HOMEGROWN
City Theatre's HOMEGROWN playwright development program is designed to nurture, elevate, and promote writers from historically marginalized communities. It provides the time, tools, and training needed to create their own body of work, aiming to diversify our professional playwright community in Miami and beyond. A cohort of four playwrights collaborates with the HOMEGROWN Master Playwright, Vanessa Garcia, engaging in creative instruction and professional development. To learn more about the program, please email us at info@citytheatre.com.
City Theatre’s HOMEGROWN Play Reading Series
Four new short plays written by Miami’s best emerging playwrights.
Saturday, January 20, 2023
Westchester Cultural Arts Center
Free with registration.
6 pm
Meet and mingle with HOMEGROWN playwrights BK King, Maleeha Naseer, Nerissa Street, and Brandon Urrutia and Vanessa Garcia, the Master Playwright leading the program.
7 pm
Professional actors read four new, short plays written by playwrights in City Theatre’s HOMEGROWN Playwright Development Program.
After the reading, audiences are invited to discuss the work with HOMEGROWN playwrights and Homegrown's Miami Master Playwright Vanessa Garcia.
Participating Playwrights
Brittany “Bk” King is a poet, playwright, actor, and cultural organizer from South Florida. She utilizes her love of- film, digital video, music, photography, and theatre- to ignite our radical imaginations and create new stories to challenge our ideologies, and transform our world. Her first professional tour was a Brothers United production of “For Colored Girls..”, where she played the role of Lady in Green. Bk is also a Teaching Artist in Miami, FL teaching theatre, creative writing, and poetry. She is currently writing her first play with Donkeysaddle Projects, “Yo Te Esperaba '' a story chronicling the life, and detainment, of reproductive justice and immigrant rights organizer Alejandra Pablos.
Maleeha Naseer is a Miami based artist who graduated from Florida International University with a BFA in acting in 2022. She has been working around the Miami theatre sphere for companies such as GabeStage, Abre Camino Collective, and up and coming award winning company LakeHouseRanch.PNG. As a multi faceted artist Maleeha acts, writes, and even shakes martinis on the weekends at a local Kendall hot-spot!
Nerissa Street is a multiple award-winning teacher and storyteller who writes, directs and produces new, wiser stories. She believes that the stories we tell form our identity and the stories we tell together form our community. She has advanced training from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. She's been featured on WLRN, NBC6, the Miami Herald, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, PBS, and she's been seen at Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, TEDxMia, SXSW, NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, and Images and Voices of Hope. Nerissa wouldn't be anywhere without her family and her mentors, and she loves mangoes.
Brandon Urrutia (he/they/él) is from South Florida (born and raised). He is 25 years old. Their writing is influenced by his relation to the Hispanic community and his desire to feel closer to it. Urrutia is the recipient of the ENGAGE@GableStage grant and was awarded “As Miamense as Possible” by the Antiheroes Project for his Solo Performance “Lo Siento mi Espanol es Tremendo Mal”. They are also Co-Founder and Artistic Director of LakehouseRanchDotPNG. He graduated from Florida International University with a BFA in Theatre in 2020.
Support for HOMEGROWN is provided by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation. This program is also made possible with the generous support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.