Playwrights Realm Announces 2010-11 Writers Fellows

The Off-Broadway theatre company The Playwrights Realm - currently in rehearsals with Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco's DRAMATIS PERSONAE (previews begin October 1st at the Cherry Lane Studio - 38 Commerce Street) - has selected its 2010-2011 Playwrights Realm WRITERS FELLOWS; it has been announced by Playwrights Realm Artistic Director Katherine Kovner.

The emerging playwrights - four in total - who will comprise this season's class of fellows and the plays which they will be working on over the next year are: Bekah Brunstetter (HEY BROTHER); Mattie Brickman (LO BLARNEY); Christopher Pena (ICARUS BURNS); and Stefanie Zadravec (ELECTRIC BABY). Each fellow will receive a monetary stipend, as well as additional support in the form of office space at The Playwrights Realm offices, administrative assistance, and artistic support all culminating in an open reading of their work.

"I'm very happy to welcome our New Group of writing fellows, each of them is a consummate storyteller with an exciting new voice, stated Ms. Kovner. "We were very impressed by the applicant pool, it was a difficult choice, and ultimately we decided Chris, Mattie, Bekah and Stefanie would greatly benefit from the resources The Playwrights Realm has to offer. The plays they are working on each follow an amazing journey grounded in solid storytelling. Each play has a very different narrative style and is set in a totally different and fascinating world that will be a pleasure to explore."

Bekah Brunstetter "Hey Brother"

Bekah Brunstetter - whose play TO NINEVEH won the NY Innovative Theater Award for Best New Full-length Play in 2006 - has had her work read, produced and/or developed by New York Stage and Film, the Williamstown Theater Festival, Luna Stage, the Babel Theatre Project, The Rattlestick Playwright' s Theater, the Ohio Theater (Think tank), New Georges, NYU, Centenary Stage, NC New Voices, The New School for Drama, Working Man's Clothes, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Old Vic/ New Voices, Boston Theatre Works, Manhattan Theatre Source, SPF, The Alliance Theater, and The Atlantic. In addition to TO NINEVEH, her works include: HOUSE OF HOME, OOHRAH! (Atlantic Theatre Company), MISS LILLY GETS BONED, SICK, GREEN, SPACE, I USED TO WRITE ON WALLS, FAT KIDS ON FIRE, You May Go NOW: A MARRIAGE PLAY, ARMS, LE FOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY/ I'M DEAD, CELEBRITY, TORCH NUMBER 2 and f-ing ART. Her plays are published by Sam French, Playscripts, Original Works, and Smith & Krauss. She is a member of The Primary Stages Writer's Group, At Play Productions, and the Naked Radio writing team. She is an alumni of the Women's Project writer's Lab and the Ars Nova Play Group. She was the 2009 playwright in residence at Ars Nova. She is the 2010 Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theater, London. BA (Theater/Fiction Writing) from UNC Chapel Hill and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.

Mattie Brickman "Lo Blarney"

Mattie Brickman is an associate artist of art.party.theater.company and has been the playwright-in-residence at New York Stage & Film and The O'Neill at Yale in Provincetown, MA. Her productions include STARBOX, AMERICAN CATNIP, THE IMAGINARY AUDIENCE, IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO CHARLES DARWIN, THE REDUNDANT COLON, CIVIL WAR, Bill Clinton GOES TO THE BATHROOM (OR IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING), and MAX OUT LOUD, a children's musical adapted from books by Maira Kalman. Her work has also been developed at The Lark. As a journalist, Mattie wrote for Money magazine, The Santa Barbara Independent, and The Montecito Journal. Mattie holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The Yale School of Drama (Eugene O'Neill Scholarship) and a B.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She trained in ballet and modern dance and was Artistic Director of Expressions Dance Company at Princeton.

Christopher Oscar Pena - "Icarus Burns"

Christopher Oscar Pena has developed work at The Public Theater, NYU Graduate Acting, INTAR, the UCSB Summer Theatre Lab, Theatre C, The Studio/ New York, the Ontological Hysteric Incubator and the New York Theatre Workshop. His works include: MAELSTROM, ONE OF US, 5 LETTER WORD (OR HOW ORPHEUS BECAME LEARNED), MNEMONIC, POINT OF REFERENCE, HOW SHOULD I ADDRESS YOU?, ...AND THE RAIN... AND THE RAIN... AND THE RAIN.., and the collaborative piece X+Y=Z. He Current projects include the musical (E)VAPORATE: A SCREWED UP REINVENTION OF ORPHEUS & EURYDICE IN THE FORM OF A MADE-UP LOVE SONG with composer Parker Ferguson, the play THE SUICIDE TAPES. He is the co-creator of 80/20, a new web series launching this fall in which he will also be co-starring.

Stefanie Zadravec - "Electric Baby"

Stefanie Zadravec - a winner of the 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play for her play Honey Brown EYES - has had her work produced and/or developed by The Barrow Group The Kennedy Center, Bay Street Theatre, Theater J, Phoenix Theatre, Vital Theater, Theater of the First Amendment and Working Theater. She is a member of the 2010-2012 Women's Project Lab. In addition to Honey Brown EYES (which was also published in American Theatre Magazine), her works include: SAVE ME (winner of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival "Carol Weinberg Award" for Best New Play, and Phoenix Theatre's National Playwright Competition); THE FEAR PROJECT (in collaboration with The Barrow Group); and 167 TONGUES (in collaboration with Theater 167). Stefanie is a recipent of a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship and the Susannah McCorkle scholarship to the Sewanee Writers Conference and was honored with The Barrow Group Award for artistic contribution to the company in 2006. She is member of the Dramatists Guild and a writer-in-residence with Theater 167.

In other news the Playwrights Realm has announced a post-performance talk-back series entitled Playwrights Plus, which will commence with their upcoming show DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Currently there will be talk-backs with playwright Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco and the creative team behind DRAMATIS PERSONAE on Tuesday, October 5 and the following the matinee performance on Wednesday, October 13.

The Playwrights Realm is a nonprofit Off-Broadway Theater Company dedicated to nurturing the next generation of exciting theatrical voices by providing sustained support to early-career playwrights. Their past productions include: Christopher Wall's DREAMS OF THE WASHER KING, Anna Ziegler's critically acclaimed production of DOV AND ALI and Anton Dudley's SUBSTITUTION. The Playwrights Realm is led by Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Stephanie Ybarra. Currently in rehearsals at the Playwrights Realm is Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco's DRAMATIS PERSONAE - which begins previews on October 1st - opens officially on October 7th - and runs through October 23rd at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre (38 Commerce Street). Performance schedule is Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:00pm (with an added performance on Sunday, October 3 at 7:00pm and Wednesday, October 13 at 3:00pm). Tickets for DRAMATIS PERSONAE are $20 - $30 and can be reserved by calling TeleCharge at 212-239-6200 or online at www.playwrightsrealm.org.

For more information on The Playwrights Realm, the Writers Fellows, or DRAMATIS PERSONAE visit www.playwrightsrealm.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.