The 2026 Reading Series
Year THREE
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 back workshopping three new plays by Victoria Lino, Rudi Goblen, and Jaymes Sanchez.
Each work in our series is provided with rehearsal space, casting support, and dramaturgical feedback, culminating in a public presentation for industry and community members alike. Most importantly,every artist involved is paid $26/hour, thus continuing Checkmark’s goal to role model what equitable, community-driven new work development looks like for the industry at large.
The Writers
Victoria Lino (she/her) is an Afro-Dominican artist whose work spans performance, playwriting, and poetry. She is an alum of The People’s Theatre Playwright Cohort. Her work has been recognized as a Semi-Finalist for the Van Lier New Voices Fellowship. As a performer Victoria has worked at INTAR theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, and Powerhouse Theatre. An alum of The Soul Soiree Monologue Slam powered by BET. She is an inagural member of The Actors Center Mentorship Program. She creates work that focuses on identity, spirituality, and womanhood in the Afro-Latinx diaspora.
IG: @victoriarlino
Rudi Goblen (he/him) is a playwright, educator, and performer who creates solo and devised theater works.
He is a 2025 USA Fellow; a recipient of the Colman Domingo Award, three Kennedy Center Playwriting Awards, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and a two-time O’Neill Finalist.
His work has been presented at the Geffen Playhouse, The Shed, New York Theatre Workshop, Vineyard Theatre, Fisher Center at Bard, Yale Cabaret, Alliance Theatre, and Rattlestick Theater.
He is a founding member of Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre and Teo Castellanos D-Projects, and has toured, taught, trained, and worked with Cirque du Soleil, DV8 Physical Theatre, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, and the American Dance Festival.
Publications include Theater Magazine, Imagined Theatres: Writing for a Theoretical Stage, Concord Theatricals, and PEN America.
He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama.
Jaymes Sanchez (he/him) is a Texan playwright, actor, and educator living in Brooklyn. Jaymes's plays have been supported by Latinx Playwrights Circle, New York Theatre Workshop, INTAR, The Orchard Project, Broadway Podcast Network/Rattlestick Theater, The Lark, The Ucross Foundation, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Company One, and The Barn at Lee. He was a runner-up for the 2025 Venturous Playwriting Fellowship. Jaymes was an Inaugural Candela Summer Fellow in 2023; The Summer Fellows then formed a collective called DIEZ, which received an Artist Grant from the The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) in 2024. Jaymes received the 2020 Keene Prize for Literature and the second-place prize of Playing on Air's James Stevenson Award. Jaymes has been a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival, and the Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval. MFA: The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Plays
HOT SEAT
By Victoria Lino
Directed by Leandra Torres Santiago
August 17th at 7:30pm
MCC Theatre
HOT SEAT begins on Harlem's hottest day of the year. As Essence reaches for a connection to her late grandmother's spirit, she finds herself confronting the past and present when her two best friends stop by to express their belated condolences. When tensions rise between friends, grief turns to revelation, and long-kept secrets are revealed.
GREEN SUGA BLOOS
By Rudi Goblen
Directed by Jacob Basri
August 20th at 7:30pm
MCC Theater
What if two ten-year-old girls could outsmart death, debt, and the people who profit from both? When Siddi's father falls into a coma, she and her best friend Belli set out to rob the Big Bank in search of its "green suga," believing it can save him. Blending music, movement, drag, cabaret and spoken word, Green Suga Bloos is a fable about grief, Black imagination, capitalism, family, and the radical hope of childhood.
SKULL RACK
by Jaymes Sanchez
Directed by Cristina Angeles
August 21st at 7:30pm
MCC Theater
In this pseudo-historical dark comedy set in 1459, Tez is captured by the Mexica (more commonly known as the Aztecs) and forced to impersonate a god for a year. Unbeknownst to him, he is participating in a ritual that will result in his brutal sacrifice, a religious ritual that the king uses to inspire the people toward conquest. As Tez and his babysitter, the king’s niece, develop a bond, they plot their escape from the empire.