Programs

• Mentor Project
• Discovery and Heritage Series
• Master Class Series
• TONGUES: a reading series
• Celebrating Black Playwrights
• Celebrating Women Playwrights

Mentor Project

Cherry Lane’s Obie Award-winning Mentor Project is the cornerstone of our development programs. Mentor Project engages leading dramatists in one-on-one mentoring relationships with emerging playwrights for a theater season, the result of which is a showcase production in our Studio theatre.

Current Season
Success Stories
 

Announcing Mentor Project 2012

                                                                                                                                                      Designed by Heather Honnold

About the 2012 Playwrights and Plays

RELATIVE PITCH
Written and performed by Elizabeth Rose
Mentored and directed by Gretchen Cryer
February 21 – March 3, 2012   PURCHASE TICKETS

Elizabeth Rose's RELATIVE PITCH is a one-woman musical comedy about the hilarious roller-coaster ride of a performing songwriter.  Written and performed by Rose, the musical's score features 19 original songs (from opera to rap) to depict her story of a childhood in a noisy musical family through the Vietnam and Woodstock eras to an inner-city classroom where hip hop trumps the blues. 

As a performer Elizabeth Rose's wide-ranging credits include having sung the National Anthem at Shea Stadium, composing music for Discovery Channel and PBS as well as for the film "Sex and the Other Man" starring Stanley Tucci.  She created the music video "Leave Me Alone" featuring a cast of nonagenarians, wrote the hit single "I'm Too Beau'ful for You," and recorded an original CD "Sleep Naked."  

EVOLUTION
Written and performed by Patricia Buckley
Mentored by Jean Claude van Itallie
Directed by Michele Chivu
March 13 – March 24, 2012  
PURCHASE TICKETS

Patricia Buckley's Evolution combines the Paleontological history of whale evolution with a contemporary tale of a woman’s extraordinary transformation and her family’s attempts to prevent it.  Dually inspired by the visual work of artists such as Robert LePage and Theatre de la Jeune Lune and creation myths and scientific facts, EVOLUTION seeks to illuminate the self-contained world of a family – how family members construct each other’s identities while trying to shape their own, how decades can be spent inhabiting an “assigned” persona and how, in the process, we can lose any certainty as to what our "true identity" is. 

Patricia Buckley is a founding member of the three-woman theatre company, Gams On The Lam, (Franklin Furnace Emerging Artist Award) whose ground-breaking shows combining roughhouse slapstick, satire and dance have toured extensively in the US, Canada, Latin America and Europe for 10 years.  Ms. Buckley was a writer and performer with the Tony-award winning Minneapolis company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, collaborating and touring with the company, and with The Actors’ Shakespeare Company.  Other writing projects include Syracuse Stage’s Backstory Program and various projects with the Oxygen Network.
 

MAMMA ROMA
Written and performed by Anne DeSalvo
Mentored by David Rambo
Directed by Rob Urbinati
April 3 through April 14, 2012   PURCHASE TICKETS

Anne DeSalvo's Mamma Roma is about the earthy and unkempt Italian actress Anna Magnani. Magnani radiated with a fierce intelligence, uniqueness and sensuality, but lacked the bombshell good looks of her contemporaries like Bridget Bardot, Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.  She rocketed to international celebrity with Roberto Rossellini’s OPEN CITY and came to epitomize Italy’s Neo Realism movement and transcended it with an exceptional rawness, depth and honesty.

Anne DeSalvo – a visual artist, writer, director and producer – is best known for her work as an actress.  Her credits include: Christopher Durang’s THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE UNIVERSE, Albert Innaurato’s THE TRANSFIGURATION OF BENNO BLIMPIE, Peter Parnell’s THE SORROWS OF STEPHEN, the musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Godbless You, Mr. Rosewater, Marilyn Miller's spoof Girls, Girls, Girls, Albert Innaurato’s GEMINI (Obie Award), Harvey Fierstein’s SAFE SEX on Broadway, and more.  Her numerous film appearances include Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES, ARTHUR with Dudley Moore, MY FAVORITE YEAR and COMPROMISING POSITIONS with Susan Sarandon.   
 

PAS DE DEUX (lost my shoe)
Written and performed by Lisa Ramirez
Mentored by Cynthia Hopkins
Two staged reading dates TBA

The bonds between siblings are as layered, complex, and true as all great loves. In the spring of 2002, Ms. Ramirez lost her younger brother, a principal dancer with The Oakland Ballet, to alcoholism. She had struggled with her own drinking and had only overcome her addiction one-year prior. Upon his death, she enrolled in a ballet class, learning the dances her brother had performed. As she ‘retraced his steps’ she not only stayed sober, she learned a new dance, a dance that ultimately liberated her. PAS DE DEUX (lost my shoe) is about love, family, addiction, and survival. This solo piece is inspired by various ‘Requiems’ in art and myths. It is a multimedia play that combines video footage, ballet, childhood games and text.

Lisa Ramirez's previous solo work EXIT CUCKOO about women who work as nannies in New York, was directed by Colman Domingo and was presented Off-Broadway by Working Theatre.  Her other writing credits include ART OF MEMORY, a dance-theatre piece presented at 3-Legged Dog, INVISIBLE WOMEN-RISE collaboration with Foundry Theatre and Domestic Workers United, and TO THE BONE a new play about Latina/immigrant women workers in poultry plants. Lisa's most recent work is ALL FALL DOWN, which she began during her recent residency at Intar's 2010/11 Maria Irene Fornes Hispanic Playwrights in Residency Lab.

Mentor Project performances are Tuesday - Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 3pm and 7pm, in the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce St.
Tickets are $19. $10 student rush tickets available the day of the performance only at the box office (box office opens at 4pm). Valid student ID required.

