New York, NY Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for its 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation. The 16th annual writing colony at the 20,000-acre working cattle ranch outside of Sheridan, WY takes place February 2-20. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Playwrights Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Ucross Foundation. The program is one of the 24 residency labs across many creative disciplines focusing on artistic process that Sundance Institute offers annually.Himberg said, Our Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation provides a rare opportunity for theatre artists to put pen to paper, with access to a Sundance Institute dramaturg who can respond to work at an early stage. These impressive and inspiring artists will both contribute to and benefit from the environment of peer mentorship, professional growth, and unfettered, unpressured creativity.
Notable artists supported in previous years at this Playwrights Retreat include Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman, Tanya Saracho, Lemon Anderson and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, among many others.
The artists selected for the 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation are:
Ayad Akhtar (Playwright)
Ayad was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the author of American Dervish, translated into 20 languages worldwide. He is also a playwright and screenwriter. His play Disgraced premiered in New York at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in 2012, won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is currently on Broadway. His latest plays, The Who & The What (LCT3) and The Invisible Hand (New York Theater Workshop) make their New York premieres this year. As a screenwriter, he has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He has received commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell.
Mallery Avidon (Playwright)
Mallerys play O Guru Guru Guru, or why I dont want to go to yoga class with you was part of Actors Theater of Louisvilles 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays, and Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love premiered at The Flea Theater and will be produced by Studio Theatre in 2015. Her play queerSpawn had its premiere with a Collection of Shiny Objects at HERE Arts Center. Her work has also been produced by Pavement Group and Target Margin Theater, among others. Avidon is an alumna of Soho Reps Writer/Director Lab, co-curator of The Bushwick Starrs reading series and a dramaturg for the company Saint Genet. She is currently working on TL;DR, an opera with composer Jeff Aaron Bryant. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and she holds an MFA in playwriting from Brown University.
Samantha Chanse (Playwright)
Sams plays and theater work include Fruiting Bodies, Marian Jean, Gilgamesh & the Mosquito, Correctional, and About That Whole Dying Thing. Shes developed her work through the Lark Play Development Center, Labyrinth Theater, Leviathan Lab, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Second Generation, Ars Novas ANT Fest, and Tofte Lake Center. A member playwright of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit, and the Larks Meeting of the Minds, she received her MFA in playwriting from Columbia University, and in musical theater writing from NYU. Her solo play, Lydias Funeral Video, is forthcoming from Kaya Press. samchanse.com
Fernanda Coppel (Playwright)
Fernanda is a Brooklyn-based playwright and screenwriter. Her play Chimichangas and Zoloft premiered at Atlantic Theater Company in 2012 and was published by Samuel French. Her other plays include: Pussy, The Leak, Sinaloa Cowboy, No Homo, and King Liz. Her work has been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Pregones Theater, INTAR Theatre, The Juilliard School, The Lark Development Center, the Flea, the Old Vic (London), Naked Angels, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Fernanda is a member of the MCC Playwrights Coalition and was a member of the Old Vics US/UK TS Eliot Exchange Program. Her work has won the Asuncion Queer Latino Festival at Pregones Theater, the 2012 HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting, and the 2012 Helen Merrill Award. She was a three-year Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University. Fernandas television credits include The Bridge on FX and Kingdom on DIRECTV.
Nikos Tsakalakos (Composer)
Nikos was selected for the 2014 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and was a finalist for the 2014 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre. Musicals: Alexander Supertramp [based on John Krakauers Into the Wild] (Commission, Perseverance Theatre, 2014; Ground Floor, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2013), Fall Springs: A Musical Disaster (Workshops, New Dramatists, 2014; Ars Nova, 2013; TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley, 2013), and Pool Boy (Provincetown Playhouse, 2012; World Premier, Barrington Stage Company, 2012). Concerts/Cabarets: Joes Pub, 54 Below, and Birdland. Debut Album: The First Snow. Film Scores: Rock, Paper, Scissors (Alliance Films). Awards: ASCAP Plus Award (2013), Vineyard Arts Project (2012), NAMT Writers Grant (2012), Playwrights Center Writing Grant (2009), MFA Tisch Tuition Scholarship (2006-2008), UCLA Barry Manilow Scholarship (2003/2004). nikosongs.com
Julianne Wicke Davis (Composer)
Julianne wrote both the book and music for Music for Southern Comfort with Dan Collins, which received the 2012 Jonathan Larson Award and was produced at Barrington Stage Company in 2013, NAMT 2012 and CAP21 in 2011 (New York Times and Time Out New York Critics Pick, Advocates 2011 Top 10 NY Theatre Experiences, GLAAD Media Award). She also wrote the music and lyrics for When We Met, Collins (book), which was developed at CAP21 2014, York NEO Developm
