Sarah Ruhl, Bess Wohl, Betty Shamieh, Daniel Kehlmann and More Join PEN World Voices Festival
Two festival panels will examine Holocaust narratives in contemporary theatre, and the evolving gap between playwrights and authors.
The PEN America World Voices Festival, running April 29–May 2, 2026, in New York City and Los Angeles, convenes—among more than 140 international writers—some of today’s most acclaimed playwrights for timely conversations.
They’re featured in events on two consecutive nights of the festival:
THE ORDINARY AND THE ATROCIOUS: NAZISM IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHT
Thursday, April 30 | 6:30–7:45 PM
The Center (The LGBTQ Community Center), 208 W 13th St, New York | $20
A summer camp for German-American children to be indoctrinated into Nazi ideology. A young Jewish boy coming of age in the Philippines after escaping Nazi Germany. A photo album of Auschwitz staff relaxing. The subject matter varies widely, but eighty years on, the Holocaust and its stories continue to haunt contemporary playwrights.
Bess Wohl (Camp Siegfried), Boni B. Alvarez (Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy), and Amanda Gronich (Here There Are Blueberries) come together with S. Dylan Zwickel (The Moss Maidens) come together with Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk to discuss their use of theatre, with its unique immediacy, to grapple with a past that feels ever more present.
Tickets: eventbrite.com | More info: worldvoices.pen.org/event/the-ordinary-and-the-atrocious-nazism-in-the-imagination-of-the-contemporary-playwright/
WRITING ACROSS FORMS: A CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR-PLAYWRIGHTS
Friday, May 1 | 7:00–8:15 PM
Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Pl, New York | $20
Throughout the twentieth century, it was common for writers to work across forms. Now, however, there is a void between the role of “author” and “playwright” that few dare cross.
Daniel Kehlmann (The Director), Sarah Ruhl (Letters from My Teachers; Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee), Betty Shamieh (Too Soon), and Jeremy Tiang (State of Emergency) are some of those rare artists. Playwright MJ Kaufman, currently at work on their first novel, will lead them in a conversation examining the reasons behind this curious divide, and what it means to reject it. Join them as they discuss how they choose the form best suited for a particular idea, the differences between writing words to be read and words to be heard, and approaching work presented by a team of other creatives versus imparted directly from them to their audience.
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