William Hayes News

Palm Beach Dramaworks names Anne Mundell as Resident Scenic Designer. Get the details on this exciting appointment.

Palm Beach Dramaworks welcomes Jenny Connell Davis as their newly appointed Resident Playwright. Discover the exciting news and learn more about Davis' impressive writing career. Explore how this collaboration will shape the future of the acclaimed theater company.

Joanna McClelland Glass’ Trying, a huge hit for Palm Beach Dramaworks in 2007, has been added to the company’s 2023-24 schedule, replacing Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy as the final play of the season.

In the published version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County, playwright Tracy Letts prefaced the play with a lengthy passage from Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. The quote was brought to his attention when it was read to the cast by the show's director on the very first day of rehearsals in 2007.

The political, societal, and familial issues that currently dominate our national conversation will be at the heart and center of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ 2023-24 season. See details about the season, and how to purchase tickets!

On the strength of rave reviews and nightly standing ovations, Palm Beach Dramaworks is extending the run of Reginald Rose's classic Twelve Angry Men. Three performances have been added, with the possibility of more.

The strengths and flaws of the American jury system are laid bare – as are the prejudices and social attitudes of those standing in judgment – in Reginald Rose's classic Twelve Angry Men, which opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on December 9 (8pm). Performances continue through December 24, with specially priced previews on December 7 and 8 (7:30pm). J. Barry Lewis directs.  

Palm Beach Dramaworks will ring in 2023 with one of its most popular events, the New Year/New Plays Festival, which runs from January 6-8 and features readings of five fascinating plays that are still in development.

Palm Beach Dramaworks has announced that single tickets for the 2022-23 season will be on sale beginning September 6 at 10:00am at the box office and online.

Palm Beach Dramaworks Producing Artistic Director William Hayes and Managing Director Sue Ellen Beryl has announced that the Maurer Family Foundation will underwrite the New Year/New Plays Festival for the next three years, with a gift of $90,000. The fifth annual festival is set for January 5-8, 2023. 

Palm Beach Dramaworks closes out its 2021-22 season with The Belle of Amherst, William Luce’s popular one-woman play based on the life of Emily Dickinson. Margery Lowe, who portrayed the enigmatic poet last year when PBD joined forces with Actors’ Playhouse for a streaming coproduction of the play, returns to the role and is again directed by PBD Producing Artistic Director William Hayes. 

PBD’s twenty-third season will feature two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and August: Osage County by Tracy Letts; a Pulitzer Prize-finalist, 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog; the world premiere of The Science of Leaving Omaha by Carter W. Lewis; and the classic Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. Opening night is Friday, October 14.

Lynn Nottage’s heartfelt and heartbreaking Intimate Apparel, which she wrote “to honor the legacy of her great-grandmother,” opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on Friday, April 1 (8pm).

Bruce Graham’s The Duration, a powerful, moving family drama laced with humor that explores timely and timeless issues through the prism of personal loss, receives its world premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks on Friday, February 18 (8pm). Performances continue through March 6, with specially priced previews on February 16 and 17 (7:30pm). J. Barry Lewis directs.

The New Year/New Plays Festival, one of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ most popular annual events, will take place online from February 2 - 6, with readings of five intriguing plays that are still in development.

Palm Beach Dramaworks, unable to perform onstage for audiences for 21 months due to the pandemic, begins its season of renewal on December 3 (8pm) with the world premiere of Michael McKeever’s The People Downstairs, a commissioned play that tells the story of the courageous souls who hid Anne Frank and seven others during the Holocaust.

Out of an abundance of caution and a commitment to the safety and health of its patrons, artists, and staff, Palm Beach Dramaworks is postponing the start of its 2021-2022 season. Originally set to begin performances in October, PBD will now open the season on December 3. The company will perform its full schedule of five plays.

Palm Beach Dramaworks' popular Master Playwrights Series, an informative and entertaining program that provides in-depth looks at the lives and works of major playwrights, is returning this summer as an online initiative, with the focus on two beloved writers of the late twentieth century.

In celebration of Pride Month, Palm Beach Dramaworks' Contemporary Voices series will shine the spotlight on playwright Michael McKeever in June. This free, online series features live readings and discussions of plays by a cross-section of some of the finest American playwrights working in theatre today.

Palm Beach Dramaworks has modified its previously announced schedule and also selected the second of its two world premieres. Bruce Graham’s The Duration, which received an online reading in March as part of The Dramaworkshop’s Drama(in the)works series, was so well received that it’s moving on to a full, mainstage production.