TRAVELERS Program

MAGNIFICENT BIRD / BOOK OF TRAVELERS

Who We Are Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater committed to the advancement of bold and visionary contemporary playwrights, through the development and production of daring new work and the education of future theatermakers. Adam Greenfield has served as Artistic Director since 2020; Casey York became Managing Director in 2024. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons’ 53-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country. By expanding the U.S. theater canon with a wider range of voices, Playwrights Horizons aims to be a home for the exploration of playwriting and an anti-racist center of curiosity, dialogue, and artistic risk.

Playwrights Horizons offers a season of productions annually on their two stages. Each production is a world, U.S., or New York premiere. Additionally, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through the New Works Lab, a commissions program (supporting several of today’s most imaginative playwrights each year), and Almanac (a literary magazine about the theatrical art form). Much like Playwrights Horizons’ work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

Ultimately, Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life’s paradoxes.

And they believe in the singularity of each writer’s voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of U.S. writers.

Playwrights Horizons Theater School We are also an undergraduate theater program that offers an innovative four-year multidisciplinary training program that is consistently ranked as one of the best undergraduate training studios in the country. Recognizing the diverse needs and ambitions of the 21st-century theater artist, Playwrights Horizons Theater School is the only undergraduate studio training actors, directors, designers, choreographers, playwrights, and creators of devised work in a single setting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Our collaborative program is dedicated to the principle that each student is a whole artist to be nurtured, challenged, and celebrated.

Our Commitment Playwrights Horizons commits to anti-racism in building a more just future for everyone — particularly those from historically oppressed communities, including the Lenape nation, whose land is home to our work. We acknowledge that the U.S. theater is born of a country founded on white supremacy and anti-Blackness, and we are dedicated to uprooting these and all systems of oppression. This work is ongoing and benefits our programming, staff, audiences, faculty, students, board, donors, and partners. We invite you to engage in this with us. As we expand the U.S. theater canon, we aim to make Playwrights Horizons a theater that is an anti-racist center of ideas, dialogue, curiosity, and a liberated imagination.

To learn further, please head to phnyc.org/anti-racism. Playwrights Horizons crafted its Land Acknowledgment in collaboration with The Lenape Center, and we continually strive to align our actions with these words. In order to activate and build upon this statement, we encourage artists and staff who work with us to engage with local Indigenous cultural activities around New York City. Click here to learn more about events happening soon.

From the Playwright: Gabriel Kahane I. I was sitting at my kitchen table in October of 2016, reading another breathless essay that sought to explain the shifting dynamics of the electorate, when I decided to get out and see the country for myself. I was tired of being a passive observer, of relying on pundits to catalog and contextualize the fresh wounds and faint scars that covered the body politic. I wanted instead to develop my own understanding—however provisional and incomplete—of what had led to this unprecedented moment in American political life. I told my partner that I was going to board a train the morning after the election and travel the country. I booked a loping, circuitous route: New York to Chicago to Portland to Los Angeles back to Chicago to New Orleans, and finally home to New York. In undertaking this journey, I would travel 8,980 miles over thirteen days.

The experience—which would yield the songs that became the album Book of Travelers—was by turns bracing, joyous, mournful, unsettling, monotonous, hairraising, and transformative. Contrary to what we’re told on social media or cable news, people are complicated! They are full of contradictions! You don’t know what someone believes or why they behave the way they do unless you actually talk to them. I’ve often thought of my train trip as an attempt to transcend cultural and partisan division. But now, on the eve of the tandem presentation of these two musictheater pieces—each preoccupied in its way with the vexed relationship between human society and technology—it strikes me that the sheer lack of mediation on the train might have been as significant as the substance of the conversations I had with one hundred or so of my fellow passengers.

I remember sitting in the observation car of the Southwest Chief, somewhere in the New Mexico desert, thinking to myself: some part of you is being healed and humbled by this experience, and you ought to cultivate more opportunities to exist, in this way, in the world.

Almost exactly three years later, I began a year-long hiatus from the internet, with the intention of doubling down on that commitment to engage with people, rather than devices, whenever possible. For a variety of reasons—the pandemic among them—the experiment didn’t go according to plan, and I spent the final eight months isolated with my wife and young daughter in an unfamiliar city. As much of the world became ever more reliant on the internet, I turned monkish. I considered abandoning the project, but persevered, whether out of foolishness or stubborn temperament.

While my digital detox grew from a desire to better understand the attention economy, surveillance capitalism, and the debts that accrue in our obsession with convenience and efficiency, Magnificent Bird—written mostly at the tail-end of my year offline—is not “about the internet.” In its formal and thematic restlessness, I’m not sure I could tell you what it is about. Formally speaking, it’s a weird hybrid that exists at the blurred edges of concert, confession, stand-up comedy, literary lecture, gonzo journalism, and theater. When I hunt for thematic unity, I perceive an undercurrent of loss running through the songs. Ours is a moment in which global communication has made us aware of more human suffering than one person can meaningfully hold. Many of us live in a constant state of emotional triage.

Perhaps this is another reason we resort to tribalism: it simply hurts too much to be present and accountable to all of the pain that surrounds us. I suppose that, in writing these songs, I was asking myself this question: how can a person find grace, meaning, and purpose, in a world suffused with relentless cruelty?

II. In societies that operate within a gift economy, writes the poet Lewis Hyde, the circulation of a gift—as it is passed from person to person—articulates a community.

If you receive the gift, it is an indication that you belong. I believe that all performance is a gift, and that the artist and audience collectively make up a community. When I sing a song, it’s nice if it’s beautiful, but perhaps its holier function is to serve as a social bond. Sound moves through a room, and, if we are alive to the moment, we all become connected.

