Chisa Hutchinson and More to be Honored by Dramatist Guild Foundation

Dramatists Guild Foundation has revealed Playwright and Educator Chisa Hutchinson (DGF Fellow, 2010-2011), Tony-Nominated lyricist and librettist and longtime DGF Fellows Chair and Mentor Michael Korie, and PLAYBILL magazine’s first female publisher Jolie Schaffzin will be honored at the organization’s annual Gala on October 20, 2025, at Ziegfeld Ballroom. This year’s Gala will celebrate 25 years of the DGF Fellows program, fostering emerging dramatists through mentorship and collaboration to prepare their next great story for the stage.

Started at the Dramatists Guild in 2000, the DGF Fellows program was founded by acclaimed writers Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Janet Neipris, and Susan Miller. They believed it was vital to bring writers together to learn from each other’s different perspectives, see how collaboration creates magic, and foster community. For nearly 25 years, the Fellows program has springboarded the careers of 250 playwrights and musical theater writers, including Pulitzer finalists, Tony Award winners, and recipients of Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy Awards. This program has been championed by numerous generous donors, including support from the Jeffrey Seller Family Foundation. 

As an applauded DGF Fellows alum, Chisa Hutchinson’s accomplishments reach far beyond the stage, founding the Signpost Fellowship, a six-month, paid opportunity for a young dramatist of color to shadow a professional playwright or screenwriter.

Chisa Hutchinson

Chisa was born in Queens, New York to young, irresponsible parents.  She spent the majority of her formative years under the care of a much more responsible, but chronically broke woman who was technically her godfather’s mother, but who would later— in the fine, it-takes-a-village tradition of the broken family— simply become “Ma.” Chisa grew up in the company of what seemed like hundreds of unofficially adopted brothers and sisters in Newark, New Jersey, where she excelled in school and philosophized with cockroaches about the ultimate merits of poverty.  Her favorite six-legged pest, who called himself Swifty on account of his uncanny ability to elude the bottom of any shoe, once told her with a wistful chuckle, “One day, you will be able to look back and romanticize all this shit.” Chisa earned a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU. She's landed some pretty cool gigs since then, such as writing and performing with the New York NeoFuturists, being a Staff Writer for Blue Man Group, and staffing for shows on cable TV and streamers. As she tends to write plays about underrepresented folks that require a minimum of five actors, she doubts very much that you'll see any of her plays on Broadway any time soon, but encourages you to support the intrepid companies that have presented her work, which include City Parks' SummerStage, the New York NeoFuturists, Atlantic Theater Company, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, New Dramatists,  Rattlestick Theater, Midtown Direct Rep, Writers' Theatre of New Jersey, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC),  the Working Theater, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, National Black Theater, Second Stage Theater, Delaware REP, Salt Lake Acting Company, Red Twist Theater, Forward Flux, Arch 468 (UK), Primary Stages,  South Coast Rep, Keen Company, Audible, Alley Theater, Undiscovered Works, and Primary Stages. She serves on the board of Keen Company, Newark Arts, and New Dramatists, as well as on the Dramatists Guild Council. Currently, Chisa is in post-production for a short film (her directorial debut), and generally working on too many projects, including an interactive, live-theater spoof of a reality dating show, a screenplay about African-American man who had to go to France to become the first black fighter pilot, and another about the Grenadian immigrant who invented the modern silicone dildo. Because she loves teaching and also because strikes happen, Chisa also teaches Creative Writing at the University of Delaware. To learn more, visit www.chisahutchinson.com.

Michael Korie

Michael Korie’s decade-long commitment to the DGF Fellows program, as both Musical Theater Chair and Mentor, has helped shape the careers and work of many Award-winning dramatists.

Michael received The Marc Blitzstein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his work in both musical theater and opera. Michael wrote the lyrics to composer Scott Frankel’s music for the Broadway productions of War Paint and Grey Gardens, with books by Doug Wright, and the Off- Broadway productions of Far From Heaven with book by Richard Greenberg, and Happiness with book by John Weidman. His collaboration with Tom Kitt and James Lapine, Flying Over Sunset, premiered at Lincoln Center Theater with a Tony-nominated score. His and Frankel’s scores have been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, received The Outer Critics Circle Award, and have been produced nationally and abroad. The London premiere of Grey Gardens won the Offie Award for Best Musical of the year. For opera, Michael adapted Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath composed by Ricky Ian Gordon, produced at Minnesota Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Detroit Opera, and in concert at Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall. Also with Gordon, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis premiered at New York City Opera and National Yiddish Folksbiene-Theatre and was presented abroad in Italy. Michael’s original librettos to operas composed by Stewart Wallace include Harvey Milk produced at San Francisco Opera, Where’s Dick? produced at Houston Grand Opera, Kabbalah at BAM Next Wave Festival, and Hopper’s Wife at Long Beach and New York City Opera. A new version of Harvey Milk Reimagined premiered to acclaim this June at San Francisco’s Opera Parallele. His lyrics received the Edward Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award, and ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award. His songs with Frankel were featured at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage Broadway. Michael’s collaborations with Frankel and Wright were honored by Playwrights Horizons and Theatre Communication Group. Michael co-chairs the Dramatists Guild Opera Committee which recently issued its national report Best Practices in Opera. He produced the short film Credit the Librettist featuring interviews with dozens of opera composers and playwrights. For DGF, Michael mentored the musical theater division of the Fellows Program for emerging musical theater creators. He teaches musical-theater writing at Yale and Columbia universities, and leads opera collaboration seminars for American Opera Project and American Lyric Theater. Michael serves on the advisory committee of The American Theatre Wing. 

Jolie Schaffzin

Jolie Schaffzin has dedicated her career to fostering new writers, including in her newly appointed role as the Publisher of Playbill magazine. She is the first woman to hold the position in the publication’s 140-year history. 
A lifelong New Yorker raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Schaffzin graduated from The Birch Wathen School and attended Northwestern University. Jolie began her distinguished career at top advertising agencies before transitioning to sales roles at Condé Nast (Vanity Fair, House & Garden, The New Yorker) and at Hearst’s Cosmopolitan. In 1998, she joined PLAYBILL as Director of Fashion & Beauty Advertising. Her tenure has spanned nearly three decades, during which she rose to Associate Publisher and ultimately Publisher. Throughout, she has forged deep and lasting partnerships with leading brands across fashion, beauty, retail, and entertainment—marrying commercial excellence with a lifelong devotion to the theater. In addition to her leadership at PLAYBILL, Jolie has invested in numerous Broadway productions, including Kinky Boots, Waitress, and The Lehman Trilogy, further solidifying her commitment to bringing powerful stories to the stage.  She serves on the Advisory Committee of the American Theatre Wing. In her longstanding role on the Advisory Board of the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Jolie remains a passionate advocate for artists, championing the power of storytelling and working to ensure that the next generation of dramatists can thrive. Jolie hasn’t gone too far in life, she still resides on the Upper East Side, now with her beloved dog, Stevie—named, of course, for the late, great Stephen Sondheim.