In this dynamic evening of new theatrical voices, emerging playwrights share their works-in-progress with a live audience. Scenes are read aloud by actors cast on the spot.
Dennis A. Allen II is a multi-hyphenate in the world of theatre. As a playwright, his play The Mud is Thicker in Mississippi won the 35th annual Off Off Broadway Samuel French Festival. He is the recipient of Atlantic Theater Company’s inaugural Launch Commission, Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writer’s Group, and National Black Theatre’s “I Am Soul” Playwright Residency. Allen is an associate producer for The New Black Fest and served as the National Playwriting Program Vice Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival region 1. He is an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, The New School and is the Co-Program Director for the MFA Playwriting program at Brooklyn College. Dennis received his MFA from Brooklyn College’s Playwriting program.
Brandi Nicole McLeain is an actor, wordsmith, and director based in NYC. CT born, Baltimore bred and Dallas fed, everything Brandi creates is born of a love and reverence for [Black] storytelling. Regardless of the discipline, she tells the truth through stories that inspire freedom and compassion. Brandi’s work sparks decolonization of the mind by unearthing the stories of her ancestors, dissecting cycles, and revealing patterns of behavior found within the Black community and the diaspora as a whole. At age ten, Brandi was obsessed with writing stories that combined familiar fairytale characters with Greek Gods. This love for ensemble writing grew at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Dallas, TX, and was refined under the tutelage of Will Power at Southern Methodist University.
Krook’d Rootz is an episodic full-length play that holds a magnifying glass to traditions and social customs within the Black community. As the audience celebrates the culture and history through dance, music, poetry, comedy, and scenarios, they are simultaneously challenged to consider what changes, if any, need to be made if we are to achieve unity and revive the revolution. Brandi has performed original poetry and her 10-minute girlhood solo performance, Green Beanz, at the Billie Holiday Theater’s Skylight Open Series. Green Beanz recently participated in the New York Theater Festival (2025) and is currently being extended to a 45-minute show. Keep an eye out for this rising star on IG: @brandiwithaneye & Tik Tok: @brandiwithaneye28
I’ve never seen myself as just one thing—I’m a storyteller, whether through a lens, a page, or a stage, aiming to open eyes, touch hearts, and challenge minds. With a Lit degree in my pocket, I earned my Master’s in Broadcast Journalism at BU, then hit the road as a video journalist from NYC to Miami and Latin America, crafting mini-documentaries. Now based in NYC, I juggle acting and writing, with credits in filmmaking, web series, and playwriting. My award-winning screen work includes You Again, The Crew, and Theatre Noir, and my stage play (plan C) will premiere at Pygmalion Theatre in May 2026.
Born and raised in Southside Jamaica, Queens, Benny Jean-Baptiste is a writer who intentionally defies easy categorization. His work is a continuous examination of the Black experience with the intentions of compelling audiences to view the world through a lens that is both critical and compassionate. Whether through gritty realism or speculative fiction, Benny finds the universal in the hyper-specific. As a native New Yorker and first-generation Haitian-American, he writes from a perspective deeply rooted in the specificities of New York City’s Black communities, and uses storytelling to dismantle the myths we were told and retell ourselves—especially those about Black monoliths. He sees genre and medium as tools to provide distance to the questions his writing is constantly asking, anchoring his arguments in the truth of the good, bad, and ugly of human behavior. He is interested in the “masks” people wear, the codes we switch, and the heroes, monsters, and saints we create in the spaces between feast and famine. Benny is currently living and writing in Bedstuy, Brooklyn.
At the core of the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Literary Series is the belief that theater has the transformative power to challenge the status quo, connect disparate worlds of thought, and, ultimately, change the world. Thus, we are invested in the development of work that shifts the conversation around representation in the theater and are dedicated to providing a platform for those voices traditionally underrepresented on the American Stage.
CTH’s Literary Series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Axe-Houghton Foundation.
Selected playwrights submit 10-12 pages of a new work in the early stages of development. Actors are cast on the spot and perform a cold reading, followed by a moderated audience feedback session. In addition to serving the development of new work, these readings give audiences a sneak peek into how new plays are created.
CTH asserts that a “Future Classic” promotes courageous and open-minded examination of controversial and critical topics that are at the heart of society. Designed for the emerging professional playwright, Future Classics offers participating writers the opportunity to showcase their new completed works and receive dramaturgical feedback. Participants work with CTH’s resident dramaturge, a professional director and a dedicated group of actors to showcase a new full-length play.
Submit your work to Ms. Shawn René Graham, Literary Director at shawnrene@cthnyc.org. No phone calls please.