RAJENDRA RAMOON MAHARAJ
Director and Artist
The Dramatists Guild's Candela Playwrights Summer Fellowship
Photo Credit: Carl Matthew
Rajendra was chosen for the 2024 The Candela Playwrights Summer Fellowship, held at the Dramatists Guild of America in New York City from July 14-19.
Founded by playwright/director and college professor Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Candela is an initiative dedicated to lighting the way to high-quality theater education for emerging playwrights, book writers, and lyricists with Latin American and Caribbean heritage. This year's Candela Fellows represented the US, US-Mexico Border, Suriname, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, the Bahamas, El Salvador, Guatemala, and speak Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Kreyol/Haitian Creole.
In addition to working on developing their craft, the Candela Fellows enjoyed backstage tours, meet and greets and seeing the work of their colleagues around the City including: Titanique, Hell’s Kitchen, and Suffs. They also journeyed to the New York Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center to explore the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) with special guest, the legendary dramaturg and producer Ira Weitzman.