The Playwrights Realm to Present 2023 INK'D Festival of New Plays This Month

The Playwrights Realm will present the 2023 INK'D Festival of New Plays (April 24-27), the annual culmination of their Writing Fellows program, which awards four early-career playwrights with nine months of resources (including a $4,000 stipend), workshops, and feedback designed to help them reach their professional and artistic goals. Across four consecutive days of readings, these emerging visionaries get the indispensable opportunity to hear their in-development plays as they're experienced by audiences for the first time. Audiences, in turn, are introduced to voices representing the audacious future of theater.

INK'D readings take place at The Loft at Theater 511 (511 West 54th Street, New York), and reservations can be made at playwrightsrealm.org/inkd. As part of the company's Radical Parent-Inclusion Project, The Realm will offer reimbursements of up to $60 to any patrons who incur caregiving costs (babysitters, after school care, adult caregivers, etc.) by attending an INK'D reading.

This year's INK'D Festival comprises readings of Andrea Ambam's Fragile State (April 24), Jesse Jae Hoon's Somebody is Looking Back At Me (April 25), Alyssa Haddad-Chin's The Ancestry Dot Com Play (April 26), and Alex Lin's LASTHUNTER (April 27). Across these works, playwrights grapple-through nuanced, inventive, and unexpected approaches-with urgent societal and gripping interpersonal questions that inhabit our everyday, as they explore everything from diasporic identity and generational divides, to gentrification and the limits of our personal value systems, ancestry's unseen grip on the present, and the morality of radical revenge.

Over the course of their time with The Realm, Fellows develop a single new play (the works that are ultimately presented in reading form at INK'D). This process includes monthly group meetings that provide a collaborative space for writers to share and refine their work, and one-on-one meetings with Realm artistic staff to support each writer's process. For two readings-one private in late fall and one for audiences at INK'D-Fellows collaborate with a director, design consultants, and actors. Personalized professional development resources are tailored to the group: mentor opportunities, meet-and-greets, and professional seminars are designed to shed light on the business of theater, and empower the Fellows to be active, informed participants in their own careers. Former Realm Writing Fellows have gone on to win countless awards, accolades, and be produced across the country; most recently, 2017/18 Fellow Sarah Mantell won the 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

The Realm's Writing Fellows program is a career accelerator, helping emerging writers build agency and gain wider access to the New York theater world-and offering these playwrights a roadmap to navigate it. The Realm's Associate Artistic Director Alexis Williams says, "We've been receiving more and more open submissions these days, nearly 900 last year, and that growing number makes clear the very acute need for programs like this. It also highlights the amount of wonderful theatrical minds that are looking for institutional support to accelerate their careers. With INK'D, these writers whose processes have been nurtured with resources, generative collaborations, and dramaturgical support, are ready to present the fruit of nine months spent with ideas that excite them and showcase their artistic visions. We can't wait to offer audiences a glimpse into what they have been working on!"

ABOUT THE FELLOWS/PLAYS

Andrea Ambam's

Fragile State

Directed by Chika Ike

Monday April 24, 3pm and 7pm

For Manny, being a first-gen, gen-z, radical Black organizer in a world where every day brings "unprecedented times" was already enough on her plate. So when Manny's Grandma arrives, making her first visit to America from Cameroon in over 15 years, the shocking family secrets, unspoken cultural histories, and whisperings of war she brings along with her completely turn Manny's sense of self inside out - all in the midst of Manny's largest organizing feat yet. In this afro-surrealist coming-of-age fable, generations collide and diasporas dance as Manny must reckon with where she comes from to make peace with who she is.

Andrea Ambam is a performance artist and writer whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically-engaged storyteller who believes in the art's potential for movement-building and transformative justice, Andrea's mission is to create theatrical truth-telling experiences. Currently, Andrea is a Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) Artist-In-Residence, and the Programming Manager at Level Forward where she hosts the Anthem Award-winning podcast, More To Talk About. She has developed her multi-hyphenated practice as an Artistic Fellow with Signature Theatre, a Writing As Activism Fellow with PEN America, an Inaugural Artivism Fellow with Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an Artist-in-Residence for Anna Deavere Smith, an EmergeNYC Fellow, and as a competitive public speaker/performer where she has been awarded 10 national championships including "Top Speaker in the Nation'' three times, and gone on to debate conservative pundits on live TV. Andrea lives in Brooklyn and holds a Master's degree in Art & Public Policy from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Jesse Jae Hoon's

Somebody is Looking Back At Me

Directed by Miranda Cornell

Tuesday April 25, 3pm and 7pm

Bestselling Asian American author Olivia returns to the Chinatown she wrote about, but the only thing that feels welcoming in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood is a group of successful old college classmates who have recently moved in and are suddenly very excited to hang out with her. Olivia believes she has finally found her community - but the more she learns about her new friends' role in transforming the area, the more she feels like she has to choose between the lifestyle her career has afforded her and the values she preaches in her writing.

