THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN Premiere and More Set for Playwrights Realm's 2017-18 Lineup

The Playwrights Realm has announced its 2017-18 season productions: the world premieres of Michael Yates Crowley's The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias, directed by Tyne Rafaeli (August - September 2017), and Don Nguyen's Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth, directed by Jade King Carroll (February - March 2018).Both will be presented at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project.

Over the past eleven years, The Realm has continually produced work by brave new voices and worked to introduce new initiatives to expand its commitment to providing holistic support to playwrights as they strive to make a life in the arts. The cornerstone of the company's work is its Page One Residency, which, over the course of that year, provides playwrights with services including $10,000, health insurance, internal readings, travel and professional development funds, theater tickets, and a desk in the Playwrights Realm offices, and of course, an Off-Broadway production. The approach is holistic and designed to offer playwrights time, space and resources to take a meaningful step forward in their career. 2017-18 is the first season in which the Realm will be supporting two Page One residents, both Crowley and Nguyen.

The expansion of the Page One Residency program is motivated by the immense success of the 2016-17 Page One Resident, Sarah DeLappe and her play The Wolves, which just received a Drama Desk Special Award for Outstanding Ensembleand was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. DeLappe's first New York production, incubated by the Realm, The Wolves garnered widespread critical acclaim. Ben Brantley of The New York Times designated the production a Critic's Pick, describing it as "incandescent," and writing, "The scary exhilarating brightness of raw adolescence emanates from every scene of this uncannily assured first play." Due to popular demand, the Realm remounted Lila Neugebauer's world premiere production of the play, November 29 - December 24, 2016, following an initial run earlier in the year.

"Our 2017-18 season continues our mission by staging world premiere productions of not just one but two early-career playwrights," said The Playwrights Realm Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner. "We first worked with both Michael and Don as part of our Writing Fellowship, and I'm thrilled to get the chance to continue to nurture their careers. Their plays are relevant and revelatory, comic and dramatic, moving and thought-provoking, and, most of all, they engage meaningfully with the pressing issues of today."

Building upon its Page One Residency and its Writing Fellowship-which each year gives four playwrights a $3,000 award and nine months of resources, readings and feedback-the Realm just launched a new Scratchpad Series, which reaches beyond New York City's borders and seeks playwrights from across the U.S. for the Realm to support. The initiative represents the Realm acknowledging that many young artists have been forced to leave New York City, or are unable to move here in the first place, and adapting in order to facilitate their careers in spite of geographical limitations. Open submissions for The Scratchpad Series and The Writing Fellowship are now open. For more information, visit playwrightsrealm.org.

Season Subscriptions for The Playwrights Realm's 11th season, which include premium tickets to both productions, are now available at playwrightsrealm.org.

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THE Playwrights Realm. 2017-2018 PROGRAMMING

The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias (World Premiere)
By Michael Yates Crowley
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli
August - September, 2017
The Duke on 42nd Street (229 W 42nd St, New York, NY)

Michael Yates Crowley's The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias is a satirical dark comedy examining rape culture and the odds stacked against Grace, a high-school sexual assault survivor, as she tries to make sense of her world anew. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this world premiere was developed as part of The Realm's Writing Fellowship in the 2014-15 season.

Michael Yates Crowley is a Brooklyn-based writer and performer whose work has been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. His works for theater include The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B Matthias (O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist, UMASS New Play Lab); School Shooting IV (developed at NYTW and Ars Nova); Song of a Convalescent Ayn Rand Giving Thanks to the Godhead (American Repertory Theater, Joe's Pub); temping (premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival, A.R.T.); The Dead, Inc. (Schlosstheater Moers); Evanston: A Rare Comedy (2013 O'Neill NPC selection, 2015 Alliance/Kendeda Finalist); and The Ted Haggard Monologues (published by S. Fischer Verlag; filmed by HBO). He is a member of Ars Nova's Play Group, a former NYFA Playwriting fellow and member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Together with the director Michael Rau, he founded the narrative technology company Wolf 359.

Tyne Rafaeliis a British-American director who trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Columbia University. She has directed classics, new plays and musicals in London and the U.S. and her work has been seen at Two River, Classic Stage Company, New York Stage and Film, PlayMakers Rep, Goodspeed Opera House, Juilliard, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Great Lakes Shakespeare, American Players Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, O'Neill Playwright's Conference and PlayPenn, among others. Upcoming productions include the world premiere of ACTUALLY by Anna Ziegler at The Geffen Playhouse. Rafaeli is a 2016-18 Time Warner Directing Fellow at the Women's Project Theatre and received the 2014 SDC Sir John Gielgud Fellowship for Classic Direction.

Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth (World Premiere)
Written by Don Nguyen
Directed by Jade King Carroll
February - March, 2018
The Duke on 42nd Street (229 W 42nd St, New York, NY)

Don Nguyen's Hello, From the Children of Planet Earthis a comedy about conception and deep-space travel. As partners Betsy and Shoshana try to have a baby, friends William and Freddy try to ensure Voyager 1 makes it to interstellar space. With careers on the line and life choices looming, when is it ever the right time to go all in? Jade King Carroll directs this world premiere. Nguyen was part of The Realm's Writing Fellowship in the 2012-13 Season.

