Page 73 Announces 2021-22 Interstate 73 Residents

Page 73 today announced its 2021-2022 group of Interstate 73 residents. In the past year, Page 73 has not only responded to the pandemic by adapting its playwright-nurturing programs online, but also prolonged its engagements with playwrights and devoted funds to providing greater financial support-in a moment where creative opportunity, community, and income are all in short supply. For 2021, the company extends its beloved writers group into a two-year program-meeting remotely via Zoom until public health circumstances allow for in-person meetings-while simultaneously continuing with its 2020 group for a second year.

The 2021-2022 Interstate 73 residents are Heidi Armbruster, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Dylan Guerra, Roger Q. Mason, April Ranger, Scott R. Sheppard, juliany taveras, and Max Yu. They will receive a stipend for each year, and returning 2020 residents-Bleu Beckford-Burrell, Vichet Chum, Tyler English-Beckwith, Emma Goidel, Marvin González De León, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, and Haygen-Brice Walker-will receive an additional stipend. The Interstate 73 residents meet twice a month to share their newest pages and discuss their work with their peers and Page 73's Artistic Director and Associate Producer. At a playwright's request, the writer receives a public or closed reading of a play.

Page 73 Artistic Director Michael Walkup says, "Our Interstate 73 writers group aims to create community among playwrights and is one of our best ways of getting to know new voices. Several of the playwrights we've produced recently-Zora Howard, Michael R. Jackson, Susan Soon He Stanton- have been Interstate 73 members. Right now, isolation and simply having so few places to go can easily lead to creative stagnation-so we're hoping this group serves as a space for writers to come to, where they can check in with each other and galvanize each other to continue to expand their practices."

Not long after two recent Page 73 productions-Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop (co-produced with and presented at Playwrights Horizons) and Zora Howard's STEW-garnered immense critical and audience acclaim, the pandemic struck; continuing on the same course became, for the entire theater world, an impossibility. Staying true to their mission despite disruption, Page 73 has decided to focus on their fundamental aim of supporting groundbreaking playwrights whose voices the New York theater community at large has yet to hear. Through programs including Interstate 73, the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship-which the company also doubled this year to include two playwrights (Bleu Beckford-Burell and Emma Goidel, returning for another year following her 2020 fellowship)-and its recently announced series of 11-day playwrights residencies, Page 73 aims to help playwrights ready work for a time when audiences return to theaters. The organization recently launched their Time Capsule, a collective journaling project drawing on the keen observation of playwrights to create a virtual record of experiences from this moment that will be unlocked in five, and again in ten, years.

ABOUT THE 2021-2022 PLAYWRIGHTS

Heidi Armbruster is a founding member and co-curator of Dorset Theater Festival's Women Artists Writing, a group dedicated to cultivating the emergence of diverse theatrical voices. Heidi's play Mrs. Christie received its world premiere at Dorset Theater Festival in the summer of 2019 after development at Primary Stages, Dorset Theater Festival, SPACE on Ryder Farm (as a member of the resident writer's group The Working Farm), and multiple residencies at The Orchard Project. "Dairyland" received its world premiere in the fall of 2019 at Playmakers Repertory Company after workshops at Playhouse on Park, Primary Stages' ESPADrills, The Lark, Red Fern Theater, Luna Stage, and the New Play Workshop at The Chautauqua Theater Festival in 2014. As an actress, Heidi has extensive TV, film, and theater credits including Lincoln Center's production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Disgraced," the New York premieres of Sam Hunter's "Lewiston/Clarkston" at Rattlestick, Anna Ziegler's "Boy" at Keen Company, Tracy Letts' "Man from Nebraska" at Second Stage, and Theresa Rebeck's "Poor Behavior" at Primary Stages. Heidi was awarded a Drama League Nomination for her work in the Keen Company's revival of "Tea and Sympathy." Heidi received her MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Jahna Ferron-Smitha?? is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at the Juilliard School, as well as a member of the Obie Award-winning playwrights collective Youngblood. Her plays have been performed at Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Samuel French Offa??-Off-Broadway a??Short Play Festival. Her plays includea?? THE WOODS a??(developed at SPACE on Ryder Farm),a?? SIR.a?? (published by Samuel French), anda?? SALT: A Rom Coma?? (The Lark Jerome New York Fellowship Finalist).a??a??

