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BOSTON-AREA PLAYWRIGHTS UNITE TO CREATE THEATRE IN THE HUNTINGTON’S THRILLING 2023 SUMMER WORKSHOP LINE-UP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 

CONTACT:  

Gabrielle Jaques, Publicist 

gjaques@huntingtontheatre.org 

617-273-1520 

 

BOSTON-AREA PLAYWRIGHTS UNITE TO CREATE THEATRE IN THE HUNTINGTON’S   THRILLING 2023 SUMMER WORKSHOP LINE-UP 

 

The Huntington’s bold commitment to new work continues under Loretta Greco’s leadership this July with three new plays and a creative workshop with Elliot Norton-winner Lenelle Moïse 

 

(BOSTON) – Artistic Director Loretta Greco and The Huntington’s staff are thrilled to announce the return of the Huntington Playwrighting Fellows Summer Workshop 2023 (July 15 – July 16, 2023). This two-week new work retreat, culminating in public readings of three new plays in development, is taking place for the first time since summer of 2019. All readings and events will take place in the newly renovated Maso Studio in the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Ave). Readings will feature the work of playwrights Masha Obolensky, Melinda Lopez, and Catherine Epstein. The 2023 Elliot Norton Award winner for Outstanding New Script, playwright and poet Lenelle Moïse, will also lead a one-hour community playwrighting workshop for adults of all experience levels. 

 

“We created this program a decade ago out of a brainstorm with local writers of how to address specific needs of playwrights in our community,” says Director of New Work Charles Haugland. “I’m so proud to continue developing plays here that can then go on to productions near and far. Masha, Melinda, and Catherine’s plays are filled with vitality, joy, laughter, and sorrow, and we can’t wait to imagine them together with you, our audience. For the first time, we are also hosting a hands-on creative workshop with the brilliant Lenelle Moïse, whose work inspires so many people including me.”  

 

The new plays include Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister by Masha Obolensky (Directed by Melia Bensussen) at 1:00 pm on Saturday, July 15; Power Trio by Melinda Lopez (Directed by Elena Araoz) at 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 16; and Oxbow by Catherine Epstein (Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian) at 4:00 pm on Sunday, July 16. Also taking place during the workshops is an event Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound with Lenelle Moïse (playwright of the Elliot Norton Award-winning K-I-S-S-I-N-G) at 4:00 pm on Saturday, July 15. All festivities will take place at the Maso Studio in the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Ave). All readings and associated events are open to the public, but not open to reviewing members of the press. The readings are free, and the one-hour workshop with playwright Moïse has a fee of $15. 

 

“All of us at The Huntington are thrilled to see this cherished piece of our creative community’s summer back in full swing,” says Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco. “The HPF Summer Workshop is foundational to our new play commitment and has been the rigorous incubator which has brought us the joy of Kate Snodgrass’s The Art of Burning and this spring’s critically acclaimed K-I-S-S-I-N-G by Lenelle Moïse. This summer, we return under the sublime leadership of Charles Haugland, and we look forward to sharing the exciting gestating work from this summer’s thrilling writing cohort.” 

 

 

ABOUT HPF SUMMER WORKSHOP  

 

The HPF Summer Workshop began in 2012 and is an extension of the Huntington’s Playwriting Fellows program and Breaking Ground Reading Series. Huntington Director of New Work Charles Haugland supports the writers during the intensive, artist-driven development process. Past summer workshop plays have gone on to productions at The Huntington, Playwrights Horizons, P73, Alliance Theatre, Trafalgar Studios (London), Geva Theatre Center, Shotgun Players, Speakeasy Stage, Emerson Stage, and Theatre Rhinoceros, among others. 

 

Two productions in The Huntington’s 2022-2023 season, K-I-S-S-I-N-G by Lenelle Moïse and The Art of Burning by Kate Snodgrass, were both developed in the HPF Summer Workshop. Both plays were nominated for Elliot Norton Award honors, with K-I-S-S-I-N-G winning eight awards, including Outstanding New Script and Outstanding Play, Large Theater. The new play by homegrown playwright Moïse was lauded by The Boston Globe as “A highlight of the theatre season!” and by WBUR as “The most exciting play Boston has seen in years!” 

 

The Huntington is passionately to supporting, developing, and producing new work, and has produced over 100 New England, American, or world premieres since its founding in 1982. Endeavors to develop plays for the American theatre have expanded considerably since 2004 with the creation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened with a world premiere by local playwright Melinda Lopez. The arrival of nationally renowned new play expert Loretta Greco as Artistic Director in 2022 promises a new, enriching era of new work at the theatre.  

