremelo May/June 2027

Lila Blue (all pronouns) is a composer, writer, performer, and folk musician from New York City. Their work explores grief, epigenetics, disability, queer mischief, and often includes collisions with a ghost or two. Blue has performed and composed professionally for fifteen

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/The-Cell-Unveils-27-Resident-Artists-for-2027-28-Season-20260928)._