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Playwriting

The Latest

Video
Suzan-Lori Parks's Watch Me Work
A Playwriting Masterclass
Monday 13 July 2026
New York City
Essay
I Don’t Know How She Navigates the Long Haul of Freelancing, Caregiving, and Disability
by Artist Caregiver
22 June 2026
Video
The Art of Playwriting from Personal Experience
Sunday 21 June 2026
New York City
A woman wearing white stands on stage in front of projections of different words.
Essay
29 August 2024

Cori Thomas convenes playwrights based in the United States for a roundtable discussion about working internationally. They parse the differences in new play development and theatregoing cultures in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 26 August 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work, facilitated by Suzan-Lori Parks, is a virtual communal work session for nurturing creativity. Hosted by the Public Theater, these Zoom and HowlRound livestream sessions are accessible worldwide, allowing participants to join from home, school, or anywhere with internet access.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 19 August
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

Two women stand face to face on either side of a chain link fence.
Essay
1 August 2024

In another installment of A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights, Todd London celebrates the work of Migdalia Cruz, a writer whose plays have been deemed “impossible.” 

A man sits on stage on a black box in front of a blue scrim.
Essay
31 July 2024

Playwright and performer Liam Monaghan details the process behind writing Strange/Familiar, his autofictional play on the themes of adoption and queer belonging. He explores the way contemporary autofictions hold up a mirror to ourselves and our world, reflecting both uncertainty and meaning.

Two woman sit at a crowded dinner table on stage, talking to one another.
Essay
22 July 2024

Playwright Betty Shamieh advocates for playwrights continuously applying for opportunities even after repeated rejections, and highlights why doing so is especially important for playwrights from marginalized communities.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 15 July 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 1 July 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

Two actors stand in a dimly lit space with one shining a flashlight in the others face.
Essay
27 June 2024

Ten years after writing The Gun Show, playwright Ellen Lewis looks back at the play that tasks an actor with the delivery of a series of gun stories from Lewis’s life—typically with Ellen among the audience. Lewis sits down with Nate Cohen, who worked on the show for several runs that totaled more than one hundred performances, to reflect on the ways the play, its playwright, and the world have changed over ten years of productions.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 17 June 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 10 June 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 3 June 2024
New York City

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

headshot of René Pollesch.
Video

An Evening Celebrating the Life and Work of the Late Playwright and Director

Thursday 30 May 2024
New York City

New York theatre artist Matt Gasda and his ensemble from the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research will be joined by David Levine for readings of two Pollesch plays Heidi Hoh, translated by Rose Riggs, and Insourcing ..., translated by David Tushingham.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 20 May 2024
United States

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

A man guides a woman's arm during a performance.
Essay
16 May 2024

Todd London celebrates the work and love story of multidisciplinary theatremakers Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet who have been creating theatre as part of the ensemble Talking Band for the past fifty years. 

A promotional graphic for Teaching Theatre.
Podcast
14 May 2024

Theatre is a collaborative art.  In this week’s episode, host Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder talks with Padraic Lillis, artistic director of the Farm Theatre and Jennifer Goff,  professor at Centre College, about the collaborative process. Drawing from their experience developing a new play through the Farm Theatre project, Padraic and Jennifer discuss the ways in which collaboration helps students learn to think critically, communicate effectively, take risks, and analyze text.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 13 May 2024

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

headshots of ten playwrights.
Video

Displacement Plays from Uganda, Lebanon, West Africa, Haiti and Ukranian Playwrights Project

Monday 13 May 2024
New York City

Join us for an evening of plays by nine writers who personally experienced displacement, migration, and war. Alongside four thirty-minute pieces, we will hear shorter ten-minute works by five young Ukrainian writers.

Poster image for PPF 2024.
Video

Presented by South Coast Repertory

Sunday 5 May 2024

South Coast Repertory presented the Playwrights Panel, part of the 2024 Pacific Playwrights Festival!

A promotional graphic for Teaching Theatre.
Podcast
30 April 2024

As conversations about the diversity and decolonization of syllabi continue, many theatre programs reconsider the texts they teach.  In this episode, host Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder talks with Nathan Alan Davis from Boston University and Yizhou Huang from St. Louis University about reinventing the canon. They question who controls the narrative, discuss what qualifies as canon, and offer up some suggestions for course redesign.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 22 April 2024
New York

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

A performer stands on a dimly lit stage in front of a whale setpiece.
Essay
22 April 2024

Chantal Bilodeau kicks off another installment of Theatre in the Age of Climate Change by reflecting on her journey working on the Arctic Cycle against the backdrop of the continuously increasing global temperature, and introducing the other playwrights who will be sharing about their commitment to creating a series of work about the climate crisis. 

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 15 April 2024
New York

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

Headshots of three playwrights.
Essay
3 April 2024

What tools are playwrights using to survive in the theatre industry today? What tools are missing? Louis DeVaughn “DeVo” Nelson poses these questions and more to three playwrights in conversations about the future of theatre, the shedding supremacist systems, and the necessity to build new communities.

A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
Video

A Playwriting Masterclass

Monday 1 April 2024
New York

Watch Me Work is a communal work session for anyone eager to nurture and sustain their creative process. Facilitated by Public Theater Playwright-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and the New Work Development department, Watch Me Work takes place via Zoom sessions and HowlRound livestreams that you can join at home, at school, or in a coffee shop from anywhere in the world!

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