NNPN ARTISTS LEAD KENNEDY CENTER NEW-PLAY WORKSHOPS

Washington, DC, July 27 - The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country’s leading alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays,proudly announces the lineup of eight new plays by MFA students receiving workshops at the Kennedy Center, July 27-August 2. The partnership between the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and NNPN - called the MFA Playwrights Workshop - is in its fourth year.

The eight playwrights were selected from 57 MFA students nominated by the heads of playwriting programs from across the country. In addition to providing resources to the playwrights to allow them to develop their plays, a key goal of the workshop is to introduce and welcome the playwrights to the community of national theaters dedicated to new voices. The MFA Playwrights' Workshop provides a rich networking opportunity as established and emerging artists live and work together, enhancing the transition from graduate training to the field.

The NNPN-helmed projects are:

Susan Stanton's The Underneath, directed by Literary Chair Mark Routhier (Yale School of Drama)

Martin Zimmerman's White Tie Ball, directed by Southern Rep Artistic Director Aimee Hayes, with dramaturgy by Victory Gardens' Aaron Carter (UT Austin)

Eric Lipez's Bottled Up,, directed by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey Artistic Director John Pietrowski, with dramaturgy by Marin Theatre Company's Margot Melcon (NYU)

Jennifer Barclay's Red Helen, directed by Actor's Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley, with dramaturgy by Borderlands Theater's Toni Press-Coffman (UCSD)

Amy Tofte's White Devil Loving Mother, directed by Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director Cynthia Levin (CalArts)

Riti Sachdeva's Parts of Parts and Stitches, directed by New Theatre Artistic Director Ricky Martinez (University of New Mexico)

Sam Hunter's Atlasing Sodom, directed by Phoenix Theatre Artistic Director Bryan Fonseca

A seventh play, Broadsword by Julliard's Marco Ramirez, is helmed by Sean Daniels of Actor's Theatre of Louisville.

The program is run by KCACTF Artistic Director Gregg Henry, with input from NNPN Executive Director Jason Loewith and David Goldman of the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University. Goldman and Henry founded the Workshop in 2006.

For more information, please visit www.kcactf.org.