| MTC announces latest round of Sloan Playwriting Commissions and evening of excerpts | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 08:18 pm EDT 09/20/24 | |
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| MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB ANNOUNCES LATEST ROUND OF SLOAN PLAYWRITING COMMISSIONS AND EVENING OF EXCERPTS AT CITY CENTER, STAGE II Manhattan Theatre Club—Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director—is pleased to announce their latest recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions for new theatrical works surrounding themes of science, math, and technology. The commissioned writers are Sonali Bhattacharyya, Zachariah Ezer, Beth Hyland, Aurora Real de Asua, and Ruby Thomas. "We are thrilled to announce our latest class of talented MTC/Sloan-commissioned artists," said Scott Kaplan, Manhattan Theatre Club's Director of Play Development. "We are grateful for our more than 20-year partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which has helped bring fascinating scientific ideas to theatrical life." Through the Sloan Initiative, Manhattan Theatre Club will also present a live reading of excerpts from three MTC/Sloan commissions in progress, followed by a conversation on those plays and their themes. Taking place at New York City Center, Stage II, the December 2nd invited event will feature excerpts from Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Noah Diaz, and Max Posner, with creative direction by Caitlin Sullivan, followed by a panel discussion with the playwrights and scientists moderated by Dr. Ruth Angus, Associate Curator and Professor of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. "We are proud to support these new play commissions by five talented playwrights who propose to incorporate scientific themes and characters with originality and insight," said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, "The pathbreaking MTC/Sloan partnership of more than two decades has resulted in wonderful plays that have been produced in major theaters around the globe and transformed how we view both science and theater. We are delighted to celebrate this exciting program with an evening of excerpts and discussion." Sonali Bhattacharyya is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter (Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award for Chasing Hares). Her play King Troll (The Fawn) was a finalist for the Women's Prize for Playwriting and will be produced at New Diorama Theatre this October/November. Her plays include Liberation Squares (Fifth Word/Nottingham Playhouse), The Jungle Book (Chichester Festival Theatre), Arabian Nights (Bristol Old Vic), Chasing Hares (Young Vic and Theatre Uncut), Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre), Two Billion Beats (Korean translation, Kirkos Theatre, Seoul), Silence (Tara Theatre and Donmar Warehouse), Megaball (National Theatre Learning), Slummers (Cardboard Citizens/Bunker Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and Assembly: The Teachers' Play (Almeida Theatre). Sonali is a graduate of the Royal Court Writers' Group, the Old Vic 12, and Donmar Warehouse's Future Forms Programme. She is part of the writing team for new television drama "Split Up" from Sister Pictures/BBC, and is under commission to the Bristol Old Vic and Kali Theatre/New Diorama Theatre. Sonali's commission, Imprinting the Raj , explores the little-known story of the invention of fingerprinting in British-occupied India and examines debunked ideas of race that continue to shape our world. Zachariah Ezer is a playwright whose work animates theoretical quandaries through theatrical forms. He has developed work with Playwrights Horizons, American Conservatory Theater, Theater J, National Black Theatre, The Playwrights Center, New York Stage & Film, The Civilians, Fault Line Theatre, and more. He is a Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Fellow, a member of The Liberation Theatre Company's Writing Residency Program, and the winner of Kumu Kahua Theatre's Hawai'i Prize. Zachariah is also a playwriting professor at Washington University in St. Louis; a dramaturg who has worked with National Black Theatre, WP Theater, and Breaking the Binary Theatre, among others, and a performer in alternative rock band Harper's Landing. In his commission Natural Language, which explores the relationship between contemporary technology and the legacy of slavery, a Black-owned start-up attempting to create the first Large Language Model fluent in African-American Vernacular English is bought out by a white-owned firm for digital influencers. Beth Hyland is a San Diego-based award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays and musicals include Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia (recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2024 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award & the Jay Harris Commission), Fires, Ohio (2024 JAW New Play Festival; Goodman Theatre New Stages Festival; 2023 recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting), Seagulls (The Sound at Steppenwolf LookOut, Octagon Theatre Bolton), All-One! The Dr. Bronner's Play (Know Theatre, The Passage Theatre), Fleetwood Mac: The Album: The Musical (The Sound), Killed a Man (Joking) (First