Remote video URL
Katie Walker (Love, NYC Dramaturgs founder and creative producer, and New York City metro regional VP) hosted the first annual Love, NYC Dramaturgs (a love letter from dramaturgs to the New York theatre community) through the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. The event celebrated the love of collaboration in theatre through a symposium and reception on Saturday 15 February at the National Opera Center. The event was filmed by Transcend Streaming to be livestreamed and archived by HowlRound Theatre Commons.
Tony and Obie Award-winning director Doug Hughes interviewed Mark Bly (longtime Broadway dramaturg) as they celebrated their artistic collaboration of forty years. Another panel featured dramaturgs Ken Cerniglia (Hadestown, Newsies, Peter and the Starcatcher) on Redwood by Tina Landau (opening 13 February on Broadway), Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel (Layalina and English at the Goodman Theatre) on English by Sanaz Toossi (Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway through 3 March), and Amy Marie Seidel (Tectonic Theater Project dramaturg) on Here There are Blueberries by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich (2025 International Tour).
The event explored the specialized dramaturgy practices of multi-hyphenate artists Daniel Mesta (Operaturg, Heartbeat Opera), Iyvon E. (Audio Play Dramaturg, The Parsnip Ship), and Heath Saunders (Diversity Dramaturg, Actor for Company and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway).
The afternoon also featured a tribute to the career of Patrick Hoffman (curator of Theatre on Film and Tape archive), original music from song-cycle Written in Time by Emmy Award-winning composer Sean P. Pallatroni and sung by Mason Olshavsky (Epic: The Musical), and a reception sponsored by Trish Rossiene and International Cocktail Consultants. The symposium is sponsored by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the LMDA Bly Creative Capacity Grant.
Graphic design by Philip Romano.
Panel Overview
Panel One—A Love Letter to Current Collaborations
11:30 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 2:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5)
Panelists: Ken Cerniglia, Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel, and Amy Marie Seidel
Moderator: Katie Walker
Panel Two—Celebrating Forty Years with Mark Bly and Doug Hughes
12:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 2:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 3:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5)
Performance by Mason Olshavsky from Written in Time by Sean P. Pallatroni
A conversation with Mark Bly and Doug Hughes
Panel Three—P.S. Practices Specialized
1:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 3:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 4:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5)
Panelists: Iyvon E, Daniel Mesta, and Heath Saunders
Moderator: Katie Walker
Love, NYC Dramaturgs Bios
Katie Walker hosting the event and moderating Panel 1—A Love Letter to Current Collaborations & Panel 3—P.S. Practices Specialized
Katie Walker (♥NYC Dramaturgs founder, host, creative producer) is a New York City based dramaturg, director, writer, and performer from Denver, Colorado. She has worked with companies including The Playwrights Realm, Normal Ave Productions, Strange Girls Theatre Collective, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Katie serves as New York City metro regional VP for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and she assists the worldwide theatrical community as a research assistant in the Theatre on Film and Tape archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Katie’s New Play Exchange writer and director/dramaturg profiles are available at Katie Walker | New Play Exchange.
Panel 1 - A Love Letter to Current Collaborations
Ken Cerniglia on REDWOOD by Tina Landau & HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell
Ken Cerniglia (event advisor/panelist) On Broadway, Ken's dramaturgy is represented in Redwood (2025), Hadestown (2019), and Aladdin (2013). During 16 years as dramaturg and literary manager at Disney Theatrical, he developed over seventy titles for Broadway, touring, international, and licensed productions, including Peter and the Starcatcher (five Tony Awards), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Freaky Friday, Newsies (two 2012 Tony Awards), The Little Mermaid, High School Musical, and Tarzan. He adapted several Disney librettos for young performers and developed a new series of Marvel plays for teens. Regional dramaturgy credits include Romeo y Juliet (CalShakes); Blood Moon (2020 PROTOTYPE Festival, NYC); the new musical Bridges (Berkeley Playhouse); and OLIVERio: A Twist on Dickens (Kennedy Center). He is a board member and past president of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and holds a Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the University of Washington.
Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel on ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi
Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel (panelist) (she/they) is an award-winning Iranian American dramaturg, theatre journalist, and cultural producer with roots in and around Chicago. As a queer, fat femme they endeavor to amplify and archive stories that go lost/stolen/forgotten. Their writing and research explores possibility models for a more inclusive and sustainable theatre culture and industry. Mikhaiel’s praxis across producing live and digital media centers audience experience that is community-focused, responsive, and vibrant. Mikhaiel is currently serving as the EDI and education consultant on the Broadway premiere of English at Roundabout Theatre in New York and dramaturg on the world premiere of The Cave at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago. They hold a M.A. in Performance as Public Practice from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.F.A. in Dramaturgy/Criticism from The Theatre School at DePaul University, where they now teach as adjunct faculty. Learn more and connect with them on socials @yasmin.zacaria or on their website.