About the 2012 Mentors

GRETCHEN CRYER is most well-known for writing the book and lyrics and starring in I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road (with music by Nancy Ford). She has written numerous other shows with Nancy Ford: Now is the Time for All Good Men (off-Broadway), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award – Best Musical, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Shelter (Broadway – Golden Theater), Hang on to the Good Times (Manhattan Theater Club), The Fabulous Party (Williamstown Theater Festival), The American Girls Revue (American Girl Place – Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles), Circle of Friends  (American Girl Place – Chicago and New York), and Anne of Green Gables (Theatre works, Lortel Theater). Their newest musical, Einstein and The Roosevelts, premiered at DePauw University in the fall of 2008. Gretchen is also the author of the play The House that Goes on Forever (Women’s Project, New York). She is presently a visiting professor in the Drama Department at Colorado College and teaches a course in creating your own solo performance in New York City.
 

JEAN CLAUDE VAN ITALLIE, born in Brussels in 1936, emigrated to America with his family in 1940, grew up on suburban Long Island, graduated Harvard in 1958, and in the sixties was a seminal force in the explosive New York Off-Broadway theater. He was one of the original playwrights at Ellen Stewart’s LaMama Experimental Theater Club. Playwright of the Ensemble of Joe Chaikin’s Open Theater, van Itallie wrote THE SERPENT, arguably the most successful piece of ensemble theater by any theater group. His acclaimed anti-Vietnam War play, AMERICA HURRAH, Three Views of the USA (INTERVIEW, a fugue for eight actors, TV, and MOTEL, a masque for three dolls), was the watershed dramatic event of the sixties. “Brilliant!” Harold Pinter “Motel is possibly the best one-act play I have ever seen.” Norman Mailer “…a compelling image of American violence…an extension of our powers of envisaging ourselves.” Newseek

Van Itallie’s classic translations of Chekhov (CHEKHOV, THE MAJOR PLAYS, Applause Books), prized by directors and actors for their clarity and subtle rhythms, are possibly the most performed Chekhov versions on the American stage. “Best translations of Chekhov into English,” Vitaly Voulff, pre-eminent Moscow critic. His over thirty works include plays on a gay theme WAR and ANCIENT BOYS, long brilliant monologues STRUCK DUMB (written with Joe Chaikin) and BAG LADY, “Doris” plays, ALMOST LIKE BEING and I’M REALLY HERE, THE TRAVELER (about healing), LIGHT, Voltaire, The Mathematician, and The King of Prussia (witty wild love triangle), FEAR ITSELF, Secrets of the White House, a farcical tragedy about Bush II, and TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD or How Not to Do It Again, a transformative ensemble play based on traditional texts with the imprimatur of van Itallie’s Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (published as TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD FOR READING ALOUD, North Atlantic).

Van Itallie was one of three actor-writers in the performance piece GUYS DREAMIN’ 1997. His autobiographical one-man show, WAR, SEX, AND DREAMS received raves in NY and LA Times in 1999 and 2000. An inspired teacher, van Itallie has taught playwriting and performance as well as WRITING ON YOUR FEET workshops at Princeton, NYU, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Columbia, Middlebury, U of Colorado, Naropa, Esalen, Omega, NY Open Center, Shantigar, and many other places. He’s the author of THE PLAYWRIGHT’s WORKBOOK (Applause Books). Van Itallie has transformed the old farm in Western Massachusetts where he’s lived for decades into SHANTIGAR FOUNDATION for Theater/ Mediation/Healing (Shantigar.org). “One of our most original playwrights.” – Richard Gere
 

DAVID RAMBO’s one woman play about Ann Landers, THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS recently played at the Cherry Lane Theatre off-Broadway starring Judith Ivey and received a Lortel Award nomination for outstanding solo show.  Other plays include GOD'S MAN IN TEXAS, THE ICE-BREAKER, an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ BABBITT and an all-new new book for Lerner and Loewe’s PAINT YOUR WAGON.  His plays have been widely produced at regional theatres throughout the country, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geffen Playhouse, Old Globe, Denver Center Theatre, Alliance Theatre and Pasadena Playhouse.  He adapted several classic screenplays for live performance, including ALL ABOUT EVE, CASABLANCA, ADAM'S RIB and SUNSET BOULEVARD, which was performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the orchestra playing Franz Waxman’s Oscar-winning original score.  He has written and produced extensively in television, including seven seasons on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and the new CBS series produced by Robert DeNiro and Tribeca Films.

CYNTHIA HOPKINS is a writer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and theater artist. She creates and performs unique multi-media performance pieces that intertwine truth and fiction and have won her a host of awards, including the 2007 Alpert Award in Theater and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship. Through the process of making performances, she attempts to alchemize disturbance into works of intrigue and hope that simultaneously stimulate the senses, provoke emotion, and enliven the  mind. She has created four full length multi-media performance works - Accidental Nostalgia (2005 Bessie Award for Creation), Must Don't Whip 'Um (2007 Bessie Award for Design), The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) (conceived as Parts I, II, and III of The Accidental Trilogy); and The Truth: A Tragedy. These works feature the band Gloria Deluxe (www.gloriadeluxe.com), which Ms. Hopkins formed in 1999 and which has since produced eight full-length albums and performed at numerous venues in New York City and elsewhere. The work of Ms. Hopkins has been presented internationally, most recently at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco; Soho Rep and St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris, France; Les Subsistances in Lyon, France; and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Ms. Hopkins is currently at work on the creation of This Clement World, a new piece addressing the climate crisis.

