Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Reveal EST/Sloan Project Commissions

 Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (Estefanía Fadul & Graeme Gillis, Co-Artistic Directors) and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director) have announced new EST/Sloan Project commissions for the 2023-2024 season. Started in 1998, the EST/Sloan Project is an initiative designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling work exploring the worlds of science and technology and to challenge the existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in the popular imagination.

The 2023 EST/Sloan grant recipients are Brysen Boyd (POD:ORCA:POD), Will Dagger (Epitaph of Utopia), Avery Deutsch (The Age of Mary), Ryan Dowler (ROACH), Miz Hashimoto (The Bees Call Me Eva), Divya Mangwani (Indus), Laura Neill (C-WIID: A Comedy!), Juan Ramirez, Jr. (Of Great Magnitude, or The Earthquake Play), Billy Recce and Elise Wien (GUANOMANIA!: A Musical Shit Show), Liqing Xu (Untitled Epigenetics Play), and Gracie Leavitt with Media Art Xploration, Inc. (When Light Bends).  Here are the headshots for the grant recipients.

There will also be a free virtual EST/Sloan Artist Cultivation Event on Monday, November 20 at 7:30 PM. The annual panel is a free-wheeling, far-ranging discussion between scientists and playwrights about science, storytelling, and what makes plays work.  It is a great opportunity for any playwright interested in developing a play about science & technology.  This year’s panelists are Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Mandë Holford, Daniela Schiller, and Anna Ziegler, and the panel will be moderated by Naomi Lorrain. The virtual panel is free, but registration is required at Register on this page.

 

In addition, the Spring Mainstage Production for EST will be the world premiere of LAS BORINQUEÑAS by Nelson Diaz-Marcano and directed by Rebecca Aparicio, running in April 2024. The world premiere is presented by the EST/Sloan Project in collaboration with the Latinx Playwrights Circle and Boundless Theatre Company. 

The partnership between EST and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is the creative engine behind hundreds of new American plays that challenge and broaden the public’s understanding of science and technology and their impact in our lives. Plays from the EST/Sloan Project are produced again and again across the country. This begins at EST’s home base in Hell’s Kitchen in New York, over fifty years a crucial platform for new and unheard voices in the American theatre. For the past twenty-five years, this reputation has been enhanced by the critically acclaimed productions presented on the theatre’s Mainstage every season under the banner of the EST/Sloan Project.

Beyond New York, the program has a nationwide reach. It supports development and production of new plays in theatres across the country through a combination of seed grants and production incentives. These initiatives provide an extended life for EST/Sloan plays in subsequent regional productions, and the seed grants provide a broader base of artistic opportunity for communities outside of New York, allowing the program to cast a wider net for new work.

EST/Sloan Play Commission Applications are currently open through December 15, 2023.  Guidelines for submissions are available on this page.

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