Anne Washburn News

The 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.K. playwright Lucy Prebble for her play A Very Expensive Poison.

We never can seem to catch a break from the president, and a night out at Woolly Mammoth's American premiere of Anne Washburn's SHIPWRECK is no exception. A history play about 2017, SHIPWRECK follows a group of liberals who gather at a remodeled farmhouse, a young man adopted from Kenya reckoning with his connection to his family and his country, and the fallout from Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey. 

Today PEN America announced the major career achievement honors to be presented at the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards.

City Theatre at Sacramento City College continues its 2019-20 season with Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights.

NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company) founder and Artistic Producing Director Mia Katigbak today announced the creation of The NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), a national theater initiative that will ingrain the inclusion of Asian American theatre artists, technicians, administrators, and community members in the American theater.

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced that submissions are now open for their 10th annual festival of 10-minute plays of heightened language and classic themes. Beginning today, six brand new plays, inspired by this year's theme: 'Private Lives,' will be selected through an open submission process to premiere alongside commissions from Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play, Daddy) and Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Seminar). Submissions are open through March 30th, 2020.

Soho Rep. today announced technology entrepreneur Victoria Meakin-a board member of seven years-as the organization's new Chair, and acclaimed poet, playwright, and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine as a new board member. Meakin succeeds longtime Chair Jon Dembrow, who will now serve as Chair Emeritus.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Tim Sanford, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) today announced the cast and creative team of Unknown Soldier, a sweeping, elegiac chamber musical that melts time, spanning three generations as it follows a woman's journey to unearth the secrets buried in her family's past. With a book and lyrics by Daniel Goldstein, making his New York writing debut, Unknown Soldier is also the last work from the late, beloved Michael Friedman (music and lyrics) to be premiered in the city. Together, they created a work that profoundly illustrates the search into the existences of those who've passed, connecting the love and loss, hope and regret of two womena?'and a country forever scarred by wara?'across a century. Unknown Soldier follows Ellen Rabinowitz, a woman who's inherited her grandmother's homea?'and with it, a clue that her understanding of her family and of herself are incomplete. Directed by Trip Cullman and choreographed by Patrick McCollum, this New York premiere production will take place in the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street), February 14-March 29, 2020.

Playwrights Horizons presents Lucas Hnath's The Thin Place, directed by Les Waters, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St), running November 22, 2019, through January 5, 2020.

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Theatre Downtown has to relocate to a new building and will be shuttering up it doors on 5th Ave next weekend. Come enjoy their production 'Mr. Burns!' before they move out. Theatre Downtown's artistic luster shines from love given from a collective community of committed actors, crew, volunteers, and patrons that make home in their hearts to original theater you won't find anywhere else.

The American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice have announced that the 65th Annual Obie Awards will return to New York's Terminal 5 (610 West 56th Street) on Monday, May 18, 2020 to celebrate and honor Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions that opened between May 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020.

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS and THE CIVILIANS will release the first three premiere albums of The Michael Friedman Collection- available for streaming and download on Friday, October 18. The Great Immensity, The Abominables, and This Beautiful City are all written (or co-written) and directed by Steve Cosson and feature music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. This extraordinary long-term project will eventually comprise the premiere recordings of nine musicals from the beloved late Obie Award-winning songwriter Michael Friedman. The albums will be available at www.ghostlightrecords.com/michaelfriedman.html.

Songwriter Michael Friedman died in 2017, but his work will live on. According to The New York Times, nine albums of his unreleased work will soon be released.

Playwrights Horizons today announced that its beloved longtime Artistic Director, Tim Sanford, will step down from the position in July 2020.

The Civilians, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Steve Cosson and Managing Director Margaret Moll, announces the members of its 2019-20 R&D Group, comprised of writers, composers, and directors who are creating new works derived from creative inquiry.  

Due to popular demand Normal Ave and Leigh Honigman will extend performances for their World Premiere of Of the Woman Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die, written by Lily Houghton and directed by Kylie M. Brown at Normal Ave's Medicine Show Theatre (549 W 52nd St, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10019). Additional performances will be on Thursday, October 24 at 8pm, Friday, October 25 at 8pm, and Saturday, October 26 at 8pm. Previously announced performances will be on Thursday, October 17 at 8pm, Friday, October 18 at 8pm, Saturday, October 19 at 8pm, and Sunday, October 20 at 3pm. Tickets ($20-$30) are available for advance purchase at www.normalave.org/ofthewoman. The performance runs approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.

The Flea Theater hosted a Mac Wellman Symposium: THE ART OF STACKING THE DECK October 4-6, 2019. The three-day symposium was a rare opportunity for Wellman enthusiasts to gather to share stories and dig deep into the mysteries of Wellman's writing.