The Playwrights Realm Announces 2017 INK'D Festival of New Plays Lineup

The Playwrights Realm, led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira, announces the lineup for INK'D, their annual festival of new plays.

Running April 17-20 at 3pm & 7pm, The Realm will present staged readings of new work by 2016-17 Writing Fellows Donja R. Love, Liza Birkenmeier, Clarence Coo and Patricia Ione Lloyd. INK'D exemplifies The Realm's ever-expanding commitment to providing holistic support to playwrights as they strive to make a life in the arts.

INK'D is the culminating event for The Realm's Writing Fellowship program. Born out of a desire to create more ongoing support systems for early career playwrights, the program also provides a $3,000 stipend, monthly script meetings, professional development sessions with industry leaders, a director and designer pairing for the playwright to work with throughout the year, and a 15-hour internal reading. Former Fellows include Amy Herzog, Ethan Lipton, Christopher Oscar Peña, and Mfoniso Udofia.

About the 2017 INK'D Festival Artistic Director Katherine Kovner says, "This year's plays and writers show an exciting diversity of style and theme, but they all share an exhilarating ambition, nuanced ear for the world around them, and tremendous sense of heart."

INK'D will run April 17-20, with two readings of each script per day, at 3:00pm and 7:00pm. Readings will take place at The Loft at Theatre 511 (511 W. 54th Street, between 10th and 11th), and each reading will be followed by a reception. Readings are free and open to the public, but reservations are required. To reserve tickets, visit www.playwrightsrealm.org/INKD.

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INK'D 2017 Schedule:

Sugar in Our Wounds
By Donja R. Love
Directed by Saheem Ali
Monday, April 17 at 3pm & 7pm

Somewhere down South stands a mystical tree, branches reaching to heaven and roots gripping blood-soaked soil. Under it, James escapes by reading newspapers smuggled from the Master's house, while Henry is planning a real-life escape. From a surprise kiss grows the hope of something sweet, but is it enough to overcome the bitterness of slavery, jealousy and fear? Finding an unexpected beauty in our troubled past, Sugar in Our Wounds reminds us that love can-and will-blossom anywhere. Featuring Christopher Livingston, Marchant Davis, Tiffany Rachelle Stewart, and Elise Kibler. Further casting TBD.

Donja R. Love is a Philadelphia born and raised Afro-Queer playwright, poet, and filmmaker. His work examines identity by unapologetically dramatizing the multifaceted nuance of Blackness and Queerness, and challenges the white supremacist, hetero-normative structures in American culture. He's The Lark's 2016 Van Lier Playwriting Fellow, and a 2016-2017 Writing Fellow with The Playwrights Realm. He's also the 2011 Philadelphia Adult Grand Slam Poetry Champion. He has been featured in multiple festivals, The Advocate, GLAAD, NBC, and many other publications. He's co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for GBTQ People of Color. His work has been developed at Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Lark, and Playwrights Realm. Plays include: Soft; Or The Dead N--- Poem (New Dramatists Resident Playwright Semi-finalist), and Sugar In Our Wounds (The Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Award). Selected film: Modern Day Black Gay (web series), Once A Star (short film).

radio island
By Liza Birkenmeier
Directed by Katherine Brook
Tuesday, April 18 at 3pm & 7pm

In Lower Drumlin a coyote howls, a white moth beats at the window screen, and coffee drips into a carafe. Meanwhile, in the Gulf of Aden, Somali pirates board a tanker carrying $200 million worth of crude oil. And 7,372 miles away, hostage negotiator Ellen, her girlfriend Rory, and Ellen's ailing mother try to negotiate a truce of their own. It's 73 degrees outside. We should all be comfortable. So why aren't we? Featuring Nedra McClyde, Lynn McCollough, Charlie Hudson III, and Kate Weber. Further casting TBD.

