2011 Playwrights at Playpenn Conference in Philadelphia in July

PlayPenn, Philadelphia's professional new play development organization, will hold its seventh annual New Play Development Conference from July 8 - July 24 at both the Adrienne Theater and the Playground (2030 Sansom Street) in Philadelphia. The Conference will feature two weeks of intensive work on six works-in-progress by Lisa Dillman (American Wee-Pie); Jacqueline Goldfinger (Slip/Shot); Brian Quirk (Nerine); Lauren Yee (A Man, His Wife and His Hat); John Yearley (Another Girl); and Stefanie Zadravec (The Electric Baby).

"This year we received nearly 600 applications, which is indicative of the expanded awareness and need for PlayPenn at the national level. The finalists were selected by a national panel of dramaturgs and artistic directors who share our fundamental belief that the development of new plays is essential to our community - in Philadelphia, the region, and the nation," said Paul Meshejian, Artistic Director of PlayPenn.

The chosen playwrights will bring their works-in-progress to Philadelphia for more than two weeks of support with artistic resources including a professional director of their choice, dramaturgical and design assistance and professional actors from the Philadelphia theatre community. For the third consecutive year the rehearsal period will be preceded by a three day retreat during which conference playwrights, directors and dramaturgs will become acclimated to one another, their plays and to the city. Playwrights will rehearse for two weeks with a team of artists devoted to the progress of their work, culminating in public staged readings from July 18 - July 24.

Lisa Dillman's plays include Detail of a Larger Work (Steppenwolf Theatre), The Walls (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble/Steppenwolf), Flung (American Theatre Company), Half of Plenty (SPF-NYC; Rogue Machine, L.A.), Rock Shore (O'Neill Playwrights Conference), and Ground (2010 Humana Festival). She has received commissions from Goodman Theatre where she is currently a member of the 2010-2011 Playwrights Unit, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. She is the recipient of the Sprenger-Lang New History Play Prize, two Illinois Arts Council fellowships, Sarett National Playwright Award, and Julie Harris-Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award. Her work is published by Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Heinemann, Playscripts Inc., and Smith and Kraus.

Jacqueline Goldfinger's plays include the terrible girls (recently produced at Azuka Theatre and NYFringe), The Oath (Theatre Exile, Off-Off Broadway MTWorks, Penobscot Theatre), and The Burning Season (Winner National Plays for the 21st Century Competition). Her commissioned adaptations include Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Gas & Electric Arts), Little Women (North Coast Repertory Theatre), A Christmas Carol (North Coast Repertory Theatre), and The Ghost's Bargain (Playscripts). Her works have been published by Playscripts and Smith & Krauss.

Brian Quirk is a three-time MacDowell Colony fellow, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) fellow, Wurlitzer Foundation Fellow and recipient of an Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Grant, Leon Levy Foundation Grant, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant, and winner of the 2010 Robert Chesley Award. His play Mapplethorpe/The Opening has been performed at New Georges ManFest, The Provincetown Playhouse, New Conservatory Theater Center, Sixth@Penn, Bahama's Popop Studio, and Dixon Place, which also presented his play Strangers. His other plays have been produced at EAT/Doubledecker (Crash ) and Axial (Marrow). Summerland was a semi-finalist for the 2009 Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference.

Lauren Yee has been a MacDowell Colony fellow, a Dramatists Guild fellow, and a Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member, and a finalist for the Heideman, the Jerome, the Princess Grace, the PONY Fellowship, and the Wasserstein Prize. Her other plays include Ching Chong Chinaman, Hookman, in a word, and Samsara. Published by Samuel French, Ching Chong Chinaman has been produced at Impact Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, Pan Asian Rep, and SIS Productions. She has received commissions from AlterTheater, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Kennedy Center, Mu Performing Arts (supported by the MAP Fund), and PlayGround.

John Yearley is the author of Leap which was produced by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and received the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize and Ephemera which received the John Gassner Award. His new play, Another Girl, was read by Naked Angels in March. A member of the Writer's Guild, Dramatists Guild, and a MacDowell Fellow, his plays A Low-Lying Fog and All in Little Pieces are published by Samuel French. He is the author of the forthcoming book Daddy's Not Tall Enough to Touch the Moon.

Stefanie Zadravec's plays have been produced/developed at The Kennedy Center, The Women's Project, The Barrow Group, Bay Street, Theater J, Phoenix Theatre, and Working Theater and Theater 167 among others. Honey Brown Eyes won the 2009 Helen Hayes Award and was published in American Theatre. Save Me won The Phoenix Theatre's Playwriting Award and the Carol Weinberg Award. She received a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, a Playwrights Realm Fellowship, and is a member or the 2010-2012 Women's Project Lab. With director Daniella Topol, Zadravec received NYCWAM's Women's Collaboration Award for their work on The Electric Baby.

The six conference playwrights were culled from a group of thirteen finalists, also including Lisa Halpern (Flying Through Blue), Meghan Kennedy (A Bright Wind Over A Bent World), Alex Lewin (Alexandria), Kenneth Lin (Fallow), Kara Manning (Sleeping Rough), Emily Schwend (Route One Off), and Andrea Stolowitz (Antarktikos).

PlayPenn is an artist-driven organization dedicated to improving the way in which new plays are developed. Employing an ever-evolving process, PlayPenn creates a relaxed tension within which playwrights can engage in risk-taking, boundary-pushing work free from the pressures of commercial consideration. PlayPenn is made possible through the generous support of the Wyncote Foundation and major grants from, among others, the Dramatists Guild Fund, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts and The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Support for PlayPenn's 2011 Conference was provided by a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.

For further information, please call 215.242.2813.

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