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| Keen Company announces the 2022 Playwrights Lab for new work including new participating playwrights Kristoffer Diaz, Sarah Schulman, and Anna Ziegler | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:05 am EST 02/09/22 | |
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| Drama Desk and Obie Award-Winning Keen Company Announces 2022 Playwrights Lab Welcome the 2022 Lab Playwrights: Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity), Sarah Schulman (Carson McCullers), and Anna Ziegler (Boy) Join the 2021 Playwrights Lab Writers: Carlos Murillo, Harrison David Rivers, and Vickie Ramirez for Keen on New Work: A Discussion Roundtable Discussion Now Available for Viewing Online Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein today announced his plans for Keen's Playwrights Lab, including the playwrights for the 2022 Lab, readings from the 2021 participants, as well as a roundtable discussion with the '21 playwrights on the process of developing new work. "I am thrilled to welcome the latest group of talented and generous writers to the Keen Playwrights Lab, as well as share the stellar work of last year's participants. Keen's focus on new work began with the founding of the Lab in 2014. The work generated continues to inspire and broaden Keen's mission, while at the same time creating a safe and joyful home for mid-career writers. In our current season of all new work, including the upcoming world premiere of Peter Gil-Sheridan's This Space Between Us, the Lab is a potent reminder of the power of new plays to speak to today." said Silverstein. The 2022 Lab Playwrights participants will be Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity ), Sarah Schulman (Carson McCullers), and Anna Ziegler (Boy). "Assembling a cohort of writers for this Lab is always a highlight of my work with Keen Company: reading the current work of playwrights I have admired for years, meeting with many of those writers to discuss their art and their future goals, and working to build a group that will support and challenge each other over our year together. I am proud that we are welcoming two gifted writers back to Keen Company, and one stellar artist who is new to the Keen family, and so eager to be in regular conversation with them for the coming months," said Jeremy Stoller, Keen's Director of New Work. Each year, the Keen Playwrights Lab brings together three mid-career playwrights to develop new full-length plays that uphold Keen's mission to create theater that champions identification and connection. Launched in 2014 by founding Director of New Work Mark Armstrong and Jonathan Silverstein, the Lab's mission is two-fold: to make Keen a home for new plays that speak deeply to our mission and vibrantly to the present moment; and to help address the dearth of development support for American playwrights who have evolved out of early-career status into the trenches of mid-career. Under the leadership of Keen's Director of New Work Jeremy Stoller, the Keen Playwrights Lab is in its ninth season. The writers meet monthly to share, discuss, and develop work with their peers in a relaxed and supportive environment. The Playwrights Lab culminates with readings of these works in progress later this season, attended by the Keen community, the theater industry, and the general public. More information at http://www.keencompany.org/playlab. KEEN ON NEW WORK: A Discussion with the 2021 Playwrights Lab Writers Join Keen Company for a roundtable discussion with the 2021 Playwrights Lab writers featuring an insight into the plays they have been developing over the past year and a sampling of exclusive excerpts from their work read by top-tier actors, moderated by Keen's Director of New Work Jeremy Stoller. This pre-recorded discussion will be available to watch anytime on Keen Company's website at www.keencompany.org/readings. In 2021, with the pandemic necessitating that the Lab be conducted online, Keen Company for the first time invited writers outside the New York City area into the cohort. Meeting monthly over Zoom, the three writers shared new material they were developing and talked through their current projects and concerns as artists navigating a challenging time. The Keen on New Work discussion includes the playwrights discussing their experience in the Lab and describing the exciting new projects they've been developing, as well as actors reading excerpts from the writers' in-development plays. Including excerpts from works written in the Lab: A Ghost in Del Rio by Carlos Murillo, The Apple by Vickie Ramirez and Maybe the Saddest Thing by Harrison David Rivers, featuring McKinley Belcher III, Chad Carstarphen, Grant Harrison, Susan Heyward, Allison Hicks, Tanis Parenteau, Joshua David Robinson, and David Shih. COMING UP: February will see Keen's first full Off-Broadway production since closing Blues for an Alabama Sky on March 12th, 2020. Almost two years later, Keen Company is proud to present the World Premiere of This Space Between Us by Peter Gil-Sheridan (The Rafa Play), directed by Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein. Performances will begin February 22nd and continue through April 2nd, with Opening Night set for Wednesday March 9th. Tickets will be $60 with Premium Seats available for $85; to celebrate the return to live performance, Special First Preview tickets will be only $22 for 2-22-22! Tickets are available at the Theatre Row box office, online at https://bfany.org/theatre-row/shows/this-space-between-us/. This Space