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Enid Graham

Enid Graham, Jeff Talbott, David Cote, Joshua Rollins, James Withal and Jon Marans — writers whose work I've admired over the years — are among the threescore finalists of the 2015 National Playwrights Conference of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Centre in Connecticut. Their work, selected in a blind submission and adjudication process that included i,300 entries this year, was announced the week of April twenty, as were the names of eight playwrights and plays that will move on to staged readings on the O'Neill campus this summer in Waterford. CT.

The conference writers and plays that were deemed the cream of the ingather, earning public readings in July, are: Josh Wilder's Leftovers; Joe Waechter'due south Good Ol' Boys; Jenny Connell Davis' End of Shift; Steven Sater's No One's Sonata; Hansol Jung's Paper-thin Piano; Ken Weitzman's Halftime With Don; Carla Ching'due south Nomad Motel; and Wendy MacLeod'southward Slow Nutrient, a play that I profiled earlier this year when it was read as part of the second annual Play-Past-Play New Play Reading Serial by Pioneer Theatre Company in Common salt Lake Metropolis.  (Seven of these plays rose through NPCs' open submission procedure; Steven Sater'south is the one invited title.)

Wendy MacLeod

Read more about the conference writers and eight readings here.

One of the smashing things about the NPC process is that it offers sunshine to all of the finalists by providing a Google site for the public posting of playwright contact and bio information and synopses and excerpts from the 60 top-rated plays. This open up market is read past manufacture folk and civilian fans of new plays.

"Nosotros hope this site volition be a modest way to lend our support to these writers and their piece of work," according to the O'Neill. "These plays rose through an anonymous, multilevel selection process with readers from the O'Neill family and our select Artistic Quango. If you lot love new plays, we recommend you take a careful await through this list equally information technology is the top 60 out of over 1,300, which nosotros believe represents some of the all-time playwriting in the country today. The diversity and arts and crafts in this grouping is remarkable!"

Cheque out the full list of 2015 finalists.

The not-for-profit O'Neill Center is likewise kind enough to post the archive of by finalists, for those fishing for boosted recent plays (like, for case, my play Alabama Story, which was a 2014 NPC finalist and after had its world premiere by Pioneer Theatre Company.)

Enid Graham and Jeff Talbott (Off-Broadway'southThe Submission) were founding members of the 72nd Street Gang, a playwrights collective (of which I am also a fellow member) that meets in Manhattan to share pages and offer informal critiques. Talbott's A Public Education was read in the countdown Play-By-Play series of Pioneer Theatre Company in March 2014 (here's my conversation with him about information technology) and was also read in NewTACTics, the new works reading series of TACT/The Actors Company Theatre in June 2014.) Gang member Kelli Kerslake Colaco'southward You Are My Sunshine was an O'Neill NPC semi-finalist in 2014 and would later on get a reading in San Francisco in apprehension of a total staging. My new play 2 Henrys was an NPC semi-finalist earlier this yr; check it out on NewPlayExchange.com.)

Hither are Enid Graham and Jeff Talbott'southward 2015 NPC Finalist titles:

Jeff Talbott

A Public Education by Jeff Talbott

Luke Paxton is the new guy in the faculty room and he can't look to get started. But it feels more than like a gainsay zone, considering some pretty nasty things are being said on the Internet and fingers are being pointed everywhere. As pressure mounts, the real battlefield becomes one troubled student. So it's hard for anybody to concentrate on classes. This is the world of A Public Education, a timely comic drama where the big question is: who is really getting schooled?

Jeff Talbott graduated with honors from the Yale School of Drama. His play The Submission was the inaugural recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Award in 2011 and was produced Off-Broadway by MCC Theater; it also received the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for All-time New American Play in 2012. In Dec of 2014, a Chicago production was named 1 of the best of the year by the Chicago Tribune. The play was a semi-finalist for the 2010 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. His plays A Public Teaching, All the Stars in the Midnight Sky and Elliot take had developmental workshops and readings at MCC Theater, Pioneer Theatre Company and TACT/The Actors Visitor Theatre. His i-acts For Nate and Molly and Tender both received world premiere productions past the Yale Cabaret. He lives in New York City and has recently finished writing a new musical called Imagine Harry with composer Will Van Dyke, and they are working on something new.

