Pool Plays 4.0
Three playwrights bring you three new thrilling pieces of theater in the next Pool Plays.
Put Your Money in The Pool (4.0)! Help Fund Indie Theater
Help Mona, Pia & Vickie Produce Their Plays in February/March 2026
New York, NY, US
POOL PLAYS 4.0: BLACK BEE, ROUNDUP, AND YUCHWAHKÉNH
The Pool Plays is a pop-up theater company that started in 2017 with three playwrights who decided to skip the wait for institutions and produce their own three plays together. It is an artist-led cohort that puts playwrights at the helm and empowers them to make their own work. This year, Mona Mansour, Vickie Ramirez & Pia Wilson continue the legacy with Pool Plays 4.0.
Mona: ROUNDUP, directed by Ryan Dobrin
Mona's darkly absurd two-hander leads us down the twisted rabbit hole of corporate communications. A MAN tasked with delivering a press release vaguely detailing a disaster starts unraveling as a demanding COACH makes stranger and more sinister demands, until he - and we - have no idea what the fuck he’s saying.
Vickie: YUCHWAHKÉNH (Bitter), directed by Vickie Ramirez
Vickie takes us on a surreal, dreamlike journey that explores the connection between generational trauma and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis.
Pia: BLACK BEE, directed by Stephanie Rolland
Pia's memory play swims in the murky waters of class, race, and Black art, using strokes of poetry and commedia dell'arte to examine the truth of an artist's life.
Calling you to the East Village, from Saturday, February 28 to March 15, 2026 at IATI Theater on East 4th!
WHO WE ARE
We are POOL PLAYS 4.0! We are women! We are all three alums of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group! We are First Nations (Vickie), African-American (Pia), and Arab American (Mona), and we are drawn together to amplify each other’s stories and create narrative connections between our communities and beyond!
WHY THIS PROJECT
As past POOL participants will tell you (link to videos here), THE POOL is a nimble, undiluted, joyous way of making and sharing work. It’s gritty, it’s real, it’s artists realizing their vision start to finish. Best of all, it’s adaptable and an answer for the challenging Arts scene we’re in now.
In the past five years, at least four major institutions that helped playwrights have shuttered with no real replacements arriving. That means many, many new plays may die on the vine, without any kind of path ahead of them. We artists? Still gotta artist. Creators of all sorts are seeing that
they can’t wait for already-overwhelmed institutions to give the greenlight.
We believe that theater, now more than ever, needs to be nimble and serve the immediate questions of our time. We believe in the simple act of bringing our communities together to witness our words. In making a space where we can set up the welcome mat and invite people in. We have to make theater because it is our joy. It is our frustration. It is the mirror we hold up to humankind. Making theater is a noble endeavor that we want to share with our varied, beautiful communities, and beyond.
In the past five years, at least four major institutions that helped playwrights have shuttered with no real replacements arriving. That means many, many new plays may die on the vine, without any kind of path ahead of them. We artists? Still gotta artist. Creators of all sorts are seeing that
they can’t wait for already-overwhelmed institutions to give the greenlight.
We believe that theater, now more than ever, needs to be nimble and serve the immediate questions of our time. We believe in the simple act of bringing our communities together to witness our words. In making a space where we can set up the welcome mat and invite people in. We have to make theater because it is our joy. It is our frustration. It is the mirror we hold up to humankind. Making theater is a noble endeavor that we want to share with our varied, beautiful communities, and beyond.
WHY NOW
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” -- Toni Morrison
“This is not a time to be dismayed. This is punk rock time. This is what Joe Strummer trained you for.” - Henry Rollins
This is the time we've got. And we believe in theater, especially indie theater.
We started talking about producing our work over a year ago. Now is the time to put our money (yours and ours) where our mouths are.
WHO WE ARE PART 2
Mona Mansour
Mona is an Arab-American playwright and TV writer. BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOL, with singer-composer Hannah Corneau, directed by Michael Greif, premieres at London’s Southwark Playhouse in January 2026. Her play UNSEEN was staged at Mosaic Theater in April 2023 and previously ran at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from April to July 2022. THE VAGRANT TRILOGY made its NYC premiere at The Public Theater in May 2022, and BEGINNING DAYS OF TRUE JUBILATION, conceived with her theater company SOCIETY, was performed at the New Ohio Theater in June 2022. In television, Mona wrote for two seasons on NBC’s long-running series New Amsterdam and is currently developing a series for Fisher Stevens' Highly Flammable.
Vickie Ramirez
Vickie is a founding member of Chukalokoli and Amerinda Theater, with a remarkable career in developing and producing plays at prestigious theaters like Native Voices at the Autry, Alter Theater, The Public Theater, The Roundabout Theatre Company, and Labyrinth Theater Company. She is currently a Resident at New Dramatists through 2027. She is an alumna of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group (2009).
Pia Wilson
Pia is an accomplished playwright, fiction podcast author, and TV writer. She has been recognized for her talents through numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies. Her plays have been produced by Miles Square Theatre, AD Players, Crossroads Theatre, Workspace Collective, Drew University, Yendor Theatre Company, Adelphi University, Horse Trade Theater Group, and The Fire This Time play festival. She wrote the audio component in the Harriet Tubman Monument performed by Queen Latifah. In television, Pia has been a writer for A24/Peacock’s CRYSTAL LAKE, NatGeo’s GENIUS ARETHA and BET’s SACRIFICE.
WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP
We are asking you to join us in the creative act of producing. We’re taking ourselves out of the boxes that we've been neatly placed in over the years and we’re asking you to do the same! Be a part of this production.
Theater costs money. Lights, costumes, props, sound! Artists need to be paid. There’s a reason that folks who come from money can afford to keep making work. And no shade, but that’s not us! We can't do it without help from our community. If you can help, we'll be able to make independent art and support the artists and crew who bring it to the stage -- the actors, directors, designers, stage managers, electricians and carpenters who have joined us for the ride. Every dollar you donate goes right into the modest recompense we give to our collaborators. And if you can’t share funds, please amplify and share our project.
Join us on this exciting journey! You will not only empower us but you will be supporting the restaurants in the neighborhood. You're supporting the theater. You’re helping create conversations and connections. Your donation and support (tell others about us) makes us feel appreciated!. Self-producing theater is an old tradition, as old as theater. Thank you for joining us in continuing this vital, important tradition!
Theater costs money. Lights, costumes, props, sound! Artists need to be paid. There’s a reason that folks who come from money can afford to keep making work. And no shade, but that’s not us! We can't do it without help from our community. If you can help, we'll be able to make independent art and support the artists and crew who bring it to the stage -- the actors, directors, designers, stage managers, electricians and carpenters who have joined us for the ride. Every dollar you donate goes right into the modest recompense we give to our collaborators. And if you can’t share funds, please amplify and share our project.
Join us on this exciting journey! You will not only empower us but you will be supporting the restaurants in the neighborhood. You're supporting the theater. You’re helping create conversations and connections. Your donation and support (tell others about us) makes us feel appreciated!. Self-producing theater is an old tradition, as old as theater. Thank you for joining us in continuing this vital, important tradition!
THANK YOU
Your donation and support (tell others about us) makes us feel appreciated. Your generosity enables us to bring our vision to life. Self-producing theater is an old tradition, as old as theater. Thank you for joining us in continuing this vital, important tradition!