Playwrights Horizons Commissions New Work by Jordan E. Cooper, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins & More

Playwrights Horizons has revealed the artists the organization commissioned for new work in 2022-2023—playwrights at various stages in their careers, all offering revelatory visions of the possibilities the stage holds. Each year, the organization, a “venerable new-play generator” (Washington Post), identifies, engages, and offers crucial support to several artists through this program. Playwrights Horizons partners with visionary foundations to champion today’s most imaginative writers, whose works will shape the future of the American theater. 

Writers commissioned by Playwrights Horizons in 2022-23 include:

• Agnes Borinsky (Playwrights: The Trees; A Song of Songs), through the Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation 
• Jordan E. Cooper (Ain't No Mo', Black Boy Fly), through the Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation
• Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (The Comeuppance, An Octoroon), through the inaugural Pinnacle Commission
• AntoinetteChinonye Nwandu (Pass Over, BREACH: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate), through the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Commission
• Mona Pirnot (I Love You So Much I Could Die, Private), through Berwin Lee London New York Playwrights Inc.
• Vera Starbard (Devilfish, Tlingit Christmas Carol), through the Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Commissions for Emerging Playwrights

Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director Adam Greenfield says, “Playwrights Horizons aims to advance new work at all stages of its journey to the stage, and our commissions is a chance to support writers from the earliest germ of an idea. Each year we identify a group of writers who we’re especially interested in hearing from: Who’s innovating? Who’s breaking rules? Who’s interested in exploring theater’s full potential?  Each of the writers commissioned this year demonstrate this sense of adventure and curiosity; there’s an urgency behind all of their work.”

Playwrights Horizons’ commissions are often the momentous beginnings of relationships between the organization and groundbreaking playwrights—both established writers and emerging voices—while in other cases, they continue vital ongoing collaborations. 

This year saw the inauguration of the Pinnacle Commission, a partnership between Playwrights Horizons and South Coast Repertory, which recognizes and expands support for established artists of remarkable achievement. The “remarkable achievement” of the first recipient, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—“one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers” (The New York Times)—throughout the last decade cannot be overstated. His gripping, probing, and ceaselessly innovating writing has garnered acclaim with Obie winners Appropriate and An Octoroon, Pulitzer Prize finalists Gloria and Everybody, and the “profound tragicomedy” (The New York Times) The Comeuppance, which made its world premiere this year at Signature Theatre. 

The Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Commissions were created for emerging playwrights, and this year’s recipient is Tlingit and Dena’ina Athabascan playwright and TV writer Vera Starbard, who spent over six years as Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre’s playwright-in-residence through the Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program. Along with Starbard, Playwrights Horizons was similarly excited by the work of emerging playwright Mona Pirnot, recipient of a Playwrights commission through Berwin Lee London New York Playwrights Inc., awarded to a playwright who has not yet been produced on Broadway or the West End. Pirnot will have her Off-Broadway debut in New York Theater Workshop’s 2023/24 season with I Love You So Much I Could Die.

Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, who received the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Commission—supporting n​​ew works by women and nonbinary playwrights, choreographers and composers—astonished audiences and critics with her genre-traversing Waiting for Godot and Book of Exodus-inspired Pass Over, her “surreal and morbidly funny existential drama” (Variety) that made its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theater. There it was captured on film by Spike Lee, and eventually went on to Broadway, where it reopened the August Wilson Theater (and was the first play to reopen Broadway altogether) following pandemic closures. The commission is the first occasion for Playwrights Horizons, longtime admirers of Nwandu, to work with her. 

Agnes Borinsky, whose world premiere play The Trees Playwrights presented with Page 73, this year received her second commission. The Trees was, itself, the result of her first, and, as Adam Greenfield notes, “in a time when theater is facing serious challenges, her play asked ‘how do you live like a nonprofit in a for-profit culture?’” The organization felt it crucial to continue to engage her inventive perspective—in a moment where theater demands reinvention. Like Borinsky, Tony-nominated playwright Jordan E. Cooper—who made his Broadway playwriting debut with the “bawdy and bold” (New York Magazine) “biting satire” (The New York Times) Ain’t No Mo’ at age 27—received a Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation commission, providing writers the funds to generate scripts for plays that are large in scope and content. The commission brings Cooper—whose playfully searing work Greenfield notes “felt like it would thrive at Playwrights”—into the organization’s community.

About the Commissioned Playwrights

Agnes Borinsky

 is a writer, performer, and convener of people. Her most recent play, The Trees, premiered in 2023 at Playwrights Horizons, in a co-production with Page 73. She lives in Los Angeles.

Jordan E. Cooper

 is an award-winning playwright, producer, director and performer. He is the youngest Black American playwright in the history of Broadway with his critically acclaimed, Obie Award-winning, play AIN’T NO MO’, which opened on Broadway in December 2022 to critical acclaim. AIN’T NO MO’ received six TONY Award nominations including “Best New Play” and “Best Featured Actor in a Play” for Jordan’s role as the hilarious and bossy flight attendant “Peaches.” Cooper is also the youngest Black showrunner in television history with his Emmy-nominated show “The Ms. Pat Show,” which he also co-created, executive produces and directs. The hit multi-cam series returned to BET+ for its third season this February. Jordan was also featured on the final season of FX’s groundbreaking series “Pose,” as MC Tyrone, and has his own production company, Cookout Entertainment.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's plays include The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre), Girls (Yale Rep), Everybody (Signature Theatre), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Obie Award; Signature Theatre), An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). He is a former USA Artists, Guggenheim, and MacArthur fellow and a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama and Tennessee Williams Award. He currently serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council and teaches at Yale University.

Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu 

is a New York-based writer for stage & screen. Her play Pass Over reopened Broadway after making its NY debut at Lincoln Center Theater, and a filmed version of the World Premier Steppenwolf production—directed by Spike Lee — is streaming on Amazon Prime. Other plays include Breach: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate, Flat Sam, Black Boy & The War, and Vanna White Has Got to Die! Antoinette is a MacDowell Fellow; an Ars Nova Play Group alum; a Dramatists Guild Fellow; and a Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference Literary Fellow. Selected awards include a Lilly Award; a Lucille Lortel Award; the Whiting Award; the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award; & the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award amongst others. Antoinette holds an A.B. in Eng from Harvard; an MSc from The University of Edinburgh; & an MFA from NYU Tisch.

Mona Pirnot 

is an NYC-based playwright and songwriter. Plays include I Love You So Much I Could Die (NYTW 2024) and Private (2023 SFBATCO, 2022 Mosaic Theater, 2022 Mirrorbox Theatre, 2023 Helen Hayes Best Play nomination, 2019 Kilroys List). She was the 2014-15 Literary Fellow at Center Theatre Group, Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2019 Playwright in Residence, member of EST/Youngblood 2018 - 2023, and current NYTW Usual Suspect. She is the recipient of the 2022 Berwin Lee & Brown Playwrights Award.

Vera Starbard, T’set Kwei

is a Tlingit and Dena’ina playwright, magazine editor, and Emmy-nominated TV writer. She was Playwright-in-Residence at Perseverance Theatre through the Andrew W. Mellon National Playwright Residency Program, and longtime newspaper and magazine editor for various publications, including First Alaskans Magazine. She is a writer for the PBS Kids children’s program “Molly of Denali,” which won a Peabody Award in 2020 and was nominated for two Children and Family Emmys in 2022. She recently was staffed on the ABC show “Alaska Daily.”

About the Commission Funders

Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman

Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman have been subscribers at Playwrights Horizons since 1981. They support theater artists and companies throughout New York.

Berwin Lee & Brown London New York Playwrights Inc.

The Berwin Lee & Brown Award was created to foster and promote the craft of playwriting in both the United States and the United Kingdom and to encourage the writing and production of plays. Berwin Lee & Brown will grant awards to playwrights whose work has not yet been produced on Broadway or in the West End. Potential recipients will be identified through recommendations from chosen theatre companies in New York, NY and London, UK and recommendations from Berwin Lee’s advisory board which includes Dominic Cooke, Lucas Hnath, Joyce Hytner, Cherry Jones, Mel Kenyon, Alan Mark, and Donna Murphy. Playwrights awarded so far include Alice Birch, Bash Doran, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Zinnie Harris, Stephen Karam, Raja Feather Kelly, Lucy Kirkwood, Cordelia Lynne, and Penelope Skinner. 

The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation

The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation supports commissions of new works by female identifying playwrights, choreographers and composers. Our founder, Virginia B. Toulmin, was a passionate supporter of theater and the performing arts and of equality and fairness for women. The foundation has been in the forefront of supporting female playwrights, choreographers and composers and is the only foundation in the performing arts dedicated exclusively to advancing and leveling the playing field for female and nonbinary creative artists.

Pinnacle Commission

Created in 2019 as part of South Coast Repertory's The Lab@SCR play development program, this commission is a partnership between South Coast Repertory and Playwrights Horizons. The award recognizes and expands support for established artists of remarkable achievement.

The Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation

The Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation was formed under the will of the late Sir Peter Shaffer for the purpose of encouraging and promoting the creation and production of works for the theater that are large in scope and content. Peter Shaffer was the accomplished playwright of Equus, first produced by The National Theatre, followed by the West End and Broadway; it received revivals in 2007 and 2019 and was made into a 1977 film which earned Peter an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. Peter's play Amadeus opened at The National Theatre in 1979 and on Broadway in 1980, and the 1984 film won Peter Shaffer one of its eight Academy Awards.  His other works include Lettice and Lovage (ran on the West End for three years), Black Comedy, White Lies, The Battle of Shrivings, Yonadab, The Salt Land, The Prodigal Father, Five Finger Exercise, The Royal Hunt of the Sun. In 1994, Peter was Visiting Professor of Contemporary Drama at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. He was awarded the CBE in 1987 and was knighted in 2001. Peter passed away in June 2016 at the age of 90.

About Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a writer's theater dedicated to the development of contemporary American Playwrights, and to the production of innovative new work. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons' 51-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering and advancing the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country.

Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life’s greatest paradoxes. And they believe in the singularity of a writer’s voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of American writers. At Playwrights Horizons, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through commissions (engaging several of today’s most imaginative playwrights each year), New Works Lab, Soundstage audio program, and Almanac, the organization’s literary magazine.

Playwrights Horizons presents a season of productions annually on their two stages, each of which is a world, American, or New York premiere. Much like Playwrights Horizons’ work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

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