PlayPenn

PlayPenn is a new play development conference located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Paul Meshejian is the Founding Artistic Director of the organization, which works with playwrights to develop new plays in a collaborative workshop environment.[1]

Since PlayPenn's first conference in 2005, the organization has been hosting annual July conferences in Philadelphia, where invited playwrights work with actors, directors, dramaturgs and designers to rehearse, revise and develop their new scripts in workshops. The conference includes free public readings of the plays, as well as forums and symposia.[2]

PlayPenn has helped develop over 140 new plays, 60% of which have become over 350 full productions at theater companies in the United States and abroad.[3] Playwrights who have workshopped scripts at PlayPenn include Jeffrey Hatcher, Deb Margolin, Aaron Posner, Michael Hollinger, Samuel D. Hunter, J.T. Rogers, and Lauren Yee. In 2017, PlayPenn saw the first of its plays to go to Broadway, J.T. Rogers' Oslo, which won the Tony Award for Best Play.

PlayPenn supports playwrights through The Foundry, its three-year membership program to support emerging playwrights in Philadelphia with professional development, networking opportunities, and exposure. PlayPenn also offers classes and workshops during other months throughout the year, as well as consultations and support for playwrights from dramaturgs and editors.

History

Paul Meshejian, an actor and director, created PlayPenn in 2005 after working at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. Michele Volansky has been his artistic partner since the beginning as associate artist and dramaturg. Meshejian said he wanted to create an encouraging space for writers, he told Jessica Foley of American Theatre (magazine) in 2015. "We'll feed you, provide lodging, so you ... can just write your play."[4]

While PlayPenn's main goal is to nurture new plays, not necessarily to lead them to productions, PlayPenn scripts have become full productions at many Philadelphia theaters,[5] as well as at other theaters around the country.[6]

In 2014, PlayPenn began entering into partnerships with theater companies to help guide plays through the last phases of development before a formal production. The organization began by pairing with the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey to shepherd the play The House That Jack Built by Suzanne Bradbeer.[7]

In 2018, PlayPenn artistic director Paul Meshejian was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre.

In 2019, supported by a meaningful gift from Leonard Haas and the Wyncote Foundation, PlayPenn established the Haas Fellows Program, honoring each of its six Conference playwrights with the title "Haas Fellow" into the unforeseeable future.[8]

The next year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the conference to go on hiatus until 2021.

Conferences

For the 2018 PlayPenn conference, over 800 playwrights applied and six were chosen for workshops and free public readings.[9] The conference also includes readings of up to three additional theatrical works in progress, along with forums where participants discuss issues related to new-play development.

Playwrights and plays

Plays developed by PlayPenn, 2005-present[10]

2019

  • Archipelago by Amy Witting
  • Buffalo Bill or How To Be A Good Man by Meghan Kennedy
  • Cave Canem by A. Emmanuel Leadon
  • Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters
  • Homeridae by Alexandra Espinoza
  • How a Boy Falls by Steven Dietz
  • Incendiary by Dave Harris
  • Strange Men by Will Snider
  • The Haunted Life by Sean Daniels adapted from the novel by Jack Kerouac
  • The Piper by Kate Hamill
  • Wayfinding by Whitney Rowland

2018

  • Bruise & Thorn by J. Julian Christopher
  • Dimenticar by Mattie Hawkinson
  • Down in the Holler by Val Dunn
  • Honor Flight by Willy Holtzman
  • Joan by Stephen Belber
  • Kids Drop (Off) by Dominic Anthony Taylor
  • Ripe Frenzy by Jennifer Barclay
  • Tha Chink-Mart by Ray Yamanouchi
  • The Garbologists by Lindsay Joelle
  • TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever by James Ijames
  • You, The Fire, and Me by Sevan K. Greene

2017

  • Bobby James by Anne Marie Cammarato
  • Bottle Fly by Jacqueline Goldfinger
  • Galilee by Christine Evans
  • Hard Cell by Brent Askari
  • House of the Negro Insane by Terence Anthony
  • Pancake Queen by Brie Knight
  • penny candy by Jonathan James Norton
  • Replica by Mickey Fisher
  • Thirst by C.A. Johnson
  • Welcome to Fear City by Kara Lee Corthron
  • With by Carter W. Lewis

2016

  • Another Kind of Silence by Lauren Feldman
  • Flat Sam by Antoinette Nwandu
  • Heartland by Gabriel Jason Dean
  • Heavenly Cosmic by Meghan Kennedy
  • Poor Edward by Jonathan Payne
  • The Found Dog Ribbon Dance by Dominic Finocchiaro
  • Sensitive Guys by MJ Kaufman
  • Suicide Jockey by Lena Barnard