Liza Birkenmeier is a member of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater and is currently collaborating on a piece about water that will premiere with New Georges and 3LD in 2017. Her plays have been seen or heard at Ars Nova, The San Francisco Playhouse, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, University Settlement, City Theater, Invisible Dog, Rattlestick, Dixon Place, New Georges, The San Diego Museum of Art, The School at Steppenwolf, The Classic Coin Laundry, and elsewhere. She is an alum of the Ars Nova Play Group and a recent MacDowell Colony Fellow. radio island was on the 2016 Kilroys List and was a finalist for the inaugural Philip Seymour Hoffman Relentless Award. She received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon under Rob Handel.

The Birds of Empathy
By Clarence Coo
Directed by Jesse Geiger
Wednesday, April 19 at 3pm & 7pm

When Nathan was young, Mr. Lewis taught him about birds. And while Nathan still loves birds, he does not love that Mr. Lewis has suddenly decided to travel cross-country to see him. Or that his ex-boyfriend is getting married. Or that his mom has retired to Costa Rica and can't figure out Skype. But who needs people when you've got birds, and John James Audubon's illustrations of them! Join Nathan as he reveals the secret lives of birds...and tries to figure out how to take flight himself. Featuring Jeffrey Omura, Robin DeJesus, Wai Ching Ho, and Bill Buell.

Clarence Coo is a recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award and the 2012 Yale Drama Series Prize. His plays include The Birds of Empathy, Beautiful Province (Belle Province), People Sitting in Darkness, and The God of Wine. His work has been developed at the Atlantic Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He has been a Rita Goldberg Playwrights Workshop fellow at the Lark and a Dramatists Guild fellow. He received his MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University. Currently he is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow, a resident playwright at New Dramatists, a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and the manager of academic administration of Columbia's MFA Writing Program.

Eve's Song
by Patricia Ione Lloyd
Directed by Donya K. Washington
Choreography by Stefanie Batten Bland
Thursday, April 20 at 3pm & 7pm

Outside, black men and women are being killed by police. Inside, Deborah is trying to keep her smart-but-weird son and newly-out daughter safe and happy as light bulbs pop, shadows come to life, and the house gets strangely colder. With theatricality and lyricism, this unlikely ghost story explores what it means to let your song be heard in a world that's trying to silence you. Featuring Shakeerah Frederick, Marquis Rodriguez, Christine Osuala, and Sharon Washington. Further casting TBD.

Patricia Ione Lloydis a writer for Jessica Biel's new television show on USA, The Sinner. She was also a writer on the AMC television show HAP and Leonard. She is a Dramatist Guild and New George's fellow for her first musical (book and lyrics). She was a Sundance resident playwright (2016 Theater Lab - Morocco) and a New York Theater Workshop fellow. Her play Pretty Hunger was a part of The Public Theatre's studio workshop series, where she was a member of the 2015 Emerging Writers Group. She was a resident playwright at the University of Mumbai, Brown University (Africana Studies Department) and the International Theatre and Literacy Project in Tanzania. Her work has been developed by The Public Theater, The Labyrinth Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Red Bull Theatre, Dixon Place, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, New York LGBTQ Center, Fire This Time Festival and others. Recipient of New Professional Theatre's Emerging Playwright Award, and DUTF best play award for Train Bound for Glory.

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Hailed as "invaluable" by The New York Times' Ben Brantley, The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director and Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) is devoted to supporting emerging playwrights along the journey of playwriting, helping them to hone their craft, fully realize their vision and build meaningful artistic careers. To serve this mission, The Playwrights Realmprovides comprehensive support to playwrights through its Page One Residency,Alumni Playwrights Program, Writing Fellows Residency, and, of course, productions. Previous productions by The Realm include Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, Jen Silverman's The Moors, Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners, Anna Ziegler's A Delicate Ship, Anton Dudley's City Of, Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes, Lauren Yee's The Hatmaker's Wife, Ethan Lipton's Red-Handed Otter, Jen Silverman's Crane Story, Gonzalo Rodríguez Risco's Dramatis Personae, Christopher Wall's Dreams of the Washer King, Anna Ziegler's Dov and Ali, and Anton Dudley's Substitution. Visit www.PlaywrightsRealm.org for more.