Auction closes Wednesday, October 29th 11:55pm. Click here to bid!
THE SURGEON AND HER DAUGHTERS cast announcement!
The cast will feature Brian D. Coats (Oh Happy Day! at The Public; On the Levee with Lincoln Center), Liza P. Fernandez (La Paloma Prisoner with Signature Theatre; To The Bone at Cherry Lane Theatre), Yadira Guevara-Prip (Bow Lion on See, Apple TV; Street Children with Vertigo Theater Company), Eden Marryshow (INK with MTC; Seven Guitars at Arena Stage), Johnny Sánchez (Sonnets for an Old Century with The Barrow Group; ‘Til the Break of Dawn at Abrons Arts Center), and Kana Seiki (Don’t Pitch It, Do It at A.R.T./New York; Peach Boy with Pan Asian Rep).
Announcing our 2025-2026 Resident Artists
Congrats to our 2025-2026 cohort (from left to right, top to bottom): Amita Sharma, Jahquale Mazyck, Sarah Mantell, Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Jasmine Sharma, Ashil Lee, Attilio Rigotti, Elliot Connors. Click here to learn more about this year’s Residents.
2025-2025 Resident Artists:
actor and director Sheila Bandyopadhyay (she/her)
playwright Elliot Connors (he/him)
actor, playwright, director and sex educator Ashil Lee (they/he/she)
playwright Sarah Mantell (they/them)
playwright Jahquale Mazyck (he/they)
theatremaker, technology artist, and videogame designer Attilio Rigotti (he/him)
writer and actor Amita Sharma (she/her)
and performer, writer, and activist Jasmine Sharma (she/her)
Now in its 9th year, artists are selected from an Open Call, which yielded nearly 350 applicants this past summer. The Artist Residency provides an intimate group of early and mid-career playwrights, directors, producers, dramaturgs, and designers with the invaluable resources of community, space to work, and a stipend; and is especially vital at a time when developmental opportunities are reducing their programming and/or shuttering completely. Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and Artistic Associate Talya Braverman meet with Residents quarterly with an emphasis on forging authentic creative collaborations and amplifying these artists' voices. Luminaries from the field are invited to join the group for panel discussions, conversations and networking.
Past residents have included Jeremy O’Harris, Danya Taymor, Will Arbery, Whitney White, Tara Elliott, Portia Kreiger, Sarah Blush, Lizzie Stern, Brittany K. Allen, Natalie Margolin, Lia Romeo, Liba Vaynberg, Corey Umlauf, and more.
Benefit tickets now on sale!
Apply now for CoCo's 2025-2026 Residency
Click here to learn more and apply!
Applications close July 29th, 10pm ET.
Please help us spread the word!
ANNOUNCING OUR NEXT WORLD PREMIERE!
THE SURGEON AND HER DAUGHTERS
BY CHRIS GABO
DIRECTED BY ADRIENNE CAMPBELL-HOLT
PREVIEWS START NOV 23, 2025
This fall, we’re thrilled to launch our 15th Anniversary Season with The Surgeon and Her Daughters by Chris Gabo, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt. Chris and Adrienne first workshopped this play in the (beloved and sadly shuttered) Cherry Lane Mentor Project in 2016. After a talkback following a performance of Still in February, Adrienne and (Surgeon actor and Colt Coeur company member) Eden Marryshow were talking about the state of the world and how compelled we feel as theatre artists to tell stories that hold and interrogate the socio-political tensions of our time; and how much that feeling had us thinking about Surgeon. We reached out to Chris - and here we go!
With the recent passing of our friend, Surgeon actor and visionary generative artist Zaza / Diana Oh, we feel even more compelled to tell this story now. Our production will be dedicated to their memory.
A 21st-century Les Miserablés, The Surgeon and Her Daughters is an epic and intimate play about family, grief, and how we stay afloat amidst seemingly insurmountable odds. Diving unflinchingly into the ‘melting pot’ that is New York City, the play explores the slipperiness of truth and justice, the thorniness of honor and redemption, and the sensation of being a crab at the bottom of the barrel.
With a cast of six and an original score, The Surgeon and Her Daughters is also the ‘largest’ play Colt Coeur has produced since our 2019 premiere of Eureka Day.
✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
One star for each year of original, hauntingly resonant, and fiercely tender theatre that has launched careers, deepened community, and challenged the boundaries of traditional storytelling!
