Playwrights Realm Announces 2012 - 2013 Writing Fellowships

The Playwrights Realm, under the leadership of Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Renee Blinkwolt, has selected four early-career playwrights, Mfoniso Udofia, Theresa Giacopasi, Don Nguyen, and Chad Beckim, for its 2012-2013 Writing Fellows program.

The Writing Fellows program lies at the very heart of what The Playwrights Realm does – helping writers write.

Each year, four early-career playwrights are selected to join The Playwrights Realm to work on a new play over the course of nine months, taking that play from draft form to a production-ready state.

"Each of this year's writing fellows brings a unique and theatrical perspective to his or her writing,” said Ms. Kovner, Artistic Director of The Playwrights Realm. “Chad, Don, Mfoniso and Theresa all come to the Fellowship from different backgrounds and are bringing very different styles to the group. They have already started to bond and are taking full advantage of all the resources of the Realm. I’m excited to see where the year takes us.”

In addition to creative and professional development support, over the course of the year-long Fellowship the selected playwrights receive a $2,500 stipend, an internal reading with actors, a final reading of their play for a public audience as part of The Playwrights Realm's INK’D Festival in May, and use of The Playwrights Realm office for printing, writing, meetings and more.

The 2012 - 2013 Writing Fellows http://playwrightsrealm.org/programs/writing-fellows drew over 200 applications from early career playwrights, more than the company has seen in its five-year history. Applicants’ plays are read by playwrights, producers, and directors across the country. Finalists’ plays go through several rounds of readings and the finalists themselves are interviewed by Realm staff. Fellows are chosen based on their demonstration of intellectual curiosity, desire for a rigorous developmental process, and, of course, the promise of their voice and vision.

Past Writing Fellows include Mia Chung (You For Me For You), J.C. Lee (The Inexplicable Disappearance of Hector Villaraigosa), Nastaran Ahmadi (Exile), Bekah Brunstetter (Hey Brother), Christopher Oscar Peña (Icarus Burns), Stefanie Zadravec (The Electric Baby), Amy Herzog (After the Revolution), and Ethan Lipton, whose Red-Handed Otter was produced by The Playwrights Realm at the Cherry Lane Theater earlier this fall and received critical acclaim. A complete list of past Writing Fellows can be found at playwrightsrealm.org

Previous Playwrights Realm full productions include last season's Crane Story by Jen Silverman (2011), Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco's Dramatis Personae (2010), Christopher Wall's Dreams of the Washer King (2010), Anna Ziegler's Dov and Ali (2009) and Anton Dudley's Substitution (2008).