When: Friday, June 2nd 2023, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm CDT

Location: Annie May Swift, Helmerich Auditorium, 1920 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States of America

All are invited to attend the culminating weekend of events for the MFA Writing for the Screen & Stage program presented in partnership with EPICS. This year’s event will highlight the writer’s strike, the massive changes in the NY theatre world, DEI, and more in this changing world.

The panel will be co-moderated by the Director and Associate Director of the MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage program, Zayd Dohrn and Erin Courtney.

Panelists include:
• Lizzie Stern:

Lizzie writes plays, tv scripts and essays, and is the Literary Director at Playwrights Horizons, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning off-Broadway theater company. She is a member of EST/Youngblood and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s ECWG, and her plays have been produced in New York and Istanbul. At Playwrights Horizons, Lizzie curates programming and serves as a dramaturg, helping writers craft their stories with clarity and confidence. Lizzie is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Playwrights Literary Magazine, Almanac, and runs a Financial Literacy Program for artists. Born and raised in New York. BA from Williams College.

• Ayana Parker Morrison

Ayana Parker Morrison (she/her) is a digital and theatrical Creative Producer. She was the inaugural Producing Fellow with New York Theater Workshop’s 2050 Administrative Fellowship and an alum of the WP Producer’s Lab 21-22′ cohort. Select producing credits include JOAN with Colt Coeur, TENDER NAPALM at HERE Arts Center, SAINTS OF FAILURE, a solo show performed in Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and NY Times Critic’s Pick EUREKA DAY with Colt Coeur. Ayana is currently producing BEES AND HONEY at MCC, co- producing WET BRAIN with MCC and Playwright’s Horizons, and line producing SELF PORTRAITS by Phillip Howze with the Bushwick Starr.

• Harry Lengsfield

Harry Lengsfield is a manager at Grandview. Originally from New York, Lengsfield began his career at WME before transitioning into management at LBI in 2014 where he worked across a range of talent and literary clients including Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence, Bill Monahan, Jon Glazer, Todd Field, and Antoine Fuqua, amongst others. In 2022, Harry moved to Grandview to continue his career in management with a primary focus in developing writers and filmmakers across features, tv, and theatre.