NEW YORK CITY: Playwrights Horizons has launched a new literary magazine called Almanac. The inaugural edition, which will be published in January 2021, features commissioned plays, essays, interviews, poems, and visual art exploring contemporary politics, culture, and dramatic writing.
“When our stages on 42nd Street suddenly emptied, we felt called to gather in other ways: not just to gather our thoughts but, if possible, to gather together,” said dramaturg Ashley Chang, who serves as editor-in-chief, in an editor’s note. “As Agnes Borinsky reminds us in her essay, the theatre has long served as a site of gathering in both these senses. Bereft of such sites, we thought, let Almanac be our new meeting place, a forum for assembly and an occasion, too, to sort out and sift through the vagaries of this time.”
Edited and designed by Playwrights Horizons staff, Almanac’s dramaturgical and graphic team includes Jordan Best (graphics and digital content associate), Ashley Chang (dramaturg, editor-in-chief), Iman Childs (digital content editor), Adam Greenfield (artistic director), Billy McEntee (communications associate), Karl Baker Olson (artistic programs manager), Kyle Sircus (associate managing director), and Lizzie Stern (literary manager).
Four advance pieces from the issue are now available, including an introductory note from artistic director Adam Greenfield, and the new short plays Double Take, by Mia Chung; Morning, by Jean Ann Douglass; and Tellit To Me In My Ear, by James Ijames.
The magazine’s forthcoming pieces will include work from playwrights Brittany K. Allen, Will Arbery, Clare Barron, Agnes Borinsky, Kirsten Childs, Mia Chung, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Jean Ann Douglass, Larissa FastHorse, Dave Harris, Zora Howard, James Ijames, C.A. Johnson, Hansol Jung, Sylvia Khoury, Craig Lucas, Robert O’Hara, Heather Raffo, and Sanaz Toossi; theatre artists Raja Feather Kelly, Angela Lewis, Arnulfo Maldonado, J. Mallory McCree, Rodrigo Muñoz, Taylor Reynolds, and David Zinn; Playwrights Horizons artistic directors André Bishop (1981-1992), Bob Moss (founder, 1971-1981), Don Scardino (1992-1996), Tim Sanford (1996-2020), and Adam Greenfield (present); and Playwrights Horizons current and former staff and fellows Alaine Alldaffer, Karl Baker Olson, Ashley Chang, Iman Childs, Lisa Donadio, Kim Golding, Alison Koch, Billy McEntee, Charlianne Meli, Libby Peterson, Eva Rosa, Divinia Shorter, Lizzie Stern, Ari Teplitz (consultant), Bonita Carol Thomas, May Treuhaft-Ali, Tomi Tsunoda, and Libby Zambrano. The Almanac commissions are supported by funds raised by Play-PerView.
“Confronting the intractable question of what theatre might be on the other side of this pandemic, in the face of how little there is to truly know, my instinct is to look to artists to illuminate the path forward,” said Greenfield in his essay “Making an Almanac.” “The impact of Covid-19 has prompted broad, critical conversations within the larger artistic community about theatre’s past and future: our architecture, our budgeting, our pursuit of racial justice and equity. Undergoing such transformation, while also marking the organization’s 50th anniversary, Playwrights Horizons finds itself in a unique moment of reflection. In the attempt to capture the elusive, rapidly changing ideas and mindset of this critical moment, we bring you Almanac.”