Select Mentor Project Success Stories

Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love (Lynn Nottage, mentor 2006) moved to Cherry Lane’s Mainstage for its World Premiere production in 2007. It was nominated for three 2006 AUDELCO awards, winning for Best Supporting Actress, and earned Ms. Hall the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and 2nd place for the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award at the 2005 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. After an Olivier winning run on the West End, her play The Mountaintop played on Broadway in the 2011-12 season starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. She is the winner of the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Hurt Village, which can currently be seen at Signature Theatre company, holds the 2007 Fellowship of southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, and was awarded the 09-10 Playwrights of New York Fellowship through the Lark Play Development Center.  Other plays include: Freedom Train, Awake, and Diaspora, a one-woman show fused with music and poetry that was performed in South Africa.

Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something (Michael Weller, mentor, 2006) received its World Premiere at Women’s Project in a coproduction with Cherry Lane Theatre in the spring of 2010. Dead City, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, was produced at New Georges and Dog and Pony Theatre in 2006, Red Eye Theatre in 2007, and Available Light [theatre] in 2008. Kate Crackernuts was produced at Stray Cat Theatre, 2008; Crumble (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake) in Montreal at Le Theatre de I’Opsis, 2008; Crawl, Fade to White opened at 13P, 2008. In 2007 she received the Whiting Writers’ Award for extraordinary talent and promise as a writer. That Pretty Pretty; or The Rape Play premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in March 2009. Other recent productions include Fever /Dream (Wolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 2009; Cleveland Public Theatre, 2011) and Roadkill Confidential (produced by Clubbed Thumb at 3LD, 2010).

Anton Dudley’s slag heap (Ed Bullins, mentor, 2003) moved to Cherry Lane’s Mainstage for its World Premiere production in 2005 and premiered at Minnesota’s Theatre Pro Rata in 2006. It was published by Playscripts in 2010. The Lake’s End was produced at the Adirondack Theatre Festival in 2003, and in 2004 Triptych Entertainment produced his musical based on Twelfth Night. In 2006, Second Stage Theatre presented the world premiere of Getting Home, and in 2008 The Intentional Theatre Group commissioned him for a new work, UP HERE/IN HERE, produced at Altered Stages. His short film, DAVY & STU was released by Strand Releasing on the popular series BOYS LIFE 6. Playwrights Realm presented Substitution in May 2008. The world premiere of A Dram of Drummhicit, co-written with Arthur Kopit opened at La Jolla Playhouse in 2011.

Eliam Kraiem’s Sixteen Wounded (Michael Weller, mentor, 2002) moved to a full production at the Long Wharf Theatre starring Martin Landau in February 2003.  In 2004 Sixteen Wounded later opened on Broadway starring Judd Hirsch and Martha Plimpton.

Julia Cho, 99 Histories (David Henry Hwang, mentor, 2002). Ms. Cho’s recent play, The Language Archive, had its World Premiere production at South Coast Repertory in 2009 and its New York premiere at the Laura Pels Theatre in 2010, produced by Roundabout Theater Company. The Language Archive garnered the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for playwriting. The Piano Teacher had its World Premiere at the Vineyard Theater in 2007; following a production at Long Wharf Theatre, Durango was produced at The Public Theater in 2006; The Architecture of Loss at New York Theater Workshop, 2004; second Off-Broadway production of BFE at Playwrights Horizons in 2004/2005 (2004 L. Arnold Weissberger Award). Ms. Cho has been a playwriting fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a recipient of a New York Foundation for The Arts grant, and a playwright-in-residence at The Juilliard School.

Rajiv Joseph Huck and Holden (Theresa Rebeck, mentor, 2005) was produced at The Black Dahlia Theatre in Los Angeles in the fall of 2006. His play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and winner of an NEA Outstanding New American Play Award, debuted on Broadway in 2011 (Drama League Award nomination: Distinguished Production of a Play), directed by Moisés Kaufman and starring Robin Williams. Bengal Tiger was earlier produced by The Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in May 2009, receiving four Los Angeles Ovation Nominations including Playwriting for an Original Play, and again in 2010 by the Mark Taper Forum. Rajiv is a 2004 winner of the John Golden Award for Playwriting, a 2005 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and a 2008 recipient of the Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Award given to emerging playwrights. The National Arts Club, in partnership with The Exchange & Orchard Project, awarded Mr. Joseph with the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship (formerly the Kesselring Award). He was also the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Emerging Writers Playwright award. Also in 2009, Gruesome Playground Injuries received its World Premiere at the Alley Theatre, starring Selma Blair and Brad Fleischer, and was subsequently produced by the Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company in 2010 and by Second Stage Theatre in 2011.  Other recent productions include Animals Out of Paper (Second Stage Theatre, 2008), The North Pool (Theatreworks, 2011), and The Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre, 2011).

David Adjmi’s Strange Attractors, (Craig Lucas, mentor, 2001) received its World Premiere production at Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre in 2003. He is the recipient of a Juilliard playwriting fellowship, the 2002 Lecomte Du Nouy Award, a Writer-in-Residency at the Royal Court Theatre, and a 2003 Helen Merrill Award.  In 2004, he was a part of Northern Lights: the 9/11 plays at Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis. The Evildoers had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theater in 2008. Stunning received its world premiere in 2008 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, was published by American Theatre magazine, and premiered in New York as the second production of the inaugural season of LCT3 at the Duke on 42nd Street. In 2009 he was awarded a Bush Foundation Fellowship and the Steinberg Emerging Playwright Award, and in 2011 he received the Whiting Writers’ Award. Recently Theatre Communications Group published a collection of his works, Stunning and Other Plays.

