francisca da silveira is a Cape Verdean-American playwright, TV writer, and Boston native. Her plays include Can I touch It?, a 2023 National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere; Pay No Worship, a 2023 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Not-for-Profit (or The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Play), and La Jolla Playhouse’s 2021 DNA New Works Series.
da silveira was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a member of The Public Theater’s 2020-2023 Emerging Writers Group, and a 2022-2023 Jerome Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center. She is currently commissioned by Colt Coeur Theater and The New Group, a member of The Apollo Theater’s 2023 New Works Initiative Cohort, and a 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence with WP Theater. In TV land, da silveira was in the writers’ room for HBO's third season of Industry and is in development with HBO.
While at MacDowell, da silveira started writing the first draft a new play with music, titled Barefoot in Mindelo, about the life of iconic Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora. da silveira first began development on the play as a member of The Apollo Theater’s New Works Initiative 2023 Cohort.
Portrait by Felice Cabral
