Terrence McNally, Amy Herzog & More Set for Cape May Stage's 2nd Annual National Playwrights' Symposium

Cape May Stage has announced, for the second year in a row, Pulitzer, Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning playwrights will flock to the shore with the return of the National Playwrights' Symposium.

Designed to provide aspiring playwrights, students, faculty and emerging professionals the opportunity to receive one-on-one instruction and evaluation from notable talents, the National Playwrights' Symposium convened for the first time last year to great success. "The response we received from last year's Symposium was overwhelming," says Producing Artistic Director Roy Steinberg. "Both the participants and the playwrights raved about the experience so we knew there was absolutely no question about whether or not we should do it again."

This year's twenty participants will learn from playwrights Terrence McNally, Amy Herzog, Ken Ludwig and Israel Horovitz. Over the course of five days, they will experience intensive playwriting sessions, including rigorous writing workshops and discussions of the art, craft and business of playwriting, concluding with a staged reading of one of the participant's works.

Terrence McNally is a four-time Tony Award winner whose works include Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, Deuce, and most recently Unusual Acts of Devotion. He has written the books for a number of musicals including Catch Me If You Can, Ragtime, and The Full Monty. Other awards include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Obie Awards for Best Play and an Emmy award.

Amy Herzog is an Obie Award winner and finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play 4000 Miles. Her other works include After the Revolution, The Great God Pan and Belleville. Other nominations include Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards.

Ken Ludwig is the winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards and two Helen Hayes Awards. His most notable works include Lend Me A Tenor, winner of three Tony Awards, and Crazy For You, Tony Award winner for Best Musical. His work Moon Over Buffalo will be produced at Cape May Stage this summer.

Israel Horovitz is the winner of two Obie Awards and a Drama Desk Award. His play Line is currently in its 38th year of continuous performances off off-Broadway, making it the longest-running play that is still running in New York City. He has written over 70 works, which have been translated into as many as 30 languages, and he holds the distinction of being the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history.

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