MEET THE TEAM

Emily Breeze, a white playwright with long blonde hair, rests her chin on her left hand while looking into the camera. She has a mischievous smile and a tattoo along her right arm. She's wearing a bracelet on her left arm, a black shirt and is against a black background.

Emily Breeze

Co-Artistic Director

Emily Breeze (she/her) is a playwright and screenwriter based on the east coast; her plays include MOTHER SAYS SHE’S SHOCKED HER CHILDREN ARE UPSET (Part 5), WHORE AND WIFE, NO SHE’S LIKE A GENIUS, THEY DIED FROM THEIR WOUNDS, and a collection of short plays produced for Fast & Furious and 7×7 at The Tank. Her debut short film, SHALLOW WATER, premiered in 2023 at the Phoenix Film Festival, and was screened at the Ridgefield Independent Film Festival, the Roze Filmdagen, and the Bridgeport Film Festival among others. Awards include the 2020/21 GreenStage Live Arts Artist Award for her play THE HOMEWRECKER (co-written with Marialena DiFabbio), and the 2021 Rising Artist Award for her play HALLMARK. Residencies include Millay Arts, the Wrtier’s Colony at Dairy Hollow, Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Residency, and the 2022/23 Playwright-in-Residence for The Bechdel Group. She is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Yale University. BA Vassar College, emilybreeze.net

Matthew Chong

Co-Artistic Director

Matthew Chong (he/him) is a first generation Korean-American playwright. His work explores how oppressive systems can make its victims complicit in their own oppression. His plays include The Aughts (Yale Cabaret), Lessons (The Kennedy Center’s Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award) and Jung (Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival). He assisted Scott Rudin during the Broadway productions of Three Tall Women and To Kill A Mockingbird; he has also worked in television production at MTV and Netflix. He is a Writer in Residence at The New Harmony Project 2025.

Matthew Chong, a Korean-American man, looks into the camera with a slight smile. His black hair is swept to his right. He is wearing a grayish-blue jacket over a white shirt.
Andrew Rincón, a Colombian-American playwright, smiles at the camera with a relaxed look. His hair is cut short, and he sports a well-kept, short beard. He is wearing a patterned brown button-up shirt.

Andrew Rincón

Co-Artistic Director

Andrew Rincón (he/she/they/any) is a Queer Colombian-American playwright writing plays that reimagines myths, Queers the narrative and fabulates stories for the stage. Their plays have been developed with The Latinx Playwrights Circle, The Austin Latino New Play Festival, The Amoralists Theatre Company, Pork Filled Productions (Seattle), Out Front Productions (Atlanta). Andrew was a member of INKtank Lab for Playwrights of Color (2017) , 2017 Fornés Playwriting Workshop (Chicago). Andrew is the winner of the 2018 Chesley/Bumbalo Grant for writers of Gay and Lesbian Theatre, and New Light Theatre Project’s New Light New Voices Award (2019).  Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow (19-20), MacDowell Fellow (Winter 2020). Skidmore College’s Visiting Playwright in Residence (21-22). Finalist in LGBTQ Drama for the 36th Lambda Literary Awards 2024.

Select Plays include The Lonely, El Mito, The Leopard Women. Their play I Wanna Fuck like Romeo and Juliet had it’s world premiere in NYC at 59e59 Theatres (Fall 2022) and is published by Concord Theatricals. They are currently developing a trio of plays reimagining biblical myths as Queer characters; The Queer Genesis/Unholy Trinity. They are currently pursuing an MFA in playwriting at Yale School of Drama.

Katie Chance

Managing Director

Katie Chance (she/her) is a rising third-year MFA candidate in the Technical Design and Production program at DGSD. A proud member of Actors’ Equity, Katie was a stage manager for 15+ years before uprooting both herself and her wife to jumpstart a career shift to production management by way of grad school. Katie is eager to take on the role of managing director for Yale Summer Cabaret 51: Petri Dish and is delighted that this season is focused on developing new works. In the past Katie has had the pleasure of working with budding directing and playwrighting talents at theaters such as Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (DC), Contemporary American Theater Festival among others and as a production manager at The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and DGSD/Yale Rep.

Katie Chance, a white woman with thick framed glasses and a tan baseball cap, smiles at the camera. She is wearing a button up shirt with light blue, pink, and white stripes. She is seated at a wooden table. A window is to her right, overlooking a body of water.
Gavin D. Pak, a Korean American person, looks into the camera. They have bleach blonde hair and lipstick on their upper lip. They are wearing a white button up and a rose print, pink suit. Their right hand adjusts their button. They are against a red background and are lit with red lights on their right side and blue lights on their left.

Gavin D. Pak

Associate Managing Director

Gavin D. Pak (they/them) is an artist and administrator centering care in their practice. They’ve split their theater career between Chicago and Los Angeles. In Chicago, they found their love for new works development in the vibrant storefront theater scene. Their award-winning short play Fresh Out the Closet had a staged reading at the Goodman Theatre. Their play prefer not to answer, or other had several staged readings throughout Chicago. After returning to their hometown of Los Angeles, Gavin founded their own small theater company Pothos Arts & Theater House through which they produced LA’s first all TGNC musical theater shows Trans Voices Cabaret, as well as the Hantext Writers’ Room and New Works Festival which staged seven new plays all by queer and trans artists of color. Additionally, they served as PR & Marketing Manager for East West Players, the nation’s longest running theater of color, where their artist-first administrative practices helped foster a more collaborative, inclusive LA theater community. Gavin aspires to platform queer artists of color, and proactively dismantle barriers that otherwise render theater inaccessible to them. They enjoy illustrating, toy collecting, and park-and-bark baritone-ing in their freetime.

Sarah Saifi

Director of Development

Sarah Saifi (she/her) is a multidisciplinary creative and arts manager with a fierce love for storytelling and representation. At 19, she founded Drama Queen Productions as a theatre production house in Pakistan, which she grew into a 360° creative agency, producing plays, brand campaigns, and large-scale festivals for over 100 clients. A graduate of MetFilm School London with a degree in Practical Filmmaking, Sarah has worked across theatre, film, and digital strategy, always centering BIPOC female voices in her work. She believes that content becomes truly powerful when paired with the right platforms and people. Currently pursuing an MFA in Theatre Management at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Sarah recently completed a fellowship at The Public Theater in New York, where she shadowed the Director of Artistic Producing and Planning. She is passionate about building sustainable arts ecosystems in Pakistan through policy, infrastructure, and bold creative vision.

Sarah Saifi, a Pakistani woman, angles her head to her right and looks into the camera. She has dark, long hair, winged eyeliner, and red lipstick. Her left hand, with a ring on her ring finger, touches her own shoulder. She is wearing a blue blouse with white floral patterning.