Enid Graham

What Martha Did by Enid Graham

A family gathers to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Martha's celebrated book of essays. All except Martha, who killed herself presently afterwards the volume's publication. Haunted by the by and events they tin can't explain, her family struggles to move forward. How tin can they reconcile the Martha they knew who wrote so brilliantly well-nigh the joys of living, and the hidden Martha who ended her life? And how can they reconcile their own dreams of youth with the people they have become? And then a mysterious young woman arrives…

Enid Graham is writer (plays, screenplays and fiction) every bit well equally an actress. Her recent writing projects include the plays What Martha Did, Ruth and For I Know the Plans I Have For You; the screenplay "Texas"; and short stories "Grandmother's Body," "Blind Spot" and "Galveston," amongst others. Enid is a founding member of The 72nd Street Gang, a writers' commonage. Her many credits equally an actress include Broadway's The Curious Incident of the Domestic dog in the Night (currently), Fortune's Fool, Accolade (Tony nomination Best Featured Actress), and Off-Broadway'south Rex Lear, If In that location Is I Haven't Found Information technology Yet. Telly: "Boardwalk Empire," "Grey's Anatomy." Picture show: "Silverish Tongues," "Margaret," "Margot at the Wedding," amongst others. She lives in New York metropolis with her husband and 3 sons.

Hither are a handful of other 2015 NPC Finalist titles that defenseless my eye.

Joshua Rollins

Hot Sauce Jesus past Joshua Rollins

On the due south side of Chicago, Oz, the co-owner and proprietor of WINGZINGS, is deeply in debt and being pressured to sell out past the young pastor next door and his 1000 plans for the church and neighborhood. When a gunman opens fire in his eating house, a canteen of hot sauce explodes on to the wall in the image of Jesus Christ. Oz senses a possible solution, fifty-fifty every bit Manuel, his young employee and confidant, starts bleeding from his hands and feet. Hot Sauce Jesus asks audiences to question their own pre-conceived notions of mod solar day religion, faith, and gentrification in the modern 24-hour interval.

Joshua Rollins' play, Concealed Carry was selected for the 2013 Seven Devils' Playwrighting Conference with ID Theatre. His play A Girl With Sunday in Her Optics debuted in Chicago in 2011 with Pine Box Theater Company to peachy acclamation and a sold-out run. It is in development for production in New Orleans and New York. Other works include American Rex, which premiered with Chicago Street Theatre and 25 Saints, which completed a run at Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theatre in Chicago in 2013 and a sold-out run with Azeotrope Theatre in Seattle. Darlin' debuted in 2014 with StepUp Productions in Chicago. Hot Sauce Jesus was recently workshopped in Chicago at Chicago Dramatists and is currently being workshopped in Los Angeles. He currently has multiple television and film projects in evolution in Los Angeles and is represented by Paradigm Agency and managed past Nicholas Bogner at Affirmative Amusement. I profiled Rollins in 2014, when his Darlin' was premiering in Chicago.

James Still

Miranda past James Even so

Miranda is a haunting, a thriller, a heed-bending existential crisis of a CIA operative who goes by many names. Who is she? What keeps her working in the Middle Due east subsequently all these years? Why can't she leave? Whose war is she fighting and who is the enemy? And how does she discover herself directing a production of Othello in Yemen with teenagers…

James Nevertheless'southward plays accept been produced throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, China and Japan. Recent premieres include Appoggiatura (Denver Center); The Widow Lincoln (Ford's Theatre); The House That Jack Built (Indiana Rep); Illegal Employ of Easily (American Blues in Chicago); and I Love to Eat (Portland Center Phase). New plays in development include Miranda (commissioned by Illusion in Minneapolis) and Apr 4, 1968 (deputed by Indiana Rep). Withal is a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, an elected fellow member of the National Theatre Conference in New York and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Heart, and a five-time Emmy nominee for his work in television. He received the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Festival and the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from Spoleto. He is the Playwright in Residence at Indiana Repertory Theatre and lives in Los Angeles.

