Playwriting Residency
Corrib Theatre's Playwriting Residency Program will support one writer per year to develop a new play inspired by Irish culture, history, or themes.
Each resident will receive a writing stipend award, two workshops with professional actors, consistent feedback from Corrib Theatre’s Artistic Director and other experienced theatre-makers, and a final public presentation of their new script.
2026-2027 Playwriting Resident
Past Residents
2025-2026 Ellen Pullen Family Playwriting Resident
Ken Yoshikawa
Ken Yoshikawa is a playwright, poet, actor, and from Portland, Oregon. He’s appeared onstage with Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Corrib Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, NW Children’s Theatre, and Oregon Adventure Theatre. He performed his solo show The Art of Fly Swatting in town and at the Pan Asian Repertory off-broadway in NYC. His play Through Bonavia, or The Simple Truth is being workshopped in collaboration with The Historic Alberta House concurrent to this production. His poems have appeared in Nailed Magazine, Letters from the Void, Hapa Mag, and Discover Nikkei. His first full length poetry book Monster Colored Glasses is out now on Lightship Press, and available to purchase at yoshikawaken.com. He is a Reed College graduate and an alum of PETE’s Institute of Contemporary Performance, which he highly recommends. In his free time he enjoys video games, hanging with trees, and working as an astrologer.
James Bermea
James Bermea is an award-winning actor, director, writer and producer. He is co-artistic director of Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, a founding member of Badass Theatre and a long-time member of both Sojourn Theatre and Actors Equity Association. Bermea has appeared in theaters from New York, NY, to Honolulu, HI.
Bermea is the author of the plays Saint Heroin, Mercy, Heart of the City, and Rocket Man. He also consolidated and arranged verbatim text and wrote original text for PUSH: Black Mamas Changing the Culture of Birth. Bermea spent twenty-three years as part of Sojourn Theatre, creating text out of devising processes, including Without Blinking, a play about climate change, and REP (the Racial Equity Project). He currently writes for Oregon ArtsWatch and has previously written for Pro Football Spot.com and the Plot Hole (both now defunct).
Bermea couldn’t be more excited than he is for this opportunity provided by Corrib Theatre to write about one of the truly great Americans, Frederick Douglass, and his meeting with the great Irish leader, Daniel O’Connell.
About Ellen Pullen
Lake Oswego resident Ellen Pullen attended many Corrib Theatre productions in the last years of her life. Her grandfather emigrated from Ireland to the USA in the 19th century. When Ellen was in her nineties, she reconnected with her Irish relatives, traveling to Ireland and touring the USA with her Irish cousins. She passed away in June 2024 at 97.
“Our mother loved Corrib Theatre’s intimate performances of plays related to Irish culture,” said her son Mike Pullen of Portland. “Our family is thrilled to sponsor this residency so that a local playwright can create a new play that Corrib Theatre can present. Supporting the arts was important to our mother. We are happy to continue that tradition in her memory.”
Pullen family members contributing to the sponsorship include Ellen’s children Mike, Liz and Bonnie Pullen, and Mike’s wife Saundra Stevens.