Molly Smith Metzler (Training Wisteria, Charles Fuller, mentor 2007). Training Wisteria was last seen in Arielle Tepper's 2006 Summer Play Festival (SPF) and is the winner of The Kennedy Center National Student Playwriting Award, The Mark Twain National Comedy Award, and The David Mark Cohen Award. In 2011 Manhattan Theatre Club produced her play Close Up Space, which was named a Finalist for the 2011-12 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Molly's work has been produced by The Kennedy Center, The Boston Playwrights' Theatre, The New York Int'l Fringe Festival, City Theatre's "Summer Shorts" (co-produced by Humana), and the hotINK Int'l Play Festival. Molly holds a MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch (NYU), where she was awarded the Goldberg Playwriting Fellowship. In 2008 she was inducted into the Playwriting Fellowship program at Julliard. Molly has taught at Boston University, and her work is anthologized in two Smith & Kraus Best Ten Minute Play volumes as well as Gary Garrison's The Kennedy Center Presents: Award Winning Plays from the Kennedy Center.  She is one of six writers participating in Futurefest in Dayton, Ohio, July 24-26, 2009.

Bridgette Wimberly’s Saint Lucy’s Eyes, (Wendy Wasserstein, mentor, 1999) received three 2001 Audelco Awards and a Kesselring Nomination.  After a run at The Women’s Project & Productions, it opened on Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mainstage starring Ruby Dee.  Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta presented Saint Lucy’s Eyes in the fall of 2002 again with Ms. Dee, and produced a return engagement in the following season.  It was also produced by Rainbow Theater (California) in November, 2009 and was published by Samuel French, in Smith & Kraus’s Women Playwrights; The Best Plays of 2001, and in The Women’s Project & Productions’ 25th anniversary anthology.  Her EST/Alfred P. Sloan Science Foundation-commissioned play, The Separation of Blood, had its World Premiere at Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre, 2007, directed by Woodie King Jr. She received a Susan G. Komen grant for From Breast Cancer to Broadway, a program she created to teach playwriting to breast cancer survivors. In 2009 the program staged an evening of readings of plays written by New York survivors at Cherry Lane Theatre, and in 2010 the evening was reprised at the Cleveland Playhouse featuring the works of Cleveland survivors, followed by yet another reprisal at Cherry Lane in the summer, 2011.

Christopher Shinn’s Four (Charles Fuller, mentor, 1999) opened at The Tribeca Playhouse in 2001 and moved to Manhattan Theatre Club, 2002. It is currently being adapted for a film version.  Playwrights Horizons presented Shinn’s Other People in 2000 and What Didn’t Happen in 2002.  In London, Shinn was a Laurence Olivier award nominee for Where Do We Live, which opened at London’s Royal Court in 2002, and at The Studio Theatre at Second Stage, 2004. Shinn was again produced at Playwrights Horizons in 2004 with On the Mountain, winning him an Obie Award.  Dying City had its world premiere in 2006 at London’s Royal Court Theatre and was produced in New York in 2007 at Lincoln Center Theater (Lucille Lortel nomination for best new Off-Broadway play, 2008 Pulitzer Prize Finalist). In 2009 his adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway at American Airlines Theatre. In 2011, The Vineyard Theatre presented the World Premiere production of Picked. The New York Times has called Mr. Shinn “among the most promising playwrights to emerge in the last decade.”

Bathsheba Doran’s The Parents’ Evening (Michael Weller, mentor, 2003) was produced in 2010 at The Flea Theater in New York under the direction of Jim Simpson. Other recent productions include Living Room in Africa (produced by Edge Theater in New York), Nest (commissioned and produced by Signature Theater in DC), Until Morning (BBC Radio 4), and adaptations of Great Expectations, starring Kathleen Chalfant for TheatreworksUSA, which played at the Lucille Lortel Theater, as well as Maeterlinck’s The Blind (Classic Stage Company). Ben and the Magic Paintbrush premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2010 and Kin premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2011 Drama League Award nomination: Distinguished Production of a Play), directed by Sam Gold. Ms. Doran is a recipient of a 2009 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award. She is currently a writer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Deirdre O’Connor’s Jailbait (Michael Weller, mentor, 2008) was produced by Profiles Theatre in Chicago in 2010 and for a return engagement in 2011. Her new play, Assisted Living, will be presented as part of the 2011 season at Chicago’s Profile Theatre.

Allison Moore’s Urgent Fury, (Marsha Norman, mentor 2003) was one of 36 finalists for the 2002 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Allison Moore is a displaced Texan living in Minneapolis where she is a 2007 Bush Artist Fellow and 2008 Playwrights’ Center McKnight Advancement Grant recipient. Alison recent work, Slasher was part of the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Allison’s play, HAZARD COUNTY, was also produced at the 2005 Humana Festival at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas and Actors Express in Atlanta in association with the National New Play Network. Other productions include Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Birmingham Festival Theatre and The Ark Theatre (Los Angeles). In 2006-07, Allison developed a new full-length play, END TIMES, with Kitchen Dog Theater, where she is an Associate Company Member. The 2007 premier received seven Dallas Critics Forum Awards, including Best New Play, and five Leon Rabin Awards, including Best New Play and Best Production. Other work includes: AMERICAN KLEPTO (TheatreWorks New Play Festival, Fresh Ink at Illusion Theater); SPLIT (Guthrie Theater commission), EIGHTEEN (2001 O’Neill Playwrights Conference, 2003 LA Weekly Theater Award nomination for Best New Play)  and COWTOWN (Guthrie Theater Commission). Her work is published by PlayScripts, Inc., Smith & Kraus, Vintage Books and New York Theater Experience. Allison has also written a stage adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel, "My Antonia," for Illusion Theater. Her play Slasher premiered at the 2009 Humana Festival and has been produced at theaters around the country. Her newest play, Collapse, will receive a rolling world premiere in 2011 at Aurora Theater (Berkeley), Curious Theater (Denver) and Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas).My Antonia, her adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel, receives its world premiere in 2012, presented by Illusion Theater (Minneapolis). Her work has been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Ms. Moore is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, Iowa Arts Fellowship in Playwriting, the Kemp and Felton Fellowships, and the Rosenfield Playwriting Award. She holds a BFA from Southern Methodist University and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Samuel Brett Williams’ The Woodpecker (Charles Fuller, mentor, 2008) was produced by the Mutineer Theatre Company in 2011 at Studio/Stage Theatre in Los Angeles. He is a co-founder of The Camisade Theatre Company, whose recent inaugural production was his own Derby Day at Theatre Row, Fall 2011.

