NewYorkRep presents
Date, Time and Location:
Monday, June 15th, 7:00 PM
(followed by reception and award ceremony)
Houghton Community Arts Center-Fred and Adele Astaire Ballroom
22 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016
Congratulations to Emily Dzioba, this year’s winner of Curtain Rising, for her play make one left purlwise.
Emily Dzioba is a playwright and dramaturg based in Jersey City. This reading marks her professional playwriting debut. Emily was named as a finalist for the 2026 Art House INKubator Program for a full-length play she is developing about Ellis Island and Hudson County. Her writing on chronic illness was workshopped and performed at the 2025 NJ Theatre Alliance's "Healing Voices" showcase at Premiere Stages. Emily is interested in creating work that feels like a potluck dinner: something to gather around, with a little bit of everything at the table to take and give.
Dramaturgical collaborations have included work with The New Jersey Play Lab, Premiere Stages, Art House Productions, Theater Masters, The Strides Collective, and Blinking Light Productions in Sydney, Australia. She has studied Tectonic Theatre Project's Moment Work method, and remains interested in the world of devised theatre. She is a script reader for the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill, The Playwrights Foundation, She NYC Arts, and 1319 Press.
PURPOSE
Curtain Rising is a mini reading festival supporting the early-stage development of emerging playwrights whose work has never received a full production. The play being submitted must have had minimal development and must not have been developed through another festival or workshop in a producing capacity.
We seek innovative stories that might otherwise go untold due to barriers to access. NewYorkRep creates an inclusive platform for diverse voices, fostering dialogue on themes of alienation and reconciliation while empowering artists, building community, and centering work that inspires social change by illuminating our shared humanity. We believe that by engaging social and ethical questions through art, we can promote empathy, compassion, and inclusion.
Submissions for 2026 are closed. Please check back next year for more information on Curtain Rising 2027.