Page 73 Names jose sebastian alberdi 2024 Playwriting Fellow & Unveils 2024 Writers Group

Page 73 has named jose sebastian alberdi its 2024 Playwriting Fellow, the organization’s most prestigious award. Page 73 also announced alberdi, Calley N. Anderson, Jake Brasch, Garrett David Kim, Forest Malley, Genevieve Simon, May Treuhaft-Ali, and Elinor T Vanderburg as its 2024 Writers Group. Exemplifying the organization’s multifaceted modes of support for the playwrights it champions, Page 73’s 2023 Fellow, Majkin Holmquist, whose play Stargazers they will present April 8–May 4, 2024 (directed by Colette Robert), will be a Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence throughout the year, offering her a full time salary as she focuses on her New York City debut.

Alongside this momentous annual announcement of the playwrights joining and continuing within the Page 73 community, the organization begins a brand relaunch and visual redesign, streamlining its language and elevating its look (with design by Studio Usher/Naomi Usher) to best reflect its singular and critical place in the Off-Broadway theater world. 

Page 73 Managing Director Dennis Whipple says “Theater is not dead. Our mission is critically important as high-quality playwrights will be the center of the American theater rebuilding in this post-pandemic landscape. This brand relaunch will strategically increase our visibility and the resources needed to launch early-career playwrights who expand the theatrical canon.”

These updates—to the organization’s vision, logo, and visual identity—do not signal a change in Page 73’s mission or values, but rather clarify and underline what the organization has done for playwrights since its founding and signal their momentum forward. 

jose sebastian alberdi today becomes the 21st playwright honored with the Playwriting Fellowship. He will work with Page 73 throughout 2024 as they offer artistic and financial resources to develop one or more new plays of his choosing. He will receive an unrestricted cash award of $20,000 and a development budget, managed by Page 73 and the Fellow over the course of the Fellowship year, up to $10,000. This additional budget can be personalized to support the Fellow’s proposed projects and can include such expenses as research, workshop and reading presentations, and fees for collaborating artists. alberdi will also work with Page 73 on at least one public presentation of a new play.  

The fellowship annually supporting a playwright who has yet to have a professional premiere in New York City in 2023 went to Majkin Holmquist, now the 2024 Tow Foundation Playwright- in-Residence at Page 73—part of the 5th cohort of The Tow Foundation Playwright Residency Program. Previous Page 73 Playwriting Fellows include Marvin González De León (2022), Bleu Beckford-Burrell (2021), Emma Goidel (2020), Sanaz Toossi (2019), C.A. Johnson (2018), John J. Caswell, Jr. (2017), Hansol Jung (2016), Nick Gandiello (2015), Clare Barron (2014), Caroline V. McGraw (2013), Max Posner (2012), Janine Nabers (2011), Eliza Clark (2010), Heidi Schreck (2009), Tommy Smith (2008), Krista Knight (2007), Jason Grote (2006), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2005), and Kirsten Greenidge (2004).

Page 73 Artistic Director Michael Walkup says, “The first piece of sebastian’s that I encountered was his play bogfriends during our annual application process, and images from that play have lingered in my mind ever since. As we named sebastian a Semifinalist and then a Finalist, we had the opportunity to read more of his work, and it became clear that he can change subject and style deftly, sometimes writing a two-hander that travels in time (and explores the ancient preserved bodies of Ireland’s bogs), sometimes depicting an ensemble of modern-day alien hunters in the American Southwest mired in personal loss. His writing is theatrical with an emotional core -- it will be a pleasure to collaborate with sebastian this year and share some of his work with our audience.

“Deepening our relationship with Majkin as our 2024 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence provides us an incredible resource to support a playwright as she goes through her first New York City production process. It allows us to offer Majkin a level of financial stability before, during, and after that process, which aligns strongly with Page 73's core value of holistically supporting a playwright at the launch of a promising career.” 

As part of Page 73’s brand relaunch, the program formerly called Interstate 73 has been renamed the Page 73 Writers Group. Members meet twice a month at the Page 73 office to share their newest pages and discuss their work with their peers and Page 73’s Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director. Writers Group playwrights frequently participate in other Page 73 programs including residencies, retreats, readings, and workshops. Every member receives a $3,000 stipend.

About the 2024 Playwriting Fellow

jose sebastian alberdi is a New York-based Mexican-Basque-American playwright originally from California. sebastian was a 2023 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference playwright with his play bogfriends and has developed work with The Orchard Project, the Huntington Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage, Exquisite Corpse Company, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, Fresh Ink Theatre, and Teatro Chelsea. MFA from New York University, BA from Northeastern University. josesebastianalberdi.com *Please note the name is spelled with all lowercase letters.

About the 2024 Writers Group Members

jose sebastian alberdi (see above)

​​Calley N. Anderson (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright from Memphis, TN. Past and current affiliations include the National Black Theatre I AM SOUL Playwright Residency, American Theatre Group BIPOC PlayLab, SPACE on Ryder Farm (2023), Liberation Theatre Company Writing Residency Program (2022-23), MacDowell (2022), Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group (2021-22), The Civilians R&D Group (2021-22), and Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows (2020-21) BA: Davidson College | MFA: New School for Drama. calleynanderson.com

Jake Brasch (he/they) is a queer, sober, Jewish Coloradan clown and a playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School. Their work has been developed by New York Stage & Film, The Denver Center Theatre Company, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, LAByrinth Theatre Company, and others. He’s a proud graduate of EST/Youngblood and a 2023/2024 Alliance/Kendeda Finalist. Jake moonlights as a pianist/composer and performs as a birthday party clown throughout the New York Area. BFA: NYU-Tisch/New Studio/Experimental Theatre Wing. jakebrasch.com.