Jakob Holder's Housebreaking (Charles Mee, mentor, 2009) was produced by Poison Apple Initiative in Austin, Texas winter, 2011.

Cherry Lane Mentor Project: The Buzz

"What the Cherry Lane is doing is so exciting. Most important, I think, is its mentoring program of young playwrights, and while it is nice that the Cherry Lane programming takes care of the important theatrical past, it is the mentoring program which will allow us to have an important theatrical future."

–MP 1999-2010 EDWARD ALBEE

"The Mentor Project has my enthusiastic support. I have seen performances at the Cherry Lane rival the very finest professional theater this country has to offer."

–Co-Founding and Supervising Mentor 1999-2008 MICHAEL WELLER

"The Cherry Lane's belief in writers is absolute. And whether you are a young playwright staging a new play, or an experienced playwright passing along your advice and comfort, the mentor program at the Cherry Lane works on the most astonishing level, giving people a chance to talk with each other about the nearly impossible but nevertheless thrilling task of writing for the theater."

–MP 2001, 2002, 2003 Mentor MARSHA NORMAN

"The Mentor Project is artfully designed to avoid the pitfalls of most play development workshops, directionless rewrites, lack of exposure to actors and audiences, and instead plunges the playwright directly into an intensely practical, tightly focused, experience...The Cherry Lane is doing essential work in building the next generation of American theatre artists."

–MP 2005 Mentor DAVID AUBURN

"Cherry Lane's Mentor Project asked me to read five plays, pick out the best one and be prepared to work with the playwright through drafts, reading, and showcase production. It proved to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my literary life."

–MP 1999, 2008, 2010 Mentor CHARLES FULLER

"I've been in touch with enough other fledgling playwrights to notice that buzz about your program is very good indeed. Writers in it seem happy, and writers outside of it want to get in."

–MP 1999, 2000, 2003 Mentor A. R. GURNEY

"Through the Cherry Lane Mentorship, I have had the privilege of working with two wonderfully gifted and dedicated young writers. They have taught me at least as much as I have taught them, and I am grateful for the opportunity to revisit that electrifying moment when a new playwright first emerges into the theatrical world."

–MP 2001, 2002, 2010 Mentor DAVID HENRY HWANG

"I am honored to be invited into the Cherry Lane Mentor Project. The playwriting art has been at the center of my life for so long that it is a great affirmation to me that an American institute of this historical stature and cultural scope recognized my motivation to serve."

–MP 2003, 2004 Mentor ED BULLINS

Mentor Project History

Mentor Project 2010

STRAY
by Ruth McKee
mentored by David Henry Hwang
directed by Giovanna Sardelli
with Antony Hagopian, Emily Ackerman, Lisa Ramirez, Petronia Paley and Brianne Berkson
set design by Kina Park
production stage manager: Hannah Perryman
assistant stage manager: Kathryn Habib
March 16 - 27

THE BELLE OF BELFAST
by Nate Rufus Edelman
mentored by Charles Fuller
directed by Eric Tucker
with Katie Fabel, Sam Redford, Elvy Yost, Evan Thompson and Terry Donnelly
set design by Kina Park
production stage manager: Cynthia M. Hennon
assistant stage manager: Kathryn Habib
April 27—May 8

PATERNITY
by Winter Miller
mentored by Craig Lucas
directed by Craig Lucas
with Daphne Rubin-Vega, Nathan Darrow, Ed Vassallo, Stephen Park and Rosalyn Coleman
set design by John McDermott
production stage manager: Cynthia M. Hennon
assistant stage manager: Kathryn Habib
May 18 - 29

Mentor Project 2010
costume design by Rebecca Bernstein
assistant costume design by Florencia Paoppi
lighting design by Pat Dignan
assistant lighting design by Ryan Selig
sound design by Daniel Kluger
props by Teralyn Bruketta

Mentor Project 2009

HOUSEBREAKING
by Jakob Holder
mentored by Charles Mee
directed by Daniella Topol
with Saxon Palmer, Andy Powers, Evan Thompson and Monique Vukovic
set design by Mimi Lien and Amy Rubin
costume design by Theresa Squire
lighting design by Nicole Pearce
production stage manager: Paige van den Burg
assistant stage manager: Mandy Cynkin
March 24—April 4

Mentor Project 2008

THE WOODPECKER
by Samuel Brett Williams
mentored by Charles Fuller
directed by Drew DeCorleto
with Stephanie Cannon, Cosmo Pfeil, Dan Moran, Debargo Sanyal and Matt Unger
assistant stage manager: Alison Hirschlag
March 26—April 5

THE YOUNG LEFT
by Greg Keller
mentored by Gretchen Cryer
directed by Kip Fagan
with Mark Alhadeff, Diane Davis, Joe Tippett, Michael Crane, Keira Keeley and Elisabeth Waterston
assistant stage manager: Nicholas Herbert
April 15—26

JAILBAIT
by Deirdre O'Connor
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Suzanne Agins
dith David Wilson Barnes, Peter O'Connor, Flora Diaz and Natalia Payne
assistant stage manager: Nick Tochelli
May 6 – 17

