From first drafts to first audiences, we're investing in the future of new plays.
IN THE MAKING:
A NEW PLAY COMMISSION
What is the commission?
Supporting playwrights from first idea to final staged reading through year-long artistic development, individualized mentorship, and full producing support from Making Our Space Theatre Co.
Our inaugural commission is now in development.
RECIPIENT
KYLE DILLON HERTZ
PRESS RELEASE
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Author of The Lookback Window, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of the year’s best books according to Vanity Fair, People, CrimeReads, Debutiful, and Passport.
Kyle’s work can be found in Esquire, Interview Magazine, and Time, and has been supported by residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kyle is a graduate of NYU’s MFA program, and he teaches fiction at The New School. In addition to adapting his work for stage through IN THE MAKING; A New Play Commission, he is also adapting The Lookback Window for film, serving as both screenwriter and executive producer.
LED BY SPENCER WHALE
Director of New Works
Spencer Whale (he/him) is a New York-based director and playwright focused on developing subversive new works and unearthing fresh, queer readings of classics. He’s Director of New Works for Making Our Space Theatre Co., and his original play Cuck, Cuck, Bull was a 2025 O’Neill NPC Semifinalist. Recent projects include MOS’s inaugural production of Bathsheba Doran’s Kin and the premiere of Justin Halle’s end-of-days comedy Vile Isle at The Tank. Spencer made his Broadway debut as Assistant Director on Lempicka, directed by Rachel Chavkin, and honed his new play development practice as Directing Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club and Directing and Producing Fellow at City Theatre. He received his MFA in Directing from Columbia University, where he studied under Anne Bogart and assisted her on SITI Company’s farewell tour revival of The Medium. Other favorite projects include Sam Morrison’s Hello, Daddy! and Quentin Crisp: The Last Word.
DRAMATURGY BY DEZI TIBBS
Dezi Tibbs (they/she) is a writer and dramaturg living in New York City. As a Black, trans theater artist, she’s fascinated by intersectional identities, representation onstage, and the sociopolitical implications of the stories we choose to tell and how we choose to tell them. Dezi received their MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University, where they developed a theatrical framework inspired by Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Credits as a freelance dramaturg include the Broadway smash hit Oh, Mary!, as well as collaborations with Tony Award nominees Lileana Blain-Cruz and Max Vernon and writers Erin Courtney and Truth Future Bachman. Dezi's work has been featured on stages nationwide, including the Lucille Lortell Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Powerhouse Theatre, Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center, Wilma Theater, Breaking the Binary, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. As a journalist dedicated to highlighting the role of representation in the theater, she is a frequent collaborator with American Theatre and TDF Stages.