Karina Billini

Karina Billini

Karina Billini is a Dominican-American playwright, poet, and teaching artist from Brooklyn. She is a 2023-2024 Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard. She began playwriting at the age of 15 where her first play, Hidden Poetry, was recognized by NYC Young Playwrights. Karina completed her undergraduate degree in playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College (2011) and received her MFA in Playwriting...
Karina Billini is a Dominican-American playwright, poet, and teaching artist from Brooklyn. She is a 2023-2024 Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard. She began playwriting at the age of 15 where her first play, Hidden Poetry, was recognized by NYC Young Playwrights. Karina completed her undergraduate degree in playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College (2011) and received her MFA in Playwriting from The New School for Drama (2018.) She is a proud alum of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood. She was a recent finalist for the NYTW 2050 fellowship and Lark's New Voices Fellowship. Her play, 2144 South St, was a recent finalist for Barrington Stage's Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award. Her play, Faded, was a recent finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition (2019.) This work along with other plays have been workshopped and/or produced at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cherry Lane Theatre, Secret Theatre, Modern Day Griot Theatre Co., among others. Her poetry has been published in Burningword Magazine, Huizache Magazines, scissor & spackle, among others.

Plays

  • APPLE BOTTOM
    The plastic surgery procedure, Brazilian Butt Lifts( BBL’s), are sweeping the wallets of the women in Miami. And the staff at the post-BBL recovery house, Apple Bottom Spa, hopes to ride on this wave. Krissy, Winnie, and Caro are just regular women, with their own experiences with butt augmentation, who are responsible for the caretaking of multiple patients that walk through their doors. When a humble...
    The plastic surgery procedure, Brazilian Butt Lifts( BBL’s), are sweeping the wallets of the women in Miami. And the staff at the post-BBL recovery house, Apple Bottom Spa, hopes to ride on this wave. Krissy, Winnie, and Caro are just regular women, with their own experiences with butt augmentation, who are responsible for the caretaking of multiple patients that walk through their doors. When a humble childhood neighbor, Andrea, and a high-strung black-fishing social media influencer, Belinda, arrives as new patients, Apple Bottom Spa struggle to keep both women and the house afloat. An intimate examination of female-to-female caregiving, body dysmorphia, and what it means when the brown/black female body is both ostracized and commodified by the masses.
  • All The Helium Hearts Over Belt Parkway
    Sammy and Amena can't leave each other the hell alone. They've tried. Are they destiny or bad habit? Brighton Beach and their unborn baby want to know. Sammy drives a runaway Uber, but today, Amena refuses to leave his car. A Brooklyn love story about joy rides and a boundless loneliness only the end of the world can bring.
  • LOVE, LUCY
    Lucia de los Santos has traded her strict homeland, The Dominican Republic, for little “Russia by the Sea”— Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. And only one thing seems to make her happy: watching “I LOVE LUCY” returns for the irresistible Lucille Ball. Soon enough, Lucia only goes by “Lucy,” only wears her hair in a bright red updo, and is in a constant pursuit for fame and the American Dream. But money and men keep...
    Lucia de los Santos has traded her strict homeland, The Dominican Republic, for little “Russia by the Sea”— Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. And only one thing seems to make her happy: watching “I LOVE LUCY” returns for the irresistible Lucille Ball. Soon enough, Lucia only goes by “Lucy,” only wears her hair in a bright red updo, and is in a constant pursuit for fame and the American Dream. But money and men keep getting in her way—there’s Ramon, her Puerto Rican Ricardo and Maxim, a Chernobyl survivor and Lucia lover. A poetic and lifelong exploration of what it means to be an immigrant woman trying to be seen in a country larger than life.
  • 2144 SOUTH ST.
    It is the year 1998. Hurricane Georges has devastated the Dominican Republic, and
    Dominican immigrant, Dr. Leo Domenech, has finally opened his first "fancy
    Manhattan" medical office in Washington Heights. However, when he fails to build a
    clientele, Leo turns to drastic measures to make "American Dream money" at the
    expense of his license, the Hurricane Georges victims, and his loving family.
  • Faded: A Calypso
    News reporter Kalia Pierre is moving up from Brooklyn Twelve to Jet-5, where their stories are
    bigger, brighter, and hitting the nation. She is ready to impress her new co-workers, until they
    start to bump up against her Trinidadian roots. Will she fight for the spotlight or fade into the
    background?
  • yeah maybe
    Punta Cana. Boys Trip. Three lonely I.T. technicians from America go on a quest to find themselves a "hot Dominicana" to take back with them to the States.
  • AH SWEETER LIME (currently in revision)
    Trinidadian-American community leader, Keami La Croix, has made a name for herself in Crown Heights’s West Indie community as the "Black Robin Hood." But when she decides to create a campaign to reform the violence-stricken, yet very popular Brooklyn J’ouvert — the pre-dawn celebration that originated from slaves impersonating their masters’ masquerade balls — she is met by severe resistance from the...
    Trinidadian-American community leader, Keami La Croix, has made a name for herself in Crown Heights’s West Indie community as the "Black Robin Hood." But when she decides to create a campaign to reform the violence-stricken, yet very popular Brooklyn J’ouvert — the pre-dawn celebration that originated from slaves impersonating their masters’ masquerade balls — she is met by severe resistance from the black community that once loved her. Ah Sweeter Lime is a poetic and gritty examination of cultural identity, gentrification, and the extent we will take to preserve where we come from.