Ground Floor Theatre Reveals 2025 Fellows for GFT Writes

Ground Floor Theatre has announced the 2025 GFT Writes fellows. Now in its second year, the program brings a group of four playwrights to include Mia Gomez-Reyes, Anikka Lekven, Briandaniel Oglesby, Jessica L. Peña Torres. GFT Director of New Works Megan Thornton returns as the GFT Writes coordinator.

GFT Writes is a yearlong fellowship for Austin-based playwrights whose work falls within Ground Floor Theatre’s mission of centering historically underrepresented communities. A writers group anchors the fellowship, with the cohort meeting monthly to read and respond to one another’s work.

“Writing a play can be an isolating process for playwrights,” said Thornton. “GFT Writes provides both the community support of a writers group and the script-in-hand development process of a staged reading.”

After incorporating feedback from the inaugural cohort of fellows, GFT Writes has expanded the program to include table reads with actors in the spring, and additional access to Ground Floor Theatre resources. The fellowship culminates in the GFT Writes reading series, a workshop and staged reading presented by Ground Floor Theatre in October 2025.

“I absolutely love working in collaborative spaces where I can receive feedback and exchange ideas. Being surrounded by other playwrights allows me to see my work from different perspectives. My artistic practice is deeply aligned with a decolonizing framework, and Ground Floor Theatre has provided a space for me to explore these ideas,” says Jessica Peña-Torres, who will be returning to GFT Writes to continue work on her play Emiliana: A Revolution Cabaret.

Incoming playwright Mia Gomez-Reyes says “I’m excited to develop with Ground Floor Theatre, a company that I fully believe talks the talk AND walks the walk. We playwrights sit at desks alone and type alone and edit alone and have writer’s block alone, and that makes it very easy to feel that you’re the only writer on the planet who gets stuck. Writing in community, especially with other playwrights, reminds us that creating is a group effort, and no one exists alone.”

GFT Writes serves as an incubator for emerging and established playwrights looking to create new works that shine a light on groups that are often overlooked. Seeking passionate theatre makers who will benefit from an environment that nourishes and challenges them, Ground Floor Theatre accepts applications to its GFT Writes Fellowship annually.

Visit groundfloortheatre.org/writes to learn more about GFT Writes or to donate. All funds donated to GFT Writes are tax deductible and will be used to compensate artists participating in the program.