Amy Marie Seidel on HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich with Tectonic Theater Project
Amy Marie Seidel (panelist) (she/her/hers) is a New York City based theatremaker who has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally. She is a company member at Tectonic Theater Project, where she has developed numerous plays, including Here There Are Blueberries, a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist recently produced at New York Theatre Workshop, and Seven Deadly Sins, which won the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. She has brought two major musicals to Broadway as part of team directing Paradise Square (ten Tony Noms) and The Great Gatsby (one Tony Win), and she is currently developing a new biographical play centering Billie Jean King. As director, Amy is developing multiple new plays, including a production of Machinal premiering off-Broadway in 2025, All The Frozen Ones by Stella Ferra (Starring Robert Sean Leonard), and Falling Forward, a new musical by Karl Amundson and Emily Fink (2024 NAMT Recommended Musical). Website.
Panel 2 - Celebrating Forty Years with Mark Bly and Doug Hughes
Mark Bly (dramaturg)
Mark Bly (event advisor/panelist) (he/him/his) is co-founder and director of the Kennedy Center Dramaturgy Intensive and a Playwriting Workshop Leader there since 2002. He is a recipient of the KCACF Medallion for Lifetime Excellence in Dramaturgy. Bly is a freelance dramaturg and most recently a producer/dramaturg for film with Academy Award nominated Brazilian director Moara Passoni (EXTASE). Past affiliations as dramaturg/ associate artistic director are 1979-2019; Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Rep, Yale Rep, The Acting Company, and Tectonic Theater Project, and on Broadway (including Execution of Justice, Enemy of the People, and 33 Variations) having worked on over 250 classics and new plays. Bly is a co-founder of LMDA, Board President 2003-2006, recipient of the G.E. Lessing Lifetime Achievement Award (2010), created and funded the LMDA Creative Capacity Grants as well as the Production Notebooks Project. From 1992-2004 he was the Director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Yale and has authored three books all still in print: Production Notebooks: Theatre in Process, Volumes 1 & 2 (1996, 2001), and New Dramaturgies: Strategies and Exercises for 21st Century Playwriting. In 2023 Bly was inducted into the prestigious College of Fellows of American Theater.
Doug Hughes (director)
Doug Hughes (panelist) His recent production of Brian Friel’s Translations won the 2024 Lucille Lortel Award for best revival. Broadway productions include Junk (Tony nomination, Best Play), Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination Best Play), The Big Knife, An Enemy of The People, Born Yesterday, Elling, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Oleanna, the Tony-nominated revival of The Royal Family, A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, the Tony-nominated revival of Inherit the Wind, A Touch of the Poet, Frozen by Bryony Lavery (Tony-nomination, Best Play, Tony-nomination Best Director), and Doubt for which he won the Tony Award for Best Director. Numerous off-Broadway productions at the Public Theater, the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Atlantic Theater Co., Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center Theater, and Roundabout Theater. Numerous regional productions: The Guthrie Theater, the Arena Stage, the La Jolla Playhouse, The Yale Rep, Steppenwolf Theater, Hartford Stage, The Mark Taper Forum, and the Geffen Playhouse. In addition to the Tony, he has been awarded Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lortel, Obie, and Callaway Awards for his productions.
Panel 3 - P.S. Practices Specialized
Iyvon E. (audio play dramaturg)
Iyvon E. (panelist) (she/her) is an award-winning creative producer, dramaturg, and arts leader dedicated to amplifying bold, diverse voices in theatre. She is the founder and producing artistic director of The Parsnip Ship, a play development platform recognized by the New York Times as one of "5 Podcasts to Bring Theater Into Your Home." Her newest venture, Sparked By Iyvon, focuses on dramaturgy and script development for new plays, providing bespoke artistic support to playwrights and storytellers. Iyvon has also led artistic programming at Signature Theatre, where she launched LaunchPad, a residency for early-career playwrights, and produced SigSpace, a dynamic public series. A Fulbright Scholar and Mark O’Donnell Prize recipient, she has worked at and with The Public Theater, Sundance Institute Theatre Program, and Lincoln Center to name a few. Passionate about new work, she champions storytelling that sparks conversation and innovation. Follow her: @iamiyvon @sparkedbyiyvon @theparsnipshipNY
Daniel Mesta (operaturg)
Daniel Mesta (panelist) is a musical theatre and opera dramaturg working in New York City. Since serving as the literary manager and resident dramaturg of the Latine Musical Theatre Lab, he has worked as a translator, dramaturg, and librettist. Recent projects include Shrek, The Musical Jr., (MTI) Zorro, (Opera Cultura) Orgullo! (Joe's Pub at the Public), Salome and Faust (Heartbeat Opera).
Heath Saunders (diversity dramaturg)
Heath Saunders (panelist) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist. Selected theatre credits: Rent (The Atlanta Opera), Company (Broadway), Jesus Christ Superstar (NBC Live!, Chicago Lyric), Alice By Heart (MCC Theater), The Great Comet (Broadway). They wrote the score for the new musical Newton's Cradle, and in 2021, founded Spectra Media Collective with their mother and siblings. You can learn more about it at spectra.theater, and you can keep track of their personal antics everywhere else @feeltheheath.
