Eleven Playwrights Selected for The Public's 2010 Emerging Writers Group

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) has announced the 11 playwrights selected as the 2010 Emerging Writers Group. Now in its third season, Emerging Writers Group is an annual program that targets playwrights at the earliest stages of their careers and nurtures their artistic growth by providing necessary resources and support. Time Warner is the Founding Sponsor of The Public Writers Initiative.

Selected from more than 300 applicants, the 2010 Emerging Writers are Augusto Amador, Nikole Beckwith, JavierAntonio Gonzalez, Sevan Greene, Sukari Jones, Aaron Levy, Laura Marks, Anna Moench, Dominique Morisseau, Jerome Parker, and Stella Ragsdale.

Each emerging writer receives a one-year fellowship at The Public which includes a $3,000 stipend; participation in a biweekly writers' group led by Literary Manager Liz Frankel and The Public's Literary Department; master classes with established playwrights; professional development and artistic support from acclaimed writers as well as Public artistic staff; complimentary tickets to Public shows; supplemental ticket stipends for productions at other theaters; and a reading of their work in the annual "Spotlight Series."

The Emerging Writers Group strengthens The Public's commitment to creating an artistic home for diverse and exceptionally talented up-and-coming playwrights. The Emerging Writers Group is one element of The Public Writers Initiative, a long-term program that provides key support and resources for writers at every stage of their careers.

"Moving into our third year of EWG, we are struck by the expanding network of writers who not only grow as individual artists, but almost more importantly forge the truest sense of community and friendship together," said Public Theater Associate Artistic Director Mandy Hackett. "The 2010 group is energetic, fiercely smart and passionate about theater. We are delighted to welcome them all to The Public and look forward to a sensational year ahead."

"Time Warner's philanthropic initiatives are aligned closely with our company's dedication to storytelling," said Lisa M. Quiroz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Time Warner. "Through our philanthropy, we invest in programs that create opportunities for talent to flourish and for diverse voices to be heard. We are proud to have partnered with The Public Theater to launch the Emerging Writers Group, an artistic home for a new generation of gifted storytellers."

BIOS OF 2010 EMERGING WRITERS

Augusto Federico Amador studied acting under Diana Castle in Los Angeles before independently pursuing writing. Workshops and readings of his work have been presented at the Audrey-Skirball Kenis Theater Projects, John Anson Ford Theater, Ricardo Montalban Theater, Playwrights Arena, Terra Nova Collective's Groundbreaker Series, INTAR Theatre, and Repertorio Espanol. In 2009, he was a finalist for the MetLife Foundation Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Award.

Nikole Beckwith's plays have been read at Ensemble Studio Theater, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Barrow Street Theater. She is a member of EST's Youngblood and was a finalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship. As an actor, Beckwith has developed new work with Gregory S. Moss and Eric Bogosian, among others, and is a member of the Striking Viking Story Pirates. She recently made her New York stage debut in Joshua Conkel's hit play MilkMilkLemonade.

Javierantonio González is the author of seven plays and adaptations including FLORIDITA, my Love (INTAR), Barceloneta, de noche (Union Theatre, London/Teatro IATI, NY), Un instante en una especie de flash (Yerbabruja, Puerto Rico), Uneventful Deaths for Agathon (FringeNYC) and Open up, Hadrian. He is the Artistic Director of Caborca and co-Artistic Director of Quality Meats. Javierantonio is the designer of the Theatre Majors Program at DreamYard Preparatory High School and holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University.

Sevan Greene is a second generation Lebanese-Armenian/Pakistani/newly-American actor and writer. He made his NYC debut in the Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Award-winning play Betrayed and has also appeared in NYTW's Aftermath, Prospect Theatre's Mapquest, Perez Hilton... and Show Choir in the NYC Fringe, and others. Since his writing debut for the 2009 Arab-American Comedy Festival he has written the plays Forgotten Bread, Doon, Black Saturday, the screenplays NYB and (in parentheses), and the web series MixedNutz. He holds too many degrees (2 B.A.s and 2 M.A.s) from the University of South Florida.

Aaron Wigdor Levy's plays have been read or developed at The New Group, The Cherry Lane Theatre and NYU. He was a member of The Royal Court Theatre's New York Residency. His short play First/Last premiered at the inaugural 2008 Source Theater Festival in Washington D.C. and was a finalist for the Heideman Award. He received his MFA from the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU.

Sukari Jones' musicals include The River Is Me and Snobbles The Great. She is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.F.A. from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Laura Marks' new play about the foreclosure crisis, Bethany, was a finalist for Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission. Previously produced works include Unbound with director Davis McCallum (produced in New York by Prospect Theater Co., workshopped by Powerhouse apprentices at New York Stage & Film, pending production at University of Rhode Island) and Hypothesis, a commissioned one-act about Voltaire (Prospect Theater Co.). Marks studied at Boston University and Indiana University.

Anna Moench's plays have been produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dixon Place, The Looking Glass Theatre, Spoke The Hub, and FringeNYC and developed at New Dramatists, The Inkwell, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Moench was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2009 Sewanee Writers' Conference and has received a Jerome Foundation Travel Grant and an EST/Sloan commission. She is a member of Youngblood at EST and Co-Artistic Director of anna&meredith, a cross-disciplinary performance company.

Dominique Morisseau is a playwright, actress, and arts advocate for social justice. Her list of plays includes Black at Michigan (Cherry Lane Studio), Retrospect For Life (Hip Hop Theatre Festival), and Follow Me To Nellie's (the Standard). She is the recipient of two NAACP Image Awards, a Jane Chambers Award Honor, a Wendy Wasserstein nomination, and a scholarship to the Centrum Writer's Conference (Port Washington), and the Black Women Playwrights Conference (Chicago).

Stella Fawn Ragsdale's play Spring, which focuses on her Appalachian heritage and family tales, was recently produced by the Water Series Company at Knoxville Theater Downtown. Ragsdale's other plays include Mockingbird, Mandelstam or The Thieves, and Aeneas Landed. She holds an MFA in playwriting from NYU's Tisch School of the arts and a BA from the University of Tennessee.

Jerome A. Parker's play Miracle On Monroe received the Lorraine Hansberry Award from the Kennedy Center. Other works include Origins Of Us (Tim Robbins Playwriting Award), Ballad Of Sad Young Men (Francis Ford Coppola One act Series, Best Short in the Downtown Urban Theater Festival), and House Of Dinah (Faces of the World Festival - Los Angeles Theater Center). Jerome received his BA in Theatre from Williams College, his MFA in Playwriting from UCLA and studied costumes at the Juilliard School. In 2008, he participated in the Eugene O'Neill Playwriting Conference as a fellow.

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