Introducing the 2026 Rough Draft Festival Selection Committee

For more than 20 years, Rough Draft Festival has been a vital part of LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s (LPAC) commitment to artistic growth and community connection. At its core, the festival reflects LPAC’s mission to create space for work that reflects the breadth of the communities we serve, amplifies emerging voices, and supports artists as they develop new ideas. What began as LPAC Lab, has since grown into Rough Draft Festival, becoming a cornerstone of LPAC’s artist development work.

Rough Draft champions innovative, boundary-pushing artists by offering time, resources, and room to experiment. Through work-in-progress presentations, artists have the opportunity to explore and refine their ideas, while audiences gain insight into the creative process. Many of these works go on to evolve into fully realized productions, underscoring the festival’s role in fostering new work.

In 2026, Rough Draft will present five new works-in-progress over two weeks, from March 9th to March 21st. The selected artists reflect a broad cross-section of communities and cultural backgrounds, paired with an equally wide range of theatrical approaches. Stories take shape through music, movement, puppetry, and experimental theater, giving audiences a front-row seat to five distinct creative vocabularies taking shape.

Each year, submissions are reviewed by a newly assembled selection committee of theater industry professionals who bring fresh perspectives, expertise, and care to the process. This year’s committee reflects a wide range of experiences across the field, and their thoughtful review plays a central role in shaping the upcoming edition of Rough Draft Festival.

MEET THE 2026 ROUGH DRAFT FESTIVAL SELECTION COMMITTEE: 

Theresa Buchheister (they/them) is an artistic director, curator, and theater maker whose work centers on experimental performance and new work development. Based in New York from 2004 to 2024, Theresa founded several influential initiatives supporting boundary-pushing artists, including Title: Point, an experimental theater company, and The Exponential Festival, a Brooklyn-based festival dedicated to

emerging and interdisciplinary work.

Theresa has also served as Artistic Director of The Brick Theater and Brick Aux, earning an OBIE Award for their leadership and contributions to the field. Their experience spans writing, directing, producing, and performance, as well as extensive work in audio and voiceover across podcasts, audiobooks, and other media. With a deep commitment to artist-driven work and experimental practice, Theresa brings a strong curatorial lens to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection process.

Lauren Holmes is a playwright and producer whose work explores labor, class, and family through a contemporary lens. Before working in theater, she built a career in international and corporate sectors, experiences that continue to inform her writing. Lauren is a recipient of the 2024–25 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting and a New Dramatists Residency, and will be an artist-in-residence at The Cell Theatre during the 2025–26 season. Her work has been developed at institutions including LaGuardia

Performing Arts Center, The Brick, Theaterlab, and Nantucket Performing Arts Center.

She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College and brings a sharp, process-driven perspective to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection committee.

Evren Odcikin (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader based in New York City and San Francisco. His work champions historically excluded voices and is rooted in community-centered, politically engaged storytelling that approaches joy as a form of resistance.

Evren is the 2024–25 Artist in Residence at Golden Thread Productions and a 2025 Iris Lab Fellow with UC Santa Cruz. His directing work has been presented at leading theaters across the country, including Soho Rep, PlayCo, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Berkeley Rep. In addition to his creative practice, Evren has held key artistic leadership roles, most recently serving as Interim

Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2023. He currently serves on the boards of the MENA Theater Makers Alliance and Golden Thread Productions, bringing a thoughtful and expansive perspective to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection process.

Jermaine Rowe is a multidisciplinary theater maker, composer, and performer, and a former Rough Draft Festival artist. His work centers Afro-Caribbean storytelling across music, theater, and performance, with a strong emphasis on original work and artistic development.

His recent project, Jermaine Rowe Live, features original Afro-Caribbean compositions recorded as an integrative live album, with new works continuing in development, including the original musical The Children from the Blue Mountains, in collaboration with the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company. Jermaine has also been involved in nationally and internationally recognized development programs and residencies supporting new work, and was named a 2025 Candela Fellow, honoring visionary emerging theater makers.

As a director and collaborator, his credits include Project Sankofa (The Tank, NYC) and Welcome to America with Braata Productions, as well as serving as Associate Director for Watch Night during the inaugural season of PAC NYC. A celebrated performer, Jermaine has appeared on Broadway and regional stages, and he currently serves as a Professor at LaGuardia Community College, bringing both artistic and educational insight to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection committee.

Patrick Anthony Surillo (he/him+) is a Nuyorican stage manager, production manager, educator, and producer with over a decade of experience supporting new and experimental work. He currently serves as Production Manager at The New School’s College of the Performing Arts, where he works closely with artists across disciplines.

Patrick is pursuing his graduate degree with a focus on sustainable production models and artist advocacy, bringing a thoughtful, process-driven perspective to artistic development. His professional experience spans stage and production management for a range of theater and dance projects, with a practice rooted in collaboration, care, and support for artists at every stage of creation. He brings this commitment to equity and sustainability to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection committee.

Iyvon E. (she/her) is an award-winning creative producer, dramaturg, and arts leader dedicated to amplifying bold and diverse voices in theater. She is the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Parsnip Ship, a play development and podcast platform recognized by The New York Times as one of “5 Podcasts to Bring Theater into Your Home.”

Iyvon is also the founder of Sparked By Iyvon, where she focuses on dramaturgy, script development, and producing for new plays, offering tailored support to emerging and established playwrights. Previously, she led artistic programming at Signature Theatre, where she launched LaunchPad, a residency for early-career playwrights, and produced SigSpace, a public programming series centered on community engagement.

A Fulbright Scholar and Mark O’Donnell Prize recipient, Iyvon brings a deep commitment to new work and artist development to this year’s Rough Draft Festival selection committee.

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Since its beginning, Rough Draft Festival has served as a vital starting point for countless artists, offering time, trust, and space at moments when ideas are still forming. For many, the festival has been more than a presentation opportunity; it has been a place of possibility, experimentation, and artistic belonging. Over the years, Rough Draft has become a lifeblood for artists and audiences alike, supporting work that often goes on to grow far beyond its earliest drafts.

This year’s selection committee reflects the care and intention that have shaped the festival from the beginning. Together, these artists, producers, dramaturgs, educators, and arts leaders bring deep experience in new work development, experimental practice, artist advocacy, and community-centered storytelling. Their collective perspectives help ensure that each project is reviewed with rigor, curiosity, and a genuine commitment to artistic growth.

As Rough Draft Festival continues to evolve, it remains rooted in the belief that every bold idea deserves a place to begin. The artists, committee members, and audiences who return to this space year after year are what make the festival what it is, #IamRoughDraft.

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