From Pakistan to New York, Hamad Naroze has always felt a fascination for storytelling, even graduating with a “Story Crafting” BA from CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies in 2025. His first reading was at the Muse Scholar Showcase at Hunter College ’23, then again the following year. Hamad prioritizes telling stories of the many forgotten people or places, those overlooked by history, intentionally or not. His works have been performed at the Rough Draft Festival (LPAC), New South Young Playwrights Festival (Horizon Theatre), and the Fall 2025 Queens Short Play Festival (The Secret Theatre). He is currently writing two self-commissioned projects centering South Asians; specifically a medieval tragedy told within the downfall of an empire and a one-act centering middle schoolers from New York during their last semester.
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Dipti Bramhandkar is a Mumbai-born, New York-based playwright and filmmaker and a member of LAByrinth Theater Company. Her film Joan’s Teeth, starring Kathleen Turner, is on the 2026 festival circuit. Her selected plays include Is There Even Porn in India? (Cape Cod Theatre Project, 2026), Conjuring the King (Juggerknot Theatre Company; Silver Palm Award), American Rookie (Luna Stage), A Land Without Weather (Guild Hall), and Islands of Contentment (Hypokrit Productions and The Tank). Her audio plays include Kishori’s Canteen and Learning to Swim (Audible). She was playwright-in-residence at Guild Hall and received The Farm Theater’s 2023-24 College Collaboration Project Fellowship, developing Soft Launch (Centre College) and The Ruminants (Austin Peay State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Shenandoah University, and The New School). B.A., Cornell; M.A., Cambridge. Next up: writing and directing I Eat Bacon (film) and developing I Saw a Man Standing on an Elephant (play) with Bill Bowers. Instagram – @Superdiptiwrites.
Maximillian Gill is an Indian-American playwright currently based in New York. His plays include Keeping Bodies Apart (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist) Your Undecaying Flames (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference short list finalist, Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship at New Dramatists finalist, Relentless Award honorable mention), Stay Up and Keep Rolling (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, Premiere Stages semi-finalist), Machines Eat People (Seven Devils Playwrights Conference semi-finalist), and Blank Slate (Bay Area Playwrights Festival semi-finalist. He is a member of the New Ambassadors Theatre Company and the American Renaissance Theatre Company in New York City. Much of his work can be read on New Play Exchange.
He has written scripts for CBeebies, Freedom Studios, Leeds Playhouse, the National Theatre, Magic Light Productions and Menagerie Theatre company. He’s also written audio drama for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Asian Network, Big Finish Productions, and Ragged Edge Productions. He won the 2021 Papatango Prize.
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(She/her) is a playwright and performer who grew up between Baltimore, Maryland, and Lahore, Pakistan. The descendant of two artists from different cultural traditions, her background as an African American and First Generation American Pakistani is at the heart of her artistic practice. Her plays have been developed with the Playwrights Foundation, Crowded Fire Theatre, Prop Thtr, Catalyst at UC Davis, Meet Cute LA, Northern Sky Theatre, and SFBATCO, where she is also part of the artistic staff. As an actor, Aidaa has performed with the Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre, Word 4 Word, SFBATCO, Oakland Theatre Project, Pittsburgh Public, Illinois Shakespeare, Utah Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, and American Players Theatre. She was a 2020 recipient of the Theatre Bay Area Leadership Residency. Aidaa studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts and went on to receive her BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Shail Modi (He/Him) is an actor and playwright based in Chicago. He is a Resident Playwright at PlayGrounds-Chicago, where his short play Gnats! was nominated for the Best of Chicago 2025-26. He was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference in 2024, and has worked with Avalanche Theater, as part of its Next Draft Series. He is also an Associate Ensemble Member at Trap Door Theatre.