Not only in the aftermath of pandemic lockdowns, but in an era of extreme social isolation, one in which, for all of the marvels of digital connectivity, Americans are lonelier, more atomized, and more politically and culturally divided than ever, I’ve come to see my job as a performer as a kind of secular ministry. Here, I am less an artist on a pedestal than a shepherd of, and participant in, communal experience. On the train, I sought to expand my conception of the word “we”: to work through discomfort and against assumptions and

biases in order to see myself in those who are very different from me, and vice versa. There’s something related at work in the plays I’m performing, in which songs, stories, confessions, and jokes, are instruments meant to awaken and expand a community, if only temporarily, within the walls of the theater.

Having lived in New York from 2003 til early 2020, it’s personally significant to be returning to the city to tell two stories, which are, in no small part, about leaving the city. But it’s also a layover on a longer artistic journey. I’ve been touring as a songwriter for fifteen years, and it’s only with these shows that I think I’ve found a form that’s specific to who I am: a vessel for my interests in music, storytelling, literature, journalism, cultural criticism, and history—but most of all, an arena in which to express and nurture my love of humanity, and my desire to see a society flourish in which we are unequivocal in the care we extend to all of our neighbors, in unyielding pursuit of the beloved community.

UP NEXT IN THE JUDY THEATER | STARTS OCT 10

An unlikely love story – and a startling new work of speculative fiction – about queer aging, chosen family, and the search for home in a volatile world.

Written by

Sarah Mantell Directed by

Sivan Battat

Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater Artistic Director

Managing Director

Adam Greenfield

Casey York

General Manager

Carol Fishman

MAGNIFICENT BIRD / BOOK OF TRAVELERS Created and performed by

Gabriel Kahane Scenography

AMP Scenography featuring Oscar Escobedo Props

Matt Carlim

Costume Design

Wendy Yang

Production Stage Manager

Elizabeth Emanuel

Lighting Design

Christopher Bowser

Sound Design

Garth MacAleavey

Press Representative

Blake Zidell & Associates

Associate Artistic Director

Natasha Sinha Directed by

Annie Tippe

MAGNIFICENT BIRD was co-commissioned by Georgia Tech Arts/Georgia Institute of Technology, Meany Center for the Performing Arts, and Stanford Live/Stanford University, with additional support provided by UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. It debuted at Georgia Tech Arts in April 2022.

BOOK OF TRAVELERS was commissioned by BAM for the 2017 Next Wave Festival.

Grand piano provided by Yamaha.

About the Artists GABRIEL KAHANE (Writer and performer) is a musician and storyteller. Playwrights Horizons debut. Highlights of this season include duo tours with fellow composer/ performer Caroline Shaw in the U.S. and Europe; the premiere of a clarinet concerto for Anthony McGill; a solo debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon; and his San Francisco conducting debut with Carla Kihlstedt’s Twenty-six Little Deaths. Heirloom, a piano concerto written for his father, Jeffrey Kahane, will be released in 2025 by Nonesuch Records.

Gabriel has released five albums as a singer-songwriter, and has collaborated with artists including Phoebe Bridgers, Sufjan Stevens, Sylvan Esso, the Danish String Quartet, Anthony McGill, and Pekka Kuusisto, his bandmate in the duo ‘Council.’ Kahane’s writings on music, literature, and politics can be found at gabrielkahane.substack.com. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

ANNIE TIPPE (Director) is a director and creator of new work, music theater, and film. Playwrights Horizons debut.

She directed the world premieres and subsequent productions of Dave Malloy’s Octet, Three Houses, and Ghost Quartet.

For Octet, she won the Lortel Award for Best Direction and was named an SDC Callaway Award Finalist. Other recent: Julia May Jonas’ Your Own Personal Exegesis (Lincoln Center), Molly Beach Murphy and Jeanna Phillip’s COWBOY BOB (Alley Theatre), Selina Fillinger’s POTUS (Berkeley Rep), Britta Johnson’s Life After (Goodman Theatre; Jeff Award Nominee), James and Jerome’s INK (co-directed with Rachel Chavkin), and The Conversationalists (Bushwick Starr). Her film “HELP ME MARY” won Best Narrative Short at the Lower East Side Film Festival. Former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, Drama League Directing Fellow, Williamstown Directing Corps.

AMP (Scenography) is a Tony-nominated collective founded by BRETT J. BANAKIS & CHRISTINE JONES to amplify emerging and underrepresented designers by engaging in equitable collaborations.

This production features a collaboration with Oscar Escobedo. Jones / Banakis

credits: The Outsiders (as AMP, Tony nom.), The Ambassador (with Gabriel Kahane), The Devil Wears Prada (Chicago), The Cher Show (Broadway), What’s It All About?

(NYTW, London), Whorl Inside a Loop (2ST), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Tony & Olivier Awards). All three are NYU Tisch Alumni (MFA).

OSCAR ESCOBEDO (Scenography) is originally from San Diego and is now a New York City-based creative. Oscar is celebrating his Playwrights Horizons and Off-Broadway debut. Oscar collaborates on storytelling for theater, opera, dance, and immersive events always relying on his zeal for craft to tell stories. Filled with admiration and gratitude to create with Jones and Banakis by joining the AMP (Scenography) collective. Special projects include Bark of Millions (Taylor Mac), Used Records (Jack Cummings III), We are Proud to Present (Nigel Semaj), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Arin Arbus). MFA: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. @Oscar_D_Escobedo WENDY YANG (Costume Designer) is an Emmy-nominated costume designer for television, film, theater, commercials, and music videos. Playwrights Horizons debut.