 

All readings and associated events are open to the public, but not open to reviewing members of the press. The readings are free and the one-hour workshop with playwright Moïse has a fee of $15. If the workshop fee poses any barrier, please contact Charles Haugland, Director of New Work, regarding a fee waiver at chaugland@huntingtontheatre.org 

 

 

ABOUT SUMMER WORKSHOP 2023 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister  

By Masha Obolensky  

Directed by Melia Bensussen (The Art of Burning, Common Ground Revisited, Yerma, The Luck of the Irish at The Huntington) 

 

Saturday, July 15 at 1pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: Vanessa Stephen Bell created sensuous, colorful paintings; her sister Virginia Stephen Woolf wrote piercing, insightful prose. Growing up, the inseparable siblings drove each other in search of truth. So, in the wake of Virginia’s death, Vanessa plunges into the past and strives to create herself anew – who will she protect now? What can inspire her now? How will she live with the fear that she betrayed Virginia in ways big and small? Masha Obolensky’s Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister tells a story of fierce interdependence and haunting beauty.   

 

RSVP for the Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister reading 

 

 

Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound (with Lenelle Moïse, writer of K-I-S-S-I-N-G) 

 

Saturday, July 15 at 4pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the workshop: In this energetic (occasionally ecstatic) one-hour workshop, playwright Lenelle Moïse guides participants through a series of “sound jams” and theatre exercises to explore the voice as an instrument for liberation. Practice being present, play with conviction, and learn to trust your instincts. Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and come prepared to join the chorus. 

 

All experience levels welcome. This class is designed for adult participants (age 18+) 

 

RSVP for Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound 

 

Workshop fee: $15  

If the workshop fee poses any barrier, please contact Charles Haugland, Director of New Work, regarding a fee waiver at chaugland@huntingtontheatre.org 

 

 

Power Trio 

By Melinda Lopez 

Directed by Elena Araoz (Original Sound at Cherry Lane, Anna in the Tropics at Berkshire Theatre Festival) 

 

Sunday, July 16 at 1pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: Vee washes ashore in a hostile new land, facing the immigration and naturalization service of Illyria. Challenged by the Fates and a three-headed dog, Vee wants more than just to survive — can they hope to find a new community, a new ‘home,’ and even love? In this reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and infused with music, Melinda Lopez explores how a new world becomes your own in Power Trio. 

 

RSVP for the Power Trio reading 

 

 

Oxbow  

By Catherine Epstein 

Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Skeleton Crew at The Huntington, Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop) 

 

Sunday, July 16 at 4pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: In late winter, sisters Jessie, Martha, and Susan escape to a run-down cabin in Maine. When the furnace breaks, it’s their childhood friend Rajiv who shows up, but no one can agree on a solution. As the rest of the house starts breaking down, even a shared slice of bread can lead to a skirmish, and the sisters find themselves capable of both beautiful intimacy and stunning cruelty. Catherine Epstein’s Oxbow asks how we all deal with our desire to control the uncontrollable.  

 

RSVP for the Oxbow reading 

 

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister playwright Masha Obolensky is a Boston-based playwright and was in the 2011-12 Huntington Playwriting Fellows cohort. Most recently, her play Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister was selected as a Finalist by the Eugene O’Neill National 2023 Playwrights Conference and she is thrilled to have the opportunity to develop this piece in The Huntington’s HPF Summer Workshop. Other Huntington collaborations have included a radio play Speaking Up in “Dream Boston” and a 2014 summer workshop of a play she co-wrote with Melia Bensussen now called Brazen (later developed at Emerson College and performed at the Paramount). Her play Not Enough Air was produced by Chicago’s Timeline Theatre and was nominated for 5 Joseph Jefferson Equity Awards including Best New Play and Best Production. Not Enough Air was also produced by the Nora Theatre in Cambridge (directed by Melia Bensussen) and was listed in the Boston Globe’s “10 Best of 2010”. Other plays and performance pieces include: Marvelous Fruit, Brazen, The Girl Problem, Historic Beauty, and her frequently produced 10-minute Girls’ Play (including at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Samuel French OOB Theatre Festival) Her plays have been finalists in various festivals and she was a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship and the Pen New England Discovery Award. She received an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. She currently teaches Theatre at The International School of Boston and continues to meet with her Huntington Fellow Playwrights cohort who have formed the group MUTT. 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister director Melia Bensussen is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut and Guest Artistic Director for the O’Neill Theatre Center 2023 National Playwrights Conference. She has directed extensively around the country, including productions at The Huntington, Merrimack Rep, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Class Company, Primary Stages, the Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), People’s Light and Theatre Company (where she received a Barrymore nomination for Best Direction), Bay Street, and Playwrights Horizons, among others. meliabensussen.com  

