Own Your Story: A Playwriting Workshop

Join an LGBTQIA+ writer’s room, learn to dramatize your life story or a powerful moment in your life, and build confidence in sharing what makes you unique. Through collaborative discussions, hands-on writing exercises, and opportunities to share, young artists will explore how to tell their life stories in a creative, safe, and dramatically thrilling way. 

Presented by...

SMJ (they/them) is a mixed-Latiné and non-binary playwright, theatermaker, and educator. They are the Co-Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse and a former Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. Their work has been seen at Ars Nova, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, as well as different theaters throughout the United States. SMJ has been a finalist for the 2024-25 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting at New Dramatists as well as a semifinalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference (four times) and the 2022-23 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting at New Dramatists. www.smjwrites.com
Stage the Change is co-sponsored by Stage the Change, Inc.
The Tilles Center for the Performing Arts and Hauppauge Public Schools.
Stage the Change programs are made possible with funds from the
Arts Reach Fund at The New York Community Trust, Long Island; The New York Community Trust 
and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the
​Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This work is supported by Long Island Grants for the Arts through funds provided by the office of the Governor and the
New York State Legislature, and administered by The Huntington Arts Council. 
© COPYRIGHT 2025. ​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.