Recent credits include: Associate and CoCostume Designer with Amy Westcott of Amazon/Kilter Films’ series Fallout, based on the retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic video game; Costume Designer of sci-fi mystery The Strange Dark, premiering this September at the Soho Film Festival; and Julia May Jonas’s new play A Woman Among Women, opening October at the Bushwick Starr.

CHRISTOPHER BOWSER (Lighting Designer). Playwrights Horizons debut.

Recently: Three Houses (Signature), Cowboy Bob (Alley), Salty Brine’s Living Record Collection (Joe’s Pub, Soho Theater London, Edinburgh Festival), Constellations (Geva), Heather Christian’s Animal Wisdom (Woolly Mammoth), Octet (Signature, Berkeley Rep), and Ghost Quartet (Bushwick Starr, tour). Bowser is an alumnus of Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU.

GARTH MacALEAVEY (Sound Designer) specializes in spatial and immersive surround sound as well as high-fidelity theatrical sound design. In partnership with Meyer Sound, he is an expert in Constellation, Space Map, and speaker systems design. Playwrights Horizons debut. Recent Credits: the Tony winning Illinoise on Broadway by Sufjan Stevens/ Justin Peck/Jackie Sibblies Drury; Song of Songs by David Lang; Old Man and the Sea

by Paola Prestini; the Grammy-nominated Soldier Songs and Black Lodge by David T. Little; the Pulitzer Prize-winning p r i s m

by Ellen Reid; Nick Cave’s The Let Go and Peter Sellars/Regg Roc Grey’s FLEXN at Park Ave Armory; and Spatial...no problem

by Lee Scratch Perry/Mouse on Mars. www.garthmacaleavey.com MATT CARLIN (Props). Playwrights: Staff Meal, Teeth, Stereophonic, Wet Brain, Regretfully, So the Birds Are, The Trees, Catch as Catch Can, Downstate, Wish You Were Here. Select Off-Broadway credits include Buena Vista Social Club, A Simulacrum (Atlantic), The Comeuppance (Signature), american (tele)visions (NYTW) and Lessons in Survival: 1971 (Vineyard). Matt also works as a props artisan and his work has been seen on Broadway in Back to the Future: The Musical and The Thanksgiving Play. He received his B.F.A. from Pace University.

ELIZABETH EMANUEL (Production Stage Manager). Playwrights Horizons debut.

Broadway: Death of a Salesman; Linda Vista. Selected Off-Broadway: Three Houses, The Comeuppance; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Cambodian Rock Band; Octet; Boesman and Lena; and Thom Pain (Signature Theatre); All the Devils Are Here (Octopus Theatricals); Toni Stone (Roundabout); Notes from Now (Prospect Musicals); Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf (Elevator Repair Service); Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard Theatre). Development at Lincoln Center, New York Theatre Workshop, PAC NYC, and Ars Nova.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS is a writer’s theater committed to the advancement of bold and visionary contemporary playwrights, through the development and

production of daring new work and the education of future theatermakers. Adam Greenfield has served as Artistic Director since 2020; Casey York became Managing Director in 2024. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons’ 53-yearold mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country. By expanding the U.S. theater canon with a wider range of voices, Playwrights Horizons aims to be a home for the exploration of playwriting and an anti-racist center of curiosity, dialogue, and artistic risk.

Playwrights Horizons Staff OPENING NIGHT: SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR........ ADAM GREENFIELD MANAGING DIRECTOR...............CASEY YORK GENERAL MANAGER............ CAROL FISHMAN Associate General Manager........................Noah Silva Company Manager.............................. Noa Saunders ARTISTIC STAFF ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR....................... NATASHA SINHA Literary Director.......................................Lizzie Stern Director of Artistic Development....Karl Baker Olson Artistic Assistant.......................................Emily Zhou Artistic Fellow................................... Olivia O’Connor Script Readers.....................Noah Ezell, Fiona Selmi, James La Bella, Philip Kenner, Alex Oleksy CASTING DIRECTORS.....ALAINE ALLDAFFER, LISA DONADIO Con Edison Casting Fellow...................Kirina Petkun DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT.......... BENJAMIN WEISMAN Associate Director of Development.... Susan Ferziger Individual Giving Manager.......... Madeline Clouston ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING......................... JORDAN BEST Marketing Manager....................................Libby Carr Manager of Sales.............................Brittany Kressler Assistant Box Office Manager..........Michelle Dastur Box Office Associates.....Gabrielle Lavoie, Kyr Siegel Marketing Fellow................................... Kara Hadden Digital Strategy Consultant.................... Alison Koch Accessibility Coordinator................Martha Bennett GENERAL PRESS REPRESENTATIVE................

