Yale Schwarzman Center Will Stage Reading of Yale Drama Series 2025 Prize-Winning Play by Ariel Stess

Yale Schwarzman Center announced that it will produce a staged reading of Ariel Stess's KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA, the winner of the 2025 Yale Drama Series Prize, on Tuesday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Schwarzman Center with featured guest and this year's competition judge, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Selected by Jacobs-Jenkins from 1,909 submissions worldwide, the play intertwines the lives of four women from different generations and social strata in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kara wakes up to find her husband and children missing. Twenty-year-old Emma runs away with a married man. Barbara's ex-lover breaks into her home in the middle of the night. And the pipes in Miranda's house burst. Through a tapestry of internal monologues and scenes, KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA follows the journey of four women whose major life crises collide on Christmas Eve, leading them to accidentally help each other find a way out. 

The reading will be directed by New York-based theater-maker Caitlin Sullivan and feature an acclaimed cast including Kristin Sieh (House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black), Kallan Dana, Paul Lazar (Snowpiercer), Paul Ketchum, Mathew Korahais, Mike Iveson (What the Constitution Means to Me), Connie Shulman (Orange Is the New Black) and Zoë Geltman (Puffy Hair). The evening will also include the presentation of the $10,000 Yale Drama Series Prize to playwright Ariel Stess. 

The Yale Drama Series Prize, funded by the David Charles Horn Foundation, is among the most prestigious international playwriting competitions, awarded annually to an emerging playwright for an original, unpublished full-length work. The winning play is selected by a distinguished judge and published by Yale University Press with the winner receiving a cash award.

Jacobs-Jenkins commented, "While a lot of the submissions I read worked very hard to knock a reader over the head with ‘formal inventiveness,' Stess's work stood out for the line-by-line sparkle and polish of its composition and the playwright's cool confidence in the power of well-crafted language alone to transport an audience to and through the vast inner wilds of character. Sustained direct address is no small feat—but the weave of Stess's storytelling, almost novelistic in texture, makes it look easy. It doesn't hurt that the tale it tells of haves and have-nots across many vectors—gender, class, age—is so compelling and tenderly told. This is dramatic portraiture of the highest order.”

“The Yale Drama Series Prize reflects the University's long-standing commitment to nurturing the future of theater and honoring excellence in playwriting,” said Rachel Fine, Executive Director of Yale Schwarzman Center. “Ariel's visionary approach to storytelling in KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA has made an indelible impact early in her career, and we are proud to celebrate her accomplishments and bring her work to the stage at the Schwarzman Center.”

“The Yale Drama Series continues to be a critical platform for new playwrights, ensuring that powerful, original voices are shared with audiences worldwide,” said Niko Pfund, Director of Yale University Press. “We are proud to publish Ariel's play and to continue our partnership with the Horn Foundation and the Schwarzman Center in sustaining this historic tradition.”

Since its founding in 2007, the Yale Drama Series has launched the careers of playwrights whose work has gone on to be produced on major stages across the United States, including Lily Padilla (2019), Clare Barron (2015), and Shannon Murdoch (2011). The 2025 award to Stess continues this tradition of discovering and championing innovative new voices in theater.

The October 29 reading is free and open to the public. For advance registration, please visit schwarzman.yale.edu.