Ars Nova commissions and develops new projects with artists who work non-traditionally, create across multiple disciplines, and have big dreams for what they want to make next. Commissioned projects are nurtured from beginning stages to full production in Ars Nova’s adventurous, process-driven environment, allowing them to develop organically and always with the artists’ needs at the center.
Manik Choksi Broadway: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Off-Broadway: Indian Ink, Roundabout; Bunty Berman Presents (Lortel Nomination), New Group; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Ars Nova; God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Encores!; King Tot and D, Deb, Debbie, Deborah; Clubbed Thumb; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane. Regional: Moby Dick and Great Comet, ART. Film/TV: “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”; “New Amsterdam”; “Good Fight”; “Mindhunter”; “Elementary”; “Happyish”; “One Life To Live” (Vimal Patel), Home, Passing Season, You Can See Everything. Composer: Those Lost Boys (Ars Nova workshop); Food Odyssey, 3LD, NAMT Festival ’26, Kleban Finalist, O’Neill Semi-Finalist. Education: The Juilliard School, Washington University in St. Louis.
Kate Eberstadt is a composer, writer, performer, singer-songwriter, and 2026 Princess Grace Award winner. Her show Where We Meet was commissioned by Ars Nova and developed through Makers Lab, supported by the NAMT Frank Young Fund, the cell theatre, and Upper Jay Arts Center, and finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award. In 2025, she released her debut album Heaven on Earth, an existential pop odyssey that premiered live at Joe’s Pub. Her music has been hailed by Billboard as “sly, slinky, and irresistible” and featured by AP, Entertainment Tonight, the New York Post, and E! News. Eberstadt is a resident artist at Project 14C, an inaugural Toulmin Creator at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts/National Sawdust, and 2026 Arts for All Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland, where she teaches “Quantum Physics and Art.” Past residencies include The Watermill Center, Good Hart, and the American Academy in Berlin. www.kateeberstadt.com
Emerson Mae Smith is a writer and performer kept in the great borough of Brooklyn. With her sister, she created the Surveillance trilogy whose titles include ‘WATCHDOG’, ‘GOOD FRIDAYS’, and ‘SEE JANE RUN’. She also premiered the horror dramedy ‘WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM?’ at Theater for the New City last fall.
Murphy Taylor Smith is an actress and songwriter who still believes in musical theatre. In collaboration with her twin sister Emerson, and director Mack Brown, she created the SURVEILLANCE trilogy, a series of musicals on how the internet both gave birth to and destroyed trans community in 21st century America. The trilogy includes WATCHDOG, a doppelgänger psychothriller; GOOD FRIDAYS, an ecclesiastic musical comedy of menace; and SEE JANE RUN, a gonzo musical heart attack. She has also written music and lyrics for ELEKTRIC, a trans woman-centered Oresteia; and RADIO: A MUSICAL GHOST STORY, a lesbian horror film. The RADIO original cast album is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music. As an actress, she originated roles in A TRANSPARENT MUSICAL (Center Theatre Group), BILLIE JEAN (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) and DOLL/GIRL (Joe’s Pub).
Mack Brown is a Brooklyn based butch director. They build precise new musicals and genre-defying theatre work about misfits making miracles. Recently: THE CASTLE OF GHOUL HAMMOND (ANTFest), TRANS AM (Joe’s Pub), I PUT A SPELL ON YOU (Webster Hall). Mack has developed work with Roundabout Theatre Company, Ars Nova, NYTW, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Fault Line Theatre, and various indie mischief-makers. They were an Ars Nova Artist in Residence for the 2025-’26 season along with their collaborators Murphy and Emerson Smith, with whom they are creating the SURVEILLANCE musical trilogy (WATCHDOG/GOOD FRIDAYS/SEE JANE RUN). They were a Roundabout Directing Fellow in RTC’s ‘22-‘23 season, and Lead Facilitator of the Roundabout Directors Group for three years. Mack has been an associate director on and off Broadway and they are a recipient of the 2025 SDCF Abe Burrows Award for Assistant Directors. mack-brown.com
Britton Smith is an actor, composer, musician, and cultural organizer creating work rooted in Black queer liberation, collective healing, and environmental justice. A cofounder of the Tony Award–winning Broadway Advocacy Coalition, his Broadway credits include Be More Chill, Shuffle Along, and After Midnight. He leads Britton & The Sting, an alternative soul collective celebrating radical joy and belonging. His theatrical concert and concept album MAMA explores humanity’s sacred relationship to water, reaching communities facing environmental challenges. A 2025 Hydro20 honoree, Smith is developing Mystical Tether, a musical exploring inherited wounds, ancestral truth, and the power to transform our family stories.
Ellen Winter is a Brooklyn-based writer, composer, and performer whose songwriting fuses storytelling with indie pop whimsy. They collaborate exclusively on interdisciplinary new works theatricalizing music and musicalizing theatre. Ellen first joined Ars Nova as an intern in 2014.
Current Icons – Carol Burnett, Robyn, Rebecca Sugar.
Off-Broadway: The Rumspringa Project (PRISM Fest), Cold War Choir Practice (MCC), The Beastiary (Ars Nova), Hurricane Diane (NYTW) Regional: Wonder! A Woman Keeps A Secret (Northern Stage). Audio: 36 Questions, Hit Singles. Music: “So Disgusting!”, YIKES, Every Feeling I’ve Ever Felt. TV: “Paper Roses” in Tiny Beautiful Things. Awards: EST/Sloan, Bryan Gallace Award. Residencies: Joe’s Pub Working Group, Berkeley Rep, Mercury Store, Ars Nova Maker’s Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck.
Ray Yamanouchi was born in Queens, raised on Long Island, and received a BA in film and theatre from CUNY Hunter College. His plays include Tha Chink-Mart (PlayPenn 2018), Impact (Semi-finalist, National Playwrights Conference 2017), and The American Tradition (New Light New Voices Award 2018). He has developed work with WT Theatre, The Blank Theatre, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The New Harmony Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, PlayPenn, Mission to (dit)Mars (Propulsion Lab), Ars Nova (Play Group), and The Playwrights’ Center (Core Writer). He has been commissioned by Ars Nova, Fault Line Theatre (Irons in the Fire), and Cygnet Theatre. He is based in Queens, New York. (rayyams.com)
Deepali Zeer is a performance artist, composer, and playwright. Recent and ongoing works include I Love You Stranger (a fantasy in concert; in development with Ars Nova) and United States v. Gupta (a musical tragedy concerning her father’s trial, conviction, and incarceration for insider trading; with director Caitlin Sullivan). Her collaborations in downtown theater include music for Minor Character (with New Saloon) and Ski End (with Piehole). Past commissions in theater and opera include the poet says (Target Margin Theater), Nightlife (with T.J. Rubin; American Opera Projects), and Banana Ketchup (with Nilo Alcala, White Snake Projects). She is an Affiliated Artist with New Georges, Target Margin Theater, and The Civilians. She has performed her work at venues across New York City including Lincoln Center Theater, Joe’s Pub, The Poetry Project, The Brick, and Prelude Festival. Her work has been produced with support from Brooklyn Arts Council, NY Women’s Fund, NYSCA, and the Axe-Houghton Foundation. B.A. Brown University; M.F.A. New York University.
Participation in our commissioning program is by invitation only. Check our Work With Us page for more information on how to introduce Ars Nova to your work.
We’re always looking for partners to support our development programs! Learn more by reaching out to Megh Cooper, Philanthropy Director, at mcooper@arsnovanyc.com.
