New Play Commissions

NNPN awards one-to-two commissions annually, to playwrights nominated and selected by member theaters. Nominating theaters are responsible for the administration and development of the commissioned play. Commissioned playwrights agree to grant right of first refusal to produce their play to all NNPN members in their respective markets.

THE 2011-12 COMMISSIONS

Jen Silverman's Untitled Play, sponsored by InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia, PA)

Born in the US, Jen was raised in America, Europe, Asia and Scandinavia. She received her BA from Brown University and her MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her plays have been developed with New Georges in NYC, The Lark Playwrights Week, The Seven Devils Playwrights Conference/ id Theater, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and with New York Stage & Film/ Powerhouse Theatre Company, the hotINK International Festival (NYC),  and The Playwrights Realm (NYC). Her work has been produced in the NYC International Fringe Festival, in Albuquerque, Seattle, DC, and LA, and her short play was the 2009 winner of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival and was published by Samuel French. Her play Crane Story will premiere off-Broadway with The Playwrights Realm in September 2011. Jen is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, an idTheater Affiliated Artist, a 2009 writer in residence at Hedgebrook, the recipient of the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, a Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and a 2011 finalist for the O’Neill. She returned to Japan in the summer of 2010 as a recipient of the Stanley International Fellowship to research and write a new play, and is in China summer 2011 for a US/ China writers' exchange with the Iowa International Writers Program.

 

Laura Jacqmin's Untitled College Kids Travel Through Time Play, sponsored by Victory Gardens (Chicago, IL)

Laura Jacqmin was the winner of the 2008 Wasserstein Prize, a $25,000 award to recognize an emerging female playwright. Her plays include Look, We Are Breathing (Sundance Institute Theatre Lab), Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (At Play/Chicago Dramatists in summer 2010; 16th Street Theater in winter 2011; Theater on the Lake in summer 2011) andSki Dubai (Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 5th Annual First Look Repertory of New Work). Her work has been produced and developed by the Atlantic Theater, Vineyard Theatre, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, Chicago Dramatists, Second Stage, Victory Gardens Theater, The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway, the inaugural NNPN University Playwrights Workshop, and more. Jacqmin is a member of the 2010-2011 Playwrights’ Unit at the Goodman Theatre, and will spend summer 2011 in residence at the Royal Court Theatre in London. She is currently working on commissions for the Goodman Theatre, South Coast Rep, Arden Theater Company, InterAct Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project. BA Yale University; MFA Ohio University.

 

Since the program’s inception, NNPN has awarded fourteen commissions:

• Thomas W. Jones II's Sheddin', sponsored by Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta, GA)
• Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, sponsored by Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA)
• Elaine Romero's Ponzi, sponsored by Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX)
• Samuel Brett Williams' Revelation, sponsored by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (Madison, NJ)
• Fengar Gael & Dennis McCarthy’s Soul on Vinyl, sponsored by New Jersey Rep (Long Branch, NJ)
• John Biguenet's Rising Water, sponsored by Southern Rep (New Orleans, LA)
• Eric Coble's For Better sponsored by Curious Theatre (Denver, CO)
• Deborah Laufer's The Gulf of Westchester, sponsored by Florida Stage (West Palm Beach, FL)
• Fengar Gael's Devil Dog Six, sponsored by InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA)
• David Bucci's Possum Carcass, sponsored by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington D.C.)
• Syl Jones' New Math, sponsored by Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN)
• D.W. Gregory's Molumby’s Million, sponsored by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (Madison, NJ)
• Toni Press-Coffman's New House, New Dog, sponsored by Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN)
• Julie Jensen's Dust Eaters, sponsored by Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City, UT)
• Jordan Harrison's untitled play, sponsored by Perishable Theatre (Providence, RI)