La MaMa Names EXPERIMENTS IN PLAYWRITING FELLOWSHIP After The Late Morgan Jenness

La MaMa ETC has announced it is renaming its Experiments in Playwriting Fellowship the Morgan Jenness EXPERIMENTS IN PLAYWRITING FELLOWSHIP after the late, revered dramaturg Morgan Jenness, who died last year following an illustrious career as a champion of young playwrights. 

The announcement is made by Justin Elizabeth Sayre, a  playwright who created the Experiments in Playwriting Fellowship last year in conjunction with La MaMa.  
Applications for the Morgan Jenness EXPERIMENTS IN PLAYWRITING FELLOWSHIP are being accepted June 15 to July 1.  For more info, visit www.lamama.org/playwriting-fellowship/  

Daniel Duren and Biancca Nkwonta were the first recipients of the Fellowship in 2024, each of whom received a stipend, one-on-ones with Sayre over the course of the season, and the opportunity for a developmental reading of the work they have created during the Fellowship, along with the chance for that work to be presented at La MaMa in the future.  

According to La MaMa artistic director Mia Yoo, the Fellowship was founded with the support of the Jerome Foundation, "to inspire young playwrights to go beyond their comfort zones and make bold choices in their writing, in the safe spaces created by Justin Elizabeth Sayre and La MaMa.  We want to connect these new voices with our theatre's past, its present and to become La MaMa's future."

Artists nurtured at La MaMa through the years include BLUE MAN GROUP, Ping Chong, Harvey Fierstein, Andre De Shields, Richard Foreman, Taylor Mac, Sam Shepard, Julie Taymor and Elizabeth Swados, among many others.  

Morgan Jenness was a beloved fixture on the theatre scene throughout New York over the course of their remarkable career:  she spent more than a decade at The Public Theatre in various capacities under Joseph Papp and George C. Wolfe -- literary manager, director of play development and associate producer.  Jenness was an associate artistic director at New York Theatre Workshop and Los Angeles Theatre Center.  They served on numerous panels for NYSCA and held key positions with Helen Merrill Ltd. and Abrams Artists.  Morgan received an Obie Award Special Citation in 2003.  
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