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ISSUE 18 SPRING www.dramatists.com 2017 From Clifford Odets to Tennessee Williams to Stephen Karam, Lillian Hellman to Paula Vogel to Katori Hall, Kaufman & Hart and Edna Ferber to Wendy Wasserstein to Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, DPS has been the proud first publisher of plays by writers who went on to define, and redefine, the American theater. ounded as essentially a cooperative Though their subjects range from slaughterhouse Fbetween the Dramatists Guild and playwriting employees to the titans of global finance to families agents, the Play Service's commitment to nurturing in the not-so-distant future, each of these plays new talent is foregrounded in the company's challenges readers and audiences to consider mission. While we are ever proud to represent what theater, that most humanist of mediums, can plays honored by Tony Awards® (including all four be. And, in an embarrassment of riches, the 15 of the 2017 Best Play Tony nominees) and Pulitzer writers featured herein are only a fraction of the Prizes, we are equally proud to count among our individuals whose first plays or early-stage career writers every year the fresh faces whose work efforts DPS publishes. may not yet be nationally known but whose talent n the back of this newsletter you'll find an is immense. The plays highlighted by these 15 Ooverview of new partnerships between emerging writers published in 2016-2017 are DPS and play development organizations, who do astonishing, invigorating explorations of identity, the critical daily work of providing resources for history, consciousness, politics, and language. artists at all stages in their careers. >>> Please Excuse Men on Boats JACLYN BACKHAUS My Dear Aunt Sally Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand KEVIN Armento Canyon. The true(ish) story of an A turbulent affair between a teenage boy and his 1869 expedition when a one-armed math teacher is brought to life from the captain and a crew of insane yet loyal surprising perspective of the boy’s volunteers set out to chart the course best friend: his cell phone. (flexible of the Colorado River. (10W) “… casting) “Screams of novelty. marvelously destabilizing both as history Armento pushes boundaries, and theater. The stalwartness and challenging his spectator to engage selfishness of the adventurers…become biting satire with the modern environment instead of when sent up by women.” —New York Magazine ignorantly accepting it.” —Huffington Post Dry Powder Old Love New Love SARAH Burgess LAURA BRIENZA While his private equity firm forces layoffs for Gloria’s husband has fallen for another average workers at a national grocery Alzheimer’s patient at the facility chain, Rick Hannel throws himself where he resides. Her daughter an extravagant party, setting off a Michelle’s husband has strayed publicity nightmare. Fortunately his after wrestling with his unfulfilled partner Seth has a plan to invest in an ambitions. A play about what we American-made luggage company. can’t remember and what we can But Jenny, the other partner, wants forgive. (3M, 4W) “A mind is a terrible thing to lose. to maximize returns, no matter the consequences. (3M, 1W) “With biting wit Feeling it go, [as with] Alzheimer’s…must be like and shrewd insight, Burgess pulls back the veil on living inside a pit of dread. [OLD LOVE NEW LOVE] private equity…” —TheaterMania dramatizes that beautifully.” —Montclair Times Caught The Feast CORY FINLEY CHRISTOPHER CHEN Matt and Anna’s relationship is An art gallery hosts a retrospective going swimmingly, until the sewers of a Chinese dissident artist who under their apartment open up and was once imprisoned. And the begin to speak to Matt. An eerie artist himself is present for the comedy about what is real, what is not, and who evening. A labyrinthine explo- knows. (2M, 1W) “[THE FEAST] has an old-fashioned ration of truth, art, and cultural Gothic feel to it…the ambiguity between [mental] break- appropriation, where nothing is down and ghost story leads to a denouement that is as it first appears.(2M, 2W) “…[an] intricately genuinely scary and surprising.” —Exeunt Magazine constructed, unrelentingly destabilizing puzzle of a play about the anatomy of truth and the provocative power of illusion…” —New York Times Kill Floor ABE KOOGLER Andy returns home after five years in prison and takes a job at a local slaughterhouse, determined to rebuild a relationship with her son. But when he objects to her working on the kill floor, and her boss starts demanding more than she can give, Andy discovers how hard it is to start over. (3M, 2W) “Melancholy and moving…a beautifully observed character study focused on the difficulty of pulling yourself up from America’s bottom rung, however willing the spirit 15 and able the body.” —Chicago Tribune Orange Julius Ironbound BASIL kreImendahl MARTYNA Majok Nut, the youngest child of Julius, a Vietnam Over