REFORMER reading May 28
Colt Coeur presents
a staged reading of
Reformer
by Rachel Herron
directed by NJ Agwuna
Featuring: Marié Botha, Pooya Mohseni, Madalyn Pedone, Nedra Marie Taylor, Allison Siko, Maya Smoot, Ava Yaghmaie
stage managed by: Caren Celine Morris
movement consultation by: Juri Onuki
Sunlight Studios, May 28 2025
Reformer was commissioned by Colt Coeur with a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Special thanks:
Jenna Segal and Gatherer Enterprises
minor·ity extends through May 4th!!
The reviews are in and people are loving minor·ity!
Get your tickets now! Must close May 4th!
BENEFIT READING OF DRY LAND
Cast announced & tickets on sale!
STILL is back!
Colt Coeur’s acclaimed production of
Still
by Lia Romeo
directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
returns January 28-March 23, 2025 at the Sheen Center - starring Melissa Gilbert and Mark Moses!
2024: A Defining Year for Colt Coeur
Unforgettable Milestones:
• Transformative Workshop - We partnered with griot Alim Kamara to workshop Francisca Da Silveira’s minor.ity, building momentum for its much-anticipated premiere in April 2025.
• 15 Years of Free Arts Access - Our annual Education Initiative served NYC students for the 15th year, opening doors for the next generation of creative thinkers and storytellers.
• Commercial Success - Our acclaimed production of Still by Lia Romeo, featuring Jayne Atkinson and Tim Daly, is now set for a commercial transfer in early 2025—bringing Colt Coeur’s vision to even larger audiences.
• Supporting New Voices - With nearly 200 applications, we handpicked nine Resident Artists through our Open Call, cultivating the talent that will define tomorrow’s theatre.
• Mentorship that Lasts - Our internship and mentorship programs have never been stronger, connecting emerging artists with experienced mentors for real-world growth and professional success.
• Record-Breaking Benefit Bash - This year’s Benefit Bash, our most successful yet, celebrated honourees Juliana Canfield & Deborah DeCotis and raised essential support for our mission.
• Growing Our Team - We welcomed Maya Smoot as our new Director of Education & Outreach and expanded our company with 13 new members, enhancing our capacity to serve and inspire.
Because of you, 2024 marked a new chapter for Colt Coeur.
Thank you for being a part of it. Together, we are transforming the landscape of American theatre!
Learn more about Colt Coeur!
BENEFIT AUCTION NOW LIVE!
Our online auction is live now through October 13th with unique offerings from theatre tickets to one-of-a-kind experiences and travel opportunities!
Announcing our 2024-2025 CoCo Residents!
We received 190 submissions to our Open Call for Residents and interviewed 21 incredible finalists. We held our first Resident meeting this year a couple of weeks back.
We are finally ready to announce the 2024-25 cohort of nine playwrights, directors, designers, and dramaturgs: Micaela Bottari, Kathleen Capdesuñer, Justine Gelfman, Renae Jarrett, Ying Ying Li, Alex Lin, Molly Marinik, Graham Techler and Seayoung Yim.
To learn more about this incredible group, click here.
(Photo features artists alphabetically, from left to right, top to bottom.)
CoCo Residents: OPEN CALL
Seeking playwrights, directors, designers & creative producers! Click here to apply!
The CoCo Residency program started 7 years ago and invites 8 early-to-mid-career theatre artists to form a cohort over a year-long period. The cohort includes playwrights, directors, producers and designers.
The goal of this program is for residents to build authentic relationships within their cohort, as well as with the Colt Coeur Leadership team. Unlike other residencies, there is no specific product you are working on, nor is there a forward-facing presentation of any kind. Hopefully, our time together yields exciting ideas, nourishes our souls, and establishes the foundations for future collaborations.
The CoCo Residency program alumni include: Brittany K. Allen, Will Arbery, Rashad T. Bailey, Katie Brook, Bleu Beckford-Burell, Dustin Chinn, Kate Cortesi, Melissa Crespo, Sarah Dahnke, Adrienne Dawes, Kate Douglas, Tara Elliot, Emma Goidel, Jeremy O. Harris, Justice Hehir, Rachel Herron, Obehi Janice, C.A. Johnson, J. Mehr Kaur, Portia Krieger, Niara Mae, Natalie Margolin, Rehana Lew Mirza, Lia Romeo, Sarah Sander, Danya Taymor, Corey Umlauf, Liba Vaynberg, Noelle Viñas, Whitney White, Pirronne Yousefzadeh, and Cate Yu. (If you know any of these artists - we encourage you to ask them about their experience!)
