John Caswell Jr. Named Page 73's 2017 Playwriting Fellow

Page 73 Productions (Page 73) has named John J. Caswell Jr. the 2017 P73 Playwriting Fellow. Selected from over 400 applicants, Caswell will receive a $10,000 award and additional $10,000 budgeted for developing several new plays over the course of the year.

"John distinguished himself from this year's crowded pool of talented writers with his rich and surprising plays. We're delighted to spend the year working with him as he further develops pieces and begins new projects," said Michael Walkup. "John has self-produced his work for years, and we are proud to now provide him with financial and institutional support to allow him greater freedom to pursue his playwriting."

Caswell will spend part of his year further developing his multimedia play Cake, about a reality show descending upon a conservative bakery that refuses to sell cake for a gay wedding. He also intends to begin several new pieces, including ones exploring Santeria and Beyoncé.

Now in its 14th year, the P73 Playwriting Fellowship is the company's most prestigious award, annually supporting a playwright who has yet to have a professional premiere in New York City. Past recipients include Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes, Obie winners Kirsten Greenidge, Heidi Schreck, and Clare Barron, and most recently Hansol Jung.

Page 73 has also named playwrights John J. Caswell, Jr., Cat Crowley, Keelay Gipson, Kristine Haruna Lee, Molly Beach Murphy, Gabrielle Reisman, Sarah Sander, and Susan Stanton as members of the 2017 Interstate 73 Writers Group, which offers writers a year of bimonthly meetings to share new pages of works-in-progress. Each writer receives a stipend and will also have a reading during Page 73's 2017-18 season.

Applications for Page 73's 2018 development programs are now available online at www.page73.org, and are due April 2, 2017. There is no fee to apply.

PAGE 73's current production of Basil Kreimendahl's Orange Julius (co-production with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) is playing through February 12th. Tickets and more information available at page73.org/oj. Their 2016-17 season began with the world premiere of Caroline V. McGraw's Ultimate Beauty Bible.

PAGE 73 annually serves twelve to fifteen early-career playwrights through the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, the Interstate 73 writers' group, the Summer Residency, and two annual world or New York premiere productions. Close to two-thirds of the nearly 100 playwrights they've supported have enjoyed New York or regional theatre productions after receiving a Page 73 premiere or development support. These include, among others, writers whose professional debuts in New York City were produced by Page 73, such as Sam Hunter (2015 MacArthur "Genius" Grant), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2012 Pulitzer Prize), Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award), Heidi Schreck (2014 Tow Playwright in Residence at Playwrights Horizons), and Clare Barron (2015 Obie Award).

2017 P73 PLAYWRITING FELLOW:

JOHN J. CASWELL, JR. is a queer, Mexican-American playwright and director originally from Phoenix, Arizona, and the Artistic Director of Progressive Theatre Workshop, a company that has made plays for the past ten years. He has developed and shown work across Arizona and in New York City at HERE, Dixon Place, Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, Primary Stages, and more. He has worked closely with Richard Foreman and Ontological Hysteric Theater, studied with Circle Repertory Company founder and Tony Award winner Marshall W. Mason, and learned directly from Anne Bogart and Siti Company at Arizona State University. His play God Hates This Show: Shirley Phelps-Roper in Concert - Live from Hell (HERE, Joe's Pub) was named a "Best of 2013" by Time Out New York, who called it "batshit crazy." His play Cake was named a 2016 Princess Grace Award finalist, a Drama League Impact Residency semifinalist, and was workshopped most recently at Dixon Place. He has also been named a finalist for the JoAnne Woodward and Paul Newman Drama Award, and is the recipient of grants from the Pave Program in Arts Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, as well as The Arizona Commission on the Arts. His work is cited frequently as an example of queer-themed theatre, most recently referenced in articles appearing in Theatre Topics, The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, and the European Journal of Comparative American Studies. Included as a consummate demonstration of auto-ethnographic theatre, his play SHOTS: A Love Story was published as part of Johnny Saldaña's book Ethnotheatre: Research From Page to Stage published by Left Coast Press. He lives in Astoria, Queens with his partner and a Chihuahua named Desi. Visit progressivetheatreworkshop.org for more.

