The Playwrights Database
DESI MORENO-PENSON
Nationality:
USA
email:
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Website:
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Literary Agent:
Bret Adams Ltd
As a playwright, actor, and Dramaturge, Desi has numerous stage and screen credits, including roles in Spike Lee's "Girl 6," "It Could Happen To You," and "Extreme Measures." She has studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, the Greer Garson Theater Center at the College of Santa Fe, NM with a BFA degree in Theater and Acting, and is an MFA graduate in Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism from Brooklyn College where she graduated with a 3.9 GPA.On scholarship, she carried out a postgraduate program at the British American Drama Academy in London. She is a member of the Dramatist's Guild of America, the Screen Actors' Guild, NoPassport (a multicultural playwrights' coalition headed by Caridad Svich), and INTAR Theatre's Hispanic Playwrights Residence Lab (HPRL). Executive and Artistic Director of Actors Without Spaces (formerly Daddy Bear and Company), a professional multicultural new play development lab, Desi also completed a full-length play entitled A Divine Brew, which was successfully produced for an off-off Broadway run at the Blue Heron Arts Center in May 2000. She has written and developed three one-act plays entitled Screwing Rachel, The Red Chair, and A Latina Prepares which were presented as an Equity workshop production in March 2002 at the manhattantheatresource through their Flop-Night Development Series. Since then, Screwing Rachel has been rewritten to a full-length and was recently seen this past August as part of the 1st Annual "Bad Plays" Festival at the Downeast Arts Center produced by NY Artists Unlimited. It was voted one of the top 3 plays in the festival. In May 2002, A Latina Prepares was picked up by the WOW Cafe Theatre for their biannual Latina Playwrights Festival. The same piece, along with The Red Chair, has been presented as part of the Play Reading Series for the 2003 NewWorks Lab at INTAR sponsored by the Jerome Foundation. In July 2002, the Buchwald Foundation instituted by Don Buchwald & Associates, awarded her a TA (Technical Assistance) Internship grant. As such, she completed a literary internship at the Lark Play Development Center. She is also the recipient for the 2003 Samuel Levenson Memorial Scholarship sponsored by the Alumni Association at Brooklyn College and is the first graduate student in its history to receive this endowment. She has received the 2003 Wilson Lehr Award, both the 2001 and 2006 BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Playwriting Fellowships as well as the 2002 Louis Delgado Jr. Playwriting Award for a full-length play Beige. Beige received a staged reading in September 2002 at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe as part of their First Look Reading Series and is a finalist winner for the 2002-2003 New Voices/Nuestras Voces Playwriting Competition at Repertorio Espanol, sponsored by the MetLife and Jerome Foundations. Beige was also picked by Theatre Resources Unlimited for a producers showcase reading at the Greenwich Street Theatre. In May 2004, A Latina Prepares was seen as part of the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, produced by Reg E. Gaines (BRING IN DA NOISE, BRING IN DA FUNK) and Arcos Entertainment at the Abrons Arts Center @Henry Street Settlement. A Latina Prepares won for Best Performance Short in the Festival, which came with $1000 cash prize. The same piece was seen as part of the 5th Annual BAAD ASS Women Festival at BAAD! (The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) this past March. Her play 3 To a Session: A Monster's Tale was first produced as a workshop through INTAR'S 2004 NewWorks Lab, a program for emerging Latino/a playwrights. It was chosen for Best Play at the 2005 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, which took place at the Cherry Lane in Greenwich Village this past July and the play returned for an additional 5 performances at the Clurman on Theater Row at 42nd Street between Feb. 1st thru Feb. 5th, 2006. This past April, a new play, Grinch, received staged readings at both the 78th Street Theatre Lab and the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College, CUNY. Eventually, the title was changed to Devil Land and the play received a critically acclaimed, Off-Off Broadway production at Urban Stages by The Immediate Theatre Company. Previously, the play had been chosen for the annual hotINK Festival, a staged readings festival of new plays by established and emerging playwrights produced by NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Desi has been a finalist for the 2004 Mabou Mines Resident Artists Program as well as a finalist for the 2004 American Theatre Affiliated Writers Program sponsored by Theatre Communications Group. She has been an Arts panelist for the Artists Congress sessions sponsored jointly by the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Field, Inc. She is currently a teaching artist/instructor with the College Now!/Liberty Partnerships After School Program at Hostos Community College.
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3 To a Session: A Monster's Tale
Synopsis:
Sexual play-acting scenarios among three individuals
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Clurman Theatre, NY 2006
Organisations:
1st Published:
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Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play One Act
Parts:
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Biege
Synopsis:
Puerto Rican woman caught between her community and an Anglo husband
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Greenwich Street Theatre, New York 2003
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: -  Female: -  Other: -
Further Reference:
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Comida Da Puta (F#@King Lousy Food)
Synopsis:
Phaedra in the Bronx. A bodega-owner's wife, is madly in love with her husband's son, the lunch-counter boy, even her friend, the neighborhood 'spiritual' woman, Rosalia, can't save her.
Notes:
The Ensemble Studio Theatre And Going to the River have lined up some of the most gifted women playwrights of color - some new, some established - for A three-week presentation of nine short, under 10-minute plays in return of the series The River Crosses Rivers. The River Crosses Rivers II mixes established playwrights like Pearl Cleage And Regina Taylor with emerging playwrights France-Luce Benson, Christine Jean Chambers, Naveen Bahar Choudhury, Philana Omorotionmwan, Desi Moreno-Penson, Bridgette Wimberly And Cori Thomas.
1st Produced:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: 1  Female: 3  Other: -
Further Reference:
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Devil Land
Synopsis:
a gothic tale about a couple in the Bronx who kidnap a 12-year-old girl and keep her in their basement in a misguided attempt at creating a family. The little girl however has other ideas. Protected by her terrifying and perhaps not-so-imaginary friend, a battle of wills ensues, pitting faith, family, and politic against each other.
nytheatre.com
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1st Produced:
Urban Stages, NY 2006
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1  Female: 1  Other: 1g
Further Reference:
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Ghost Light
A couple arrives at a motel room for an afternoon of clandestine sex. Their tryst is interrupted by a security guard with alarming news about the room they're in. A vicious and violent cat-and-mouse game ensues as they rush to uncover the truth behind a horrifying urban legend. The perfect play to usher in Halloween!
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Immediate Theatre Company and Monarch Theater
1st Published:
Broadway Play Publishing 978-0-88145-506-9
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2  Female: 1  Other: -
Further Reference:
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Spirit Sex
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Ten Min
Parts:
Male: 2  Female: 1  Other: -
Further Reference:
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