Playwrights Project (PAPAPP)
Launched in 2018, PAPAPP raises up the voices of emerging Asian and Asian American playwrights in our city. We hope the PAPA Playwrights Project will make Philadelphia's Asian and Asian American voices and stories increasingly visible on the stage.
Over the course of their residency, our playwrights hone their craft through workshops, readings, professional development opportunities, and guidance from a lead artist. PAPA Playwrights meet monthly to share drafts, work with local dramaturgs, and discuss local and national theatre. They engage with the new play development process and culminate with a reading of their work.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE PAPAPP UPDATES!
In the past PAPAPP has had public, ticketed staged readings of member work. We're in the process of reimagining the future of the group; stay tuned via our emails and socials for details about future exciting updates.
2025 Reading Series
My One-Sided Beef With Ashley Huang
Stuck working a retail job selling merch of other people's art, Irma can’t stop stalking an old acquaintance on Instagram—the only other Asian woman from her college acting program. Ashley is on a meteoric rise to fame, and Irma’s distant obsession with her burns so hot it piques the interest of the Bureau for Envy. The Bureau’s investigation uncovers Irma and Ashley's past dynamic, and reveals a tangled web of rivalry, solidarity, and the rat race beneath representation.
Badmaash: An Internet-y Play
Rani Sharma wants nothing more than to be a part of something bigger than herself. In the face of newfound fame and notoriety after sharing some “emotional truths”, Rani finds herself on the verge of losing her podcast, her friends, and herself. Will Rani’s risks pay off, or will she have to start from scratch on the road to redemption?
It's Not Actually Diwali but at least we're all together
6 childhood family friends that have gone off to college reunite for an annual Diwali party after not seeing each other for a year. Things have shifted and dynamics have changed. Old friendships that were meant to last a lifetime aren’t what they once were. As they spend more time together, they reflect on what it means to be South Asian-American after leaving their insular suburban high school lives, returning to a setting at once strange and alienating yet comforting and, ultimately, home.
Stained
After a chance encounter with a young Henna artist, a fading local legend seemingly magically finds her zest for like renewed and artistic prowess restored. However, as Push becomes an increasingly significant member of her orbit of artists, both women are forced to grapple with cultural, generational, and class conflicts that call into question the nature of mentor-student relationships, and the affect their respective crafts have had on their identities.
Cohort 4 2024/2025
The 2024-25 cohort hosted five new members who showcased their work in December of 2025.
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Siddarth Anand
Sid Anand is a South Asian-American playwright and performer originally from the DC area. His plays are about family, growing up, and identity. He writes because the act of writing about and paying attention to something is a tremendous act of love, and also because it’s pretty fun. He is an alumnus of the PlayPenn Playwright's Cohort. His plays have been workshopped at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, and Fresh Lime Soda Productions in New York City. Outside of the arts, he is also enthusiastic about community-building, leftist organizing, and lentils.
Erin Malimban
Erin Malimban is a Filipino American theatre artist based in Philly. She has helped develop new work with PlayPenn, Villanova Theatre, and Arden Theatre Company. She is so honored to be part of the PAPA Playwrights Project.
Gauri Mangala
Gauri Mangala (she/her) is a first-generation Indian-American producer and writer based in Media, PA. Whether on the page or on the stage, Gauri is drawn to stories that, even in their various forms of fiction-hood, pull out a true candor of what it means to be human. Production credits include: Broadway: The Cottage; National Tours: The Kite Runner, Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester; Regional: Delaware Theatre Company, Fisher Center for the Arts.
Jai Nimgaonkar
Jai Nimgaonkar is an actor, improviser, comedian, and musician in the Philadelphia area. Jai has been active in the improv scene since 2019 and most recently acted as the lead in Thatha's Play by Siddharth Anand in the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He also won two amateur sketch comedy competitions in 2020 at a theater in Philadelphia that no longer exists. Bummer. You can find him on instagram @jai-nim.
Rishi Singh
Rishi Singh is a writer, actor, and aspiring filmmaker born and based in Philadelphia. Her fiction can be found in Bodega Magazine and her work in entertainment journalism is published through Screen Rant. In her free time she is passionate about fostering animals from local shelters, hosting a monthly book club, cooking for her community, and spending time outdoors with family and friends.
Cohort 3 2024
Our third cohort merged members of previous cohorts for one larger reading series in May/June of 2024.
Joseph Ahmed
Amy Boehly
Daniel Kim
Cinder Kuss
Seo-A Park
Lex Thammavong
Cohort 2 2021/2023
Cohort 2 saw the addition of three exciting cohort members to fill out the roster!
Lex Thammavong
Daniel Kim
Jacinta Yelland
Cohort 1 2020/2022
October 2020 marks the second year of this residency. They will be spending the next two years convening monthly to share work, workshop writing, and prepare for some inevitably fantastic showcasing!
Chantal Vorobei Thieves
Cinder Kuss
Crys Clemente
Joseph Ahmed
Nimisha Ladva
Priyanka Shetty
Cohort 0 2018/2019
This was the first year that PAPAPP premiered, with a culminating reading series in 2019.
Amy Boehly
Arthur Robinson
Claris Park
Pratima Agrawal
Current Lead Artists
Cinder Kuss
Arthur Robinson
Seo-A Park
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Lex Thammavong
Founding Artist:
Stephanie Kyung-Sun Walters
Stephanie Kyung-Sun Walters is a Barrymore nominated actor, playwright, and teaching artist in Philadelphia. She’s an InterAct Theatre Core Playwright, a graduate of The Foundry at PlayPenn, and the Lead Artist for the Philly Asian Performing Artists’ Playwrights Project. She is a two-time finalist for Unicorn Theatre’s In-Progress New Play Reading Series. She was a semi-finalist for Nashville Repertory Theater's Ingram New Works and received a nomination for the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theatre. As Lead Artist of the Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists Playwrights Project, she led a two-weekend festival of plays written by local emerging Asian-American playwrights. She has taught playwriting at Bucknell University, PlayPenn, Arden Theatre, and Theatre Exile. Stephanie is a proud graduate of Bucknell University and is currently earning her MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage from Point Park University.
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Her play, "Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned", was presented at the PlayPenn Conference. Esther Choi… will have a world premiere production with Simpatico Theatre Company in 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19). "Keep Me Posted" received a staged reading at the 2018 Philly Asian American Film Festival. Her play, "Are You My Father or the dream ballet of north korea", received a workshop and reading with PlayPenn, as well as a residency with Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists/Asian Arts Initiative. Additional plays have been produced and developed with Dragon’s Eye Theatre, Revamp Collective, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, and Philadelphia’s Future is Female Festival. Her plays can be found on NPX.