Primary Stages is committed to supporting playwrights at all stages of their careers and providing an artistic home where they can hone their craft and develop their latest works.
An integral part of this initiative is our Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, which has been fostering the creation of new works by emerging playwrights for 28 years. Throughout its history, the Group has helped launch the careers of over 60 writers and supported the creation of over 165 new plays. The last five years have seen 27 productions of plays developed in the Group. Notable titles include The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seavey, Hatef*ck by Rehana Lew Mirza, We The Invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton, Eden Prairie by Mat Smart, God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler, Amerikin and Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson, and Queen of Basel by Hillary Bettis.
Led by our artistic staff, the Group is composed of eight up-and-coming writers who participate in the program for a three-year cycle. This multi-year commitment provides writers with the security of an artistic home and enables our staff to form intimate relationships with these artists and give them the personal attention they need to advance their work. The Group meets on a weekly basis from September through April, giving writers the opportunity to discuss their current projects and offer each other constructive feedback in a supportive environment. The goal for each writer is to complete a new play by the end of the spring session, which is then given a public reading in our Fresh Ink Reading Series. The group members also receive a week-long retreat at Bennington College. Our 2023/24 Group members include Benjamin Benne, Oscar A. L. Cabrera, Fedna Jacquet, Eric Micha Holmes, Jonathan Norton, Madhuri Shekar, and Calamity West.
Primary Stages continues to support our Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group alumni in their future as artists. Alumni collaborations include commissions of Rehana Lew Mirza's A People's Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now and Susan Soon He Stanton's 2021 Living Room Commission. In 2019, Primary Stages produced Leah Nanako Winkler's God Said This, which was began in DSNAWG and then went to on to feature in the Actors Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival and received the 2018 Yale Drama Prize.
Our 2024 Fresh Ink Reading Series will be held from April 3-12 at 59E59 Theaters.
All readings are free and open to the public. Learn more and RSVP here.
BENJAMIN BENNE (he/him) was named part of “LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, investigators, and power players breaking through barriers” by the LA Times. His work has been developed at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Public, Roundabout, Playwrights Realm, Denver Center, The Old Globe, Two River, New Harmony Project, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, among many others, and his produced plays include Alma (Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, American Blues Theater, ArtsWest Playhouse, Curious Theatre Company, Central Square Theater, The Spot), In His Hands (Mosaic Theater Company), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (Pillsbury House + Theatre). He has been awarded Ojai Playwrights Conference’s Dr. Kerry English Award, Portland Stage’s Clauder Competition Grand Prize, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latinx Playwriting Award, the Kennedy Center’s KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award, American Blues’ Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and the Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight and Many Voices Fellowships. He is a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and has been commissioned by South Coast Rep and Seattle Rep. MFA: David Geffen/Yale School of Drama. www.benjaminbenne.com
OSCAR A. L. CABRERA (he/him) is a New York-based actor/playwright born of Texas. His plays include Through Andrew’s Eyes (WAGG Hudson Warehouse, INTAR’s New Works Lab, Rising Circle, Black and Latino Playwrights Conference 2016), Maybe You Should Just (EWG Public Theater), ReSpec (Spectrum Theater Ensemble), Pennies and Bolts (Labyrinth Theater Mofo Hat Festival), as well as over ten original ten minute plays through The Flea Theater Serials and multiple years of One-Minute-Play-Festival. In 2020, he led the Economic Justice Committee for accountability of The Flea Theater’s treatment of artists. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director and the Co-Founder of the Latinx Playwrights Circle, an organization with the blunt aim of increasing Latinx representation across all fields in New York Theater. He leads the Intensive Mentorship, a program he originated with Guadalís Del Carmen, partnering peers with mentors in the field and supports numerous New Play Development across the organization.