Jesse Jae Hoon is a playwright, actor, and organizer - born in Cheongju, raised in Chicago & Berlin, and based in Queens. Plays include Somebody is Looking Back At Me, Dong Xuan Center (2022 Princess Grace Fellowship Finalist, 2019 O'Neill NPC Finalist), On the Clock, I've Got A Sinking Feeling in the Pit of My Stomach, The House of Billy Paul, Emergency Wine & Cheese Fundraiser of the Amagansett Democrats' Association (2022 O'Neill NPC Semifinalist), and 12 Chairs. Short plays include Chicken is Condemned to be Free and I'm Going To Make an Academy Award®-Winning Movie. In addition to being a 2022-2023 Realm Fellow: CRNY Resident Artist at Ma-Yi Theater Company; commission from Theater J; inaugural member, Orchard Project Adaptation Lab; member, The TANK NYC's LIT Council, Page Break, the COOP's Clusterf**k. MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College, BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch (Playwrights Horizons). Organizer with Democratic Socialists of America and Equity Next. Teaching undergraduate playwriting at Hunter College. @jessejaehoon

Alyssa Haddad-Chin's

The Ancestry Dot Com Play

Directed by Kate Moore Heaney

Wednesday April 26, 3pm and 7pm

Samia never knew her father, and her secretive Lebanese mother is more interested in watching Wheel of Fortune than providing answers. While she's proud of her Arab American heritage, Samia wishes she knew more about her family history - until her friend does her DNA test without her consent, making Samia confront just how much knowledge about her ancestry she can handle.

Alyssa Haddad-Chin (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright, screenwriter, and educator of Lebanese and Italian descent. She is currently a 2022/23 Writing Fellow at The Playwrights Realm, a member of Under Construction 3 at The Road Theatre, a participant in The Keegan Theatre's upcoming 2023 Boiler Room Series, and a 2023 member of the Moxie Arts Incubator. Her plays have received recognition from the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award, Bay Area Playwright's Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship. MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Alex Lin

LASTHUNTER

Directed by Mike Donahue

Thursday April 27, 3pm and 7pm

When NASA interns Reggie Nielson and Elisa Yang discover that their employer's greatest aerospace hero was a former Nazi, the unlikely pair embark on a time-traveling multiverse adventure to do one thing and one thing only: kill the motherf*cker. A tale of radical revenge, LASTHUNTER investigates the fragility of nationalism, what makes a person good, and the grayness of morality when living within the bounds of rigid systems.

Alex Lin is just a girl from Jersey. Her work as a playwright has been developed with Second Stage, Ma-Yi, Magic Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theater Mu, The COOP, South Coast Rep, and Central Square Theater. As a producer for A24's Supercluster, she's collaborated with NASA, SpaceX, Boeing, Apple TV+, and Netflix to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and the culture it inspires. She is currently under commission at South Coast Rep and MTC. Accolades: 2022 New Harmony Project finalist, 2022 O'Neill Conference finalist, 2022 Elizabeth George commission, 2023 Weissberger New Play Award nominee, 2023 Sloan commission.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS REALM

The Playwrights Realm, led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Executive Director Roberta Pereira, is devoted to supporting emerging playwrights throughout their careers, 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 throughout their creative processes and careers with the Realm Playwrights Program, Writing Fellowship, the Scratchpad Series, and the Page One Residency.

Considering the needs of artists amidst the pandemic and responding to crucial calls for true diversity and accountability in the theater world, The Playwrights Realm announced it would temporarily operate full-time as a playwrights service organization from the 2020-21 season on. The organization dedicated its resources to helping playwrights maintain their practices with creative and financial support through initiatives including the International Theatermakers Award, Emergency Relief Funding, and, most recently, Native American Artist Lab-a program that builds on The Realm's work with playwrights from international nations to reach out to artists from Domestic Nations, and support the development of their work. The Realm also implemented programs to counteract industry gatekeeping and illuminate, for people interested in theater, clear pathways into the field: they inaugurated the Aspiring Playwrights program (a curriculum of free online articles, videos, and services created in conjunction with the organization's family of artists), and began Script Share (an opportunity for aspiring writers to engage in a one-hour discussion with a theater professional about a particular script). These initiatives followed another vital means of support The Realm launched prior to the pandemic: the Radical Parent-Inclusion Project (RPI), developed in association with Parent Artist Advocacy League for the Performing Arts (PAAL), which seeks to dismantle the barriers preventing parent-artists from succeeding in the theater by illuminating, creating, and tracking new pathways of access and approaches to production.

In the fall of 2016, The Playwrights Realm produced the world premiere of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, which is currently hailed as one of the "25 Best American Plays Since 'Angels in America'" by the New York Times, and was recently featured on TCG's "Top 10 Most-Produced Plays in 2018-2019" list. Other previous productions by The Playwrights Realm include Noah Diaz's Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (in partnership with Baltimore Center Stage, where it was performed before its New York run was canceled due to the pandemic, with The Realm paying the entire creative team in full and the actors through opening night), Anna Moench's Mothers (2019), Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd (2018), Don Nguyen's Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth (2018), Michael Yates Crowley's The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias (2017), Jen Silverman's The Moors (2017), Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners (2016), Anna Ziegler's A Delicate Ship (2015), Anton Dudley's City Of (2015), Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes (2014), Lauren Yee's The Hatmaker's Wife (2013), Ethan Lipton's Red-Handed Otter (2012), Jen Silverman's Crane Story (2011), Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco's Dramatis Personae (2010), Christopher Wall's Dreams of the Washer King (2010), Anna Ziegler's Dov and Ali (2009) and Anton Dudley's Substitution (2008).

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