C. Quintana, or CQ

CQ QUINTANA [pronouns: any] is a queer nonbinary writer with Cuban blood and New Orleans roots based on unceded Canarsee and Munsee Lenape land in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. CQ's stories center on human connection and proclaim: you are

not alone.

Most recently, CQ's middle grade scripted podcast series Ghost Tour, developed alongside Rebecca Cunningham of Girl Tales and Cordelia Studios, launches this October 2024. Available wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

CQ's plays & musicals have been developed and produced nationwide with the Kennedy Center, Diversionary Theatre, INTAR, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and more. Scissoring is available via Dramatists Play Service, and you can listen to The 126-Year-Old Artist via Audible. For more, visit NPX.

CQ's poetry, fiction, and lyric nonfiction is published in Third Coast, Jacar Press, The Wildness Journal, Foglifter, great weather for MEDIA, and beyond. The author of the poetry chapbook The Heart Wants (Finishing Line Press), CQ's poem "She-lium" was featured on Radiolab's "Elements" episode in collaboration with Emotive Fruition, now Poetry Well.

CQ's television writing credits include Fox/Sony's ALERT: Missing Persons Unit (Seasons 2 and 3), AMC/Boat Rocker's Orphan Black: Echoes, and ABC/Keshet's The Baker and the Beauty.

CQ is the recipient of grants & fellowships from NYSCA, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, MacDowell, Playwrights Realm, Van Lier/New Voices at The Lark, CubaOne, Lambda Literary, and Queer|Art, as well as commissions from The Kennedy Center, Audible, The Civilians, EST/Alfred P. Sloan Project, and more. CQ is a proud graduate of the deceased College of Santa Fe and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. @cquintanatown

Photo: Antonio De Lucci

projects.

writing.

selected plays.

Genderless Play Experiment

(Carthage College New Play Initiative | University Production 2023) An inter-braided love story centering YOU in six human characters, or soul types, THE GENDERLESS PLAY EXPERIMENT (GPE) is a direct-address exploration of (queer) joy that breaks down preconceived notions about identity and salutes the endless human journey of self-discovery.

Beastgirl

Music by Janelle Lawrence, Based on "Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths" by Elizabeth Acevedo (World Premiere Kennedy Center TYA) From the Dominican Republic to an apartment rooftop in NYC, Beastgirl considers how the myths that make us can be both blessing and birthright.

AZUL

(West Coast Premiere Diversionary Theatre 2021 | World Premiere: Southern Rep 2019 | 2017 Kilroys List ) Spanning two countries and three generations, AZUL fuses music and memory to ask: what is the true language of love?

Scissoring

(Available via Dramatists Play Service | World Premiere: INTAR 2018) When Abigail Bauer takes a job as a teacher at a conservative Catholic school, she is forced to step back into the closet. As she struggles to reconcile her professional ambitions, personal relationships, religious beliefs, and internalized shame, she must find the courage to be unabashedly herself.

Enter Your Sleep

(Zoom Theater 2020 | Yale Cabaret 2018 | NYC Fringe 2014) Childhood best friends, meet in a wild night of dreams to unravel their complex friendship, battle their sadness, and, ultimately, face a looming, dark truth.

Evensong

(World Premiere: Astoria Performing Arts Center, 2016) Teo works as a bank teller, goes on mediocre online dates, and searches for stability and connection while navigating the tangled shelter system.

The Great Lonely Roamer & The Night That Changed Everything

(Featured in inaugural NYU Voices Festival with The Movement 2017) On New Year’s Eve, a polar bear arrives in suburban Texas in search of a new home, while his sister winds up in New York City to track him down. What follows: a night that will impact the future of an entire species...

Citizen Scientist

(Finalist BPP Woodward/Newman Award | Second Prize Barrington Stage Company Burman New Play Award | EST/Sloan Project Commission) Neema, an astronomer, and Kian, an actuary, meet exploring the starfield for exoplanets and battling their recent losses. Together, they discover a planet and learn what it means to be present here on Earth.

For Young Audiences

Write for more information re: licensing of CQ's TYA work, including Flor to Somewhere, Música, Música, Máximo, Música (Peppercorn Theatre), Amiga Duende (Palo Alto Playhouse), and The Literate Mermaid (Girl Tales)