Meet the Writers!

Hey hey hey!

Mark your calendars - All Work, No Play Take 4 will be on your screens at 8pm EDT on Wednesday, March 10! We have 4 new short zoom plays for you, and we can’t wait for you to meet the writers!

Kayla Yumi Lewis is an Asian American TV writer from the Bay Area in CA. During her time at NYU, Kayla wrote and showran a half hour YA drama pilot called Parked in America, which is making its world premiere at SXSW 2021 in March! Her passion and inspiration lies in diverse storytelling and representing the Asian American community on screen.

Gracie Rittenberg is an actor, writer, and director born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After earning her BA in Theatre at Reed College, she spent a couple of years working in theatre in Portland. She moved back to New York to attend the Atlantic Acting Conservatory. With her classmates at Atlantic, she helped found Bluebird Theatre Company, where she currently serves as Literary Manager. She has produced evenings of one acts for Bluebird as well, and recently completed a full length genderbent adaptation of Hamlet. She loves absurdist theatre, arguing about nerdy things, and sending out pictures of her cat.

Thea Throndson is a New York City-based writer, actor, director and musician. She graduated from NYU Tisch’s Experimental Theatre Wing in May, 2019. Pre-COVID, she composed and music directed Marat/Sade at ETW (dir. Andy Arden-Reese); directed the stage version of This Feeling by Amelia Annen and Lauren Montes, and After the Beep, an original one act play; and acted in Le Bourgeois Avant-Garde (dir. Carlton Cyrus Ward), and The House of Bernarda Alba (dir. Andy Arden Reese). Currently, she is in the process of recording a genre-defying musical album with her family. In the past year, she co-founded Invisible Disco Productions and has been involved in their many artistic endeavors, including writing and acting in previous iterations of the AWNP Festival, directing the Zoom debut of Jim Keane's original one-act "EZRA and Me," and composing/producing the soundtrack for This Feeling: A Digital Retelling. She is so grateful to her cast and the IDP team for making this process so seamless, and hopes you enjoy her new short play, The Interview!

Esther (they/them/she/her) is an actor and writer based in NYC. They are currently represented by CPM Talent Management. They are part of NYU Tisch School of the Art's undergraduate class of Spring 2021, majoring in Drama and History. At NYU, she trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and Stonestreet Studios. At NYU, have studied method acting and have experience with both theatre and on-camera acting. During her time there, she took part in short films such as Violets (2019).

During COVID-19, she has directed her focus into taking remote classes for her history major, which she is also passionate about, and has been writing, directing, and acting virtually for Invisible Disco Production Theatre company. Esther has also performed in remote shorts films with Stonestreet Studios. They also write poetry and have had their work featured on Mi Voz Media, a site created to amplify the voices of BIPOC individuals of marginalized genders. She was also recently featured on the Writer's Block Party Podcast (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts) where she was interviewed about her writing process and her upcoming short film (which she wrote) titled, "Late.” They are a huge cat person and absolutely love their new cat Olive (even when she gets the zoomies at 2 in the morning…)

We love these writers and the work they’re bringing to the table, and we are so excited for you all to join us on Wednesday!

The Disco Team