Garrett David Kim (he/him) is a theater-maker and educator based in New York City. His play Are You There Truman? (Leviathan Lab/EAG, Pride Plays/Rattlestick, Piper Theatre) won the 2021 Barbour Award. His plays Kim’s Fine Food (Blue Ink Playwriting Award Finalist), Belligerency, and Deliver Us are part of a cycle chronicling his Korean-American family’s 100+ history in the USA. Resident Artist with Ars Nova (Play Group). Program Director at The 52nd Street Project. B.A. Fordham University. garrettdavidkim.com

Forest Malley is a Brooklyn-based playwright, poet and performer from a notoriously witchy town in Massachusetts. His work explores memory, migration, queerness, God (or the lack thereof), divas, and his Middle Eastern heritage. He was one of seven winners of the 2022 Theater Masters short play festival and a finalist for the 2023 O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference for his play Gidou. Forest recently received his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and received his B.A. from Harvard University in 2020 in the study of the history and literature of the Arab world.

Genevieve Simon (they/them) centers nonbinary people in magical worlds at the intersection of family, queer identity, and water. Genevieve is a 2023-24 New Georges Audrey Resident and their climate-doom-comedy BLOOM BLOOM POW was a Finalist for the 2022 EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights Festival. Genevieve’s work has been supported by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Puffin Foundation, The Brick, Shadowland Stages, The Parsnip Ship, The Tank, Arts on Site, NYSCA, Holton-Arms School, and Cincinnati Fringe Festival. www.genevieve-simon.com

May Treuhaft-Ali is a playwright, director, and dramaturg. Her play ABCD had its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in July 2022, and her play Escapegoat had a workshop production at Boston Court Pasadena later that year. Her plays have been developed at Clubbed Thumb, The Playwrights Realm, Ars Nova, The Movement Theatre Company, MCC Theater, the Cape Cod Theatre Project, and Rattlestick Theater. She is under commission at Barrington Stage and South Coast Repertory.

Elinor T Vanderburg writes plays for and about misfits, creating troubled chimerical landscapes populated by dark-humored antiheroes. She is a co-creative director of Fresh Ground Pepper and one half of the illusory theater company, underlords, alongside her partner, Drew. Elinor has recently written and developed work with SheNYC Arts, Exquisite Corpse Company, and The Actor’s Studio. Born in DC, Elinor lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn with Drew, their child, Zara, and their two calicos, Poppy and Mirri. Underlords.org

About the Tow Playwright-in-Residence

Majkin Holmquist is a playwright originally from the Smoky Valley region in central Kansas where she was co-founder of The Next Stage Theatre Company. She was the 2023 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. Her play Tent Revival received a digital production through Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate series in partnership with the McCarter Theatre Center in 2023. Other plays include two headed calf, Every Anne Frank, Quickmatch, Dog Pack Play, and Skinflint. Credits include The Quonsets (co-written with Alex Lubischer, Yale Cabaret), Broken Melodies (WVIT Women in Theatre Festival), and Styx Songs (contributing writer, Yale Cabaret). Her work has been developed at New York Stage and Film, Woodshed Collective, Bay Street Theatre, Page 73, Ucross, and Roundabout Theatre Company. She is currently a member of Midnight Oil Collective and is a Lecturer in Playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She holds a BA in Secondary English Education from Bethany College and an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.

About the Tow Foundation

The Tow Foundation promotes expanded access to opportunities that improve people’s lives and strengthen society. Grounded in its decades of work in Connecticut and New York, the Foundation supports nonprofit organizations and visionary leaders to find and enact innovative solutions to persistent inequality. It works to ensure people can become full participants in their communities, achieve transformative and lasting progress, and develop approaches that allow everyone to reach their full potential. 

About Page 73

For over two decades, Page 73 has been launching early-career playwrights and expanding the theatrical canon and shaping the future of theater. As tastemakers and discerning producers, they have introduced audiences to innovative and daring new voices, mounting works solely by writers who have not yet had a New York City premiere Off-Broadway. Their work was recognized by the institutional Obie Award in 2020, acknowledging their extraordinary support for early-career playwrights. 

Page 73 has earned a reputation for nurturing playwrights with distinct theatrical visions. By providing financial assistance, career guidance, and various development opportunities through the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, Page 73 Writers Group, workshops, writing retreats, and residencies, they help playwrights hone their craft and shape their works toward production-readiness. Whether through Page 73's own productions or co-productions with other institutions or by linking writers to opportunities at other theaters, the organization helps playwrights find their audience. Writers complete Page 73’s many programs with refined writing skills, new collaborative relationships, and confidence in their art and ability to navigate the field.

Page 73 developed and, with Playwrights Horizons, produced the world premiere of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, which won dozens of prestigious awards including the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Among Page 73’s many other celebrated world and New York premieres are Zora Howard’s STEW, which was named a Finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Mia Chung’s Catch as Catch Can, Leah Nanako Winkler’s Kentucky, Max Posner's Judy, Clare Barron’s You Got Older, George Brant’s Grounded, and John J. Caswell, Jr.’s Man Cave. Diversifying the American theatrical canon and making space for voices theater audiences have not yet heard is at the core of Page 73’s ethos. Page 73 has co-produced with eminent new play theaters including Soho Rep., Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. The organization produced the professional New York City debuts of Samuel D. Hunter (2015 MacArthur Fellow), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2012 Pulitzer Prize winner), Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award recipient), Heidi Schreck (2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee), and Clare Barron (2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist). Close to two-thirds of the over 150 playwrights supported by the organization have subsequently received New York or regional theater productions, and the number grows each season.

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