Mentor Project 2008
set design by Kina Park
costume design by Rebecca Bernstein
lighting design by Pat Dignan
sound design by Daniel Kluger
production stage manager: Mei Ling Acevedo

Mentor Project 2007

THE SECRET AGENDA OF TREES
by Colin McKenna
mentored by Lynn Nottage
directed by Sam Gold
with Patch Darragh, Sarah Lord, Gio Perez, Jedadiah Schultz and Sara Surrey
assistant stage manager: Callan Stout
March 20 - 31

TOPSY TURVY MOUSE
by Peter Gil-Sheridan
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Daniella Topol
with Rosalyn Coleman, Henny Russell, Kelly McAndrew, Daniel Zaitchik, Ian Quinlan, Ted Koch and Gita Reddy
assistant stage manager: Juliana Avery
April 10 – 21

WISTERIA
by Molly Smith Metzler
mentored by Jules Feiffer
directed by Leah C. Gardiner
with Angelina Ford, Jessica DiGiovanni, Bruce McCarty, Marissa O'Donnell and Matthew Stadelmann
assistant stage managers: Juliana Avery and Alex Orbovich
May 1—12

Mentor Project 2007
set design by Regina Garcia
costume design by Rebecca Bernstein
lighting design by Pat Dignan
sound design by Barbara Vlahides
production stage manager: Mei Ling Acevedo

Mentor Project 2006

LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING
by Sheila Callaghan
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Suzanne Agins,
with Charles Borland, Jessi Campbell, Christina Lind, Danielle Skraastad
stage manager: Scott Earley
March 14 - 25

HOODOO LOVE
by Katori Hall
mentored by Lynn Nottage
directed by Lucie Tiberghien,
with Eric Abrams, Marjorie Johnson, Angela Lewis, Postell Pringle
stage manager: Sara Kmack
April 4 - 15

GIRL.
by Megan Mostyn-Brown
mentored by Theresa Rebeck
directed by Joshua Hecht
with Flora Diaz, Susan Hunt, Jennifer Regan, Maggie Siff, Max Woertendyke
stage manager: Jeff Meyers
April 25 - May 6

Mentor Project 2006
set design by Kerry Chipman
costume design by Rebecca Bernstein
lighting design by Ian Grunes
sound design by Bill Bowen

Mentor Project 2005

THE GRILLE ROOM
by Sam Forman
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Thomas Kail
with Mia Barron, Michael Cullen, Patch Darragh, Beth Dixon, Sam Gordon, Ron Orbach,
Michael Reid
March 15 - 26

MORBIDITY & MORTALITY
by Courtney Baron
mentored by David Auburn
directed by Peter DuBois
with Tasha Lawrence, Greg McFadden, Maulik Pancholy
April 12 - 16

HUCK & HOLDEN
by Rajiv Joseph
mentored by Theresa Rebeck
directed by Giovanna Sardelli
with Cherise Boothe, Nick Choksi, Yvette Ganier, LeRoy McClain, Andres Munar
April 26 - May 14

Mentor Project 2005
set design by Regina Garcia
costume design by Rebecca Bernstein
lighting design by Pat Dignan
sound design by Bart Fasbender
prop design by Christina Lind
production stage manager: Misha Siegel-Rivers

Mentor Project 2004

DOUBLE SOPHIA
by Kendra Levin
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Hayley Finn
with Janine Barris, Flora Diaz, Justin Grace, Kathryn Grody, Scott Klavan, Anna McCarthy, Peter Scanavino
March 10 - 27

WORDSWORTH
by Alexandra Bullen
mentored by Ed Bullins
directed by Richard Caliban
with Richard Hughes, Michael Reid, Chandra Thomas, Anne Louise Zachry
April 7 - 24

THUNDERBIRD
by Joseph Fisher
mentored by A.R. Gurney
directed by Randy White
with Michael Chernus, Tonya Cornelisse, Laura Flanagan, Michael Rudko, Thomas Sadoski, Tamilla Woodard
May 5 – 22

Mentor Project 2004
set design by Lauren Helpern
costume design by Veronica Worts
lighting design by Pat Dignan
sound design by Bart Fasbender
prop design by Faye Armon
production stage manager: Misha Siegel-Rivers

Mentor Project 2003

URGENT FURY
by Allison Moore
mentored by Marsha Norman
directed by Richard Caliban
with Patrick Boll, Halley Feiffer, Carol Halstead, Kathryn A. Layng, Peter Scanavino, John Speredakos, Lindsay Wilson
set design by Kris Stone
production stage manager: Rosie Norman
March 12 - 29

SLAG HEAP
by Anton Dudley
mentored by Ed Bullins
directed by Erica Schmidt
with Brienan Bryant, Caroline Clay, Nina Zoie Lam, Andy Powers, Debargo Sanyal, Yvonne Woods
set design by Kris Stone
production stage manager: Kate Hefel
April 9 - 26

THE PARENTS’ EVENING
by Bathsheba Doran
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Irina Brown
with Lisa Emery, Ken Marks
production stage manager: Kate Hefel
May 7 - June 1

Mentor Project 2003
costume design by Yvonne DeMoravia
lighting design by Brian Aldous
sound design by Bart Fasbender
prop design by Faye Armon

Mentor Project 2002

OUT OF STERNO
by Deborah Zoe Laufer
mentored by Marsha Norman
directed by Eleanor Reissa
with Charles Borland, Dale Carman, Debbie Gravitte, Emily Loesser
set design by Nathan Heverin
costume design by Tracy Christensen
lighting design by Jeff Nellis
sound design by Bruce Ellman
wig design by Robert Charles
prop design by Faye Armon
production stage manager: Samone Weissman
April 2 - 13