Between Us is a new comedy about trying to change the world while admitting home could use a little change too. Nobody understands why Jamie wants to leave his cushy law office to work for a non-profit. His boyfriend is concerned, his best friend is confused, and his conservative Cuban-American family are sure they know what's best. As Jamie announces his plans to serve those less fortunate, one shocking afternoon at the racetrack sparks unexpected and irreversible consequences for them all. This intergenerational comedy follows a raucous attempt to reach for something more without leaving the people you love behind. Later this Spring, Keen will offer a special treat: an all-star benefit performance. Stay tuned for more details as they become available. Keen's ongoing educational initiatives continue to thrive. Keen Teens the company's education program now in its 16th year, raises the quality of plays written for high school students by commissioning work from accomplished professional playwrights. The 2022 Keen Teens playwrights will be Bleu Beckford-Burrell, C. Quintana, and Stephanie Swirsky. This free program for teens provides invaluable mentorship opportunities - working alongside professional writers, directors, and designers to rehearse and premiere new work. Through Keen's partnership with Concord Theatricals, plays are published and licensed around the globe. The 2022 Keen Teens Festival of New Work will take place in May 2022; more details to be announced. Keen Company creates theater that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, we tell wholehearted stories about people striving to do their best and the decisive moments that change us. Keen has been honored with eleven Drama Desk nominations, two Drama Desk Awards, two Drama League nominations, and two Obie Awards. Keen Company is a Drama Desk and Obie Award winning Off-Broadway theater creating story driven work that champions identification and connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, the company tells stories about the decisive moments that change us. Keen also fosters mid-career playwrights through our Keen Playwrights Lab and mentors students from all five boroughs of NYC though our Keen Teens education program. In everything we do, Keen Company thrives through our welcoming ethos and community commitments. For more information on the Playwrights Lab and all of Keen's programs, please visit KeenCompany.org. 2022 Lab Playwrights Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and educator. His play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His adaptation of the Disney film Hercules premiered in Central Park in Summer 2019 as part of the Joseph Papp Public Theater's Public Works program with a cast of nearly 200. Other full-length titles include Welcome to Arroyo's, Reggie Hoops, Football Football Football Football (or I Love Lave Dash), and The Unfortunates. His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, ACT, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among many others. Awards include the Guggenheim, Jerome, Van Lier, NYFA, and Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowships; New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; Lucille Lortel, Equity Jeff, and OBIE Awards; and the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant, among others. As a screenwriter, Kristoffer has developed original television pilots for HBO and FX, written for the first season of Netflix's "GLOW," and adapted the musical Rent for FOX. Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College's Performing Arts Management program. He teaches playwriting at New York University. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a member of its Board of Directors, a current officer of the Dramatists Guild Council, and a member of the Writer's Guild of America, East. Sarah Schulman is a playwright, novelist, nonfiction writer, screenwriter and AIDS historian. She is the author of 20 novels, nonfiction books, and published plays. A Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting, she has had three productions: Carson McCullers (Playwrights Horizons/The Women's Project, director Marion McClinton), Manic Flight Reaction (Playwrights Horizons, director Trip Cullman, with Deirdre O'Connell) and a theatrical adaptation of I.B. Singer's Enemies, A Love Story (Wilma, director Jiri Ziska, w/ Morgan Spector). Her plays have had workshops and readings at La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Goodman, Vineyard, Rattlestick, New York Theater Workshop, ART, Trinity Rep, Roundabout, and Sundance Theater Lab. Her play The Lady Hamlet will have its world premiere at the Provincetown Theater this summer, directed by David Drake with Jennifer Van Dyck. Anna Ziegler's plays include the widely produced Photograph 51 (West End, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; named the number one play of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune; winner of London's WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; available on Audible; Bloomsbury's Modern Classics series), The Last Match (Roundabout; Old Globe; Writers Theatre), The Wanderers (Old Globe and upcoming at Roundabout) and Actually (Geffen Playhouse; Williamstown; Manhattan Theatre Club; Trafalgar Studios and many more; L.A. Ovation Award winner for Playwriting for an Original Play). Keen Company presented her play Boy in 2016; Boy was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for a new American play. Bloomsbury/Oberon Books has published a collection of her work entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One. She is developing TV and film projects at HBO Max, Apple and Scott Free Productions. 