Ensemble Studio Theatre Announces New Play Commissions & First Light Festival

The 2024-25 Science and Technology Project New Play Commissions and the line-up for the Fall 2024 First Light Festival. Since 1998, the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project has developed over 300 plays that challenge and broaden the view of science in the popular imagination. 

The 2024/25 Sloan New Play Commission recipients and plays are Mikaela Berry (SuperQuiz!); Jayne Deely (Lavender Dust); Alexa Derman (Beauty); Stefani Kuo (Mercury River); Chris Littler, Kelly Tieger, & Ellen Winter (Animal Magnetism); Jared Mezzocchi (ANY BODY OUT THERE); Sharyn Rothstein (AI Hallucination Love Story); DeAndre Short (Smokeless); Phillip Christian Smith (Bright Light); P.C. Verrone (The Forester); and Emma Watkins (Very rapidly, over a few tens of thousands of years).

Every year, the First Light Festival shares a first look at projects commissioned and currently in development under the EST/Sloan Project. This year's Fall line-up includes new works by Thandiwe Mawungwa (How Power Flows), SEVAN (Miss Curie of the East) and Emily Chadick Weiss (SPRAY). Three additional plays will be announced at a later date for spring 2025.

The Fall First Light Festival will run from October 24 to December 12 and include three public readings. All First Light Festival presentations are free and will be held at Ensemble Studio Theatre (545 W. 52nd St., 2nd Floor). Reservations are required and can be made at www.ensemblestudotheatre.org/firstlight.

In addition to this year's readings, EST's mainstage productions, Franklinland by Lloyd Suh and Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? by Michael Walek, will also be presented by the EST/Sloan Project, rounding out a full season of plays about science & technology to celebrate the 25-year partnership between EST and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Applications for the next round of EST/Sloan Project commissions will be open September 15 - November 15.  For those interested in applying, the EST/Sloan Artist Cultivation Event will be held on October 29. This virtual panel discussion will delve into the intersection of science and storytelling and what makes these plays work.  For more information on the application guidelines, please visit https://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/est-sloan/submissions.

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