Playwrights' Center Names New Core Writers, 2015-16 Many Voices Fellows

The Playwrights' Center has introduced eight new Core Writers, as well as the 2015-16 Many Voices Fellows, Many Voices Mentees, and Core Apprentices. These writers will join the continuing Core Writers and the previously announced 2015-16 Jerome Fellows, McKnight Fellows in Playwriting, and McKnight National Residency and Commission recipient as the Center's season of playwrights. McKnight Theater Artist Fellows will be announced in June.

"I'm honored to be providing an artistic home to these deserving writers," says Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director of the Playwrights' Center. "Thanks to the Jerome Foundation, the Ruth Easton Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and others, these playwrights will have the resources, time, and support to write the stories they want to write."

The Playwrights' Center, founded in 1971, champions playwrights and new plays through writer-focused play development services, bold theater partnerships, and online and onsite resources serving 1,500 member playwrights. The Center's public season of readings runs October through April.

NEW CORE WRITERS

Carlyle Brown, Christina Ham, Rachel Jendrzejewski, Sherry Kramer, Meg Miroshnik, Jen Silverman, Kate Tarker, Alice Tuan

The Core Writer program provides play development workshops and additional support to 25 to 30 playwrights from across the country over a three-year term. Work by Core Writers is featured in PlayLabs and the Ruth Easton New Play Series. Joining the 18 continuing Core Writers are eight new Core Writers who will receive professional and artistic support from the Center through June 2018.

• Carlyle Brown (Minneapolis, MN) is a previous Core Writer, Jerome Fellow, and McKnight Fellow in Playwriting with the Playwrights' Center; his plays include "Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House" (Guthrie) and "The African Company Presents Richard III."
• Christina Ham (Minneapolis, MN) is also a previous Core Writer, Jerome Fellow, and McKnight Fellow in Playwriting; her plays include "Four Little Girls" (Kennedy Center) and the commissioned "Nina Simone: Four Women," premiering at Park Square Theatre in March 2016.
• Rachel Jendrzejewski (Minneapolis, MN) is an experimental playwright and former Jerome Fellow whose work "In Which _______ and Others Discover the End" recently premiered at Public Functionary.
• Sherry Kramer (Dorset, VT) is a former Core Writer and McKnight Fellow in Playwriting; her plays include "The Bay of Fundy," "How Water Behaves," and "When Something Wonderful Ends."
• Meg Miroshnik (Los Angeles, CA) has received commissions from South Coast Rep, Steppenwolf, and Yale Rep; her plays include "The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls" (Yale Rep), "The Tall Girls" (Alliance), and "The Droll."
• Jen Silverman (New York, NY) is a former Playwrights' Center Core Apprentice who recently won the 2015 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award at the William Inge Theatre Festival, and saw the world premieres of her plays "The Roommate" (Humana Festival 2015) and "The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane" (InterAct).
• Kate Tarker (Minneapolis, MN) is a 2014-15 Jerome Fellow whose plays include "An Almanac for Farmers and Lovers in Mexico" and "Laura and the Sea" and whose ensemble-generated "Good Job Horses (A Majestic Comedy)" is currently running with Theatre Forever.
• Alice Tuan's (Los Angeles, CA) "Hit" premiered May 2014 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center; other plays include "Private Rivals," "Ajax (por nobody)," "Batch" (Humana Festival), and "Last of the Suns" (Berkeley Rep, Ma-Yi Theater).

MANY VOICES FELLOWS

Cristina Castro, James Tyler

The Many Voices Fellowship, funded by the Jerome Foundation, awards $10,000 (plus $2,500 in living expenses and $1,500 in development funds) to two early-career writers of color, one of whom must live in Minnesota. The Playwrights' Center's 2015-16 Many Voices Fellows:

• Cristina Castro (Minneapolis, MN) is a playwright/performer who recently won the Silver Award in Playwriting from the National YoungArts Foundation and is a member of the Unit Collective.
• James Tyler's (New York, NY) plays include "Some Old Black Man," "The Drop Off," and "You're Sitting in the Dark" (semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference).

MANY VOICES MENTEES

Two Many Voices Mentorships are also awarded annually to Minnesota-based beginning playwrights of color. These awards include a curated package of writing and development services and a $1,000 stipend. The 2015-16 Many Voices Mentees are brianne a. hill, a performer/playwright whose one-person show "White Skin, Black Masks (part i)" was recently performed at Pillsbury House Theatre's Late Nite Series; and B Billy Xiong, a playwright, B-boy, and actor whose play "Ntov Ntoo" was featured in Pillsbury House Theatre's 2014 Naked Stages.

CORE APPRENTICES

The Core Apprentice program, which pairs student playwrights with a mentor and offers a full play development workshop at the Center, welcomes 2015-16 apprentices Raquel Almazan (Columbia University), Abbey Fenbert (Boston University), and Sean-Patrick O'Brien (Bennington College).

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