Huntington Theatre Company Announces 2014-2016 Cohort of Playwriting Fellows

Huntington Theatre Company announces its 2014-2016 cohort of Huntington Playwriting Fellows: Mia Chung, John J King, Sam Marks, and Nina Louise Morrison.

This artistically diverse group of writers begin their two-year residency in September. Past Huntington Playwriting Fellows include Ronan Noone (The Atheist, Brendan, and the upcoming The Second Girl), Lydia R. Diamond (Smart People, Stick Fly), Melinda Lopez (Becoming Cuba, Sonia Flew), Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish), Ryan Landry (Ryan Landry's "M"), and Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro (Before I Leave You) to name a few.

Encouraging conversation in the Boston playwriting community, the Huntington fosters local playwrights at all stages of their careers, from emerging talents to established professionals through the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program. Fellows receive two-year residencies during which they are provided a modest honorarium from the theatre, participate in a bi-weekly writers' collective, attend Huntington productions and events, and benefit from access to the Huntington's artistic staff and resources. Select Fellows are invited to participate in the Huntington's Summer Workshop, a two-week new work retreat, and the Breaking Ground Festival of New Work.

The four 2014-2016 Fellows were selected from more than 60 applicants. The Huntington Playwriting Fellows program is supported by the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays, the Harry Kondoleon Playwriting Fund, and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Mia Chung is the author of You for Me for You, This Exquisite Corpse, Skin in the Game (an adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao), Long Island Arpeggio, and We Spend Our Lives. You for Me for You had its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre (in association with Ma-Yi Theatre Company and supported by an NEA grant), and a Boston premiere at Company One Theatre. A new draft of the play was presented in the New Eyes Festival at Mu Performing Arts in Minneapolis in January 2014 and the Interact Theatre/Asian Arts Initiative reading series in Philadelphia in March 2014. She is an emeritus member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and has received awards and fellowships from Southern Rep, Rhode Island State Company of the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, and others. Her work has been developed by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Civilians' R&D Group, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Hedgebrook, Icicle Creek Theater Festival, Inkwell Theatre, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Labyrinth Theater company, Magic Theatre, Page Salon, Playwrights Realm, and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. She is a member of New Dramatists. She received her BA from Yale University, her Masters in Philosophy from the University of Dublin/Trinity College, and her MFA from Brown University.

John J King is part Texan and part Tyrannosaur. He lives in Boston where he makes plays | art | music, and scares little children who thought dinosaurs were dead. He has a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Boondocks and an accent from his mama. His plays include From Denmark with Love (IRNE Award nomination for Best New Play), Bear Patrol, and an adapted libretto for the German Gothic opera Der Vampyr. His work has been produced locally by Vaquero Playground, Mill 6 Collaborative, New Exhibition Room, and Whistler in the Dark. Goals include recording a great dance tune, making impossible things from cardboard, and singing in a girl group. J-RexPlays.com.

Sam Marks' play, The Delling Shore had a world premiere at the 2013 Humana Festival. Other productions include The Old Masters at Steppenwolf's First Look Repertory of New Work, The Joke at Studio Dante, Brack's Last Bachelor Party at 59E59 Theaters, and Nelson and Bigger Man with Partial Comfort Productions. His plays have been workshopped and read at the Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theater Club, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage, The Public Theater/NYSF, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Sundance Institute Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, and many others. He recently attended the Lark and Dorset Theatre's annual summer writer's retreat. He is currently developing a project at HBO produced by Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci. Mr. Marks is the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer of playwriting in Harvard University's English department.

Nina Louise Morrison is a playwright, director, and actor. She was a semi-finalist for the 2014 National Playwrights Conference and she is the recipient of a Richard Rodgers Fellowship and a Shubert Foundation grant. Her plays have been read and produced by the One-Minute Play Festival, Company One Theatre, Fresh Ink Theatre, Wax Wings Productions, Bostonia Bohemia, and Interim Writers. She is a member of Project: Project and Accomplice Writers. Before moving to Boston, Ms. Morrison was the senior program associate at the Philadelphia Theater Initiative. She studied acting at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, New Actors Workshop, and Oberlin College. She currently teaches at the University of New Hampshire, Mount Ida College, and GrubStreet. She received her MFA from Columbia University.

Past Huntington Playwriting Fellows are leaders of the local community whose plays have been produced on the Huntington's stages and throughout the country. They are:

2012-2014 Cohort: Lila Rose Kaplan (Home of the Brave), Walt McGough (Pricilla Dreams the Answer, The Farm), and Lenelle Moïse (Merit, The Many Faces of Nia)

2011-2013 Cohort: John Oluwole ADEkoje ([Shoe] Shine Safari), Eleanor Burgess (Start Down, Mocha), and David Valdes Greenwood (Mambo Beans)

2010-2012 Cohort: Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro (Before I Leave You, Mammal Heat), Miranda Craigwell (Shelter), Lawrence Goodman (The Disappearance of the Jews), and Masha Obolensky (The Bluebeard Project, Marvelous Fruit)

2009-2011 Cohort: Patrick Gabridge (Flight), Ryan Landry (Ryan Landry's "M"), and MJ Kaufman (Murmur Rock, Untitled Play about Dead Bodies)

2007-2009 Cohort: Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish), Jacqui Parker (Jeanie Don't Sing No Mo'), Ken Urban (A Future Perfect, The Happy Sad), and Joyce Van Dyke (Deported / a dream play)

2005-2007 Cohort: Lydia R. Diamond (Smart People, Stick Fly), Rebekah Maggor (Shakespeare's Actresses in America), John Shea (The Hill), and Kate Snodgrass (The Glider)

2003-2005 Cohort: John Kuntz (Necessary Monsters, Jasper Lake), Melinda Lopez (Becoming Cuba, Sonia Flew), Ronan Noone (The Second Girl, The Atheist, Brendan), and Sinan Ünel (Chatal, The Cry of the Reed)

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