American Playwrights News

Cleveland Play House (CPH) is proud to name Nick Gandiello and Chelsea Marcantel as the recipients of the 2018 Roe Green Award, in conjunction with the 7th Annual New Ground Theatre Festival (NGTF). Each year, the Roe Green Award is given for outstanding achievement in playwriting.  Mr. Gandiello's play Cicada will be presented in a reading on Sunday, May 13th at 7:30 p.m., and Ms. Marcantel's production of Tiny Houses will be offered on Saturday May 19th at 2:00 p.m. As previously announced, Tiny Houses will have a full production run in the Outcalt Theatre March 23rd -April 14th, 2019 as part of the 2018-2019 CPH Season.  CPH Artistic Director, Laura Kepley, will direct both presentations of Marcantel's play.

Florida Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce its 2018-2019 Season, which begins the company's third decade of producing nationally-recognized, professional theatre in the Fort Myers River District. Set to open Sept. 21 and run to May 5 in the Historic Arcade Theatre and ArtStage Studio Theatre, the nine-show season includes two musicals, multiple comedies, a modern American classic, a southeastern United States premiere, and a world-premiere adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

The Riant Theatre (Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director) -- the AUDELCO Award-winning nonprofit providing a nurturing developmental environment for playwrights and theatre creators of diverse cultural backgrounds - will hold an afternoon cocktail reception on Saturday, April 28th from 4:30 - 6:30 pm at Ripley Grier Studios, located at 520 Eighth Avenue, 16th Floor (btw 36th and 37th Streets).

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced additional casting for the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE.

Stephen Karam is one of the new breed of contemporary American playwrights. His 'The Humans,' the Tony Award-winning Best Play of 2016, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is now on stage at the Connor Palace.

Led by co-producing artistic directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, A Noise Within (ANW) is excited to announce its 2018-2019 season, themed "Let Me In."

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.

Villanova Theatre is thrilled to announce the 12th Annual Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium (PTRS), featuring a keynote address and workshop by renowned director, playwright and community artist Michael John Garces. This year's conference will kick off on Thursday, May 3 with the Emerging Scholars Panel followed by a workshop, panels and the keynote address on Friday, May 4, 2017. The theme of this year's conference is 'Community Outreach in the Arts.'  

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.  

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will hold its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, May 7 at 583 Park Avenue. The evening will honor Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Playwrights Musical Theater Fellowship alumnus Robert Lopez, the Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning songwriters of Frozen and Coco.

Abingdon Theatre Company (Tony Speciale, Artistic Director; Denise Dickens, Producing Director) has announced casting for the first production of its 25th Anniversary main stage season, The Gentleman Caller, a new play by Philip Dawkins (Charm, Le Switch, The Homosexuals).

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has named Airness by Chelsea Marcantel the winner of the 2018 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award. The award, which recognizes an emerging playwright, will be presented at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville on April 7. Airness, which premiered at Humana, concerns a woman entering her first air guitar competition. There she discovers there's an art form at the center of what may seem on the surface like just people pretending to play instruments.

Cleveland Play House (CPH), in a Co-Production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, announces the addition of the World Premiere comedy Tiny Houses to its lineup for the 2018-2019 Season. Written by emerging playwright Chelsea Marcantel, Tiny Houses will first be featured as a CPH 2018 Roe Green Award winner at the New Ground Theatre Festival, with a reading on Saturday, May 19. CPH Artistic Director, Laura Kepley, will direct both presentations of the play.

Cygnet Theatre closes its 15th season with the World Premiere of The Wind and The Breeze by New York based playwright Nathan Alan Davis. This poetic, slice-of-life drama was the winner of the 2013 Lorraine Hansberry Award and part of The Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission in 2016, where it moved audiences with its humanity and humor. Cygnet's production is directed by Rob Lutfy and runs May 16 through June 10. Opening night for media is May 19.

Raven Theatre is pleased to continue its 35th anniversary season with the world premiere of Philip Dawkins' provocative drama THE GENTLEMAN CALLER, directed by Artistic Director Cody Estle.

Lipscomb University Theatre has only just announced its 2018-19 season and Beki Baker, chair of the Lipscomb University theatre department, says student response already has shown “an overwhelming amount of excitement.”

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of the Rolling World Premiere of Br'er Cotton by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Three evenings of the William Inge Theater Festival, May 9-12, will explore the career and works of Carlyle Brown, including a multi-media tribute to the writer's achievements.

After selling out more than half its run prior to opening, Raven Theatre is pleased to announce a two week extension for its world premiere of Philip Dawkins' provocative drama THE GENTLEMAN CALLER, directed by Artistic Director Cody Estle, now playing through May 27, 2018 in Raven's intimate 55-seat West Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago.

Los Angeles theatre collective, Artists at Play, will develop and showcase two new works by Asian American playwrights, Chloe Hung and Nicholas Pilapil. The spring new play reading series, in its sixth year, is open to the public to attend on Saturday, April 28, at Company of Angels.