99 HISTORIES
by Julia Cho
mentored by David Henry Hwang
directed by Maria Mileaf
with Elaina Erika Davis, Joel De La Fuente, Ann Hu, Mia Katigbak, Darren Pettie, Mia Tagano
set design by Nathan Heverin
costume design by Soonwha Choi
lighting design by Nicole Pearce
sound design by Matthew T. Lebe
prop design by Faye Armon
production stage manager: J.J. Lee
April 23 - May 4

SIXTEEN WOUNDED
by Eliam Kraiem
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Matt August
with Mia Barron, Jane Burd, Edward A. Hajj, Dylan Dawson, Jonathan Hova, Jim Moie,
Martin Rayner
set design by Nathan Heverin
costume design by Aleho Vietti
lighting design by Nicole Pearce
sound design by Bill Grady
prop design by Faye Armon
fight choreography: Michele Lynch
dialect coach: Diego Daniel Pardo
production stage manager: Allison Deutsch
for one week extension: Chime Serra and John Phillips replaced Dylan Dawson and Jim Moie
May 14 - 25

Mentor Project 2001

BLOOD ORANGE
by David Wiener
mentored by David Henry Hwang
directed by Anders Cato
with Julia Gibson, Jonathan Hova, Julienne Kim, Susan Pelligrino, Brian Sacca, Pablo Schreiber, Angela vanden Heuvel
set design by Beowulf Boritt
costume design by Richard Pierce
lighting design by Jeffrey Lowney
sound design by Bill Grady
prop design by Michele Catalano
production stage manager: Steven Gridley
April 11 - 21

CONCERTINA’S RAINBOW
by Glyn O'Malley
mentored by Alfred Uhry
directed by Bob E. Gasper
with Barbara Broughton, Mia Dillon, Anne Pitoniak, Jeffrey Plunkett, Jillian Steward, Joyce Van Patten
costume design by Richard Pierce
lighting design by Jeff Croiter
sound design by David Gilman
paintings by Shirley Kaplan
prop design by Michele Catalano
projection design by Ivory & Chime Serra
production stage manager: Layla Dowlatshahi
May 9 - 19

THE SHOEBOX OF EBBETS FIELD
by Ross Berger
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Hayley Finn
with Nina Landey, Jonathan Press, Ed Vassallo
set design by Beowulf Boritt
costume design by Melissa Schlachtmeyer
lighting design by John Paul Szczepanski
sound design by Robert Kaplowitz
prop design by Michele Catalano
production stage manager: Samone Weissman
May 23 - June 2

STRANGE ATTRACTORS
by David Adjmi
mentored by Craig Lucas
directed by Richard Caliban
with Joanna P. Adler, Andrew Heckler, Michael Marisi, Adrienne Shelly
set design by Beowulf Boritt
costume & set consultant : Rebecca Dowd
lighting design by Shawn Gallagher
sound design by Robert Kaplowitz
prop design by Faye Armon
production stage manager: Sara Sahin
June 6 - 16

THE ALLEGORY OF PAINTING
by Cybele Pascal
mentored by Marsha Norman
directed by Leigh Silverman
with Janine Barris-Gerstl, Angel Desai, Caitlin Gibbon, Tony Hoty, Jerusha Klemperer, John Leone, Annie McAdams, Cody Nickel, Michael Ringer, Garret Savage
set design by Beowulf Boritt
costume design by Rebecca Dowd
lighting design by Shawn Gallager
sound design by Jill DuBoff
prop design by Faye Armon
projection design by Chime & Ivory Serra
fight choreography by Caitlin Gibbon
production stage manager: Tessa Peterson
June 20 - 30

Mentor Project 2000

GUN CLUB
by Hunt Holman
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Amy Feinberg
with Dannah Chaifetz, Jeff Kronson, Linda Larkin, Irene McDonnell, David Newer, Andy Powers, Tibor Feldman
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by Jason Lyons
sound design by Tim Cramer
stage manager: Joseph Dempsey
April 5 - 14

THE REFRESHMENT OF THE SPIRIT
by Anne Washburn
mentored by Craig Lucas
directed by Anne Kauffman
with Cynthia Adler, Marilyn Bernard, T.R. Knight, Salty Loeb, Susan Pourfar, Margaret Ritchie,
Mara Stephens, Maria Thayer, Trevor A. Williams
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design by Tim Cramer
production stage manager: Sandra Overstreet
April 26 - 5

AUNT PIECES
by Rosemary Moore
mentored by A.R. Gurney
directed by Michael Sexton
with Barbara Andres, Reed Birney, Caitlin Clarke, Jon DeVries, Autumn Dornfeld, Sean McNall
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design by Tim Cramer
production stage manager: Elizabeth Tung
May 10 - 19

GOLEM
by Gary Winter
mentored by Alfred Uhry
directed by Hayley Finn
with Yusef Bulos, Jessica Whitney Could, Hank Jacobs, Christopher Messina, Yvonne Woods
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Deb Millison
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design and original music by Robert Kaplowitz
puppets by Jan Leslie Harding
production stage manager: Scott Robinson
May 24 - June 2

LOWELL LIMPETT
by Ward Just
mentored by Wendy Wasserstein
directed by Bob E. Gasper
with Gerry Bamman
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by Shawn Gallagher
sound design by Aural Fixation
production stage manager: David P. Smith
June 7 – 16

Mentor Project 1999

RAZING HOUSES
by Lizzie Olesker
mentored by Tony Kushner
directed by Lisa Portes
with Ledlie Borgerhoff, Joel Carino, Carla Harting, Margaret Ritchie
production stage manager: Denise Pera
September 21 - 25