2021 Lab Playwrights Carlos Murillo is a Chicago-based, internationally produced and award winning playwright of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent. He is a recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award for his work in the theatre. He also received a 2016 Mellon Foundation Playwright Residency at Adventure Stage in Chicago. His body of work has been widely produced throughout the United States and Europe. His best known play Dark Play or Stories for Boys premiered at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and has been performed throughout the US, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. The play appeared in the anthology New Playwrights: Best New Plays of 2007 (Smith & Kraus). His other work has been seen in New York at Repertorio Español, P73, the NYC Summer Playwrights Festival, En Garde Arts, The Public Theater New Work Now! Festival, and Soho Rep; in Chicago at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Collaboraction, Walkabout Theatre, Adventure Stage and Theatre Seven; and in Los Angeles at Theatre @ Boston Court, Circle X and Son of Semele. His plays have been commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Goodman, the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, Steppenwolf and Adventure Stage and developed by The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New Dramatists and others. The Javier Plays, a trilogy of works, published in spring of 2016 by 53rd State Press was called by American Theatre Magazine "an absolutely extraordinary achievement from a writer at the height of his powers." Other publications include Mimesophobia (Broadway Play Publishing), A Human Interest Story (Dramatists Play Service) and his TYA play Augusta & Noble (Dramatic Publishing). Awards include the Met Life Nuestros Voces Award from Repertorio Español, the Frederick Loewe Award from New Dramatists, the Ofner Prize from the Goodman Theatre, the Otis Guernsey Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival, a Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, a Jerome Fellowship at The Playwrights' Center and two National Latino Playwriting Awards from Arizona Theatre Company. He has served on numerous selection panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital MAP Fund, New Dramatists, The Playwrights' Center, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and the Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship. From 1993 to 1995, Carlos served as the Associate Literary Manager at The Public Theater in New York. Carlos heads the BFA Playwriting Program at The Theatre School of DePaul University, and is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. He serves on the board of directors of MacDowell. Carlos lives in the south side of Chicago with his wife, the director, Lisa Portes, and their two children Eva and Carlitos. Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora) is a founding member of Chukalokoli Native Theater Ensemble, Amerinda Theater and an alumna of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group (2009). Her work has been developed at the Public Theater, Labyrinth Theater, Roundabout Theatre's Different Voices, The Missoula Writer's Colony and Black Swan at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She has been a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwright's conference and the National Playwright's Conference at the O'Neill. Honors include 2009 Urban Artists' Fellowship, and Honorable Mentions on the Kilroy's List in 2015 for Standoff at Hwy#37 and in 2019 for Pure Native. Productions - Pure Native for Native Voices at the Autry (2019), Glenburn 12 WP for Summer Shorts at 59E59, Smoke for Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group at Pershing Square Signature Center, Liimikin at New Native Theater, and Standoff at Hwy#37 for Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles and South Dakota. Her work has been published in Monologues for Actors of Color: Women and Monologues for Actors of Color: Men (Routledge). Standoff at Hwy#37 is featured in the all-new Contemporary Plays by Women of Color (Routledge). Member: Dramatists Guild. She is currently a resident at New Dramatists through 2025. Harrison David Rivers is the winner of the 2018 Relentless Award for The Bandaged Place. His other plays include When Last We Flew (GLAAD Media Award), Sweet (AUDELCO nom), Where Storms Are Born (Berkshire Theatre Award nom, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), This Bitter Earth (Jeff nom, MN Theatre Award for Exceptional New Work), Five Points (MN Theatre Award for Exceptional New Work, BroadwayWorld Minneapolis Award for Best New Work) and Broadbend, Arkansas (Antonyo Award and AUDELCO noms for Best Book of a Musical). Harrison was named a Runner-up for the 2018 Artist of the Year by the Star Tribune and a 2017 Artist of the Year by City Pages. He is the recipient of McKnight, Jerome, and Van Lier Fellowships and residencies with the Bogliasco Foundation, the Siena Art Institute, the Hermitage, Duke University, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage & Film and the Williamstown Theater Festival. He has taught at Kenyon College, Macalester College, Augsburg University and the University of Minnesota. Harrison is a member of the Playwrights' Center's Board of Directors. Harrisondavidrivers.com |
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