 

Playwright, poet, and Rehearse Freedom host Lenelle Moïse was part of the seventh cohort of Huntington Playwriting Fellows. She wrote, composed, and co-starred in the Off Broadway show Expatriate (Culture Project). Her full-length plays include K-I-S-S-I-N-G (winner of 8 Elliot Norton Awards), Merit, and The Many Faces of Nia. She is the author of Haiti Glass (City Lights Books), an award-winning collection of poems. Moïse is an alum of Smith College (MFA ‘04), Ithaca College, and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. lenellemoise.com  

 

Power Trio playwright: Melinda Lopez is a proud Huntington Playwriting Fellow, and is thrilled to be in residence at HPF Summer Workshop. Power Trio is also in development with the UCSB LaunchPad Project. Melinda was the Playwright-in-Residence at the Huntington Theatre for six years, under the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program, and Artist-in-Residence for an additional three years, where she helped develop and produce Dream Boston, including writing By The Rude Bridge, and directing Joy and Wonderland, as well as serving as a core member of the Artistic staff. Melinda is a multiple award winning playwright, including Elliot Norton Awards for Best New Play for Black Beans Project (co-created with Joel Perez) and Sonia Flew which had their world premieres at the Huntington, and Mala which premiered at ArtsEmerson (available on Audible in Spanish and English) Other plays include Yerma (adaptation), Young Nerds of Color, Mr. Parent (co-written with Maurice Emmanuel Parent,) Becoming Cuba, Back the Night, Orchids to Octopi, and many others. Melinda also performs on stage, radio and in film, and directs plays (Upcoming: A Case for the Existence of God at SpeakEasy Stage.) She has enjoyed residencies with the Mellon Foundation National Playwrights Residency, Sundance, the Lark, and the New York Theatre Workshop. Mayor Marty Walsh declared October 29, 2016 “Melinda Lopez Day in the City of Boston.” Melinda is the recipient of the 2019 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognizing her 20-year career. She is a Professor of the Practice at Northeastern University, as well as a faculty at Boston University. Melinda is also currently developing a commission with Play On! for The Huntington (a contemporary translation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night) and working on a live version of Black Beans Project for the Old Globe Theatre. 

 

Power Trio director Elena Araoz is a stage director of theater, opera, and virtual performance, working internationally, Off-Broadway, and across the country. Upcoming, Elena will direct the interactive website experience Manic Monologues (McCarter Theatre Center), Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics (Barrington Stage), Marisela Treviño Orta’s new audio drama Nightfall (Audible), the virtual production of Melisa Tien’s Swell created with ten immigrant composers, the world premiere of Lindsey Joelle’s Garbologists (City Theatre Company), and the opera I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams (which will next perform with Resonance Works Pittsburgh after its acclaimed premiere with White Snake Projects). elenaaraoz.com 

 

 

Oxbow playwright Catherine Epstein is a writer and teacher. Her plays include Arbor (The Huntington’s 2022 Breaking Ground Festival), Orchard (2022 Dream Boston Commission), and Allemansrätten (Forward Theater’s 2023 Monologue Festival). She was a 2022 resident at the Catwalk Art Residency and has workshopped her plays at Bard’s Institute for Writing & Thinking, the Phillips Exeter Writers’ Workshop, and GrubStreet. Catherine was a 2019-2022 Huntington Playwriting Fellow, and she will be a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2023 Sewanee Writers’ Conference.  

 

Oxbow director Megan Sandberg-Zakian is a theater artist, author, and facilitator. Across all facets of her work, she focuses on holding space for difficult conversations, creating engagements that can accommodate multiple complex truths, and allowing buried narratives to emerge. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, a home for new works for the stage located on the campus of Boston University. Her book, There Must be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty, is available from The 3rd Thing Press. megansz.com  

 

 

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON  

 

Celebrating 41 years of outstanding theatre, The Huntington is Boston’s theatrical commons and leading professional theatre company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the wide range of voices in our community. Committed to welcoming broad and diverse audiences, The Huntington provides life-changing opportunities for students through its robust education and community programs, is a national leader in the development of playwrights and new plays, acts as the host organization for a multi-year residency of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company based in Boston, and serves the local arts community through our operation of The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. Under the leadership of Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Managing Director Michael Maso, The Huntington reopened the historic Huntington Theatre in Fall 2022 after its transformational renovation. A storied venue with a bold vision for the future, the renovation and building project will allow us to innovatively expand our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org. 

