Emerging Leader Fellowship

2026 TYA/USA Emerging Leader Fellows

Giovanni Delgado Ferreira (he/him) is a theatre maker, playwright, and theatre educator whose work centers youth-led creation, immersive storytelling, and community-based practice. An MFA candidate in Theatre for Youth & Community at Arizona State University, Gio has taught theatre across schools, universities, and community spaces, including teaching an international youth theatre summer course at Yale University. His practice bridges theatre and video game storytelling as tools for social-emotional learning, a methodology he has presented on internationally, including at the International Drama and Education Research Institute in Vancouver. Internationally, Gio represented the United States as part of the Next Generation cohort at the ASSITEJ International Youth Theatre Congress in Havana, Cuba (2024). As a playwright, his work centers on Latiné and broader BIPOC communities, with recurring themes of identity, death, loss, and grief. Gio is particularly invested in developing immersive and interactive theatre with youth, creating work that honors lived experience while fostering artistic rigor, agency, and collective storytelling.

Through this research trip, he hopes to learn from Albany Park Theatre Project’s immersive, youth-driven performance model—particularly how interactive theatre is created with young people in one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse neighborhoods in the world. He is eager to deepen his understanding of how APTP sustains artistic excellence, youth leadership, and community accountability while working across more than 70 languages, cultures, and lived experiences.

Remy Feldman (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based facilitator, teaching artist, administrator, and adjunct professor. They are the co-founder of GenderWise Trainings, which offers interactive and engaging trainings and consulting for schools, camps, social workers, employers, theatre and dance companies, and beyond. Their mission is to make the world safer and more accessible for queer and trans folks, especially youth. Outside of GenderWise, they serve as both the education coordinator and a teaching artist with New York City Children’s Theater, as well as an adjunct professor in the Gender Studies department at John Jay College. Remy holds an MA in Applied Theater from CUNY School of Professional Studies.

They are looking forward to using this fellowship to further their research into developing a more holistic approach in supporting LGBTQ+ youth, including two trips; one to observe the Pride Players at The Rose Theater in Omaha, NE, and the other to spend a week at kin•dom Camp, which is a sleepaway camp in East Texas which serves the trans and gender non-conforming community. They are looking forward to learning how organizations outside of New York structure both theatre-making and recreational settings that are designed specifically for the TGNC community.

Trinity Gordon is a theatre educator, director, and teaching artist dedicated to inclusive, student-centered Theatre for Young Audiences. A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Theatre Education, she was named a 2025 Dallas ISD Teacher of Promise and is known for her work in adaptive and accessible theatre practices. Trinity founded her school’s first Adaptive Theatre program, expanding access to performance for disabled, neurodivergent, visually impaired, and multilingual learners. Her work is rooted in joy, representation, and the belief that theatre belongs to everybody.

Theatre Educator, Director, and Teaching Artist Trinity Gordon will travel to Chicago Children’s Theatre to deepen her practice in inclusive, culturally responsive, and accessible Theatre for Young Audiences, with a focus on neurodiverse-centered processes and sensory-aware theatre making.

Hear from Fran Sillau (2020 Emerging Leader Fellow) about the impact of the Fellowship and TYA/USA on his work.