Dylan Guerra a??is a gay Latinx New York City baseda??artist originally from Miami, Florida. He's a member of EST's Youngblood and Ars Nova's Playgroup. He hasa??been a finalist fora??The Emerging Writers Groupa??at The Public Theater, NBC Universal's Writers on the Verge Program, The MTC Directing Fellowship, The Drama League Hangar Directing Fellowship, and a semifinalist for the Sundance Episodic Television Writers Program. His solo-show "Find Him" recurs at Ars Nova.a??a??

Roger Q. Mason a??(he/they) is an award-winning writer/performer and educator.a?? Mason's writing has played on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series); Off/Off-Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, New Group, The Fire This Time Festival, American Theatre of Actors, Flea Theatre, and Access Theater; and regionally at McCarter Theatre, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatists, EST/LA, and Skylight Theatre.a?? He/they've been honored by the a??Kilroysa?? List and Chuck Rowland Pioneer Award.a?? Mason a??holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. https://www.rogerqmason.coma??a??

April Ranger a??is a poet and playwright from Maine. Her play a??Bathsheba's Psalms, Or A Woman of Unusual Beauty Taking A Bath a??(dir. Christina Roussos) premiered at The Tank in 2019, after workshops with Fault Line Theatre and Pegasus PlayLab. Her plays have been performed at The Public Theatre, a??Rattlestick a??Playwright's Theater, the Wild Project and the New Ohio Theatre. She received her MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College in 2018, where she currently teaches.a??a??

Scott R. Sheppard is a playwright, theater artist and Founding Co-Director of theater company Lightning Rod Special (Wolfson Award for Evolving Theater Company 2019). Recently, he was a lead writer and performer in LRS's The Appointment at New York Theatre Workshop's Next Door Series (NYTimes and TONY Critics' Pick, Best of 2019 NY Mag, TONY, NYTimes) and writer/performer of Topside with Theater in Quarantine. He is a co-creator and performer of Underground Railroad Game at Ars Nova which toured internationally (Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Edinburgh Stage Award, OBIE for Best American Theatre Work, and NYTimes' 25 Best Plays of 25 Years). Other recent credits: Pig Iron Theatre Company's Period of Animate Existence, 99 Breakups (deviser/performer) and Gentlemen Volunteers (performer); George & Co.'s Holden (deviser/performer). Scott was an Independence Foundation Fellow, a Guild Hall Resident Artist, a BRIC Lab Fellow, and a proud graduate of Pig Iron's School for Advanced Performance Training.

juliany taveras is a writer, artist, & facilitator from Ayiti-Kiskeya by way of Lenapehoking. they wake up everyday on a strange & miraculous planet with the mission of crafting new, just worlds into existence. their storytelling manifests as plays-among them Desarrollo (The Lark's Playwrights' Week, Corkscrew Theater Festival); the anatomy of light (Kilroys' List, 50 Playwrights Project List); & YAELIS (Interstate 73 2019, Page 73 Fellowship Finalist 2020)-as well as through poetry, photography, graphic design, & teaching artistry. everything they do & make & dream of centers bodies in diaspora, & exists in pursuit of nothing less than Black liberation & Indigenous sovereignty.

Max Yu is a first-generation Chinese-American playwright and performer from the San Francisco Bay Area who is currently based in Shanghai. a??He is the recipient of the 2019 Relentless Award for his play,a?? Nightwatch. a??His plays have been developed at Horizon Theater and Shaking the Tree Theatre.a?? He received his a??B.A. in Theater from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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