Phanésia Pharel is a Haitian-American playwright and screenwriter from a dragon fruit farm in Miami. She is the daughter of an immigrant teacher and farmer.
Her play DEAD GIRL’S QUINCEÑERA is making a triple collective world premiere beginning at Barrington Stage this summer, August 5–29. It will then run at the Goodman this fall and conclude its world premiere in Hartford Stage in spring 2027.
She recently made her Off-Broadway debut at the WP Theater with her play The Waterfall.
She is the Playwriting Fellow (2025–2027) at Emory University, where she serves as a visiting professor and will have a new play produced by the university’s repertory company.
Her plays have been developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, 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 Company, Lucille Lortel Theatre (Alcove), La Jolla Playhouse, Miranda Family Fund, Hero Theatre, City Theatre Miami, and the Latinx Playwrights Circle.
Phanésia is a member of the Obie Award-winning EST/Youngblood group and The Wish Collective. As a screenwriter, she is an alumna of Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Screenwriting Lab.
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.