Yale Drama Series: 'KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA' (reading)

Selected by Yale Drama Series judge and Pulitzer Prize-winner  Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

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Playwright  Ariel Stess  is the winner of the 2025 Yale Drama Series Prize for her compelling and thought-provoking play KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA. Chosen from more than 2,000 entries across 55 countries, and celebrated for its raw and powerful exploration of women's inner lives, connection, and agency.

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Jacobs-Jenkins commented, "Stess’s work stood out for the line-by-line sparkle and polish of its composition and the playwright’s cool confidence in the power of well-crafted language alone to transport an audience to and through the vast inner wilds of character…This is dramatic portraiture of the highest order.” 

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Meet the Artists:

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Ariel Stess

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Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

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