the course of 20 years, and vet, grows up watching Julius suffer the effects three relationships, Darja, a Polish of Agent Orange. Leaping through time immigrant cleaning lady, negotiates and memory, tracing the complex for her future with men who can intimacy between war vet father offer her love or security, but never and transgender child, Nut guides both. (1W, 3M) “Ms. Majok’s perceptive us through a relationship fighting drama, with its bone-dry humor and vivid for mutual recognition before it’s characters, illustrates how vulnerable people like Darja too late. (3M, 2W) “…a sympathetic, are hostages to the vagaries of chance, unless they can eloquent…effort to grapple with family, manage to climb out of poverty.” —New York Times gender identity, and the legacy of the Vietnam War.” —Village Voice Judy Empanada Loca MAX POSNER It’s the winter of 2040, and the world AARON MARK has changed—but maybe not by Now living deep under Manhattan much. Timothy’s wife has just left in an abandoned subway tunnel, a him. His sisters are trying to help him very hungry Dolores recounts the cope while wrestling with their own bloodbath that sent her fleeing lives. And the kids are starting to ask underground. Loosely inspired by the questions. (3M, 3W) “This smart, disturbing legend of Sweeney Todd, EMPANADA comedy…touching on the linguistic, the sociolog- LOCA is contemporary Grand Guignol horror in ical, and the theological…gives us something the style of Spalding Gray. (1W) “Utterly transfix- funny and scary to ponder.” —New Yorker ing…a real hair-raiser. Anyone looking for a good fright won’t want to miss it.” —TheaterMania The Hunchback of Seville Loose Canon CHARISE CASTRO SMITH At the turn of the 16th century, BRIAN Reno Maxima Terriblé Segunda, sister & GABRIEL VEGA WEISSMAN of Queen Isabella, is living out From Molière in IKEA to Chekhov in a her life locked away in a tower… Taco Bell, this series of short comedies until it is decided that the future satirizes the world of the American of the country is in her nerdy, consumer in the style of canonical reclusive hands. A bitingly funny, playwrights. It’s a walk through madcap take on Spanish history and history…if history were a strip mall. colonialism. (3M, 5W) “…an incredibly (flexible casting) “…bridges the knowledge clever look at colonialism and religion…a of a theatre history class with the raucous fun bawdy funfest…that isn’t afraid of skewering of sketch comedy…” —NYTheatreNow history…” —BroadwayWorld Engagements Kentucky LUCY TEITLER LEAH NANAKO WINKLER It’s summer in New England and every Hiro is a self-made woman in New York. weekend is someone’s engagement But she is also single, almost thirty, party. The flowers, cocktails, and and estranged from her dysfunctional artisanal appetizers are perfect, but family in Kentucky. When her little the people have a lot to hide. And sister, a born-again Christian, Lauren is not at all ready for every- decides to marry, Hiro takes it upon one to settle down, least of all her herself to stop the wedding and salvage best friend, Allison. (2M, 3W) “…bitingly her sister’s future. (5M, 11W) “…the debut funny…Ms. Teitler writes tangy dialogue rich in of a distinctive new voice—mouthy, sly and bourbon sharp-witted repartee.” —New York Times sweet, with the expected kick.” —New York Times DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE 440 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Phone 212-683-8960 Fax 212-213-1539 www.dramatists.com [email protected] DPS is thrilled to announce We are also joining forces with The Lark to a publication partnership help present their annual Playwrights’ Week—a with Waterwell, as part of phenomenal resource for established and emerging their New Works Lab. Each writers to develop their works-in-process. year Waterwell commissions Selected via a year-long open submissions process, a new full length play by an The Lark provides approximately seven playwrights emerging playwright written with crucial creative resources in a nurturing and specifically for the actors in rigorous laboratory setting, their senior year in the drama which includes a series program at the Professional of group conversations Performing Arts School. around the work. Each new Previously commissioned play receives ten hours of playwrights include Stephen rehearsal in advance of a Karam and Dael Orlandersmith. The 2017 playwright will public staged reading, focusing on the writer’s self- be announced in the coming weeks. stated developmental goals. Now entering its 7th year, the Lilly Awards DPS is very pleased to sponsor the 2017 Educational Foundation is committed to celebrating the Theatre Association’s Commissioned Play Project, and work of women in the theater, and we are particularly happy that DPS playwright Max to nurturing future generations of Posner (JUDY) has been selected by the EdTA for this female-identifying theater artists.
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