AMERICA250: COMMON THREADS RESIDENCY READINGS
By Sarah Loucks, a.k. payne, & Iraisa Ann Reilly
Performances
Sunday, march 8 at 2pm–theatresquared
Saturday, march 14 at 11:30 Am–CRYSTAL BRIDGES
SUNday, march 15 at 11:30 Am–CRYSTAL BRIDGES
About the plays
In partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Momentary, TheatreSquared has commissioned three playwrights to be “in residence” and create a series of short plays inspired by American artworks in Crystal Bridges’ exhibit America 250: Common Threads. The pieces are currently in development and will be workshopped and presented during ANPF at TheatreSquared and at Crystal Bridges as part of Crystal Bridges’ America 250 exhibit, running through July 2026.
About Crystal Bridges’ America 250: Common Threads: As the United States marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the exhibit will both commemorate the events of 1776 and reflect on 250 years of American art and civic participation. An early engraving of the Declaration of Independence will anchor a group of historic documents displayed alongside textiles, paintings, toys, and other works from 1776 to the present. The exhibition considers how artists and national leaders document American history. America 250: Common Threads explores how American artists historically foster civic participation and strengthen community relationships.
The exhibition explores the symbols artists turn to when celebrating or commenting on the United States: George Washington’s many faces, eagles appearing across books, baskets, and coverlets, flags seen as quilts or as documentation of the moon landing, and more.
ABOUT The playwrights
Sarah Dianne Loucks is a playwright and theater-maker. Previously, she was the playwriting apprentice for Arketype New Works Festival at TheaterSquared in 2024. Currently, she is a Post-MFA Playwright at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. Sarah is the recipient of a 2024 MAPfund grant, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and two Artist 360 awards from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. She is a four-time funding recipient from the Austin Cultural Arts Council and was awarded the Three New American Plays prize by Forward Flux Productions in 2017. Her plays have been produced and developed in theaters, warehouses, and backyards in NYC, Austin, TX and Fayetteville, AR. BA Bard College, MFA University of Arkansas.
a.k. payne (she/they) is a playwright and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their plays love on and engage Black lives and languages beyond the confines of linear time to find/remember stories that might create conditions for our collective liberation(s). They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College and an MFA in Playwriting under Tarell Alvin McCraney from fka Yale School of Drama. Their work has been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. She is a 3x finalist and the 2025 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the largest and oldest international award for women+ writers. She is currently a resident artist/fellow with National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Foundation). They are a grandchild of the Great Migration; a queer & non-binary abolitionist affected in community by the ‘New Jim Crow;” and of a great lineage of Black women storytellers and living-room archivists; all of which deeply informs, uplifts and amplifies their work as a playwright, community organizer and spacemaker.
Iraisa Ann Reilly (she/her) is a writer, performer, and educator originally from New Jersey. Her solo show, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de los Reyes Magos, 1998 premiered at Ensemble Studio Theatre in November, 2025, co-produced by the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Ensemble Studio Theatre and directed by Estefanía Fadul . “Bodega Princess” was commissioned by the Lortel, and received development from Latinx Playwrights Circle, Teatro Circulo, Sol Project, The New Harmony Project, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Mondays @3. Bodega Princess received a workshop production with Simpatico Theatre Company in Philadelphia in April of 2025, which won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Original Production, and was a finalist for the Philadelphia Award for Social Insight.
As a writer her work has been developed and recognized by Teatro del Sol, Soho Rep, Atlantic Theatre Company, Latinx Playwrights Circle, LAByrinth Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Two River Theatre, Arkansas New Play Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, Texas A&M University, Michigan State, Sol Project, Simpatico Theatre Company, Art House Productions, and the Yale Drama Series. She is an Underground Resident Playwright at Roundabout Theatre Company, 2025-2026, and is currently under commission with Arden Theatre Company.
As a screenwriter, her screenplay La Reina del Bronx won best screenplay at Fusion Film Festival and was a semifinalist for the Vail Screenwriting Competition. Iraisa Ann recently performed off-Broadway in Arlene Hutton’s According to the Chorus. She’s taught students of all ages and is a teaching artist with Roundabout Theatre Company, Dreamyard Inc, and an adjunct professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU.
MFA in Dramatic Writing, NYU, BA Theatre and English University of Notre Dame.