Weston Works — Weston Theater Company

Supporting original theatrical work through time, space,
collaboration, and lasting artistic relationships.

Introducing the 2026-27 Cohort

Julia Izumi

Playwright

Brendan Pelsue

Playwright

Nina Goodheart

Director

abs wilson

Sequoia Sellinger

Composer

Playwright & Lyricist

“There is something uniquely valuable about giving artists time — away from the pressures of production — to follow an idea, ask difficult questions, take risks, and discover where a piece wants to go.

We’re thrilled to welcome this extraordinary first cohort to Weston and to make the development of new work an ongoing part of our artistic life.”

—Susanna Gellert, Executive Artistic Director

The Residency Journey

Weston Works is a multi-phase residency program supporting the creation and development of original theatrical work.

Meet the Artists & Projects

THE BANANA FACTORY

Julia Izumi

The Banana Factory is a new play investigating activism and asking how we protect children in a world where risks must be taken to create change. Inspired in part by Izumi’s experiences as a teacher, the play explores the tensions between protecting the next generation and empowering them to shape the world they will inherit.

Julia Izumi’s works include Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons/WP Theater), Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt… (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company/New Georges), miku, and the gods. (ArtsWest), Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea (Rorschach Theatre, Helen Hayes Award Nomination), and others. Her work has been developed at MTC, Clubbed Thumb, Berkeley Rep, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and more. Honors include the Kerry English Award and KCACTF’s Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award. Former Civilians R&D Group, Clubbed Thumb ECWG Member, and Four Seasons Resident. Current New Dramatists Resident and Playwrights Realm Fellow. MFA: Brown University. www.juliaizumi.com

WELL MEANING

Brendan Pelsue

On a bone-cold winter night, a new hospital chaplain moves from room to room: someone wants a priest for the last rites, someone is contesting a will, and someone would like permission for a visit from their pet pig. As misunderstandings compound, sorrow gives way to slapstick, and death and farce begin to occupy the same space.

Brendan Pelsue is a playwright, librettist, and translator. His work has premiered or been performed at venues including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Alliance Theatre, Portland Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and more. He was a 2026 Dunaway Gardens Fellow, the 2024 and 2025 Playwright-in-Residence at Green College, University of British Columbia, a 2023 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Chateau de la Napoule, France. Originally from Newburyport, MA, he received his MFA from Yale School of Drama and his BA from Brown University. He has taught at Wesleyan and Rutgers universities.

MISSED CONNECTIONS

Sequoia Sellinger & Nina Goodheart

A music-theater-opera project that weaves found text from “Missed Connections” into an original musical world. Described by its creators as “a Jane Austen romance for the Internet age,” the piece explores longing, loneliness, technology, and the very human desire to find one another.

Sequoia Sellinger is a collaborative composer in musical theatre and opera based in NYC. Her work challenges, uplifts, and makes people laugh. Sequoia’s music has been performed at Classic Stage Company, Greenwich House Theater, Ars Nova, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, and American Opera Projects. Awards/Recognition: Lucille Lortel 121 Project, Pipeline Arts Foundation Award, Syracuse New Works New Voices, sheNYC Festival. Alum: NYU Tisch GMTWP, Prospect Musical Theater Lab Cohort, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. She is a Dramatists Guild and Maestra member. She is on the composition faculty at Purchase College Conservatory of Music.
Nina Goodheart (she/her) is a NYC-based director. Her company Good Apples Collective, co-founded with playwright Sophie McIntosh, was hailed in HowlRound as part of "the next great leap in theatre." Selected directing: benevolent (NYT Critic’s Pick), Road Kills, cunnicularii, and cityscrape by Sophie McIntosh (GAC); Monna Innominata by Harriet Steinke (Beth Morrison Projects); before the flood by Emily Bice (Chain Theatre). Selected associate directing: Walking with Ghosts (Broadway, resident director), Fiddler on the Roof starring Jason Alexander (La Mirada Theatre), and The Seasons (Opera Philadelphia). BA Yale, private study in opera directing at Juilliard.

TOUGH GUY

abs wilson

A famous extreme sports climber is ascending a mountain that has never been summited, live-streaming as she goes. TOUGH GUY is a 90-minute choral musical about the self-destructive lengths we go to, to belong, and who is (or isn't) coming to save you. What's really waiting for you at your tallest peak?

abs wilson (she/her) is a playwright/lyricist. Most recently, she’s a 2025 Jonathan Larson grant winner, Richard Rodgers Award recipient (2024), recipient of the Lucille Lortel Theatre’s 121 Project grant (2025), selected writer for the NAMT Festival of New Musicals (2024), selected writer for NMTC (2024), and selected writer for the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2024). She’s had work developed with numerous organizations, recently including the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Orchard Project, Vineyard Arts Project, Theatre Barn, Kayenta Theater, Paper Kraine, and colleges across the US. Her song “Runaway Girl" was a winner of Taylor Louderman’s Write Out Loud Songwriting Contest (2023).

The Retreat in Weston

In September, the inaugural artists gather in Weston for focused project development, shared meals and conversations, time to explore Weston and the surrounding region, and opportunities to connect with one another, Weston staff, and the local community.

The retreat allows for distance from the pressures of production: time to follow an idea, connection to place and community, and room for creative relationships to take shape.