2015

  • Giantess by Genne Murphy
  • Human Error by Eric Pfeffinger
  • Oslo by J.T. Rogers
  • Prince Max’s Trewly Awful Trip to the Desolat Interior by Ellen Struve
  • White by James Ijames
  • Widower by David J. Jacobi
  • War Stories by Richard Dresser
  • r/LYPSE: a subreddit of our dark lips and heart by Brian Grace-Duff
  • Shitheads by Douglas Williams

2014

  • The Dizzy Little Dance of Russell DiFinaldi by Stephen Belber
  • A Scar by Anne Marie Cammarato
  • Behind the Motel by Emily Schwend
  • Wild Blue by Jen Silverman
  • Cattle Barn, Hoochie Coo by Davey Strattan White
  • Mr. Wheeler’s by Rob Zellers
  • Moon Cave by Douglas Williams
  • Honor Flight by Willy Holtzman
  • The House That Jack Built by Suzanne Bradbeer

2013

  • The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames
  • Cockfight by Peter Gil-Sheridan
  • Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer
  • No Such Thing by Lisa Dillman
  • Profiles by Joe Waechter
  • Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean
  • Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons
  • The First Mrs. Rochester by Willy Holtzman

2012

  • A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World by Liz Duffy Adams
  • G.O.B. by Willy Holtzman
  • Too Much, Too Much, Too Many by Meghan Kennedy
  • Household Spirits by Mia McCullough
  • My Tidy List of Terrors by Jonathan James Norton
  • Seven Spots on the Sun by Martin Zimmerman
  • The Three Christs of Manhattan by Seth Rozin
  • Barcelona by Bess Wohl

2011

  • The Hatmaker’s Wife formerly A Man, His Wife, and His Hat by Lauren Yee
  • American Wee-Pie by Lisa Dillman
  • Another Girl by John Yearley
  • Nerine by Brian Quirk
  • Slip/Shot by Jacqueline Goldfinger
  • The Electric Baby by Stefanie Zadravec
  • Chasing Waves by Quinn Eli
  • At the Edge of a Promised Land by Jesse Bernstein

2010

  • Clementine in the Lower Nine by Dan Dietz
  • Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night by Kara Lee Corthron
  • Hum by Nicholas Wardigo
  • Love and Communication by James J. Christy
  • Raising Jo by Charlotte Miller
  • The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter
  • Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin
  • The Outgoing Tide by Bruce Graham
  • Cowboy/Indian by Matt Ocks
  • Some Other Kind of Person by Eric R. Pfeffinger

2009

2008

  • Another Man’s Son by Silva Semerciyan
  • Breadcrumbs by Jennifer Haley
  • A Human Equation by Peter Bonilla
  • House of Gold by Gregory Moss
  • Saving Grace (now entitled Salvation) by James McClindon
  • Wildflower by Lila Rose Kaplan
  • Dear Brutus by Jeffrey Hatcher
  • Any Given Monday by Bruce Graham
  • The Beef by Katie Grey

2007

  • The Rant by Andrew Case
  • The Day of the Picnic by Russell Davis
  • After Adam by Christina Ham
  • Militant Language by Sean Christopher Lewis
  • There or Here by Jennifer Maisel
  • My Name is Asher Lev by Aaron Posner
  • Carlo vs. Carlo by Aaron Cromie
  • Bubu the Terrible by Rick DesRochers

2006

2005

See also

References
  1. Foley, Jessica (2015-07-20). "PlayPenn, Where the Playwright's In Charge". American Theatre. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  2. Cofta, Mark (2014-07-18). "Experience new play development firsthand with PlayPenn this summer". Philadelphia CityPaper. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  3. "Our Mission & History". PlayPenn official website. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  4. Foley, Jessica (2015-07-20). "PlayPenn, Where the Playwright's In Charge". American Theatre. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  5. Cofta, Mark (2014-07-18). "Experience new play development firsthand with PlayPenn this summer". Philadelphia CityPaper. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  6. Rosenfield, Wendy (2009-01-29). "At PlayPenn, hard work of making theater". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  7. Wrappe, Megan (2014-11-10). "Room for More in PlayPenn". American Theatre. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  8. "PlayPenn Establishes New Haas Fellows Program".
  9. Stern, Marissa (2015-07-22). "A Play in Progress Pulls Back the Curtain on Oslo Accord". Jewish Exponent. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  10. "Our Playwrights". PlayPenn official website. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
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