Biography of Desi Moreno-Penson

As a playwright, actor, and dramaturge, Desi has numerous stage and screen credits, including roles in Spike Lee's "Girl 6," "It Could Happen To You," and "Extreme Measures." She has studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, the Greer Garson Theater Center at the College of Santa Fe, NM with a BFA degree in Theater and Acting, and is an MFA graduate in Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism from Brooklyn College where she graduated with a 3.9 GPA.On scholarship, she carried out a postgraduate program at the British American Drama Academy in London. She is a member of the Dramatist's Guild of America, the Screen Actors' Guild, NoPassport (a multicultural playwrights' coalition headed by Caridad Svich), and INTAR Theatre's Hispanic Playwrights Residence Lab (HPRL). Executive and Artistic Director of Actors Without Spaces (formerly Daddy Bear and Company), a professional multicultural new play development lab, Desi also completed a full-length play entitled A Divine Brew, which was successfully produced for an off-off Broadway run at the Blue Heron Arts Center in May 2000. She has written and developed three one-act plays entitled Screwing Rachel, The Red Chair, and A Latina Prepares which were presented as an Equity workshop production in March 2002 at the manhattantheatresource through their Flop-Night Development Series. Since then, Screwing Rachel has been rewritten to a full-length and was recently seen this past August as part of the 1st Annual "Bad Plays" Festival at the Downeast Arts Center produced by NY Artists Unlimited. It was voted one of the top 3 plays in the festival. In May 2002, A Latina Prepares was picked up by the WOW Café Theatre for their biannual Latina Playwrights Festival. The same piece, along with The Red Chair, has been presented as part of the Play Reading Series for the 2003 NewWorks Lab at INTAR sponsored by the Jerome Foundation. In July 2002, the Buchwald Foundation instituted by Don Buchwald & Associates, awarded her a TA (Technical Assistance) Internship grant. As such, she completed a literary internship at the Lark Play Development Center. She is also the recipient for the 2003 Samuel Levenson Memorial Scholarship sponsored by the Alumni Association at Brooklyn College and is the first graduate student in its history to receive this endowment. She has received the 2003 Wilson Lehr Award, both the 2001 and 2006 BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Playwriting Fellowships as well as the 2002 Louis Delgado Jr. Playwriting Award for a full-length play Beige. Beige received a staged reading in September 2002 at the Nuyorican Poets Café as part of their First Look Reading Series and is a finalist winner for the 2002-2003 New Voices/Nuestras Voces Playwriting Competition at Repertorio Espanol, sponsored by the MetLife and Jerome Foundations. Beige was also picked by Theatre Resources Unlimited for a producers showcase reading at the Greenwich Street Theatre. In May 2004, A Latina Prepares was seen as part of the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, produced by Reg E. Gaines (BRING IN DA NOISE, BRING IN DA FUNK) and Arcos Entertainment at the Abrons Arts Center @Henry Street Settlement. A Latina Prepares won for Best Performance Short in the Festival, which came with $1000 cash prize. The same piece was seen as part of the 5th Annual BAAD ASS Women Festival at BAAD! (The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) this past March. Her play 3 To a Session: A Monster's Tale was first produced as a workshop through INTAR'S 2004 NewWorks Lab, a program for emerging Latino/a playwrights. It was chosen for Best Play at the 2005 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, which took place at the Cherry Lane in Greenwich Village this past July and the play returned for an additional 5 performances at the Clurman on Theater Row at 42nd Street between Feb. 1st thru Feb. 5th, 2006. This past April, a new play, Grinch, received staged readings at both the 78th Street Theatre Lab and the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College, CUNY. Eventually, the title was changed to Devil Land and the play received a critically acclaimed, Off-Off Broadway production at Urban Stages by The Immediate Theatre Company. Previously, the play had been chosen for the annual hotINK Festival, a staged readings festival of new plays by established and emerging playwrights produced by NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Desi has been a finalist for the 2004 Mabou Mines Resident Artists Program as well as a finalist for the 2004 American Theatre Affiliated Writers Program sponsored by Theatre Communications Group. She has been an arts panelist for the Artists Congress sessions sponsored jointly by the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Field, Inc. She is currently a teaching artist/instructor with the College Now!/Liberty Partnerships After School Program at Hostos Community College.