BLAKE ZIDELL & ASSOCIATES DIRECTOR OF FINANCE.............. YI-CHEN LAI Senior Finance Manager........................... Suzen Bria Accounting Associate................... Angelica Gallardo DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES................LAUREN BURCHERI Administrative and Office Coordinator....................... Derresha Webb DIRECTOR OF EQUITY & INCLUSION................... HECTOR RIVERA Community Engagement Assistant....Sydney Kurland Community Engagement Coordinator .......Ky Dates PRODUCTION STAFF PRODUCTION MANAGER.............JAY JANICKI Technical Director......................Andrew Riedemann Assistant Technical Director..............Justus Herrera Costume Shop Manager................... Michael Graller Props Supervisor......................................Matt Carlin Production Coordinator.....................Carol Almonte Building Manager............................Gustavo Naranjo Stage Management Fellows...................... Molly Pair, Mackenzie Seewagen

ARTISTIC ADVISORY COUNCIL Daniel Aukin, Sivan Battat, Alana Raquel Bowers, Catherine Coray, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Madeleine George, Christine Toy Johnson, Francis Jue, Jenny Koons, Todd London, David Mendizábal, Deepa Purohit, Heather Raffo, Amanda Spooner, Awoye Timpo, Jason Veasey COMMISSIONED ARTISTS Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Commissions David Adjmi, Dave Harris, Lucas Hnath, Deborah Stein Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Commissions Kate Attwell, Christopher Chen, Heather Christian, Mia Chung Kate and Seymour Weingarten Commissions César Alvarez, Kate Cortesi, Emily Feldman, Dylan Guerra, Ianne Fields Stewart Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Program for Commissioning Women in the Performing Arts Sheila Callaghan, Danai Gurira, Aleshea Harris, Sarah Mantell, Antoinette Nwandu Amal Commission Mona Mansour Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Commissions for Emerging Playwrights Brittany K. Allen; John J. Caswell, Jr.; Julia Izumi; Vera Starbard (Tlingit/Dena’ina) M.E.W. Commissions David Adjmi Peter Shaffer Commission Agnes Borinsky, Jordan E. Cooper, Phillip Howze, Mara Nelson-Greenberg Pinnacle Commission, co-commissioned with South Coast Repertory Theatre Branden Jacobs-Jenkins RESIDENT THEATER COMPANY Clubbed Thumb

PLAYWRIGHTS DOWNTOWN ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR.................. EVA ROSA-FERRERA PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS THEATER SCHOOL DIRECTOR............................. NICOLE WEE Manager of Academic Affairs.................Kenny Wang Manager of Student Productions.......Leslie N. Ivery Production Coordinator ................... Ryan Courtney FACULTY LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE Area Head, Acting........................... Jedadiah Schultz Area Head, Playwrighting...................... Max Reuben Lead Seminar Teacher........................Emily Hartford Marika Kent, Atticus Orsborn, Dina Vovsi PLAYWRIGHTS REHEARSAL STUDIOS Client Services Manager...................James Wyrwicz Lead Technical Supervisor............... Liam D. O’Brien Studio Operations Associate..................Angel Rivas Studio Associates......................... Whitney Andrews, Anjali Cornish, Kevin Kong, Rebecca McCray, Lane Pigford, Choice Plasencia, Adante Power, Rebecca Samuelson, Destini Stewart

STAFF FOR MAGNIFICENT BIRD / BOOK OF TRAVELERS Company Manager.............................. Noa Saunders Production Stage Manager.........Elizabeth Emanuel Stage Management Fellow.........................Molly Pair Associate Lighting Designer................ Matt Lazarus Scenic Charge.........................Alexandra Kowalczyk Wardrobe............................................ Sydney Howell Carpenters.................... Ryan LoPresti, Josh Morgan Props Artisans.......................Sean Frank, Ali Mark Production Electrician........................James Deng Assistant Production Electricians.....Peter Lopez, Caelyn Speicher Electricians................. Will Keener, Quentin Kurtz, Jon Naranjo, Tony Thorn, Vincent Randazzo Lighting Programmer....................... Steven Johnson Light Board Operator.............................. Jon Naranjo Audio Head............................................ Ross Monroe Sound Board Operator...................Olivia Cole-Berry Audio Crew.......................................... Colten Langfitt Artwork Design........................................ Jordan Best House Managers............. Ashley Burton, Ryan Juda, Jodie Liebowitz, Aingea Venuto

SPECIAL SERVICES Legal Counsel.................................. Farber Law, LLC; Andrew Farber, Esq Communications Consultant...... Ted Stephens III / The Numad Group, Brendan Whipple, Tony Cotte Accountants......................Lutz & Carr/Shari Ferrara Insurance............................Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. of New York, Inc./AliceFay Prine Architect....................... Mitchell Kurtz Architect, PC Telephone Services................................ RingCentral Computer Systems...................Lansend/Ashwin Pai Website Design........................................Made Media CRM Software............................... Tessitura Network Closed Captioning.........................................GalaPro Digital Advertising............... Allied Global Marketing Telemarketing..................................................SMART, Strategic Marketing for the Arts Custodial Services............Impressive Cleaning Inc. Concessions.................................. Sweet Hospitality Security Services............... Elite Investigations, LLC Accessibility Assistants..................... Ruby Locklear, Erin Rosenfeld Relaxed Performance Consultant.......... Becca Yuré Audio Describer and Touch Tour Consultant................ Andrea Miskow ASL-Interpretation Consultant................ SignNexus

AUTHOR’S THANKS

Emma Tepfer, Joseph Lorge, Tony Berg, Blake Mills, Bob Hurwitz, David Bither, Daniel Fish, Seth Bockley, Henry Stram, Kristy Edmunds, Joe Melillo, Laura Evans, Aaron Shackelford, Elizabeth Duffell, Michelle Witt, John Zion, MASS MoCA, Vera & Agnes

SPECIAL THANKS

Abigail Holland, Jeanna Phillips, Keilly McQuail, Ryann Weir, Ben Izzo, Michael Barringer

WARNING: The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording inside this theater, without the written permission of the management, is prohibited by law. Violators may be punished by ejection and violations may render the offender liable for money damages. FIRE NOTICE: The exit indicated by a red light and sign nearest to the seat you occupy is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency please do not run – WALK TO THAT EXIT. Thoughtless persons annoy patrons and endanger the safety of others by lighting matches or smoking in prohibited areas during the performances and intermissions. This violates a city ordinance and is punishable by law. FIRE COMMISSIONER

The set was built in the Playwrights Horizons Scenery Shop.