Through this residency, we are excited to offer:
a $750 stipend (in two payments, one in October 2024, one in August 2025)
access to the CoCo office/rehearsal studio in DUMBO (we encourage Residents to collaborate with each other and share their work in our DUMBO studio)
$100 towards workshop/development
We will be accepting submissions through August 2, 2024. We will notify finalists and conduct interviews in August. Our first session is Friday, September 6th.
If you would like to speak to our team about alternative ways to apply (i.e. self-recorded video, or audio file), please get in touch at coltcoeur@gmail.com.
Reviews are in... and we're extending!
CoCo For All - Ticket Subsidy Fund
At Colt Coeur, we are deeply committed to bringing art to a wide community and aim to provide show tickets at accessible prices. Despite rising production costs, we will continue to provide at least 30% of all tickets at highly subsidized rates to help eliminate financial barriers to access our work.
In addition to offering the alumni of our Education Initiaitive – a signature Colt Coeur education program that has been running for 15 years – four complimentary tickets to each of our productions, we continue to prioritize offering free or discount tickets to artists and arts workers who make up about 20% of our audience.
Donations to our CoCo for All –Ticket Subsidy Fund make it possible to provide complimentary, $10, & $25 tickets for our next production, Still – running April 13 - May 18, 2024 at DR2 Theatre.
Special thanks to CoCo Board Member Roberta Kelly for inspiring this initiative with a generous lead contribution.
Learn more about Still here.
Buy tickets to Still here.
All contributions to this fund are fully tax-deductible.
Looking Back // Dreaming Ahead
At the end of the year we love to reflect on what we shared - and dream about what’s ahead.
Click here to read our EOY eblast jam-packed with images!
Click here to read Heather Cohn’s End-Of-Year letter - and support our upcoming season!
Announcing our 2023-2024 CoCo Residents!
After receiving over 70 submissions to our Open Call we are thrilled to announce this year’s cohort!
Colt Coeur's 2023-2024 Residents (clockwise from top left):
Jose Sebastian Alberdi (playwright), Brittany K. Allen (playwright), Sarah Dahnke (director/choreographer), C.A. Johnson (playwright), Eric Norbury (designer), Lia Romeo (playwrights), Danny Tejera (playwright), Liba Vaynberg (playwright)
Read more about these exciting artists below!
jose sebastian alberdi (he/him) is a Mexican-Basque-American playwright (with TV aspirations). Originally from San Diego, CA, he now lives in New York & writes about queerness, faith, power, & other things he finds interesting &/or important. He has developed his work with/at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Orchard Project, INTAR, the Huntington Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage, Exquisite Corpse Company, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, Fresh Ink Theatre, & Teatro Chelsea. He has received commissions from SpeakEasy Stage for their annual Boston Project & he is currently under commission at INTAR as their inaugural Max Ferrá Playwriting Fellow. MFA from New York University, BA from Northeastern University.
