Lincoln Center Theater launches the Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab

Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) has announced the creation of a new developmental program. The Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab will offer a series of fellowships for writers developing new works for the American theater. The program is supported by a donation of $4.25 million to LCT, which will be gifted to the nonprofit by the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation over a five-year period. 

Effective immediately, Kalina Ko has been appointed as the Helen Gurley Brown Theater Lab manager and associate producer. Maria Mañuela Goyanes — the artistic director of LCT3, one of Lincoln Center Theater’s Off-Off-Broadway programming initiatives — will now be titled the Helen Gurley Brown artistic director of LCT3 and producer. 

Lab fellows will be granted space, financial resources and strategic development opportunities to bring their work to the stage. The inaugural cohort includes Grammy Award winner Abigail Barlow, Grammy and Emmy winner Emily Bear, Neukom Playwriting Award winner Avery Deutsch, Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames, Pulitzer winner Martyna Majok and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner Ro Reddick. 

Performer and songwriter Barlow and composer, producer and pianist Bear won a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album for the concept album “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical.” As a songwriting duo, they also penned music for the Disney film “Moana 2.” Barlow made her Broadway debut as Katherine Howard in “SIX” earlier this year.

Deutsch, a playwright, is the recipient of the 2025 Terrence McNally New Play Incubator, the 2025 Neukom Playwriting Award and a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation for her play “The Age of Mary.” Her other plays include “Pleasers” and “Sick Day.” Ijames is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated playwright of the “Hamlet” adaptation “Fat Ham.” Ijames also received the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist and two Barrymore Awards for his direction of “The Brothers Size” and “Gem of the Ocean.”

Majok won the Pulitzer for her play “Cost of Living,” which was also nominated for a Tony. Her other plays include “Sanctuary City,” “queens” and “Ironbound.” She also penned the books for the Florence Welch- and Thomas Bartlett-scored “Gatsby: An American Myth” and the musical adaptation of “Girl, Interrupted.” Reddick’s play “Cold War Choir Practice” won the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Award for a new American play. It was also nominated for Drama Desk and Drama League Awards. Reddick is also a recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from the Vineyard Theatre, where she is an artist in residence.

The Theater Lab will be an incubator for work by these artists. 

“There is a fundamental need to allow great work to come into being. Artists need more than a place to put a play on its feet. They need the time and support to explore new ideas and take creative risks,” said Lear deBessonet, LCT artistic director. “We’re so proud to bring the Theater Lab to life, and to create an environment that advances innovation and transformation for the wellbeing of society. We’re deeply grateful to the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation for believing in this endeavor and for giving us the opportunity to invest in writers at such a formative moment in their careers. That is an extraordinary gift.”

“Helen loved the theater, and partnering with Lincoln Center Theater is the exact type of endeavor she would have relished,” said Eve Burton, president of the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, in a statement. “This extension of HGB support for the theater community will provide an opportunity for next-generation artists to develop both artistically and professionally.”

Established in 2010, the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation is named for the late author, publisher and businesswoman who served as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine from 1965 through 1997. The foundation supports after-school youth programs, educational scholarships and the creation of new works in the theater, among other projects.