The Public Theater Announces First Emerging Writers Group

Expanding on its 50-year history of developing new plays and cultivating new voices for the American Theater, The Public Theater has announced the 12 members of the inaugural Emerging Writers Group, a new program launching next month that targets playwrights at the earliest stages in their careers and nurtures their artistic growth by providing necessary resources and support.

With this new initiative, The Public hopes to create an artistic home for a diverse and exceptionally talented group of up-and-coming playwrights.  The Emerging Writers Group is the first element of The Public Writers Initiative, a long-term program that will provide key support and resources for writers at every stage of their careers.  Time Warner is the Founding Sponsor of The Public Writers Initiative.

The inaugural group of Emerging Writers was selected from more than 700 applicants.  The 12 selected are Radha Blank, Leila Buck, Raúl Castillo, Chris Cragin Day, Christina Gorman, Ethan Lipton, Alejandro Morales, Nick Nanna Hadikwa Mwaluko, Don Nguyen, Akin Salawu, Alladin Ullah, and Pia Wilson. Each writer will receive a $3,000 stipend; participate in a biweekly writers' group led by Associate Artistic Director Mandy Hackett and The Public's Literary Department; attend master classes with established playwrights; receive career development advice and artistic support from acclaimed writers and Public artistic staff; receive complimentary tickets to Public shows and supplemental stipends for productions at other theaters; and have their work presented in at least one reading at The Public.

The Public Writers Initiative will foster a web of supportive artistic relationships across generations of writers that will influence the future of contemporary American theater. Many of today's most honored and recognized playwrights such as John Guare, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Rabe, Christopher Durang, Wallace Shawn, Ntozake Shange, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner and Nilo Cruz have a long history developing their work at The Public. The Public has also produced some of today's most important plays and musicals, such as Hair, Sticks and Bones, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, The Colored Museum, Topdog/Underdog, Caroline, Or Change, and A Chorus Line.  The Public Writers Initiative will ensure that The Public's great tradition of supporting playwrights and playwriting will remain central to its future.

The Public Theater was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

2009 Emerging Writers Group application guidelines will be available as of spring 2008.  Check PublicTheater.org/artists/emergingwriters.php regularly for details on applying for the next cycle of this program.

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