NNPN PLAYWRIGHTS IN RESIDENCE

One of the most exciting recent initiatives undertaken by NNPN is the Playwrights in Residence program, established in 2007 to support playwrights graduating from qualified MFA programs for a season-long residency at an NNPN member theater. Playwrights are nominated annually by member theaters, and those writers selected for the program receive stipends of $9,000 to learn from and engage with NNPN members throughout the year.

Program rationale and details

Currently, when MFA playwriting students leave their programs, they go into the world with virtually no connections to professional theaters and little opportunity for continued artistic advancement. Many of these young playwrights move, by default, to New York or Los Angeles, where they compete with thousands of other writers struggling to establish themselves. Through the Playwrights in Residence program, each participating member theater sponsors an emerging playwright selected for his or her talent, artistic vision, and interest in the type of work being produced by the theater. The theater provides the resident playwright with an artistic home for a season, while the playwright participates in the life of that theater. Playwrights have direct access to the artistic staff (artistic director, literary manager and/or dramaturg) for mentoring and dramaturgical consultation, as well as access to administrative and facility resources for writing and developing plays. Playwrights also gain entrée into the professional theater community. The participating theaters, in turn, add a new member to the staff who may participate in literary management, production, fundraising, outreach and audience development activities. Over time, it is the expectation that many of these playwrights will gain real world experience while developing long-lasting relations with the theaters and the community in which they have become invested.  Since its inception in 2007, the program has funded seven emerging playwrights.

2010-11 RECIPIENTS

JOSHUA ELIAS HARMON (Carnegie Mellon '10) is the NNPN Playwright in Residence at Actor's Express in Atlanta, GA. His plays includeA Boy Named Alice,which won the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for ComicPlaywriting(2nd Place) and was produced in Carnegie Mellon University's New Works Series;Love in the Time of Channukah, produced in Ithaca, NY by Hangar Theatre;Princess Bubonic,produced in New York by Prospect Theater Company; and a new adaptation of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, which had a sold-out run in CMU's Mainstage Subscription Series. Honors include a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, two-time KCACTF Region II Finalist, two Shubert Foundation Fellowships, and a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellowship at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Joshua was a mentor playwright at Horizon Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival and taught playwriting at CMU.

MERIDITH FRIEDMAN (Northwestern '10) is the NNPN Playwright in Residence at Curious Theatre Company in Denver, CO. Meridith hails from sunny Honolulu, and moved out east to study theatre at Connecticut College. She spent a semester at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, where she studied playwriting under Dona Dinovelli. At Northwestern University’s MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage program, she has studied playwriting under Rebecca Gilman, Bruce Norris, Laura Eason, Michael Rohd, and Laura Schellhardt. She has completed internships and apprenticeships with the Pearl Theatre Company, New York Stage & Film, The Orchard Project, and most recently a literary management internship with Second Stage. Her plays have been workshopped and developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Northwestern University, Chicago Dramatists, Element: A New Play Festival, and the Greenhouse Theatre Center. She in currently writing the book for a new musical that will premiere in NYC the summer of 2011.

FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG (UT Austin '10) is the NNPN Playwright in Residence at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA. Frances’ plays have been developed at the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, Seattle Rep, PlayPenn, the Alley Theatre, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Playwright’s Foundation and Yale Rep. In 2010 her play LIDLESS will be published by Yale University Press, appear in the UK’s High Tide Festival and West Virginia’s Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Her honors include the Yale Drama Series Award, the David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, the Keene Prize for Literature, a Glimmer Train New Writer’s Award, a commission from South Coast Rep, and grants from the MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute, the Playwright’s Center, and Interact Theatre. Frances was raised in Philadelphia, Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. More information is available at www.francesyachucowhig.com.

Previous recipients

In 2009/10, three Playwrights in Residence participated in the program: Carrie Louise Nutt at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (Madison, NJ), Sarah Sander at Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota, FL), and Steve Yockey at Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA).

In 2008/09, NNPN sponsored four Playwrights in Residence: Jennifer Fawcett at Curious Theatre Company in Denver, Dano Madden at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, Lia Romeo at Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey, and Andrew Rosendorf at Florida Stage. The successes of the 2008/08 residencies included: Jennifer Fawcett's play The Toymaker's War at the National Showcase of New Plays, Lia Romeo's Green Whales getting its premiere production at Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, and Andrew Rosendorf's appointment to the staff at Florida Stage.

During the 2007/2008 pilot year, InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA hosted Sean Christopher Lewis, a graduate from University of Iowa's MFA Playwrights Workshop; New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA hosted Meron Langsner, a graduate of Brandeis University; and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey in Madison, NJ hosted Brett Williams, a graduate of Rutgers.