Page 73 Productions Announces 2012 Summer Playwriting Residencies

Page 73 Productions will sponsor two separate Playwriting Residencies during the summer of 2012.

The first weeklong residency will be held at The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in Tarrytown, New York. It will feature two playwrights — Los Angeles-based Jennifer Haley and New York City-based Sarah Sander — along with director Josh Hecht and a company of actors. The Pocantico Center residency, established in 2008 by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, supports artists in their creative process.

Ms. Sander was a finalist for the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellowship, and Ms. Haley previously joined Page 73 at its 2010 Summer Residency at Yale. On Thursday, July 26 at 6:30pm, segments of both Ms. Haley and Ms. Sander’s plays will be presented for the public. If interested in attending the public event, please email info@page73.org for more information.

The second weeklong writers retreat, from July 30 –August 5, will be held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The playwrights include: LA-based Deron Bos and Dorothy Fortenberry, and NYC-based Max Posner and Cori Thomas. They will be joined by directors Paul Willis and David Chapman, as well as actors from New York and students at Yale School of Drama.

All four playwrights have been finalists for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship; Max Posner is the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellow. Each playwright will either work on a single play, like Mr. Bos who, along with director Paul Willis and a cast of seven actresses, will work on his play VERY SIMPLE, which explores a high-powered magazine editor’s Shakespearean fall from power, or Ms. Fortenberry who, along with director David Chapman, will work on her two-couple play, PARTNERS, about a married woman’s over-investment in her best gay friend’s choice not to get hitched in the wake of the legalization of gay marriage; or like Ms. Thomas and Mr. Posner will spend the week getting inspiration for and working on several on-going projects, which will culminate in a closed reading at the end of the week.

On Saturday, August 4, beginning at 5:00 p.m. Page 73 will present readings of both Mr. Bos and Ms. Fortenberry's plays in New Haven, CT. Readings are free and open to the public; however reservations are required by emailing info@page73.org.

PAGE 73 Productions – under the leadership of Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli and Associate Director Michael Walkup – develops and produces the work of early-career playwrights who have yet to have their work professionally produced in New York. Page 73 produces at least one New York or world premiere by an early-career playwright each year. Page 73 also offers production-oriented development opportunities that help usher the works of early-career playwrights from first draft to final script. In addition to its summer residencies, the company also hosts the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, a year-long program supporting one playwright’s creative and career development; “Page 2”, an extensive developmental workshop; and "Interstate 73", an annual writers group for 8 early-career playwrights, and mounts one full-scale production per year that marks the first professional world or New York premiere by the participating playwright.

Page 73 produced the world premieres of ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Davis McCallum (2007 Pulitzer finalist and prequel to Quiara’s 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning play WATER BY THE SPOONFUL), SIXTY MILES TO SILVER LAKE by Dan LeFranc directed by Anne Kauffman and co-produced with Soho Rep (2010 New York Times Playwriting Award); CREATURE by Heidi Schreck, directed by Leigh Silverman and co-produced with New Georges; JACK'S PRECIOUS MOMENT by Samuel D. Hunter directed by Kip Fagan and EDGEWISE by Eliza Clark directed by Trip Cullman and co-produced with The Play Company, as well as the New York premieres of 1001 by Jason Grote, directed by Ethan McSweeney (Time Out New York - Top 10) and LIDLESS by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, directed by Tea Alagic. The company received from the League of Professional Theatre Women their 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for “innovative and creative work dedicated to the emerging dramatist”.

For more information about Page 73 Productions, please visit www.page73.org.