The Roundabout Theatre Company has revealed this year's selections for their Refocus Project and Roundabout Underground programs, which have been newly revamped.
Both projects are dedicated to recognizing outstanding playwrights. Refocus restores formerly marginalized plays and writers to the American canon, and Underground elevates new playwrights by offering them significant development opportunities.
“Since we launched the Refocus Project in 2021 and the Underground in 2007, we have been heartened by the impact of these initiatives, both artistically and in the lives and legacies of the playwrights. We’ve brought a formerly under-produced Refocus play to Broadway, and several of our Underground artists have become finalists—or have won!—the Pulitzer Prize,” says Interim Artistic Director Scott Ellis in a statement. “Building on our experience to fine tune each program, we are hopeful to foster greater success and visibility for the work of these four artists.”
This season's Refocus selections will concentrate on the ouvres two artists, Migdalia Cruz and William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. This new, two-pronged approach will allow Roundabout to produce a deeper dive into their lives and careers, rather than focusing in on one specific work. The Refocus Project is made possible by the Champions for Inclusive Theatre and Roundabout’s Forward Fund.
Cruz is a Bronx-born playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist who was mentored by María Irene Fornés. Yellow Robe, Jr., who passed away in 2021, was an Assiniboine/Sioux playwright, actor, director and teacher.
Roundabout will explore Cruz and Yellow Robe’s work through a series of readings and panels, and create an in-depth resource guides dedicated to them. These resources will then be shared with theatres, schools, and audiences both in NYC and nationwide, with the goal of encouraging more productions of their work, and placement on theatre syllabi.
The Underground program, which was founded to foster artistic risk-taking that may not be commercially viable, will feature two playwright residencies this year. Vichet Chum and Nikki Massoud will be provided the time and space to strip back to basics while working on one of their plays. Each writer will have scheduled time at a desk in a shared workspace, a multi-day workshop of their play, and access to Roundabout resources and staff. Support for the Roundabout Underground Playwright Residencies is provided by the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.
Chum is a New York based writer from Dallas, Texas. His plays have been workshopped and produced at Steppenwolf Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova, Page 73 Productions, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Cleveland Play House, the Magic Theater, the UCROSS Foundation, Fault Line Theatre, Crowded Outlet, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, South Carolina New Play Festival, and the New Harmony Project. He received the 2023 Lucille Bulger Service Award, 2018 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists, the 2021 Laurents/Hatcher Award and a 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for the world premiere of his play Bald Sisters which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2022.
Massoud is an Iranian-Canadian-American writer and performer based in New York City. She is a 2050 Artistic Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop and a commissioned playwright with Atlantic Theater Company, Noor Theater, and The Acting Company. Her work has been developed through Ground Floor/Berkeley Rep, Bard at the Gate, Atlantic Theater Company, Less Than Rent Theater, The Lark, The Coop, CUNY, and a City Artist Corps Grant.
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