David Cote

Otherland past David Cote

In a hotel in Addis Ababa, Federal democratic republic of ethiopia, African-American college student Alice is waiting to meet her birth female parent. From infancy, Alice was raised in New England by white bestselling memoirist Madeleine Holmes. In the same hotel, there'south a global botany symposium painstakingly organized past Professor Edgar Nunby. But the staff is on strike and half the rooms take busted plumbing. An eco-radical group called the Pangaea Liberation Front is mounting an Occupy Wall Street-style protest outside. Throw in a pot-dealing British-Pakistani concierge, a fierce Chinese security baby-sit and Madeleine herself — who shows upwardly hell-bent on bringing Alice back dwelling house — and shortly identities and agendas are clashing wildly. Otherland is a serious farce about roots, race, adoption and how you have to create your belonging.

David Cote is a playwright, librettist, lyricist and journalist. (Y'all might know his byline as theatre editor and master drama critic of Time Out New York and for appearances on NY1.) Otherland was commissioned past Gingold Theatrical Group and adult in readings with Laila Robins, Condola Rashad, Harriet Harris, Nikki Chiliad. James, Jeremy Shamos, Mirirai Sithole and others, directed by David Staller. Other plays include Rude News, Porlock and Aristotle's Comedics. Opera libretti include Fade (2008) with composer Stefan Weisman; The Cerise Ibis with Weisman, which headlined this year's Prototype festival at HERE. Other libretti: Rubber Word, The Companion and Masquerade with composer Robert Paterson, to be presented at BAM Fishman Space as Three Way in September 2016. He wrote the libretto for Nkeiru Okoye'south comic operetta We've Got Our Center On You lot, commissioned past SUNY New Paltz; lyrics for Joshua Schmidt's Impact/Winter (piece of work-in-progress); and James Adler's iii Introspections (Albany Records, 2014). Two of his choral works with Paterson, Did Y'all Hear? and Snowfall Day, were performed by Musica Sacra, conducted past Kent Tritle and included on "Eternal Reflections" (American Modern Recordings, 2015). His work has been adult by Here, Beth Morrison Projects, American Opera Projects and Fort Worth Opera. Fellowships: The MacDowell Colony. Member of the Dramatists Order and ASCAP. B.A. Bard Higher.

Jon Marans

The Wrath of Connie by Jon Marans

The Wrath of Connie is a wild Front Page-similar dark comedy taking identify in 1991, which revolves effectually beloved TV icon, Connie Frederick, who had a huge, hit goggle box variety show in the '60s and '70s, but not much success since then. So the network hires a bunch of edgy, twenty-and-thirty-something writers to try and make Connie but as edgy and outrageous/offensive as they are. Connie conspicuously draws the line of comedy in a very different place than they do, and she draws the line between what is appropriate behavior betwixt men and women in a very different place as well. Connie soon realizes that her views need to shift if she hopes to fit into this modern world. Simply does she want to fit into information technology? And if so, how far will she go to fit in?

Jon Marans' works include The Temperamentals, which ran for over eight months Off-Broadway, was nominated for a Lucille Lortel & Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway play and was a 2012 American Library Association Stonewall Award Book in Literature. Old Wicked Songs, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, ran for a season Off-Broadway, played in the West End starring Bob Hoskins and has been produced in over a dozen countries. Other shows include A Foreign and Separate People, Jumping for Joy, Legacy of the Dragon Slayers, The Irrationals. Marans is currently rewriting the volume to the musical Paint Your Wagon for the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle which will open there in May 2016. The Temperamentals is in moving picture/TV development with Daryl Roth Productions. Marans is a recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Jennifer Joan Thompson

Turning Texas Blueish past Jennifer Joan Thompson

Kirsten is the youngest country senator in Texas history and is about to announce her candidacy for governor. All she has to do is take care of that picayune green bill of fare spousal relationship she agreed to in college – and convince the state's biggest political donor her administration volition be proficient for business. If only they both hadn't shown upwardly on the aforementioned day…as well as a writer and photographer from the Times. Can she toe the centre line? Exist all things to all people? Keep everyone from falling in love with her gardener? Turning Texas Bluish is a farce about the all-likewise-real insanity effectually debates over immigration, gay rights, due north and south, red and bluish.

