The Farm Theater Awards Playwright Gina Femia With 2025/26 College Collaboration Project Commission

The Farm Theater has awarded playwright Gina Femia (Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves with Boomerang Theater; The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows with Spicy Witch Productions; For The Love Of (or, the roller derby play) with Theatre of NOTE) with their 2025/26 College Collaboration Project Commision. Femia will collaborate with students at Austin Peay University (Clarksville, TN) and Pellissippi State (Knowxville, TN). to write and produce a new play. This will be the third time participating in the College Collaboration Project program for both schools.

The College Collaboration Project has multiple schools commission an early career playwright to write a play that each school will independently produce throughout the academic year. The faculty, students, and playwright collaborate throughout the year in the development of the text. The script will be a full-length play with a minimum of five characters. The majority of the characters will be under thirty years of age so that undergraduate actors can successfully play the roles. The play will reflect the students' thoughts on the theme suggested by the playwright.

Kimberly Belflower's 2017/18 College Collaboration Play, John Proctor is the Villain, will open on Broadway at the Booth Theatre in March.

This will be The Farm Theater's thirteenth installment of the College Collaboration Project. Past seasons have featured playwrights Lindsay Joy, Micheline Auger, Morgan McGuire, Jan Rosenberg, Kimberly Belflower, Erin Mallon, Judith Leora, Lia Romeo, Jake Brasch, and Dipti Bramhandkar. Lindsay Joy's In The Event of My Death, which was developed in the first year of the program, was produced Off-Broadway by Stable Cable and had a sold out run. The 2017/18 collaboration commission, In the Cotton by Morgan McGuire was awarded the Mark David Cohen National Playwriting Award by the Kennedy Center. Kimberly Belflower's play John Proctor is the Villain received its World Premiere in March 2022 at the Studio Theatre in D.C., was featured on The Kilroy's List, and will premiere on Broadway this March.

Gina Femia

(they/them) is an award-winning playwright and performer whose work has been seen/developed at The Goodman Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, EST, Page 73, New Georges, The Playwrights Center, CTG, Theater of NOTE, Rivendell Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, Bag&Baggage, Mirrorbox Theater, among others. Selected honors include The Kilroys List, Leah Ryan Prize, Doric Wilson Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award and the Neukom Award in Playwriting, nominations for Drama League and NYIT. Gina is a former Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and an Alum of EST Youngblood, Page73's Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre's PlayLab, New Georges' Audrey Residency, the Ingram New Play Lab at Nashville Rep and Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group. Gina's a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O'Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. As a teacher, Gina has worked with The Playwrights Center, Primary Stages ESPA, among others. Gina's debut YA novel, Alondra was named a Best Book for Teens in 2023 and was a Finalist for a Golden Kite award. Learn more: www.femiagina.com

The Farm Theater The name is inspired by the "farm" system of baseball whose role is to provide experience and training for developing players. The Farm Theater develops early career artists that may not have the support system afforded others, through workshops, productions, and mentoring. The centerpiece of our programming is The College Collaboration Project. This program is in its eleventh year and has so far commissioned twelve playwrights, worked in collaboration with twenty colleges, and been featured in American Theatre Magazine and Southern Theatre Magazine. The Farm Theater has produced numerous solo shows including Artistic Director Padraic Lillis' show on suicide awareness Hope You Get To Eleven or What are we going to do about Sally? which was awarded Best Solo Show and Planet Advocate Award at the Planet Connections Theatre Festival. In 2017 The Farm Theater partnered with Planet Connections Theatre Festival to produce Alex Riad's The Floor Is Lava. The play was awarded Best New Play and Best Production of a New Play and The Farm Theater was awarded The Planet Advocate Award for raising money and awareness for Girls Who Code. The Farm Theater also hosts a popular podcast, The Bullpen Sessions, which features working artists talking about how they built their careers. www.thefarmtheater.org