FOUR
by Christopher Shinn
mentored by Charles Fuller
directed by Frank Pugliese
with Isiah Whitlock, Stacy Highsmith, Angel David, Keith Nobbs
production stage manager: Jack Vanderwark
September 14-18
CROCKERLAND
by Peter Buchman
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Susann Brinkley
with Kevin Patrick Dowling, Jolene Hjerleid, Patricia Mauceri, Ted Neustadt
production stage manager: Kathryn "China" Hayzer
September 28-October 2

ST. LUCY’S EYES
by Bridgette Wimberly
mentored by Wendy Wasserstein
directed by Israel Hicks
with Cecelia Antoinette, Roger Robinson, Kellee Stewart, Kalimi Baxter
production stage manager: Brooke Fulton
October 12-16

NOTES FROM THE CONFEDERACY
by Heather Hill
mentored by A.R. Gurney
directed by Eduardo Machado
with Cara Buono, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Linda Larkin, Yul Vazquez
production stage manager: Lynelle Leigh
October 19-23

Mentor Project 1999
set design by Kristie Thompson
costume design by Sarah Lemire
lighting design by Yael Lubetzky
sound design and original music by J. Hagenbuckle

More About Mentor Project

Mentor Project, our Obie Award-winning program, engages leading dramatists in one-on-one mentoring relationships with emerging playwrights for an entire theater season. Established in 1998, Mentor Project was inspired by an important precursor in residence at Cherry Lane in the 60s: ALBARWILD, a collaboration between producers Richard Barr, Clinton Wilder and playwright Edward Albee, who created production opportunities for such early-career playwrights as Sam Shepard, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), A. R. Gurney and Jean-Claude van Itallie. To date, Mentor Project has nurtured and launched new works by 40 emerging dramatists. After having been submitted for consideration through our national nominating committee, and selected through a blind judging process, the Mentors help the young writers hone their craftsmanship through meetings, readings and workshops, while forming a personal and trusted relationship of support. The project culminates in a showcase production that remains critic-free to avoid commercial concerns that would inhibit the writer's creative process. The Project has elevated a third of its alumni to professional and public notice. Their work has flourished on and Off-Broadway, regionally and around the world. Cherry Lane's Mentors are truly a priceless resource - they count among their distinctions eight Pulitzer Prizes, six Pulitzer Prize nominations, twelve Obie Awards, seven Tony Awards, six Tony nominations, two Oscars, and an Oscar nomination.

Edward Albee, Charles Fuller, A.R. Gurney, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, Michael Weller
Founding Mentors

Angelina Fiordellisi and Susann Brinkley
Mentor Project Founders

What We Provide

To meet the goals of Mentor Project, CLT offers generous rehearsal and performance time within our 60 seat Studio Theatre, publicity, audience outreach for all readings and performances, administrative support, Master Classes taught by our Mentors and other pre-eminent playwrights, culminating in an AEA approved showcase production. We provide financial support in the form of a $5,000 stipend to each Fellow and Mentor. This affords the writer freedom to concentrate on the development of the work and partnership between Master and Fellow.

Time Table and Process

Nomination Process

March 15 - June 15

Cherry Lane Theatre does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Our Nominating Committee consists of a diverse group of theatre professionals from across the country. The Committee members nominate a maximum of three playwrights each. Nominees are mailed notification along with application materials and instructions.

Selection Process

June - October

The Selection Committee reads each submitted play and chooses a group of semi-finalists. Subsequently, each Mentor receives 3-5 scripts from this group and selects the writer with whom they will work. This is a time consuming process and demonstrates the level of commitment each Mentor makes to the Project. At the end of the selection process, we have three distinct voices that will receive the all too rare opportunity to be supported and developed by peers AND receive a production.

Phase One

First Draft Readings - November

The first readings of the three selected plays are held in November. This private reading provides an opportunity for both the Mentor and the Fellow to hear the play read aloud by professional actors. The first reading serves as a formal beginning for their mentoring relationship.

A formal announcement of the season's Mentors and Fellows is scheduled for the first Monday in December. The event is both celebration and performance, as the Fellows read a 10-minute selection from each new play and their Mentors read a selection from one of their earlier plays or works in progress. The evening successfully fosters a strong group dynamic within the community of Mentors and Fellows who will be working together during the season.

Phase Two

Staged Readings - January

Following private exploration and revision, we present public readings of each Fellow's play. The readings, held in January in the Studio at Cherry Lane, are open to the public, which includes many theatre professionals. Mentor and Fellow actively participate in the selection of director and cast. The preparation for the public reading provides an opportunity to hear revisions in front of an audience, experiment with casting and begin to address production needs and challenges.

Phase Three

Three workshops, 12 performances each - March - May

Both Mentor and Fellow have been striving toward this crucial phase. Each of the three plays receives a full production with a professional director, actors and designers. This artistic collaboration with the entire company in preparation for the production provides the basis for the most intense work to occur on the play to date. Revisions are strongly encouraged and supported throughout the three-week rehearsal period and subsequent 12 performances.

Summary

The effectiveness of our Mentor Project program is affirmed by the continued success of the early- career playwrights we have worked with. It is our goal to provide these playwrights with a supportive yet challenging developmental structure for their plays. It is our hope that the writers leave the Mentor Project experience with a stronger draft of their play, an appreciation for what the audience can teach us, a professional working process and a deepened commitment to their craft. They will have benefited from the crucial element of interaction between master and protégé, and realize that it is within a community that the artist thrives. The creative bond and continued relationships of our alumni with their mentors, as well as their lasting membership in the Cherry Lane community is a clear indication of the need for this type of program. Thanks to our gracious mentors, CLT Mentor Project is a rarely experienced phenomenon among playwrights.