DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. PLUCK YOUR EYES OUT.
Rooftop Readings 2026 is Sponsored by Black Watch Theatre
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James LaBella - Playwright
James La Bella is a writer and dramaturg. His writing has been seen onstage with NYU Skirball, Joe's Pub, The Prelude Festival, PS21, Invisible Dog, WNYC’s Greene Space, Life World, IDFA DocLab, and in print in McSweeney’s, The Washington Square Review, The Maine Review, and Extended Play. James is a Lambda Literary Fellow, Civilians R&D Group member, O’Neill Finalist, and has held residencies at The Orchard Project, Fresh Ground Pepper, and The Celebration Barn. James is a frequent collaborator of The Civilians (8+ shows) and of Clubbed Thumb, where he assistant-directed the Obie-award winning Grief Hotel. MFA Brown University. Jameslabella.com
Andrea Cardenas
Isaiah Frank
Isaiah Frank is a writer, performer, and filmmaker. Films: Paisley & Willis (writer/director, HollyShorts, Big Apple, Boston LGBTQ Film Festivals; streaming on Short Frame, Crafty); Naomi Daniels (writer/director/producer/editor/actor). Playwriting: R is for Writer (IRT/Parabasis, 1319 Press), NAOMI: The Naomi Daniels Show (BCC), co-creator of Afraid? Woolf! (The Tank/Parabasis). Acting: Clubbed Thumb, The Bushwick Starr, Nashville Repertory Theatre, Parabasis, Upright Citizens Brigade, Second City NYC/Chicago, The Brick Aux, The Tank, The Pit, and more. Up next: BI VISIBILITY DAY, June 2026.
Gabriella Gonzales
Gabriella Gonzalez (she/her) is a Chilean American actor from Memphis, TN. Recently: CATCH (PS21 Chatham, The Chocolate Factory), Target Practice (The Bushwick Starr), MEOW! (Exponential Festival), and Babies on the Street: The Show (The Brick).
Gracie Guichard
Grace Guichard recently made her Off-Broadway debut in Zack at Mint Theater Company. Other recent credits include The Woman in Black (Weston Theater Company), Straight Icons (Ars Nova/The Second City), and Much Ado About Nothing (SPARC’s Shakespeare in the Vineyard). New play development at SoHo Playhouse, LPAC, Off the Lane, TheaterLab, and The Tank. Additionally, many short films you have not seen. Website: www.graceguichard.com Instagram: @gracie.guichard
Maddie Hopfield
Maddie Hopfield is a New York City-based dancer, performer, choreographer, writer, and taiko drummer. She has shown work at The Brick, Brick Aux, Kestrels, LifeWorld, the MAAS building, Urban Movement Arts, The Art Room Studio, Vox Populi, and The Window Room. She has makes work with Marin Day under the name PEPTALK. She has performed in the work of Jo Warren, Matthew Antoci, Tau Lewis, Barnett Cohen, Christina Reaves (The Creature), Amelia Heintzelman, Paris Cullen & Sarah Zucchero, Lindsey Jennings, Maya Lee-Parritz, Amalia Colón-Nava, Leah Stein Dance Company, Philly Kerplop (Vince Johnson), Jillian Jeatton, Chelsea Murphy, Amalia Raye Wiatr Lewis, Lily Kind, Lillian Ransijn, and Cricket / James Colter, and choreographed for Middle Sister’s most recent theater production, we’re delinquents.pdf. She performs taiko with Casual Fifth (Philadelphia) and Taikoza (NYC). She graduated from Bard College in 2017 with a BA in Dance and Written Arts. maddiehopfield.com
Derek Smith
Derek Smith is a performer and writer from Northern California. Original/solo: Letters from Tyra: a duet (Expo Fest 2026 at The Brick, Upcoming), Lee Buliay: The Lost Year of Dean Moriarty, Probably (Dixon Place) Select Theater: On the Rocks’ Edelweiss (SoHo Playhouse, Ars Nova), FRED, The White Stag Quadrilogy, and WOLFERT (Dixon Place), Hartwell Church of God: The Musical (Ars Nova), EVENTS (The Brick), Buffalo Bailey’s Ranch for Gay Horses, Troubled Teen Girls and Other (The Brick), Oedipus Rex XX/XY (La MaMa), War Lesbian (Dixon Place), R*NT (University Settlement), August: Osage County (WPPAC) and Into the Woods (New Village Arts). www.derekrsmith.live
emily/BUBECK - producer
is a Queer, Catholic, Appalachian theatre practitioner who facilitates the development and consumption of new works by traditionally underrepresented artists. She is drawn to projects that allow us to expand our ideas on how we tell stories and who those stories serve. This is her eighth summer producing the Rooftop Reading series.
Michelle Chan - Producer
Michelle Chan (she/her) is a director, theatremaker, and producer from Hong Kong. She is a first-gen Taiwanese-American whose work attempts to redefine the roles fabricating the American culture, usually through intersections of gender, class and/or race. Her directing work has been seen at Ringling Museum/Asolo Rep, WP Theater, Dramatist Guild Foundation, Atlantic Stage 2, Connelly Theater, The Flea, Brick Aux, Theatre Row, Keen Company, Horizon Theatre, Hudson Guild Theatre, Dixon Place, The Tank, SERIALS, The Maker’s Space, Lime Arts, NYU, The American Opera Project, and fringe festivals across the nation. She was recently named Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective’s newest co-Artistic Director, and is also an associate Member of SDC. michchan.com @michellechaann
Molly Van Der Molen - producer
Molly Van Der Molen (she/her) is a playwright, director and creative producer based in NYC and the SF Bay Area. Molly is dedicated to curating opportunities for emerging artists and envisions a sustainable future for the theatre industry that is radically collaborative, equitable and accessible. She’s a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College. mollyvdm.com