Don Nguyen's plays include The Supreme Leader (Roundabout Underground Reading Series, January 2017), Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth (world premiere production in 2018 to be announced), Sound (Azeotrope/ACT Seattle, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Princess Grace Award finalist), Red Flamboyant (World Premiere - Firebone Theatre Company, 2015 GAP Prize Winner, Ojai Playwrights Conference), The Commencement Of William Tan (Yale Cabaret, 2G), The Man From Saigon (developed at A.C.T in San Francisco, Naked Angels, NYSAF Founders Award). Don's work has been developed or produced at The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Labyrinth Theatre, The Flea, Ojai Playwrights Conference, New York Stage & Film, Naked Angels, Naked Radio, The Civilians, Ma-Yi Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Joe's Pub, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Tofte Lake. Don is the recipient of the 2015 GAP Prize from the Aurora Theatre and New York Stage & Film Founder's award and has been a finalist for The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Princess Grace Award, and the Woodward International Playwriting Prize. Nominations include: the Laurents/Hatcher award and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Don is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, The Public Theater's inaugural Emerging Writers Group, The Civilians inaugural R&D Group, frequent volunteer at the 52nd Street Project, and a co-founder of Mission to (dit)Mars, a Queens based theatre arts collective. For more information, please visit: thenuge.com

Jade King Carroll: Intimate Apparel (McCarter Theatre); Hartford Stage: The Piano Lesson, Having Our Say (co-production with Long Wharf Theatre); Autumn's Harvest (Lincoln Center Institute); A Trouble in Mind (Two River Theater & Playmaker's Rep); Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Whipping Man (Portland Stage); The Piano Lesson (McCarter Theatre); Sunset Baby (City Theatre); A Raisin In The Sun (Juilliard & Perseverance); The Tempest (Chatauqua Theater Company); Seven Guitars (People's Light and Theatre & Point Park University); King Hedley (Portland Playhouse); Mr Chickee's Funny Money (Atlantic Theater); Janice Underwater (Premiere Stages); The Etymology of Bird (CitiParks Summer Stages); The Piano Lesson (Cape Fear Regional Theater); alondra was here (The Wild Project); Cherry Smoke (Theatre Row); Sex on Sunday (BE Company @ Urban Stages); The Basset Table (Adelphi); Marisol (NYCDA); Black Girl, You've Been Gentrified (Joe's Pub); Radio Golf (Penn State); The History of Light, Samuel J&K, The Summer House (Passage Theatre); The Persians, Splittin' the Raft (People's Light & Theatre); Spit (Intar); A Member of the Wedding (Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Provincetown); Associate Director for A Streetcar Named Desire and The Gin Game (Broadway). Jade has developed works with playwrights Chisa Hutchinson, Aurin Squire, Jonathan Payne, Kia Corthron, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Joshua Allen, Dominique Morriseau, Kara Lee Corthron, James Mcmanus, Darren Cannady, Nikole Salter, Jocelyn Bioh, Tom Matthew Wolfe, Keith Joseph Adkins, Janine Nabers, Kelli Goff, Don X. Nguyen, C.A Johnson, Rob Zellers, Liza Jessie Peterson and many others, culminating with readings and workshops at New York Theatre Workshop, The O'Neill Theater Center, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Two River Theatre, New Dramatists, Second Stage Theatre, The Lark, Primary Stages, Time Warner New Play Festival, LABryinth, PlayPenn, Joe's Pub, Goethe Institute, Dramatist's Guild, Premiere Stages, The New Black Fest, New Jersey Rep, Luna Stage, Playwright's Realm, Ars Nova, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Naked Angels, NYMF, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center Institute, and many others. In 2010 Jade was presented with the Paul Green Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Professional from the National Theatre Conference and The Estate of August Wilson. Past Fellowships & Awards: TCG New Generations Future Leader, New York Theatre Workshop, Van Lier, Second Stage Theatre, Women's Project, McCarter Theatre and Gates Millennium Scholar.

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The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) is devoted to supporting emerging playwrights along the journey of playwriting, helping them to hone their craft, fully realize their vision and build meaningful artistic careers. To serve this mission, The Playwrights Realm provides comprehensive support to playwrights through its Page One Residency, Alumni Playwrights Program, Writing Fellows Residency, and, of course, productions. Previous productions by The Realm include Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves (Pulitzer finalist in Drama 2017, Lortel, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle nominations, Drama Desk special award for outstanding ensemble), Jen Silverman's The Moors, Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners, Anna Ziegler's A Delicate Ship, Anton Dudley's City Of, Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes, Lauren Yee's The Hatmaker's Wife, Ethan Lipton's Red-Handed Otter, Jen Silverman's Crane Story, Gonzalo Rodríguez Risco's Dramatis Personae, Christopher Wall's Dreams of the Washer King, Anna Ziegler's Dov and Ali, and Anton Dudley's Substitution. For more information, visit www.PlaywrightsRealm.org.

Founded in 1990, the New 42nd Street is an independent nonprofit organization charged with the continuous cultural revival of 42nd Street between 7th and 8thAvenues. Committed to the transformational power of the arts, the New 42nd Street builds on the foundation of seven historic theaters to make extraordinary performing arts and cultural engagement part of everyone's life. The New 42nd Street fulfills this purpose by ensuring the ongoing vibrancy of 42nd Street's historic theaters; maintaining and fully using the New 42nd Street Studios and The Duke on 42nd Street to support performing artists in the creation of their work; and through The New Victory Theater, New York's premier theater for kids and families.

The Duke on 42nd Street is an intimate black-box performance space in the heart of the theater district, which is available for rental to both nonprofit and commercial organizations. Featuring a gallery along all four walls and a custom, state-of-the-art seating system, The Duke on 42nd Street is a fully-staffed facility that offers full light, sound, and support systems in various configurations. Some performing arts companies have called The Duke on 42nd Street their home, including Primary Stages, Transport Group, Theatre for a New Audience and Lincoln Center Theater LCT3, while other acclaimed companies have performed on its stage, including The Royal Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem and the National Theater of Great Britain.

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