14th Annual MFA Playwrights Workshop Launches New Work Next Week In Washington D.C.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays, announce the 14th Annual MFA Playwrights' Workshop. The Kennedy Center will host more than 60 theater-makers from July 27-August 4, 2019 as part of the week-long Workshop featuring new works by graduate students or recent MFA graduates from the University of California, San Diego, Iowa Playwrights' Workshop, Boston University, National Theatre School of Canada, and Brown University.

A committee comprised of NNPN Core Member Theater leaders selected the slate of plays, which includes works by Ali Viterbi, Charles Green, Eliana Pipes, Jacob Margaret Archer, Julia Izumi, and Kira Rockwell. The Workshop will also feature new play development opportunities for NNPN Affiliated Artist and Workshop alumni Charly Evon Simpson and Susan Soon He Stanton, along with Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Prize-winner Steph Del Rosso.

This annual program, now in its fourteenth year, pairs gifted early-career playwrights with directors and dramaturgs from NNPN Core and Associate Member Theaters across the country, as well as from a wider circle of theaters around North America, and an acting company from the Washington, D.C. community. The Workshop will also feature the eighth annual New Play Dramaturgy Intensive, led by Mark Bly, who serves as an Ambassador at Large for the Network.

Additionally, the fifth class of National Directors Fellowship recipients will be in residence for the week, each collaborating with one of the selected plays' artistic teams and building professional relationships with representatives from NNPN Member Theaters and the larger American theater community. This program is a partnership of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, National New Play Network, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The 2019 National Directing Fellows are: Addie Gorlin, Maria Patrice Amon, Rebecca Wear, Sarah Hughes, and Will Detlefsen.

Cowboy and The Moon by Eliana Pipes - Boston University

Directed by Ann Filmer, Artistic Director, 16th Street Theater (Berwyn, IL)*

Dramaturgy by Otisa??Cortez Ramsey-Zöe, freelance dramaturg

National Directing Fellow: Patrice Amon

Sound Design by Kenny Neal

Oh, to be Pure Again by Kira Rockwell - Boston University

Directed by Laley Lippard, freelance director & NDF Alum

Dramaturgy by Deanie Vallone, Literary Associate, Milwaukee Rep*

National Directing Fellow: Addie Gorlin

Movement and Dance by Dane Figueroa Edidi

miku, and the gods. by Julia Izumi - Brown University

Directed by Natsu Onoda Power, freelance theater artist

Dramaturgy by Gavin Witt, freelance dramaturg

National Directing Fellow: Sarah Hughes

In Every Generation by Ali Viterbi - UCSD

Directed by Howard Shalwitz, Founding Artistic Director (ret.), Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Dramaturgy by Gabrielle Hoyt, Literary Manager, Round House Theatre (Bethesda)*

National Directing Fellow: Will Detlefsen

Sound Design by Louis E. Davis

P o l a r i s (a tragedy expansion pack) by Charles Green - Iowa Playwrights Workshop

Directed by Freddie Ashley, Artistic Director, Actor's Express (Atlanta)*

Dramaturgy by Anne Morgan, Literary Director, American Shakespeare Center (Staunton, VA)*

National Directing Fellow: Rebecca Wear

Sound Design by Kenny Neal

All I Want is to Be Happy Sometimes by Jacob Margaret Archer - National Theatre School of Canada

Directed by Orion S. Johnstone, freelance theater artist

Dramaturgy by Adrien-Alice Hansel, Literary Director, Studio Theatre (Washington, DC)

53% of by a??Steph a??Del Rossoa??(Alliance Theatre'sa??Kendedaa??Prize winner)a??

Directed bya??Candisa??C. Jones, freelance theater artista??

Dramaturgy bya??Amanda Watkins,a??Associate Producer, Alliance Theatre (Atlanta)a??

MFAPW Alumni Projects

Sandblasted by Charly Evon Simpson (Alumni)

Directed by Summer L. Williams, Associate Artistic Director, Company One (Boston)*

Dramaturgy by Jacqueline E. Lawton, Company Member/Resident Dramaturg, PlayMakers Rep (Chapel Hill)*

Untitled TMT play by Susan Soon He Stanton (Alumni)

Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, Artistic Director, Theater Alliance (Washington, DC)*

Dramaturgy by Kirsten Bowen, freelance dramaturg

*Person affiliated with an NNPN Member Theater