CREDITS

The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of actors’ equity association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

SPECIAL FUNDING

The Director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

Season productions are supported, in part, by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Rea Charitable Trust, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 is the union representing scenic, costume, lighting, sound and projection designers in Live Performance.

David Adjmi Will Butler Stereophonic 2024 Tony Award

“The most exciting place in the country for new playwriting.”

Deadline PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS

NOTABLE PRODUCTIONS

Michael R. Jackson A Strange Loop 2022 Tony Award 2020 Obie, Lortel, Drama Desk awards

David Adjmi Stereophonic 2024 Tony Award

Annie Baker The Flick 2013 Obie Award Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

John J. Caswell, Jr. Wet Brain

Bruce Norris Clybourne Park 2012 Tony Award Doug Wright I Am My Own Wife 2004 Tony Award Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine Sunday in the Park with George Wendy Wasserstein The Heidi Chronicles 1989 Tony Award Alfred Uhry Driving Miss Daisy

Milo Cramer School Pictures

Bruce Norris Downstate Drama Critics’ Circle Circle Award 2024 Obie Award Mia Chung Catch as Catch Can Will Arbery Corsicana Heroes of the Fourth Turning 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist Sanaz Toossi Wish You Were Here Sylvia Khoury Selling Kabul 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist

Jaclyn Backhaus Wives, Men On Boats Tori Sampson If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka Larissa FastHorse The Thanksgiving Play Craig Lucas I Was Most Alive with You Dan LeFranc Rancho Viejo, The Big Meal Max Posner The Treasurer Adam Bock A Life, A Small Fire Lucas Hnath The Thin Place, The Christians 2015 Kesselring Prize 2016 Obie Award Robert O’Hara Bootycandy 2015 Obie Award

Jordan Harrison Log Cabin, Marjorie Prime Maple and Vine 2015 Pulitzer finalist Taylor Mac Hir Heidi Schreck Grand Concourse Anne Washburn Mr. Burns, a post-electric play Madeleine George The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence 2014 Pulitzer finalist Richard Greenberg, Scott Frankel, & Michael Korie Far From Heaven Amy Herzog The Great God Pan, After the Revolution Samuel D. Hunter The Whale 2013 Lortel Award Gina Gionfriddo Rapture, Blister, Burn 2013 Pulitzer finalist Lisa D’Amour Detroit 2011 Pulitzer finalist 2013 Obie Award Kirsten Greenidge Milk Like Sugar 2012 Obie Award Annie Baker Circle Mirror Transformation 2010 Obie Award Melissa James Gibson This Doug Wright, Scott Frankel, & Michael Korie Grey Gardens 2006 OCC Award Lynn Nottage Fabulation 2005 Obie Award David Greenspan Go Back to Where You Are, She Stoops to Comedy 2003 Obie Award

Richard Nelson & Shaun Davey James Joyce’s The Dead 2000 Tony Award, Lortel Award, and Drama Critics’ Circle Award

Clare Barron Dance Nation 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist

Richard Nelson Goodnight Children Everywhere Kia Corthron Breath, Boom Kenneth Lonergan Lobby Hero Kirsten Childs Bella: An American Tall Tale 2017 Audelco Award The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin 2000 Obie Award Christopher Durang Miss Witherspoon 2006 Pulitzer finalist, Betty’s Summer Vacation 1999 Obie Award, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You 1982 Obie Award

Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine Sunday in the Park with George 1985 Pulitzer Prize

A.R. Gurney The Dining Room, Later Life Jon Robin Baitz The Substance of Fire Jeanine Tesori & Brian Crawley Violet 1997 Obie Award, Lortel Award, and Drama Critics’ Circle Award Adam Guettel & Tina Landau Floyd Collins 1996 Obie Award and Lortel Award

Michael R. Jackson A Strange Loop 2020 Pulitzer Prize 2022 Tony Award

Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman Assassins 1991 Drama League Award William Finn March of the Falsettos Falsettoland Photos of Dance Nation and A Strange Loop by Joan Marcus.

Sunday in the Park… by Gerry Goodstein. Stereophonic by Chelcie Parry.

Bruce Norris Clybourne Park 2011 Pulitzer Prize 2012 Tony Award

Playwrights Horizons Family of Donors

Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. The theater offers careerlong advocacy and artistic and technical resources to artists. As an audience member, you are an important part of our mission and of our proud 53-year tradition. We would like to thank all of the individuals and institutions in both the public and private sectors whose donations help to sustain our annual programs and productions. For more information about making a donation, visit phnyc.org/give.

Board of Trustees Sam Gonzalez Chairman Retired Corporate Executive

Larissa FastHorse Vice Chairman Writer

Alex Levy Vice Chairman President, A.H. Levy & Co.

Mark Birkhead Treasurer Managing Director, JPMorgan Chase

Jill Crovitz Secretary Principal, Crovitz Consulting

Judith O. Rubin Board Chair Emeritus

André Bishop Artistic Director, Lincoln Center Theater

Shveta Kakar Partner, Fox Rothschild

Tim Sanford Former Artistic Director, Playwrights Horizons

Evan Coles Director and Producer

Katrina E. McCann Attorney, Proskauer Rose LLP

Dana M. Seshens Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Juliet Moser Literary and Theatrical Enthusiast

Candice Cook Simmons Chief Strategy Officer, Candarah Media

Ethan Geto Principal, Geto & de Milly, Inc.

