chandra thomas is an award-winning multihyphenate storyteller. As a playwright, her work has been presented at McCarter Theatre, Primary Stages, Naked Angels, Barter Theatre, Queens Theatre, LAFPI, Barrow Group, Echo Theater, Vivid Stage, Passage Theatre, Road Theatre, among others.

chandra’s plays have been named Finalists in the Blue Ink Playwriting Award. She’s a Finalist for the June Bingham Play Commission and a Stavis Award nominee. chandra is a Candela Playwrights Fellow, and a Playwrights Entrepreneur Program member at PlayPenn.

chandra also writes for television, film and narratives (Emmy Award-winning MOM, TACOMA FD) and works as a performer (Public Theatre, LAW & ORDER: SVU). She earned BA degrees from Vanderbilt University, and holds an MFA from Columbia University. Like her vibrant immigrant family, chandra’s storytelling blends humor with emotional heart and social bite. And she absolutely loves baseball, plants and her hometown, New York.

Now in its fourth year, the Kayenta New Play Lab is where bold new voices in American theater come to life. Over three weeks, six visionary playwrights—chosen by a panel of esteemed local and national theatermakers—dive into an intensive creative residency, shaping fresh, original works for the stage.

Audiences are invited to witness the magic unfold through staged readings of these brand-new plays—raw, real, and alive with possibility. Stay after each reading for an engaging dialogue with the artists, where your feedback helps shape the evolution of each piece.