 

 

# # # 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 

CONTACT:  

Gabrielle Jaques, Publicist 

gjaques@huntingtontheatre.org 

617-273-1520 

 

BOSTON-AREA PLAYWRIGHTS UNITE  

TO CREATE THEATRE IN THE HUNTINGTON’S  

THRILLING 2023 SUMMER WORKSHOP LINE-UP 

 

The Huntington’s bold commitment to new work continues under Loretta Greco’s leadership this July with three new plays and a creative workshop with Elliot Norton-winner Lenelle Moïse 

 

(BOSTON) – Artistic Director Loretta Greco and The Huntington’s staff are thrilled to announce the return of the Huntington Playwrighting Fellows Summer Workshop 2023 (July 15 – July 16, 2023). This two-week new work retreat, culminating in public readings of three new plays in development, is taking place for the first time since summer of 2019. All readings and events will take place in the newly renovated Maso Studio in the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Ave). Readings will feature the work of playwrights Masha Obolensky, Melinda Lopez, and Catherine Epstein. The 2023 Elliot Norton Award winner for Outstanding New Script, playwright and poet Lenelle Moïse, will also lead a one-hour community playwrighting workshop for adults of all experience levels. 

 

“We created this program a decade ago out of a brainstorm with local writers of how to address specific needs of playwrights in our community,” says Director of New Work Charles Haugland. “I’m so proud to continue developing plays here that can then go on to productions near and far. Masha, Melinda, and Catherine’s plays are filled with vitality, joy, laughter, and sorrow, and we can’t wait to imagine them together with you, our audience. For the first time, we are also hosting a hands-on creative workshop with the brilliant Lenelle Moïse, whose work inspires so many people including me.”  

 

The new plays include Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister by Masha Obolensky (Directed by Melia Bensussen) at 1:00 pm on Saturday, July 15; Power Trio by Melinda Lopez (Directed by Elena Araoz) at 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 16; and Oxbow by Catherine Epstein (Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian) at 4:00 pm on Sunday, July 16. Also taking place during the workshops is an event Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound with Lenelle Moïse (playwright of the Elliot Norton Award-winning K-I-S-S-I-N-G) at 4:00 pm on Saturday, July 15. All festivities will take place at the Maso Studio in the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Ave). All readings and associated events are open to the public, but not open to reviewing members of the press. The readings are free, and the one-hour workshop with playwright Moïse has a fee of $15. 

 

“All of us at The Huntington are thrilled to see this cherished piece of our creative community’s summer back in full swing,” says Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco. “The HPF Summer Workshop is foundational to our new play commitment and has been the rigorous incubator which has brought us the joy of Kate Snodgrass’s The Art of Burning and this spring’s critically acclaimed K-I-S-S-I-N-G by Lenelle Moïse. This summer, we return under the sublime leadership of Charles Haugland, and we look forward to sharing the exciting gestating work from this summer’s thrilling writing cohort.” 

 

 

ABOUT HPF SUMMER WORKSHOP  

 

The HPF Summer Workshop began in 2012 and is an extension of the Huntington’s Playwriting Fellows program and Breaking Ground Reading Series. Huntington Director of New Work Charles Haugland supports the writers during the intensive, artist-driven development process. Past summer workshop plays have gone on to productions at The Huntington, Playwrights Horizons, P73, Alliance Theatre, Trafalgar Studios (London), Geva Theatre Center, Shotgun Players, Speakeasy Stage, Emerson Stage, and Theatre Rhinoceros, among others. 

 

Two productions in The Huntington’s 2022-2023 season, K-I-S-S-I-N-G by Lenelle Moïse and The Art of Burning by Kate Snodgrass, were both developed in the HPF Summer Workshop. Both plays were nominated for Elliot Norton Award honors, with K-I-S-S-I-N-G winning eight awards, including Outstanding New Script and Outstanding Play, Large Theater. The new play by homegrown playwright Moïse was lauded by The Boston Globe as “A highlight of the theatre season!” and by WBUR as “The most exciting play Boston has seen in years!” 

 

The Huntington is passionately to supporting, developing, and producing new work, and has produced over 100 New England, American, or world premieres since its founding in 1982. Endeavors to develop plays for the American theatre have expanded considerably since 2004 with the creation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened with a world premiere by local playwright Melinda Lopez. The arrival of nationally renowned new play expert Loretta Greco as Artistic Director in 2022 promises a new, enriching era of new work at the theatre.  