Jennifer Joan Thompson is a writer, thespian and scholar. Her plays have been workshopped and performed at Studio Tisch, Cap21, Yale University, and the Martin Due east. Segal Center among others. Turning Texas Blue was commissioned past Waterwell. Other plays include: Seized Upwards, Volume Smart. Screenplays: "The F*ck Up," "Coming together Michael Cera." Acting credits include Broadway's Dividing the Estate (Lincoln Center); Off Broadway's Await Back In Anger (Roundabout) andWhite People (Ensemble Studio Theater) and piece of work at The Pioneer Theatre, Indiana Rep, Geva, the Fulton and the Hangar Theatre. Tv set: "The Proficient Married woman," "Unforgettable." She'southward presented papers at IFTR, served as associate managing editor of European Stages, and will sit on panels at IFTR and ATHE. She currently teaches acting at Brooklyn College, holds a BA in History and Theatre Studies from Yale University, and an MFA in Acting from NYU.

K. Frithjof Peterson

Bookmarks by K. Frithjof Peterson

Grant and Katie are pretty content with life. They're married, still like each other, and are employed, which — in Michigan — is an accomplishment. Merely when their closest friend, Travis, gets arrested for child pornography stored on his computer, they are forced to confront the fragility of the lives and identities they've constructed.

Frithjof Peterson'southward piece of work has been performed throughout the U.s.a. as well every bit translated and performed in Moscow, Russian federation. His plays take been finalists/semi-finalists for The Kennedy Center's National X-Minute Play Award, the Heideman Honor, the Samuel French OOB Festival, and The O'Neill National Playwrights Briefing. His plays have been developed/produced with The Kennedy Center, WordBRIDGE, The Inkwell (D.C.), The Gift Theatre (Chicago) and Generous Company (Baltimore). Fox Valley Rep (IL) commissioned his play, We Traded Bosons Like Baseball Cards, which will receive its world premiere this fall in Chicago with Strange Bedfellows Theatre.

Kara Lee Corthron

Welcome to Fear Metropolis by Kara Lee Corthron

Information technology is July 1977 and the Due south Bronx is HOT: from a estrus moving ridge, from this new thing that would come up to exist known as "hip-hop," and from an astounding number of fires called-for the civic to the basis. E, a immature African-American man, dreams of beingness a poet, only unemployment, a raging fiscal crisis, and a family on the brink of disaster drive him to enquire a dangerous question: Can you love your 'hood if you take office in its devastation? Welcome to Fear City is near a customs trying to get past in the midst of offense, social apathy, poverty, and a whole new fine art form that'south about to electrify the world.

Kara Lee Corthron's plays include Julius By Design (Fulcrum), Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (Interact), Alicegraceanon (New Georges), Holly Downward in Heaven (Forum Theatre, DC) and Listen for the Lite. She's the 2014-2015 Naked Angels Issues Project Resident Playwright. Awards include the Boomerang Fund for Artists Grant, 2012-2014 Women'due south Project Lab Time Warner Fellowship, Vineyard'south Paula Vogel Playwriting Honour, Princess Grace Award, Helen Merrill Laurels, three MacDowell fellowships, residencies at Skriuklaustur (Iceland), Djerassi, Hawthornden (Scotland), and the Millay Colony. Evolution: Ars Nova, Berkeley Rep, CenterStage (Baltimore), E.S.T., Haulbowline Theatre Group (Ireland), New Dramatists, New Georges, Orchard Projection, P73, PlayPenn, Seven Devils (Guest Artist, 2012), South Coast Rep, the Vineyard and the Women's Project. Television: Kings" (NBC-Universal, 2008-2009). Kara is also the author of the young adult novel, "The Distance From Me to You," forthcoming from Simon & Schuster, 2016. She's a Juilliard alumna.

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Source: https://bykennethjones.com/jeff-talbott-enid-graham-david-cote-james-still-among-2015-national-playwrights-conference-finalists/

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