Event Performers
Sean P. Pallatroni (event pianist, WRITTEN IN TIME composer)
Sean P. Pallatroni is an EMMY Award winning composer, songwriter, music director, and pianist. Originally from Bedford, New Hampshire, Sean completed his undergraduate degree in Music Composition at the Hartt School of Music and holds his MFA from the Tisch School’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, NYU. Sean has written for musical theatre, classical chamber ensembles, jazz bands, choir, and orchestra, and regularly musically directs and arranges for Broadway performers and actors across New York. Currently he is an accompanist and vocal coach at Pace University’s Sands College for Performing Arts. He is the recipient of Hartt’s Edward Diamente Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Composition and winner of the Alabama Orchestra Association’s Composition Competition for his work When the Grass Was Still Green.
Mason Olshavsky (WRITTEN IN TIME performer)
Mason Olshavsky is an actor and singer based in New York. He is currently earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater from Pace University. Mason has appeared on Saturday Night Live, America's Got Talent, and is most recently featured in the EPIC: The Musical Official Concept Album. Follow him on TikTok (@Shavsky with 250k+).
Event Production Crew
Philip Romano (graphic design and photographer)
Philip Romano is a graphic designer/photographer/producer/background actor/tour manager/et cetera who is happy to support dramaturgs and their important work! Website.
Trish Rossiene (international cocktail consultants)
Trish Rossiene is a born and raised New Yorker. She became versed in wine and classic cocktails at Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Brasserie, excelling in molecular mixology at Sean Hergatt’s JUNI, and mastering hospitality at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group at the famed Gramercy Park Hotel. As former president of the US Bartender’s Guild in NY, she’s traveled the world on educational tours promoting the trade and teaching others the art of craft cocktail creation. Trish participated in the prestigious “Cocktail Apprentice Program” run by Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. She also helped with seminars at the globally regarded Bar Convent Brooklyn and in Tribeca at Monk McGinn’s where she was the Beverage Director over a team of heavyweight mixologists. She currently works with TAO Group at NYC’s newest hot spot - Sake No Hana.
Leanna Keyes (film technician Transcend Media)
Leanna Keyes of Transcend Streaming is a multi-hyphenate theatre professional working primarily in NYC, Boston, and San Francisco. Off-Broadway: director of photography for The Orchard, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht. Projection designer, Powerhouse for Manhattan Rep. Video associate & QLab programming, Our Class at Brooklyn Academy of Music & Classic Stage Company. Here in the city, Transcend Streaming does archival recordings, live-streaming, conferences, and more for theaters across the boroughs.
Susan Selig (assistant to the producer)
Susan Selig worked as a stage manager from 1984 to 1993 at Ensemble Studio Theater, Open Eye Theater, the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center and various other theatres. She was the assistant and then the Production Stage Manager for the original run of Ruthless: The Musical at the Players Theater. She is delighted to return to the theatre by supporting Dramaturg Day.
Organizations
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (sponsoring)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas was founded in 1985 as the volunteer membership organization for the professions of literary management and dramaturgy. LMDA is a not-for-profit tax-exempt organization with members throughout North America and abroad. LMDA holds the belief that theatre is a vital art form that has the power to nourish, educate, and transform individuals and their communities and that dramaturgy is central to the process of theater-making. LMDA promotes the creation of stories that reflect a broad spectrum of authentic experiences in our diverse global community. LMDA membership is dedicated to fostering an environment of respect, celebrating difference, and seeing the principles. Learn more at their website.
International Cocktail Consultants (sponsoring reception)
International Cocktail Consultants was founded by Trish Rossiene, and it has helped develop many bar and beverage programs for bars, hotels, and restaurants around the world including four bars in a luxury resort in St. Kitts and at the Barrow’s Intense Distillery Tasting Room in the new Industry City Brooklyn Complex with the largest selection of spirits from NY State in the world. International Cocktail Consultants also provides resources for bartenders, such as calendars of cocktail conferences, links to educational seminars and competitions, and a blog touching on current issues and trends in the spirits industry. International Cocktail Consultants had invented craft cocktails and inspirations for spirits brand’s national marketing campaigns as well as events like the Macy’s Flower Show Launch.
Transcend Streaming
Transcend Streaming was founded by cutting-edge creators Kyra Bowie and Leanna Keyes. They bring a perfect blend of artistry and savvy, results-oriented focus to bespoke creative and professional engagements. These Brooklyn-based professionals can be your producers, your event coordinators, your stream dream team, and more—and they’re ready to show you what Transcend Streaming can bring to your next experience.
Special Thanks:
Mark Bly, Ken Cerniglia, Cynthia SoRelle, Jim SoRelle, Brian Quirt, Sara Freeman, Lindsey Barr, Suzi Elnaggar, Liana Irvine, Philip Romano, Trish Rossiene, Sean Pallatroni, Kim Walker, Amy Walker, Susan Selig, Steve Massa, Patrick Hoffman, Randy Walker, Tommy Walker, Transcend Media, Vijay Mathew and HowlRound Theatre Commons, Saawan Tiwari, Greg Nanni, Ashley Campbell, Ellis Gage, Amy Hinrichs, and Mohammad Saboorizadeh
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