Phanésia Pharel is a Haitian-American playwright & screenwriter from a dragon fruit farm in Miami. The daughter of an immigrant teacher and farmer, she writes to honor people.
She is the incoming Playwriting Fellow (2025-2027) at Emory University, where she will teach and have a new play produced by their repertory company.
Her full-length plays include DEAD GIRL’S QUINCEÑERA, THE WATERFALL, BLACK GIRL JOY, and REFUSE IT: A BLACK WOMAN’S GUIDE TO 21ST CENTURY RAGE.
Her plays have been developed at the New Harmony Project, Playwrights' Center, New York Stage and Film, SolFest, Thrown Stone, Shattered Globe, and Echo Theater Company.
She has received commissions from the Atlantic Theater, Lucille Lortel (Alcove), La Jolla Playhouse, Miranda Family Fund, Hero Theatre, City Theatre Miami, and the Latinx Playwrights Circle.
Phanésia is a member of the Obie-winning EST/Youngblood group and The Wish Collective. As a screenwriter, she is a member of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Screenwriting Lab.
Her honors include The Kilroys Web, five awards from the Kennedy Center, and recognition as a two-time Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist/Honorable Mention. She is a Jane Chambers Finalist, an A is For Playwriting Award recipient and a finalist for the Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language.
She holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California San Diego.
Storytelling beyond the screen and stage
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Storytelling beyond the screen and stage *
viBe Theater Experience + WP Theater
I was the Interim Artistic Director of viBe Theater Experience for about a year before pursuing my MFA in playwriting at the University of California San Diego! I also worked as a teaching artist for several years with them and BAM.
My favorite part of that experience 💖 Pages 2 Stages—a playwriting program for girls of color (13-18) that I led, taught, and created for WP Theater & viBe Theater Experience!
The Wish!
The Wish Collective—a theater collective led by Justice Hehir, we wrote a play called “the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater” it’s been performed in several states since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Staged on courthouse steps, in community centers, and at weekly protests outside the Texas Capitol (photo above outside the Texas Capitol). Read more in American Theatre Magazine.
We've continued writing two more plays after being commissioned by the Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Foundation.