Road Less Traveled Productions Reveals 2015 Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop Participating Playwrights

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) has announced its list of participating playwrights in the 2015 Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop (NPW).

2015's NPW will include Katherine Boswell, Ntare Ali Gault, Donna Hoke, Cathy Lanski, Diane Almeter Jones, James Marzo, Ann Snead, Judith Robinson, and Lezlie Wade. The Workshop is moderated by Director Kyle LoConti with RLTP's Literary Director Jon Elston.

For the first time in its ten-year history, the 2015 NPW will include three Canadian playwrights: Ann Snead, Judith Robinson, and Lezlie Wade from Southern Ontario. Elston expressed great excitement about the participation of these three internationals, identifying their selection as a part of RLTP's "ongoing efforts to expand its network outside the greater Buffalo area.

Among the 2015 participants who live and work in Western New York, three have previously participated in the NPW: Katherine Boswell, Donna Hoke, and James Marzo. Hoke is a member of the RLTP Ensemble and the Artie award-winning author of Seeds; she has participated in the NPW six times since 2008. Marzo's play Cyrano Of Borough Park was developed in the 2012 NPW and presented in New York City during the summer of 2013, in a production featuring WNY actors Victoria Perez, Steve Brachmann, and Bonnie Jean Taylor.

Elston also singled out first-time NPW participant Ntare Ali Gault, a playwright and poet who is currently a finalist for Arts Services Initiatives' Spark Award for Individual Artist of the Year. Elston concluded that he was proud to work with each of this year's participants based on their "diverse literary and theatrical accomplishments".

Named in honor of Buffalo's playwright laureate, RLTP's Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop has supported the development of original dramatic works by local playwrights since 2005. Under the supervision of LoConti and Elston, playwrights provide peer support to one another during the composition and revision of their original plays over a nine month period. RLTP then presents readings of these new plays to the public, directed by and featuring some of WNY's finest theatrical talent. Audience members who attend these readings are invited to offer their constructive feedback-an integral component of each playwright's process.

Public readings of the plays developed in the 2015 NPW will begin in September 2015.

Applications for the 2016 New Play Workshop will be accepted beginning December 1st, 2015. Only electronic submissions (via e-mail) will be accepted.