ERIC MICHA HOLMES (he/him) is a dramatist whose work has been produced by Audible Inc. (Rapture Season: From a Glacier We Watch the World Burn), BBC 4 (Care Inc.), The National Black Theatre (Mondo Tragic), Guild Hall (Falls for Jodie), and has been developed at The New Black Fest (Blessèd Are The Meek), The Apollo Theatre (Color Theory), and New York Theatre Workshop (Nimpsey Pink). Fellowships include Space at Ryder Farm, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, and The Dramatist Guild Fellowship, among others. Walking Next To Michael Brown: Confessions Of A Tragic Mulatto has toured with Kennedy Center’s Civic Artist award-winning Hands Up: 7 Playwrights / 7 Testaments to theaters across the country. Holmes is co-chair of Goddard College’s MFA Creative Writing Program, Teaching Artist at The National Theatre School of Canada, and Visiting Lecturer of Playwriting at Skidmore College. “Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques of the Stage,” a forthcoming anthology on the craft of intercultural playwriting, will be published by Routledge Press in December, 2023.
FEDNA JACQUET (she/her) is a full-time actor/writer/director, born in Boston to Haitian parents. She recently starred as Passenger 1 in the Tony nominated Ain’t No Mo on Broadway. She is a 2020-2024 National Black Theatre Playwright in Residence, a 2021-2022 Inaugural Still I Rise Documentary Fellow, a 2019-2022 Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting. Written plays include Black Mother Lost Daughter (Commissioned by National Black Theatre, Breaking Ground Festival, O’Neill Finalist), Girlfriend (The Fire This Time Festival, O’Neill Semifinalist), Pefeksyon (Playwright’s Realm Finalist, DVRF Finalist, Studio Tisch), Inheritance (Classical Theatre of Harlem Playwright’s Playground, Studio Tisch), Civic Duty (Commissioned by Suny Purchase), and Heroes (Developed as a Huntington Fellow). Fedna is currently recurring as an actor on “FBI: Most Wanted” (CBS). She has appeared on “And Just Like That,” “The Equalizer,” “City On A Hill,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and many others. BA: Brown University, MFA: NYU Tisch.
JONATHAN NORTON's (he/him) work has been produced or developed by Dallas Theater Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Actors Theatre of Louisville (44th Humana Festival), Primary Stages, TheatreSquared, LaJolla Playhouse, National New Play Network, PlayPenn, Pyramid Theatre Company, Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Kitchen Dog Theater, Undermain Theatre, Theater Three, and South Dallas Cultural Center. Jonathan’s play Mississippi Goddamn was a Finalist for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and won the 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award. Jonathan is currently Playwright in Residence at Dallas Theater Center.
MADHURI SHEKAR (she/her) is a recipient of the Lanford Wilson Playwriting Award and the Steinberg Playwriting Award. Her nationally produced plays include House of Joy, Queen, A Nice Indian Boy, and In Love and Warcraft. Her audio drama, Evil Eye, won a 2020 Audie Award for best original work, and she wrote the film adaptation for Amazon Prime, which stars Sarita Chaudhury. In other TV and film work, Madhuri was a staff writer on HBO’s “The Nevers,” worked on Sister Act 3, and wrote on “3 Body Problem,” a new Netflix show from the creators of “Game of Thrones.” She is working on commissions for the Perelman Performing Arts Center, Audible Theater, and Playwrights Horizons, as well as pilots for HBO, Disney+, and Netflix. Madhuri is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and an alumni of the Ma-Yi writers lab and the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Julliard. She has an MFA in dramatic writing from USC.
CALAMITY WEST (she/her) Through 2025, Calamity West will be developing her work at Primary Stages as a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group. Additionally, West is working on her newest play FEAST! at The Lortel Theatre as an awardee of Alcove At The Lortel. Calamity is a Chicago-based, award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been presented by The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout, The Goodman, Jackalope Theatre, Steep Theatre, and Primary Stages – to name a few. Calamity teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago and literature at her alma mater of Webster University. She is a proud company member of Jackalope Theatre Company, where she founded the Playwrights Lab in 2018. West is represented by CAA and managed by Curate.
LEARN MORE ABOUT DSNAWG
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF DSNAWG
The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group is made possible, in part, through the generous support of The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, The Ellen M. Violet and Mary P.R. Thomas Foundation, and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.