2017 INTERSTATE 73 BIOS:

CAT CROWLEY is a queer playwright living in Brooklyn. Her work has been developed/performed at Ars Nova, Dixon Place, #serials@TheFlea, The Duplex, The Tank, The Red Room, Primary Stages/ESPA, Irondale Arts Ensemble, The Breadbox Theatre Co. (California), and others. Cat has just finished the year 2016 as part of the Fresh Ground Pepper PlayGround PlayGroup and was named a semifinalist for the 2017 Page 73 Fellowship. BFA Tisch Drama, NYU. www.catcrowley.com

Keelay Gipson. A multi-disciplinary artist including work as an activist and award-winning playwright, Keelay has been awarded the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, a Public Artist Residency for the City of New York, and the MacDowell Colony Residency. His work has been seen at the Wild Project, HERE Arts Center, Premiere Stages at Kean University, The Theater at Alvin Ailey, National Black Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights' Theater, New York Theatre Workshop and Brooklyn Academy Of Music. www.keelaygipson.com

KRISTINE HARUNA LEE is a playwright/performer/director and a founding member of harunalee theater company, currently in residence with Ars Nova's Makers Lab. Recent plays include Dog Gone Day (BAX Artist-in-Residence), Sugar Shack (La MaMa Club), War Lesbian (Dixon Place Residency & Commission) and has developed work with the Bushwick Starr, York College, JACK, Prelude Festival, Target Margin Lab, and Asian American Writer's Workshop. She is a recipient of the New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship, is a member of the New Georges Jam, and Interstate 73. She teaches at NYU. BFA NYU Tisch, MFA Brooklyn College. harunalee.com

MOLLY BEACH MURPHY is a playwright and director from Galveston, Texas. Plays include: Cowboy Bob; Big Bend in the Red Dirt Desert; Molly Murphy & Neil deGrasse Tyson On Our Last Day On Earth. Her work has been developed at New York Theatre Workshop Adelphi Residency, Ars Nova Project Residency, Fresh Ground Pepper, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NYMF, Incubator Arts Project, The Habitat, Signature Theatre, New Georges Affiliated Artist. Molly Will be a 2017 First Stage Artist in Resident at the Drama League to develop her newest play GALVESTON. BFA: Southern Methodist University. www.mollybeachmurphy.com

GABRIELLE REISMAN is a playwright/director based in New York and New Orleans. She is a founding member of Underbelly and director of Brooklyn Yard. Gab has developed work with Page 73, Sundance Theatre Lab, Clubbed Thumb/Playwrights Horizons, the Orchard Project and the Ingram New Works Lab among others. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, former NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Southern Rep and currently under commission from the EST/Sloan Project and New Plays at Barnard.

SARAH SANDER's work has been developed/produced at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Columbia University, |the claque|, DC Arts Center, Florida Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Lark, NYSF, The Public Theater, Raven Theater, among others. She's a New Georges Affiliated Artist and alumni of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, Dramatist Guild Fellowship and P73's Interstate 73. Residencies: MacDowell, Millay and SPACE at Ryder Farm. MFA: University of Iowa.

SUSAN STANTON is originally from the consonant-free town of Aiea, Hawai'i. Her work has appeared at Clubbed Thumb, East West Players, Playwrights Horizons, Kennedy Center, The Flea, Honolulu Theater For Youth, Southern Rep, Joe's Pub, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Perry Mansfield, and others. She is a two-time Sundance Institute's Theater Lab Resident. She is an alumna of The Civilians R&D Group, Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, The Women's Project Lab, and Hedgebrook. Awards and honors include Kilroy's List 2015 & 2016, a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination, Po'okela Award for best new play, and a NET Partnership Grant with Satori Group. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: Yale School of Drama.

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