Brittany K. Allen (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based writer and actor. Her plays have been staged and developed at Portland Center Stage, Jungle Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, The Public, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Studio Theatre, and KC Rep, among other places, and she currently holds commissions from Playwrights Horizons and Clubbed Thumb. Recognitions include the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, the Dramatists Guild Foundation Comedic Playwriting Prize, and a Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellowship. She is a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages, and her writing has been supported by a MacDowell fellowship, and scholarships to Bread Loaf, and the Sewanee Writers Conference, where she now teaches on faculty. brittanykallen.com/
Sarah Dahnke (she/her) is a choreographer, director and arts educator deeply committed to empowering communities to use movement to reclaim narratives stripped away by colonialism. She was the Crane Directing Fellow at Opera Columbus for 2022-2023, a MAP Fund awardee, an NEA Our Town-funded resident artist, and a former awardee of fellowships from Gibney’s Moving Toward Justice, Target Margin Institute, New Victory LabWorks, and Culture Push. Dahnke has received commissions from PEN America and A Studio in the Woods and has been in residence at Abrons Arts Center and Brooklyn Studios for Dance. As a practitioner, Dahnke specializes in devised performance and site-specific dance film. Her dance film work has been screened through the Dance Films Association, Tiny Dance Film Festival, DanceBarn Collective, BRIC, and Movies By Movers. SarahDahnke.com
C.A. Johnson (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from Metairie, Louisiana. Her plays include ALL THE NATALIE PORTMANS (MCC Theater), THIRST (2017 Kilroys List, CATF), THE CLIMB (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), AN AMERICAN FEAST (NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School), I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW, and SOMEBODY’S BODY. Most recently she was the Tow Playwright in Residence at MCC Theater. She was previously the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow, The Lark's 2016-17 Van Lier Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, A Core Writer at The Playwrights Center, a member of The Civilians R&D Group, a Sundance/Ucross Fellow and a 2018 Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow. Her work has been commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep, Page 73, and Chatauqua Theater Company. C.A. also has an active career in film and television, with several projects in development, including at ABC Signature, Netflix and New Line. She has written for a number of television series, including projects helmed by Drew Goddard, Marielle Heller, and more. BA: Smith College MFA: NYU
Eric Norbury (he/him) Lighting Designer - Select credits include Hong Kong Mississippi (La MaMa ETC), Dodi & Diana (Colt Coeur), The Prom (WPPAC), Footloose (Argyle Theatre), Xerxes (Detroit Opera), Blue (Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Dutch National Opera), Only Human: A Musical (Theatre St. Clement’s), Till: A Musical (NYMF), Nimbus Dance at BAM Fisher,. Previous work: LaMama ETC, NYTW, Playwrights Horizons, Barrington Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, New School of Drama, Washington National Opera, 5th Avenue Theatre, The Glimmerglass Festival, Seán Curran Dance Company, De Funes Dance, Second Avenue Dance Company and many others. MFA NYU/Tisch. Member USA829. ericnorburylighting.com
Lia Romeo (she/her) was a recent playwriting fellow at Juilliard. Her plays have been developed at the O’Neill, La Jolla Playhouse, the Lark, and elsewhere, and have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and ART/NY as well as regionally at venues such as Dorset Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Unicorn Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, and others. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays are published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and Broadway Play Publishing. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company and the co-founder of the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group, and she teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. www.liaromeowriter.com
Danny Tejera (he/him) is a writer, actor and teacher from Madrid. His play TOROS was produced at Second Stage Uptown and received a New York Times Critic’s Pick. He is a member of EST/Youngblood and a Colt Coeur Resident Artist, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Millay Arts, Stillwright, and Tofte Lake Center. He has received commissions from Second Stage Theater and EST/Sloan. Short plays include SCARY FACES HAPPY FACES (Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, The Best 10 Minute Plays 2023) and TWO TWO WOMEN (Ensemble Studio Theatre). He teaches with The Bushwick Starr’s Senior Storytelling program and previously taught at UT-Austin, The School of the NYTimes, and Breakthrough NY. He got a B.A. from Columbia University and a Playwriting M.F.A. at Hunter College/UT-Austin, where he was mentored by Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. He’s represented by WME and 2AM.
Liba Vaynberg (she/her) is a bilingual first-generation American artist whose work reimagines canonical text by centering contemporary questions of gender, progress, and God (or lack thereof). The daughter of Ukrainian and Azeri Jewish refugees, she studied Molecular Biology at Yale before receiving her MFA at Columbia. Plays: The Matriarchs (Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Civilians R&D, Theater J Abramson Finalist, Blue Ink finalist), The Gett (Rattlestick, Princess Grace Semi-Finalist, Colorado New Play Festival), Round Table (59E59, Fault Line, Times Square Chronicles 10 Best Plays of 2019), Scheiss Book (United Solo Festival: Best One-Woman Show & Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award, Dixon Place, Wild Project, Kitchen Theater), The Blue Parts with Dina Vovsi (Working Theater, NYSCA Grant). Her work as an actor includes “The Soap Myth” (PBS) opposite Ed Asner, Oregon Trail at the Women's Project, Lost In Yonkers opposite Marsha Mason (CT Critics' Circle nom.) and Golem of Havana at La Mama. Fellowships include LABA, COJECO Blueprint, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She writes for Lilith Magazine. libavaynberg.com