The Farm Theater Awards Nandita Shenoy With 2026-27 College Collaboration Project Commission
The Project has multiple schools commission an early career playwright to write a play that each school will independently produce throughout the academic year.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jan. 07, 2026
The Farm Theater has awarded playwright Nandita Shenoy with their 2026-27 College Collaboration Project Commission. Shenoy will collaborate with students at Centre College in Danville, KY (in their 7th partnership with The Farm) and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (joining the College Collaboration Project for the first time), to write and produce a new play.
The College Collaboration Project has multiple schools commission an early career playwright to write a play that each school will independently produce throughout the academic year. The faculty, students, and playwright collaborate throughout the year in the development of the text. The script will be a full-length play with a minimum of five characters. The majority of the characters will be under thirty years of age so that undergraduate actors can successfully play the roles. The play will reflect the students' thoughts on the theme suggested by the playwright.
Kimberly Belflower's Tony Award-nominated play John Proctor is the Villain was originally commissioned by The Farm Theater for their College Collaboration Project and first workshopped in 2018 and 2019 at three colleges within their theatre departments: Centre College in Danville, KY, Furman University in Greenville, SC and Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The play premiered on Broadway in 2025 and received seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Play. The play is scheduled to make its European premiere in London this March, and is currently being adapted into a feature film with Tina Fey and Sadie Sink. Now in it's 12th year The Farm Theater's College Collaboration Project has previously partnered with 25 colleges and commissioned 14 playwrights including Lindsay Joy, Micheline Auger, Morgan McGuire, Jan Rosenberg, Kimberly Belflower, Erin Mallon, Judith Leora, Lia Romeo, Jake Brasch, Dipti Bramhandkar, Enid Graham, and Gina Femia.
Nandita Shenoy
is an actor-writer living in New York City. Most recently, her plays ESSPY premiered at the NJ Repertory Company, and The Future Is Female... premiered at the Flint Repertory Theatre. Her Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times across the country including an Off-Broadway run in which she also starred. Her short plays have been produced nationally and internationally. Nandita has received the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting, a 2018 Mellon Creative Research Fellowship, a 2022 Hermitage Fellowship, and a 2024 Green Box Arts Residency. She has been commissioned by Cleveland Play House and Boomerang Theatre. Acting credits include world premieres of plays by Chelsea Marcantel, Madhuri Shekar, Adam Szymkowicz, Eric Pfeffinger, and Richard Dresser as well as a season at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She sits on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) which won a Tony Honor for Excellence for its advocacy work. Member: Ma-Yi Writers' Lab, waw, Dramatists' Guild, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA. BA, Yale University
The Farm Theater The name is inspired by the "farm" system of baseball whose role is to provide experience and training for developing players. The Farm Theater develops early career artists that may not have the support system afforded others, through workshops, productions, and mentoring. The centerpiece of our programming is The College Collaboration Project. This program is in its twelfth year and has so far commissioned fourteen playwrights, worked in collaboration with twenty-five colleges, and been featured in American Theatre Magazine and Southern Theatre Magazine. The Farm Theater has produced numerous solo shows including Artistic Director Padraic Lillis' show on suicide awareness Hope You Get To Eleven or What are we going to do about Sally? which was awarded Best Solo Show and Planet Advocate Award at the Planet Connections Theatre Festival. In 2017 The Farm Theater partnered with Planet Connections Theatre Festival to produce Alex Riad's The Floor Is Lava. The play was awarded Best New Play and Best Production of a New Play and The Farm Theater was awarded The Planet Advocate Award for raising money and awareness for Girls Who Code. The Farm Theater also hosts a popular podcast, The Bullpen Sessions, which features working artists talking about how they built their careers. www.thefarmtheater.org
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