2010 Huntington Theatre Co. Playwriting Fellows Announced

Huntington Theatre Company announces the 2010 class of Huntington Playwriting Fellows: Patrick Gabridge, Martha Jane Kaufman, and Ryan Landry. This artistically diverse group of writers will be in residence at the theatre for two years. They follow in the footsteps of renowned past Huntington Fellows Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly), Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew), Ronan Noone (The Atheist, Brendan), and Sinan Ünel (The Cry of the Reed).

Through the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program, the Huntington fosters the talents of local playwrights at all stages of their careers, from emerging talents to established professionals, and encourages and facilitates conversations among Boston's playwriting community. Fellows are awarded two-year residencies during which they are provided a modest grant, participate in a bi-weekly writers' collective, and benefit from access to the artistic staff and to the resources of the Huntington. The three 2010 Fellows were selected from among 60 applicants. The Huntington Playwriting Fellows program is supported by the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays and the Harry Kondoleon Playwriting Fund.

Patrick Gabridge is the author of numerous plays including Constant State of Panic, Pieces of Whitey, Blinders, and Reading the Mind of God. His work has been staged in theatres across the country. His first novel, Tornado Siren, was published in 2006. He is the co-founder of Boston's Rhombus Playwrights' group, the Chameleon Stage theatre company in Denver, the publication Market InSight... for Playwrights, and the online Playwrights' Submission Binge. His plays are published by Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer, Smith & Kraus, and Original Works Publishers. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, on the board of StageSource, the Greater Boston theatre alliance, and a resident of Brookline, MA. The Denver Post called Blinders, "Bitingly clever. A challenging, imaginative piece."

Martha Jane Kaufman's plays include House and Junction and A Live Dress. She has received awards and commissions from the San Francisco Playwrights' Foundation, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Stark Raving Theater, and Young Playwrights Inc. Originally from Portland, OR, Kaufman attended Wesleyan University where she studied playwriting with Marsha Norman and Catherine Filloux. She has also choreographed four dances and created several performance pieces in non-traditional spaces including a stairwell and an elevator. She is a resident of Jamaica Plain, MA.

Ryan Landry is Ryan Landry, a working writer, director, and performer for over thirty years. His Boston-based troupe the Gold Dust Orphans produces satirical "mash-ups" of pop culture - comedic, dramatic, or musical - in both Provincetown and Boston. Past productions include Willy Wanker and the Hershey Highway, All About Christmas Eve, Death of a Saleslady, Medea, A T-Stop Named Denial, Christmas on the Pole, and Valet of the Dolls. He is currently in rehearsal for Phantom of the Oprah , writing his next musical, Peter Pansy, and at work on a surrealist adaptation of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. He is a resident of Dorchester, MA. The Boston Globe extols, "The brilliance of playwright/performer Ryan Landry lies in his unique ability to marry outrageous parody with the most serious topics."

"The Huntington is committed to being a well-rounded company that produces the best work by local, national, and International Artists," explains Director of New Work Lisa Timmel. "The Huntington Playwriting Fellows program allows us to create thriving working relationships with writers at all stages as they develop their work for production."

Past Huntington Playwriting Fellows are leaders of the local community whose plays have been produced on the Huntington's stages and throughout the country. They are:

· Class of 2003 - 2005: John Kuntz (Jasper Lake), Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew), Ronan Noone (The Atheist, Brendan), and Sinan Ünel (The Cry of the Reed)

· Class of 2005 - 2007: Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly), Rebekah Maggor (Shakespeare's Actresses in America), John Shea (The Hill), and Kate Snodgrass (The Glider)

· Class of 2007 - 2009: Kirsten Greenidge (The Luck of the Irish), Jacqui Parker (Jeanie Don't Sing No Mo'), Ken Urban (The Happy Sad), and Joyce Van Dyke (The Oil Thief).

"Participating in the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program through the writers' collective, company support, and Breaking Ground series will be the perfect opportunity to help me to achieve many of my goals," says Kaufman. "Sharing with other writers encourages me to try new devices and make daring formal and genre choices. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the Huntington's artistic staff and previous Fellows over the coming years."

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON
The Huntington Theatre Company is Boston's largest and most popular theatre company, hosting more than 64 Tony Award-winning artists, garnering 36 Elliot Norton Awards, and sending over a dozen shows to Broadway since its founding in 1982. In July 2008, Peter Dubois became the Huntington's third artistic leader and works in partnership with longtime Managing Director Michael Maso. In residence at and in partnership with Boston University, the Huntington is renowned for presenting seven outstanding productions each season, created by world-class artists and the most promising emerging talent, and reaching an annual audience of over 130,000. The company has premiered plays by Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award, and Tony Award-winning luminaries such as August Wilson and Tom Stoppard, as well as rising local literary stars such as Melinda Lopez and Ronan Noone. The Huntington has transferred more productions to Broadway than any other theatre in Boston, including the Broadway hit and Tony Award-winner Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. In 2004, the Huntington opened the state-of-the-art Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which includes 370-seat and 200-seat theatres to support the company's new works activities and to complement the company's 890-seat, Broadway-style main stage, the Boston University Theatre. The Huntington is a national leader in the development and support of new plays, producing more than 50 New England, American, or world premieres in its 27-year history. The Huntington's nationally-recognized education programs have served more than 200,000 middle school and high school students in individual and group settings and community programs bring theatre to the Deaf and blind communities, the elderly, and other underserved populations in the Greater Boston area.

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