Francisca Da Silveira

francisca da silveira is a Cape Verde born, Boston raised playwright and tv writer. She was recently named a 2025 Women to Watch by the Broadway Women’s Fund. Her produced plays include: CAN I TOUCH IT?, Rolling World Premiere at Company One Theatre (Boston), Rogue Machine Theatre (Los Angeles), and Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland) in 2022; PAY NO WORSHIP, a 2023 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and World Premiere at InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia) in April 2023; NOT-FOR-PROFIT (OR THE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLAY), World Premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre in October 2024; and MINOR·ITY, World Premiere at WP Theatre, co-produced by Colt Coeur (NYC) in April 2025.

da silveira was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a member of The Public Theater...

francisca da silveira is a Cape Verde born, Boston raised playwright and tv writer. She was recently named a 2025 Women to Watch by the Broadway Women’s Fund. Her produced plays include: CAN I TOUCH IT?, Rolling World Premiere at Company One Theatre (Boston), Rogue Machine Theatre (Los Angeles), and Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland) in 2022; PAY NO WORSHIP, a 2023 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and World Premiere at InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia) in April 2023; NOT-FOR-PROFIT (OR THE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLAY), World Premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre in October 2024; and MINOR·ITY, World Premiere at WP Theatre, co-produced by Colt Coeur (NYC) in April 2025.

da silveira was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a member of The Public Theater’s 2020-2023 Emerging Writers Group, a 2022-2023 Jerome Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center, a member of The Apollo Theater’s 2023 New Works Initiative Cohort, and a 2023 NYSCA commission recipient with The New Group (NYC). She has developed work through La Jolla Playhouse, the Banff Centre in Canada, MacDowell, the Venturous Theater Fund, and the National New Play Network. She was recently the 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence with WP Theatre (NYC).

In TV land, da silveira was in the writers’ room for HBO's Season 3 of INDUSTRY and in development with HBO. Her upcoming short film, MUDJER DI INDEPENDENSIA, is executive produced by Disney legend and Tony award winner Anika Noni Rose. She holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MSc in Playwriting from the University of Edinburgh.

Scripts

can i touch it?

by Francisca Da Silveira

Synopsis

Shay Solomon is many things — a business owner, a single mom, a community leader — but there’s one thing she’s definitely not: a pawn in Patron Bank’s efforts to buy up foreclosed real estate in Roxbury and Dorchester. At risk of losing her beauty supply store to the bank, she’s caught between the personal fight for her family’s livelihood and the systemic fight against gentrification. When pushed to her limits...

Shay Solomon is many things — a business owner, a single mom, a community leader — but there’s one thing she’s definitely not: a pawn in Patron Bank’s efforts to buy up foreclosed real estate in Roxbury and Dorchester. At risk of losing her beauty supply store to the bank, she’s caught between the personal fight for her family’s livelihood and the systemic fight against gentrification. When pushed to her limits, Shay finds herself in the fantastical, peaceful place women of color have to recede into when they get asked stupid ass questions.
A hyper-local conversation-starter by Boston’s own Francisca Da Silveira, can i touch it? examines Black hair politics, the racial inequities faced by Black-owned businesses, and the tangled web of approaches necessary to create real social change.

not-for-profit (or the equity, diversity and inclusion play)

by Francisca Da Silveira

Synopsis

When offered a fancy promotion over her more experienced coworker, Nadine is left at a morally conflicting crossroads. All around her, hell begins to break lose at RiseUP, an education nonprofit that matches urban youth of color with inspiring mentors from the world of business. A scandal involving a student breaks, and Nadine discovers that RiseUP isn’t as worthy and wholesome as it pretends to be. not-for...

When offered a fancy promotion over her more experienced coworker, Nadine is left at a morally conflicting crossroads. All around her, hell begins to break lose at RiseUP, an education nonprofit that matches urban youth of color with inspiring mentors from the world of business. A scandal involving a student breaks, and Nadine discovers that RiseUP isn’t as worthy and wholesome as it pretends to be. not-for-profit (or the equity, diversity and inclusion play) tackles the dichotomy of policy vs. practice and investigates what is really at the core of toxic, microaggressive workplace environments.

pay no worship

by Francisca Da Silveira

Synopsis

Born and raised on Fogo, a tiny African Island, cousins Martin and Jose live at the base of a giant volcano and struggle to make a living in the precarious wine industry that has been the main source of their family's income for generations. While one refuses to give up on tradition and is content to continue living a simplistic rural life, the other longs for a visa to America in order to pursue a higher...

Born and raised on Fogo, a tiny African Island, cousins Martin and Jose live at the base of a giant volcano and struggle to make a living in the precarious wine industry that has been the main source of their family's income for generations. While one refuses to give up on tradition and is content to continue living a simplistic rural life, the other longs for a visa to America in order to pursue a higher education. Both dreams and volcanoes are at risk of erupting as the cousins fight for opportunity, understanding, and their lives when a tropical storm headed toward the island threatens to destroy everything they know.

Heritage Hill Naturals

by Francisca Da Silveira

Synopsis

In an effort to avoid confronting her declining mental health, recent college graduate Lucilia volunteers a month of free labor to an organic farm in rural Georgia. There, she encounters ignorance bordering on racism, religious fanaticism, and too healthy eating habits that force her to question whether escaping into a world of green living was really an escape at all.

In an effort to avoid confronting her declining mental health, recent college graduate Lucilia volunteers a month of free labor to an organic farm in rural Georgia. There, she encounters ignorance bordering on racism, religious fanaticism, and too healthy eating habits that force her to question whether escaping into a world of green living was really an escape at all.

scholarship babies

by Francisca Da Silveira

Synopsis

For the first time in Felicia's life, the unthinkable has happened - she, a lifelong recipient of academic scholarships, has been denied free money to attend graduate school. Her plan to get alternative funding is shattered when she and her two best friends miss the annual reunion cruise for their prestigious private school and are left stranded on the dock. scholarship babies is a cutting examination of...

For the first time in Felicia's life, the unthinkable has happened - she, a lifelong recipient of academic scholarships, has been denied free money to attend graduate school. Her plan to get alternative funding is shattered when she and her two best friends miss the annual reunion cruise for their prestigious private school and are left stranded on the dock. scholarship babies is a cutting examination of educational privilege, affirmative action and what it truly means to go from rags to riches in today’s society.