Robert Moss Founder, Playwrights Horizons

Sean Walsh Media & Entertainment Executive

Fell Gray Head of Brand and Creative, Arizent

Mark Musico Partner, Susman Godfrey LLP

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Adam Greenfield Artistic Director, Playwrights Horizons

Mitra O’Neill Partner, Walden Macht & Haran LLP

Rachel Wilder Freelance Writer

Kelly G. Griffin Head of Creative and Content Strategy, Warner Music Group Film and TV

Alan Poul Executive Producer/Director, Boku Films

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Eric M. Gural Co-Chief Executive Officer, GFP Real Estate Robert W. Jones Co-Founder, Antares Technologies

John Rose Senior Advisor and Senior Partner Emeritus, Boston Consulting Group Nick Russo Vice President of Sales Marketing, Raptive

Casey York Managing Director, Playwrights Horizons Jide Zeitlin

supporters of Playwrights Horizons receive many benefits, Institutional Institutional such as complimentary tickets, discounts for their employees, and public recognition. For more information about how your company can support Support

Playwrights Horizons, please contact Susan Ferziger, Associate Director of Institutional Giving, at sferziger@phnyc.org or 212 564 1235 ×3142.

$25,000+ Birnam Oak Advisors Bloomberg Philanthropies Bondi Foundation Centerview Partners Charina Foundation Citi Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Howard Gilman Foundation Goldman Sachs Jerome L. Greene Foundation Fund in The New York Community Trust The Heyday Foundation The Marc Haas Foundation Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation Richenthal Foundation The Scherman Foundation Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation The Shubert Foundation The SHS Foundation The Spingold Foundation Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Stereophonic Live on Broadway Tiger Baron Foundation Tishman Speyer Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation $10,000–$24,999 Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation The Carter Fund Con Edison Frederic R. Coudert Foundation LM Foundation Marta Heflin Foundation

The Hyde and Watson Foundation Carl Jacobs Foundation Jerome Foundation Ralph and Ricky Lauren Family Foundation A.H. Levy & Co. JP Morgan Chase Foundation Terrence McNally Foundation Morgan Stanley Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Proskauer The Rea Charitable Trust S&P Global Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund Travelers Ruthmary S. Westfall Foundation Wilke Family Foundation $2,500–$9,999 ATG Entertainment The Theodore H. Barth Foundation, Inc. The Betsy and Alan Cohn Foundation, Inc. Consigli Construction Co., Inc. The Barbara Bell Cumming Charitable Trust Nancy Friday Foundation Green Curtain Productions Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation The Liman Foundation Lucille Lortel Foundation Marvel The New York Community Trust NYSCA/TDF TAP Plus PricewaterhouseCoopers

Government Support National Endowment for the Arts New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Disability Forward Fund New York City Council at the request of Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Members Erik Bottcher and Carlina Rivera New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation The Jerome Robbins Foundation The Rosenthal Family Foundation/Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal Schlosstein-Hartley Family Foundation Friedman Family Foundation Taconic Capital Advisors L.P. $500–$2,499 Actors’ Equity Foundation Lutz & Carr CPAs LLP Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation William Morris Endeavor

Playwrights Horizons is a recipient of support from The Leading National Theatres Program, a joint initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Artistic Director’s Circle The Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director’s Circle includes our most dedicated individual donors who have committed to gifts of $10,000 or more each year for a three-year period. The Artistic Director’s Circle joins with the Playwrights Horizons Board of Trustees in supporting the vision of Artistic Director Adam Greenfield. Members of the Artistic Director’s Circle are considered loyal partners in developing and producing new plays by some of the most adventurous and talented artists working in theater today. For more information about the personalized benefits and access available for the Artistic Director’s Circle, please contact Benjamin Weisman, Development Director, at bweisman@phnyc.org or 212 564 1235 ×3145.

Anonymous Mark & Lillian Banchik Svante Bergström Harris Family Foundation

Mark Gordon Jarrett & Maritess Lilien Chien Cho Liu Dorinda J. Oliver

Barbara Raho Nancy & Roger L. Strong, Jr. Seymour & Kathleen Weingarten Cathy & Stephen Weinroth

Individual Support Individual supporters of Playwrights Horizons receive exclusive benefits ranging from complimentary tickets to intimate dinners and cocktail parties with artists, staff, and Board members. For more information about how you can support Playwrights Horizons, please contact Benjamin Weisman, Development Director, at bweisman@phnyc.org or 212 564 1235 ×3145. $25,000+ Anonymous (3) Salman and Vienn Al-Rashid Roger Altman & Jurate Kazickas Angela M. Crossman & Bryce L. Friedman Mark Birkhead Jill & Chuck Crovitz The Darnell-Moser Charitable Fund Katherine Farley & Jerry I. Speyer Mr. Mark T. Gallogly and Ms. Elizabeth B. Strickler Eric & Nancy Gural A.R. Gurney Tom Healy & Fred P. Hochberg Alex Levy Richard & Ronay Menschel Mark Musico Mitra O’Neill Vinnie & Loretta O’Toole Alan Paul Alan Poul James & Gretchen Rubin Judith O. & Robert E. Rubin Dan Safin Dana Seshens Mr. & Mrs. George Spelvin Nancy & Roger L. Strong, Jr. Wendy Vanden Heuvel Steven Weinstock $10,000–$24,999 Seth Ard David Caplan & Karen Wagner Joan Cohen Elizabeth Gigli

