Jonathan Payne News

The Playwrights Realm (Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira) announces Beyond the Realm (February 2019), a month-long festival showcasing bold new works-in-progress by four boundary-pushing playwrights, with four workshops of new plays by MJ Kaufman, Nia Witherspoon, Michael Yates Crowley, and Asiimwe Deborah Kawe. Responsiveness and a commitment to playwrights' needs are at the heart of the Realm's practice; with the launch of this new program-in lieu of a second full-length production this season-the Realm seizes the opportunity to devote the beginning of the year to these four playwrights testing and honing their exhilarating new works. Throughout a month of programming, the definitions of theater will be challenged as the festival creates new ways of presenting live storytelling and blurs the lines that divide creators from spectators. Tickets for the Festival are free and reservations open to the general public on Tuesday, January 22nd. Donors receive early access starting January 17th. For more information, visit http://www.playwrightsrealm.org/beyond/.

The Dramatists Guild of America is the originator of the Dramatists Guild Fellows program, with a mission is to enhance the sense of community among developing American dramatists by offering a year-long workshop designed to augment their training with practical experience and career information resources.

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to announce our 2018-19 STARR READING SERIES. This annual program allows us to celebrate and explore the plays of the city's most exciting playwrights. We feature new work from a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers who are approaching writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. We are proud to continue to offer this ongoing series to our audiences FREE of charge. This program is curated by William Burke, Jillian Walker, and John Del Gaudio.

OBIE award winning The Fire This Time Festival  (TFTT) announces today its 10th anniversary festival dates and the lineup of featured playwrights who comprise the centerpiece of the annual 10-minute play program.

Over the past twelve years, The Playwrights Realm, led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira, has continually produced work by brave new voices and expanded its commitment to providing holistic support to playwrights striving to make a life in the arts. With its 2018-2019 Writing Fellowship, The Playwrights Realm is proud to grant a career-propelling honor to four tremendously talented playwrights exhibiting drive and commitment to the form: Bleu Beckford-Burrell (Lyons Pride), Sarah Einspanier (I LOVE SEAN), Keelay Gipson (#NewSlaves), andElse C. Went (Saving Throw).

The world premiere of Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd opens tonight, on September 19 at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street Project. Presented by The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) and directed by Awoye Timpo, this is the first full production from the mordantly funny and unsparing voice of Jonathan Payne.

The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, directed by Awoye Timpo (Sept. 7-Oct. 6, at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project).  This world premiere marks the first full production from the mordantly funny and unsparing voice of Jonathan Payne.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) has announced the winners of the 2018 Princess Grace Awards. The Awards will be presented at the annual Princess Grace Awards Gala and continue the legacy of Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco, who helped emerging artists pursue their artistic goals during Her lifetime. In total, the Foundation is awarding over $1 million to artists in theater, dance, and film. In the presence of Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, this year's Gala will be held at Cipriani 25 Broadway on October 16, 2018. The evening will be co-chaired by Dennis and Phyllis Washington and Anne Sweeney and Phillip Miller.

The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) kicks off its 2018-2019 season with the world premiere of Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, directed by Awoye Timpo (Sept. 7-Oct. 6, at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project). Having fostered the careers of breakout playwrights such as Sarah DeLappe (Pulitzer Prize finalist The Wolves), Lauren Yee (The Hatmaker's Wife), Jen Silverman(Crane Story, The Moors), Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners), and Donja R. Love(Sugar in Our Wounds), The Realm continues to spotlight new playwrights setting the tone for the future of American theatre. This world premiere marks the first full production from the mordantly funny and unsparing voice of Jonathan Payne.

The New Black Fest and The Lark, two theater organizations dedicated to celebrating and advocating for stories that explore the intersection of art and social justice, are proud to announce the fifth annual The New Black Fest at The Lark. This week-long event is aimed at showcasing diverse and provocative work in a festival of Black theater artists from throughout the Diaspora, and will feature talkbacks, a panel event, and staged readings of four plays-in-progress. The festival will take place April 9-13, 2018, and will include works by 2017 Djerassi Writer in Residence France-Luce Benson (Deux Femmes On the Edge De La Revolution), 2018 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award recipient Donja R. Love (soft), 2015 Princess Grace Award-Winner Jonathan Payne (Brother Rabbit), and artist, activist, and The New Black Fest alum Liza Jessie Peterson (Sistergurls and the Squirrel) who has performed excerpts of her one-person play The Peculiar Patriot in over 35 penitentiaries across the country.

The World Premiere of Don Nguyen's Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth opens tonight, on March 7 at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project. Presented by The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) and directed by Jade King Carroll, this philosophical, and tender comedy is split between the perspectives of a lesbian couple trying to conceive, and their potential-sperm-donor/aerospace engineer friend as they're stretched to contemplate the unknowns of their future.

Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.

Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.

Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.

Long Wharf Theatre's Contemporary American Voices Festival, an annual celebration of adventurous, innovative new plays, will take place October 20-22 on Stage II.

Long Wharf Theatre's Contemporary American Voices Festival, an annual celebration of adventurous, innovative new plays, will take place October 20-22 on Stage II.

The Playwrights Realm, led by Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director, and Roberta Pereira, Producing Director, celebrated its tenth anniversary with the annual Writers Block Party honoring Realm Board Member and award-winning playwright and actor, Anna Deavere Smith. The Writers Block Party took place on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at The Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse in the Samuel B. & David Rose Building, and was hosted by Lauren Patten (Fun Home, The Wolves). Scroll down for photos from the event!

The Playwrights Realm has announced its 2017-18 season productions: the world premieres of Michael Yates Crowley's The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias, directed by Tyne Rafaeli (August - September 2017), and Don Nguyen's Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth, directed by Jade King Carroll (February - March 2018).Both will be presented at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY is pleased to announce the full lineup of its thirteenth annual PRELUDE Festival.  Dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre and performance, PRELUDE 2016 features an array of artists working in theatrical and interdisciplinary performance.  The festival gives audiences and artists a survey of the current moment in New York via in-process performances, conversations, and workshops.

The Dramatists Guild Fund presented new work by its graduating 2015-2016 Fellows at Playwrights Horizons in New York on Monday, September 19, hosted by co-founders of the Fellows Program Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!