The Playwrights Realm has announced the recipients of its 2017–2018 Writing Fellowship, a nine-month program that provides support to early-career playwrights. This year’s all-female group of fellows is made up of Isabella D’Esposito (Albert County Public Library System; Lakeside Branch), Christina Quintana (Azul), Sarah B. Mantell (Everything That Never Happened), and Celine Song (Endlings).
Over the course of nine months, fellows develop a new play and receive resources, readings, and feedback designed to help them reach their professional and artistic goals. Fellows work with a director, design consultant, and actors over the course of two workshops to see their plays come to life, while attending regular meetings with one another and The Realm’s artistic staff.
The Fellowship culminates in a final reading of each playwright’s finished play as part of The Realm’s festival of new work, INK’D. The series is open to the public, free-of-charge, and will occur in spring 2018.
“I’m thrilled with the visionary and fearless women who will be this season’s Writing Fellows,” said Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner in a press statement. “Even more than that, I’m thrilled to be able to spend the year with them and their plays: Celine’s exploration of the world of Korean haenyeos and her own questions of identity, Christina’s examination of Cuba and sexuality, Sarah’s take on The Merchant of Venice and anti-Semitism throughout time, and Isabella’s tale of a group of public library volunteers dealing with mortality. It is an honor to get to be part of these playwrights’ journeys, to offer them the resources of The Realm and, perhaps most importantly, to create a space for them to learn from each other.”
Past Writing Fellows include Mia Chung (You For Me For You), J.C. Lee (The Inexplicable Disappearance of Hector Villaraigosa), Bekah Brunstetter (Hey Brother), Amy Herzog (After the Revolution), Joe Tracz (In The Woods Where Wolves Are), Elizabeth Irwin (My Mañana Comes), Sarah Gancher (The Place We Built), Donja R. Love (Sugar in our Wounds), and Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners).
The Playwrights Realm is currently producing the world premiere of Michael Yates Crowley’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias, which opened September 10 at The Duke on 42nd Street. The new play, which blends satire and dark comedy, examines the history of rape culture in American society. Read what critics had to say here.
For more details on the Playwrights Realm, visit PlaywrightsRealm.org.
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