Laurie Goldberger & Leslie Kogod Sam Gonzalez Fell & Charles Gray Laniece Gatlin Glenn Dublin Tara & Clifford Harris Robert W. Jones Lisa Kentgen Judith & Douglas Krupp Erin Laber Gina Maria Leonetti Berwin London Stephen & Carolyn McCandless Katrina McCann Ann M. Stack Sue & Edgar Wachenheim Foundation Tali and Boaz Weinstein Philanthropic Fund The Wilder Family Bruce Nathan Wilpon $5,000–$9,999 James Alefantis Anonymous Ruth & Robi Blumenstein Matt Bosch Angela and Jacob Buchdahl Charles Cahn Rob Cordell Consigli Construction Christopher & Michelle DeLong David desJardins Cheryl & Blair Effron Jane M. & Howard D. Epstein Larissa FastHorse

Richard Feiner & Annette Stover Lori & Edward Forstein Friedman Family Foundation Michael Froman & Nancy Goodman James Gleick & Cynthia Crossen Jane Hartley & Ralph Schlosstein Risa Heller Maxine Isaacs Rory Jones David I. Karabell & Paula A. Moss Lee Ann Laimbeer Nina B. Matis Kathleen O’Grady John Orberg Carole Pesner Shawn Rabin Nancy Roistacher & Wayne P. Merkelson Billy Rosen Dr. Robert A. Press Lisa and Jonathan Pruzan Matt Schneider & Priyanka Garg Jennifer Scully & Rick Lerner Marisa Sechrest Joanne & Daniel C. Smith Arun Subramanian Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund $3,000–$4,999 Elaine S. Bernstein John & Jill G. Bishop Ann L. & Lawrence Buttenwieser Catherine Carmody Kim & Stan Corfman Elaine Crowley & John Kuehn

Robert W. Davenport Hazel & Russel Fershleiser Tony & Jane Ford-Hutchinson Christopher & Cathy Lawrence Linda & Paul Lee Vicki Gold Levi Seth London Jill Hunter Matichak Scott C. McDonald Neal Manne & Nancy McGregor Niclas Nagler & David Alberto Alvarez Karen & Charles Schader Lois Smith $1,800–$2,999 Anonymous Andrew D. Austin & Michael R. Sonberg Maurice Bensmihen William & Lori Bernstein Caryn & Jonathan Bilzin André Bishop Maggie & Don Buchwald Helaine & Paul Cantor Mike Castellon Jonathan L. Cohen ​​Ruth Cohen and Robert Usdin Lynn & John Collins Suzan & Fred Ehrman Matthew Gabbard Robert Gender James W. & Virginia M. Giddens Sally Huxley Philip M. Jelley, Jr. Amy L. Katz & Irving Scher Marian & Robert Klein Michael Kramer & Christine Harper Patty Laxton & Fred Kaufman Shveta Kurtz Douglas Lancet James Lapine & Sarah Kernochan Daniel R. Levites Bruce Lovett Gina MacArthur Marlene Marko & Loren Skeist Diane L. Max Leni & Peter May Victoria Meakin James & Terri Muren Robert O’Hara Lisa Orberg Jamie & Daniel Ordower Edward P. Osborne Ellen Ozur & Stuart Brown Michael & Gabrielle Palitz PRG Jessica Resler Elizabeth Rose Dawn Rosso Barbara Siegler Natalie Scott

Eileen Silvers & Rick Bronstein Laurie Smith Craig & Rebecca Waldman David Wertheimer & Alice Fricke Jennifer & Benjamin Whitfield Lynne Whitman & Dan Solender $1,000–$1,799 Anonymous (4) Unyi Agba Julia Bator Eric Bennett Al Berr Susan M. Borozan Brian Carney Linda & Arthur Carter Betty Ann Cook Candice Cook Simmons Liz Fallon Culp Connie & Yves de Balmann Anthony Edwards Mariana Elder The Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi Foundation Laura Fant Robert Fleischer Patricia Gannon-Lovier & Lester Lovier Jill A. Garland & Andy Loose Ethan Geto & Michele de Milly Dr. & Mrs. Rob & Audrey Greenfield Adam Greenfield & Jordan Harrison Bob Hall David Harrison Nancy Heller & Holly Gewandter Jill Leslie Goldman William H. Hill Katherine Humpstone & Jeremy Koch Kelly Fowler Hunter Helaine Kaplan Robert J. Katz Linda R. Kidani Bret Kobler Amy B. McIntosh & Jeffrey Toobin Lowell & Sandra Mintz Herbert A. Morey Rosemary Newman Tom O’Connor Carol Ostrow Florence Quinn Lori & Lee Parks Susan & Richard Pasternak Jim Provost Leslie & Eileen Quick Andrea Rattner Dr. S. Abraham Ravid Richard Ravitch & Kathleen Doyle Meredith Schade Joshua Schulteis Gordon Shearer Harry Simmons III