Floor Theater), Red Bowl at the Jeffs (Chicago Reader Top 10 Plays of 2018), For Annie (The Hearth, The Sound) and Clearing (Commission Theatre). She is the playwright-in-residence of The Sound, a Chicago storefront theatre company she co-founded with artistic director Rebecca Willingham. Her first short film, Clambake, directed by Sammy Zeisel, is currently in post-production. She is a two-time O'Neill Playwrights Conference finalist and has been published in the Cincinnati Review. Beth is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. BA: Kenyon College. www.bethhyland.com. Beth's commission Skinniest, a play about the American weight loss industry, investigates GLP-1 drugs from a human perspective and explores the way a medical innovation can upend personal lives and cultural understandings. Aurora Real de Asua is a playwright, filmmaker, and performer. Her play WIPEOUT was part of MTC's 2024 Ted Snowdon Reading Series. WIPEOUT received a rolling world premiere through the New Play Network, with productions at Rivendell Theatre, B Street Theatre, and Gloucester Stage Company. Upcoming productions include Constellations Stage and Screen, Alleyway Theatre, and Studio Theatre. WIPEOUT was awarded the David Goldman Fund for New American Plays Award. Other plays include WET (New Harmony, Playwright's Realm Scratchpad Series), The Pride Before, and Aping Jane. Her work has been developed at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the New Harmony Project, and the Old Globe. She is currently working on an Elizabeth George commission for South Coast Repertory Theatre. Her short film Heartsong debuted on Short of the Week and screened at various festivals. It is available to stream on Mitú.tv. Aurora holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University and an MFA in film from Columbia University. Aurora's commission, Greensward!, is inspired by the life of Frederick Law Olmsted, founder of landscape architecture, and the creation and development of Central Park. Ruby Thomas is an actor and writer. Her previous work for theatre includes Either, The Animal Kingdom and Linck & Mülhahn (a finalist for the George Devine Award 2022 and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2023) at Hampstead Theatre. In 2020 she wrote and performed a piece for the Royal Court's Living Newspaper. She was on attachment at Hampstead with the Channel 4 Playwrights' Scheme 2020 and received a Jerwood Commission from the Royal Court in 2021. For television she has been in writers' rooms for Working Title and Playground/Starz and written an episode of "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" for Moonage/BBC (2024). She is currently under commission for theatre with Hampstead Theatre and is developing film and TV projects with Route 24/BBC, Moonage, Playground, Origin, Lobo Films and Genesius Films. Her commission, Unthinkable, follows a forensic psychiatrist who attempts to scientifically quantify violent behavior, and examines the blurry intersection of science, morality, and law. Since 2001, MTC has awarded over 100 commissions through the Sloan Foundation Program. MTC first collaborated with the Sloan Foundation in 2000 on the production of David Auburn's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof. MTC's partnership with the Sloan Foundation has expanded to include multiple annual commissions for writers as well as production grants to stage Sloan-related works. In addition to Proof, Sloan supported MTC's productions of Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy, Rebecca Lenkiewicz's adaptation of An Enemy of the People, Sharr White's The Other Place, Nell Benjamin's The Explorers Club, Nick Payne's Constellations and Incognito, Bess Wohl's Continuity, and Anchuli Felicia King's Golden Shield. Since partnering with the Sloan Foundation, MTC has commissioned the following writers: Nkenna Akunna, Brittany K. Allen, Preston Max Allen, Kevin Armento, Kate Attwell, Jeff Augustin, Courtney Baron & Juliana Nash, Jaclyn Backhaus, Clare Barron, Stephen Belber, Nell Benjamin, Glen Berger, Amy Berryman, Liza Birkenmeier & Zack Zadek, Eboni Booth, Nina Braddock, J. Nicole Brooks, Sarah Burgess, Christopher Chen, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Mia Chung, Steve Cosson, EV Crowe, Lisa D'Amour, April de Angelis, Alexa Derman, Noah Diaz, Jessica Dickey, Charles Evered, Diane Exavier, Kendall Feaver, Stella Feehily, Halley Feiffer & Joshua Schmidt, Selina Fillinger, Nick Gandiello, Gracie Gardner, Madeleine George, Melissa James Gibson, Daniel Goldfarb, Franky D. Gonzalez, Sam Grabiner, Keiko Green, Rinne Groff, Dylan Guerra, Dipika Guha, Alan Harris , Tom Holloway, Phillip Howze, Jessica Huang, Sam Hunter, Ron Hutchinson, Julia Izumi, Nathan Jackson, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Nick Jones, Deirdre Kinahan, Lucy Kirkwood, Bryony Lavery, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Alex Lin, Kenneth Lin, Ethan Lipton, Yilong Liu, Craig Lucas, Martyna Majok, Caroline V. McGraw, Michael Mitnick, Peter Morris, Hannah Moscovitch, Itamar Moses, Rona Munro, Brett Neveu, Barney Norris, Charlie Oh, Ife Olujobi, Jiehae Park, Nick Payne, Greg Pierce, Max Posner, Mansa Ra, Hannie Rayson, Stacey Rose, Melissa Ross, Heidi Schreck, Mark Schultz, Jen Silverman, Eric Simonson, Charly Evon Simpson, Kristin Slaney, Al Smith, Dava Sobel, Celine Song, Danielle Stagger, Deborah Stein, Simon Stephens, Shelagh Stephenson, Andrew Thompson, Sarah Treem, Catherine Trieschmann, James Anthony Tyler, John Walch, Anne Washburn, Jason Wells, Else Went, Michael West, Beau Willimon, Bess Wohl, Alexandra Wood, Alexis Zegerman, and Anna Ziegler. ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants for research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan's program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Vice President and Program Director Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theatre, and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities. Sloan's Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with top film schools in the country and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production, along with an annual best-of-the-best Student Grand Jury Prize. The Foundation also supports screenplay development programs with the Sundance Institute, SFFILM, the Athena Film Festival, the Black List, Film Independent, and the Toronto International Film Festival and has helped develop over 30 feature films such as Tesla, Radium Girls, and Adventures of a Mathematician. The Foundation has also supported theatrical documentaries such as Werner Herzog's Theater of Thought, David France's How to Survive a Pandemic, and Shalini Kantayya's Coded Bias. The Foundation has an active theater program and commissions about 20 science plays each year from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the National Theatre in London, while supporting select productions across the country and abroad. Recent grants from Sloan's Theater Program have supported Nelson Diaz-Marcano's Las Borinqueñas, Mark Rylance's Dr. Semmelweis, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton's Smart, Anchuli Felicia King's Golden Shield, Sam Chanse's what you are now, Charly Evon Simpson's Behind the Sheet, Lucy Kirkwood's Mosquitoes, Chiara Atik's Bump, Nick Payne's Constellations, Lucas Hnath's Isaac's Eye, Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, David Auburn's Proof, Leigh Fondakowski's Spill, and Bess Wohl's Continuity. The Foundation's book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the best-selling book that became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of 2017, and Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus, adapted for the screen in Christopher Nolan's hit film Oppenheimer. For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, visit www.sloan.org or follow the Foundation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @SloanPublic. ABOUT MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB Manhattan Theatre Club is a not-for-profit theatre that has been under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow since 1972. In 2023, Chris Jennings became her partner, joining MTC as Executive Director. Meadow, Jennings and their first-rate staff produce seasons of innovative, entertaining and thought-provoking new plays and musicals at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway and off-Broadway stages at New York City Center. In the 2023-24 season, all three of MTC's Broadway shows were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, representing three of the five nominees in the category. For over 50 years, MTC has served as a nurturing home for artists and theatre professionals at all stages of their careers. In that time, MTC has produced more than 600 premieres, which include nearly 20% of all of the new plays on Broadway since they opened the Friedman in 2003. To date, MTC productions have garnered 30 Tony Awards; 51 Drama Desk Awards; 49 Obie Awards; and seven Pulitzer Prizes for Martyna Majok's Cost of Living, Lynn Nottage's Ruined, David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, David Auburn's Proof, August Wilson's The Piano Lesson , and Beth Henley's Crimes Of The Heart. MTC has been acclaimed for identifying, fostering and supporting talented artists in the creation of new work, and the hallmark of Meadow's long tenure has been the quality, range and originality of the theatre's repertoire. Artistic Development at MTC includes readings, workshops, fellowships, dramaturgical support and other resources for playwrights and other artists. MTC's playwriting commission program is one of the largest in the country. MTC is committed to ticket access initiatives to make its productions broadly accessible, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds. MTC strives to help them build deep connections with its work through Beyond the Stage programming and its Learning and Community Engagement program, which serves over 2,500 students of all ages annually throughout the NYC area, nationwide and abroad. MTC is an anti-racist organization that respects and honors all voices, and upholds the values of community and equity. For more information, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com. WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA Website: www.manhattantheatreclub.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/MTC_NYC Facebook: www.facebook.com/ManhattanTheatreClub X: x.com/mtc_NYC YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/mtcbroadway |
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