Board Member

Chris Weikel was one of the first four students to graduate from the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA program in playwriting at Hunter College, studying under Tina Howe and Mark Bly.  Weikel participated in the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop in 2012.  His play SECRET IDENTITY was featured during “Playwright’s Week” at the Lark Play Development Center in 2012, and produced by TOSOS in residence at The Flea in 2019. His PENNY PENNIWORTH, which according to The New York Times "deserves to become a staple" was produced by Emerging Artists Theatre Company (EAT) in 2009 and 2010.  It was recently mounted by Titanic Theatre Company in Boston and has been published by Dramatic Publishing.  His PIG TALE: AN URBAN FAERIE STORY was produced off-off-Broadway by The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS), as well as at the Absolut Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival in 2009.  Weikel is a judge-at-large for the New York Innovative Theatre (NYIT) Awards and a regular contributor to Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB.  He was a 2008-09 Dramatist Guild Fellow, the 2007 recipient of the Robert Chesley Award for emerging gay playwrights, the 2008 recipient of the Irv Zarkower Award, a 2011 recipient of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award from Hunter College, a 2013 NYFA Fellowship grantee, and the 2014 recipient of the NNPN Smith Prize Commission for political theatre. The resulting play, THE WORD FROM KAMPALA was workshopped by InterAct Theater in Philadelphia in 2016. In recognition of his longstanding collaboration with New York’s oldest and longest producing LGBTQ+ theatre company, Weikel and TOSOS were recipients of a 2018 Dramatists Guild Writers Alliance Grant.  Chris is a proud member of DGA and AEA.