Ian Slater Joe Tippett Maria Vecchiotti Hena Vora Susan Wallace Nancy Weinstock Charles White Ronald Whittier Family Foundation Kevin W. Williams $500-$999 Anonymous (3) Rebecca Allan & Laura Kaminsky Liz Armstrong Adrian Bailey Monica Bernheim Aimée Brown Price Susan Burden Hector Camacho Marc Chouchani & Lan Nguyen Betsy Cohen Michael Cyril Creighton Jeff & Nancy Davis Jody Falco & Jeffrey Steinman Anton Faron Peter Filiaci Mary Beth Forshaw Sandra Garner Ross Gillman R.K. Greene Cathleen M. Healy Cristy Hill & Richard Mizer Lynn E. Hopkins Kathy Inch & Bonnie Jansen Jessica Jennison Thomas Kessler Courtney Lee-Mitchell John A. & Betty Levin Anne Lynch Jane Macan Robert S Macdonald Joann & Matthew McGrath Ann Miner Evangeline Morphos Saadiya Mutawakil Lauren Newman Beth Nathanson Asha & DV Nayak Joshua Safran & Calderón Camacho Safran Tim Shan Andrew W. Siegel Robert H. Sinclair Cory Michael Smith Joyce Victor Alice Wang Deborah & Kenneth Whitmore Suzanne Wilcox and Nancy Seus Carmen Rita Wong Ulrich Kofi Yankey Richard Zuckerman Elisa Zuritsky

Generation PH Generation PH is a community of theatergoers ages 45 and under who attend Playwrights Horizons productions; mingle with artists, artistic staff, and our Board of Trustees at exclusive parties and receptions; and see theater in a new way by talking to writers about the development of their plays.

Plus, a portion of each membership is a tax-deductible contribution that directly supports these amazing artists and their new work. For more information, go to phnyc.org/genph LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE Katrina E. McCann, Co-Chair Nick Russo, Co-Chair

Eugene Brodach Betsy Fippinger Carlo Steinman Aleksandra Szczepanowska

Carol Walport Robert Walport Jason Wu Elizabeth Wu

BEST FRIEND ($700+) Frank & Nicole Azzopardi Anirudh Balan Richard Berg Eugene Brodach Lauren DeGeorge Emily Erstling Max Evans Betsy & Andrew Fippinger Taena Kim Sammy Lopez Deborah McCandless Katrina E. McCann Courtney J. Mitchell Marc Pickard Nicholas P. Russo Jonathan & Cochleen Sands Carlo Steinman Aleksandra Szczepanowska & Gordon Shearer Carol & Robert Walport Alexandra C. Wood Jason Wu

GOOD FRIEND ($200–$399) Anonymous Henri Benhaim Madeline Cook Allison Curran & Michael Hilkin Brett East Christopher Fox Deborah Grant & Serge Tanjga Mac Ingram Cara Kantrowitz Robert Laqui Noa Naaman Jessie Pitluk & Jacob Trussell Andrew Rasmussen Jenna Ready David Stuckey Martin Woodard Danielle Zarbin & Kate Bussert

Daniel Hoppers Samantha Kamelhar Mitchell Krieger Sylvie Kuyisenga Anthony M. Laura Jocelin Lee Cara Lonergan Matt Loomis Kate Napalkova Laura Napoli Gina Napolitano Eliana Oliva Achiro Olwoch John O’Malley Amy Pan Jacob Romanoski Amy Rosenbaum Noah Rosenblum Richard Semegram Leah Shapiro Duvi Stahler Gregory Stern Regina Stuzin Cynthia J. Tong Yash Varma John Vaszari Ariel Woodiwiss Matthew Wright Kenneth Ross Yelsey Laura Zlatos

DEVOTED FRIEND ($400–$699) Louis Blachman Matt Freeman & Adam Rosen Naoki Sasamoto & Trevor Kokal

NEW FRIEND ($100–$199) Anonymous Andrew Alkon Mary Angelo Rudy Bamenga Jonah Baum Paige Blansfield Qianna Brooks Adam Chasen Edward & Emily Delman Tyler Forni Joe Gery

Matching Gifts Many companies have matching gift programs that enable our donors to double their donations.

Playwrights Horizons thanks these companies for matching the gifts of their employees and supporting our theater. For more information about matching gifts, please contact Susan Ferziger, Associate Director of Institutional Giving, at sferziger@phnyc.org or 212 564 1235 ×3142.

Bank of America Benevity Fund Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs Gives

JP Morgan Chase Foundation The New York Community Trust United Way of Greater New Haven, Inc.

Legacy Circle

Playwrights Horizons gratefully acknowledges those who have chosen to become a member of our Legacy Circle by including a Charitable Bequest for Playwrights Horizons in their estate plans through wills, retirement accounts, life insurance ownerships, and real estate. Members of this group receive invitations to exclusive events and insider information on organizational goals and plans To learn more, or to join, please contact Benjamin Weisman, Director of Development, at bweisman@phnyc.org.

Caroline Aquino Joan B. Cohen Ruth Cohen Liz Fallon Culp Ann B. Dickinson Howard Epstein Jane Epstein Susan Ferziger Jill Garland Sam Gonzalez Barbara Kreisberg Stu Kreisberg Leslie Marcus

Joseph Andrew Moskal Enid Nemy Dmitri Nesterenko William Louis Nist Dorinda J. Oliver Courtney Patterson Monroe Robertson Linda Rothstein Wendi Royal Judith O. Rubin Robert E. Rubin Mikael Salovaara James Schied

Carole Schwartz Mal Schwartz Louise Schwarz Georgina Spelvin Briel Lauren Steinberg The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation Emily Tworek Madeline Virbasius Benjamin Weisman Rachel Wilder Amy Hoi Yan Yuan

FreeWill Playwrights Horizons has partnered with FreeWill to offer a free, legal will service. In less than 20 minutes, you can write or update your legal will, for free. Secure your future and support the next generation of new voices in the American theater. Visit www.freewill.com/playwrightshorizons to learn more. Include a bequest to Playwrights Horizons and join the Legacy Circle today.

Lists complete as of September 20, 2024