CHAPEL HILL, N.C.: PlayMakers Repertory Company has announced two new play commissions from Bekah Brunstetter and Charly Evon Simpson. The commissions mark the launch of the new @PLAY new-works development program, which will focus on supporting women playwrights and spotlighting stories by and about women of diverse identities.
“Producing new work and developing relationships with the brave, thoughtful writers who are making their mark on the American theatre today is a true labor of love,” producing artistic director Vivienne Benesch said in a statement. “@PLAY has grown out of this effort, as well as our company’s commitment to diverse representation and equity in our corner of the American theatre and beyond.”
“UNC Chapel Hill is where I found my voice as a playwright, and it truly feels like a homecoming to write a play for PlayMakers,” Brunstetter said in a statement. “I’m especially excited to collaborate with Vivienne, who had the very smart idea to ask me what might happen if I adapted Lysistrata. I’m so excited to explore gender, marriage, femininity, and masculinity through a contemporary lens, with some humor, hearts, and video games.”
Said Simpson in a statement, “My favorite thing about writing a new play is that it is an opportunity to create and share a new world. I love when a new work can bring people together and, through its creation and production, allow the opportunity for new and different connections. I’m looking forward to working with the company at PlayMakers, and hope that by consciously exploring the new, we find that common ground that live theatre is so good at creating.”
The @PLAY commissions will be written, workshopped, and produced at PlayMakers over the course of the next few years. The playwrights will also participate in a variety of community and campus events at UNC Chapel Hill.
PlayMakers Repertory Company produces relevant and courageous work that that tells stories from and for a multiplicity of perspectives. The company is part of the playmaking tradition at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
