The 2025 Reading Series
Our second, annual Summer Series
When we decided to reopen our doors, we knew the best way to do so was to welcome as many new artists into the Checkmark fold as possible. That’s why we began producing an annual, Summer Reading Series and, this year, we are workshopping three new plays by Abigail C. Onwunali, Megan Chan Meinero, and Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel.
Each piece is provided with rehearsal space, casting resources, and dramaturgical support, culminating in a public presentation for industry and community members alike. Most importantly, every artist involved is paid $26/hour so Checkmark can role model what equitable, community-driven new work development looks like for the industry at large.
The Writers
Abigail C. Onwunali (she/her) is a Nigerian-American storyteller whose work spans playwriting, performance, and poetry. She is a 2025 NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, New Harmony Project Fellow, and recipient of the Irons in the Fire Residency. Her plays have been supported by Red Bull Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Liberation Theater Company, and Fault Line Theatre. A member of EST’s Obie-winning Youngblood collective, Abigail is also a Princess Grace Award winner and a Red Bull Theater Short New Play Festival winner. She is a two-time Elliot Norton Award nominee and winner for her lead performance in The Grove at The Huntington. Rooted in her Nigerian heritage, Abigail creates ritual-driven work centering Black women and reviving ancestral memory through language and imagination.
Megan Chan Meinero (she/her) is a playwright and screenwriter from New York. Her plays have been produced/developed with The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, American University, Less than Rent and many others. She is a proud alum of EST/Youngblood and 2nd Stage Theater’s Lark Playwrights Workshop - where she developed The Punishment Show under the mentorship of Rajiv Joseph, David Henry Hwang and May Adrales. On the screen side, most recently, Megan served as an executive story editor on season 20 of Grey’s Anatomy. Prior to that, she worked on two seasons of Jason Katims’ Dear Edward for Apple TV+. She has developed original features with MRC/A-Major and original television projects with Amazon/Temple Hill/Purple Pebble and Emmy Rossum’s Composition 8. MFA: Northwestern University.
Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel (she/her) is a trans Guatemalan playwright, born in Guatemala and raised in Norwalk, CT. Her works are spiritual, hyper theatrical narratives that give Queer + Trans BIPOC voices a space to interrogate core wounds and imagine a path towards healing. She is the recipient of the Paul Green Award from the National Theater Conference, the Kennedy Center’s Latinx Playwriting Award, and has received distinctions and development opportunities from theaters including NYTW, Breaking the Binary Theater, Syracuse Stage, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and more. She currently teaches playwriting at the Public Theater and the Yale School of Drama. Write her! www.esperanzarosales.com
The Plays
Rose
By Abigail C. Onwunali
Directed by NJ Agwuna
August 18th at 7pm
INTAR Theatre
Every time the gate swings open at the Garrett home, something shifts. Set in post-Depression Baltimore, ROSE follows a young Black woman determined to keep her family from falling apart. The house is worn. The people inside, even more so. Death stirs. Secrets surface. Love is tested. Inspired by Rose from August Wilson’s FENCES, this is a story of resilience, faith, and the quiet power it takes to keep a fractured family alive.
The Punishment Show
By Megan Chan Meinero
Directed by Cristina Angeles
August 21st at 7pm
INTAR Theatre
Frustrated with the state of the world, Max decides to dip a toe into vigilantism but, when he’s faced with an opportunity to punish a perpetrator, he becomes the tortured one. Desperate to make a difference, Max turns to a support group for vigilantes which he hopes will help him to accomplish his goals. Instead, he realizes the group’s mission is to help vigilantes manage their addiction versus taking matters into their own hands. Will Max continue down his dark path towards justice, or will he learn to trust in people and in systems? This is THE PUNISHMENT SHOW.
Lux & Rex Are the Brightest Things in this Forsaken World
by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel
Directed by Jacob Basri
August 22nd at 7pm
INTAR Theatre
Lux is a trans woman. Rex is a gay man. Lux & Rex are strangers meeting at a small little dive bar. Lux has been stood up. Rex is her bartender. They fall in love at first sight...until they remember their shared past. As the world around them begins to change at a terrifying pace, Lux & Rex go back and forth in time to see if they can rediscover their old love in their new bodies on a transformed Earth. Who are we to each other once the pillars of our time have fallen and all that's left are our old souls?