 

All readings and associated events are open to the public, but not open to reviewing members of the press. The readings are free and the one-hour workshop with playwright Moïse has a fee of $15. If the workshop fee poses any barrier, please contact Charles Haugland, Director of New Work, regarding a fee waiver at chaugland@huntingtontheatre.org 

 

 

ABOUT SUMMER WORKSHOP 2023 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister  

By Masha Obolensky  

Directed by Melia Bensussen (The Art of Burning, Common Ground Revisited, Yerma, The Luck of the Irish at The Huntington) 

 

Saturday, July 15 at 1pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: Vanessa Stephen Bell created sensuous, colorful paintings; her sister Virginia Stephen Woolf wrote piercing, insightful prose. Growing up, the inseparable siblings drove each other in search of truth. So, in the wake of Virginia’s death, Vanessa plunges into the past and strives to create herself anew – who will she protect now? What can inspire her now? How will she live with the fear that she betrayed Virginia in ways big and small? Masha Obolensky’s Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister tells a story of fierce interdependence and haunting beauty.   

 

RSVP for the Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister reading 

 

 

Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound (with Lenelle Moïse, writer of K-I-S-S-I-N-G) 

 

Saturday, July 15 at 4pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the workshop: In this energetic (occasionally ecstatic) one-hour workshop, playwright Lenelle Moïse guides participants through a series of “sound jams” and theatre exercises to explore the voice as an instrument for liberation. Practice being present, play with conviction, and learn to trust your instincts. Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and come prepared to join the chorus. 

 

All experience levels welcome. This class is designed for adult participants (age 18+) 

 

RSVP for Rehearse Freedom: Crafting Character Through Sound 

 

Workshop fee: $15  

If the workshop fee poses any barrier, please contact Charles Haugland, Director of New Work, regarding a fee waiver at chaugland@huntingtontheatre.org 

 

 

Power Trio 

By Melinda Lopez 

Directed by Elena Araoz (Original Sound at Cherry Lane, Anna in the Tropics at Berkshire Theatre Festival) 

 

Sunday, July 16 at 1pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: Vee washes ashore in a hostile new land, facing the immigration and naturalization service of Illyria. Challenged by the Fates and a three-headed dog, Vee wants more than just to survive — can they hope to find a new community, a new ‘home,’ and even love? In this reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and infused with music, Melinda Lopez explores how a new world becomes your own in Power Trio. 

 

RSVP for the Power Trio reading 

 

 

Oxbow  

By Catherine Epstein 

Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Skeleton Crew at The Huntington, Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop) 

 

Sunday, July 16 at 4pm (Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Ave) 

 

About the play: In late winter, sisters Jessie, Martha, and Susan escape to a run-down cabin in Maine. When the furnace breaks, it’s their childhood friend Rajiv who shows up, but no one can agree on a solution. As the rest of the house starts breaking down, even a shared slice of bread can lead to a skirmish, and the sisters find themselves capable of both beautiful intimacy and stunning cruelty. Catherine Epstein’s Oxbow asks how we all deal with our desire to control the uncontrollable.  

 

RSVP for the Oxbow reading 

 

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister playwright Masha Obolensky is a Boston-based playwright and was in the 2011-12 Huntington Playwriting Fellows cohort. Most recently, her play Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister was selected as a Finalist by the Eugene O’Neill National 2023 Playwrights Conference and she is thrilled to have the opportunity to develop this piece in The Huntington’s HPF Summer Workshop. Other Huntington collaborations have included a radio play Speaking Up in “Dream Boston” and a 2014 summer workshop of a play she co-wrote with Melia Bensussen now called Brazen (later developed at Emerson College and performed at the Paramount). Her play Not Enough Air was produced by Chicago’s Timeline Theatre and was nominated for 5 Joseph Jefferson Equity Awards including Best New Play and Best Production. Not Enough Air was also produced by the Nora Theatre in Cambridge (directed by Melia Bensussen) and was listed in the Boston Globe’s “10 Best of 2010”. Other plays and performance pieces include: Marvelous Fruit, Brazen, The Girl Problem, Historic Beauty, and her frequently produced 10-minute Girls’ Play (including at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Samuel French OOB Theatre Festival) Her plays have been finalists in various festivals and she was a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship and the Pen New England Discovery Award. She received an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. She currently teaches Theatre at The International School of Boston and continues to meet with her Huntington Fellow Playwrights cohort who have formed the group MUTT. 

 

Interior of the Artist Without Her Sister director Melia Bensussen is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut and Guest Artistic Director for the O’Neill Theatre Center 2023 National Playwrights Conference. She has directed extensively around the country, including productions at The Huntington, Merrimack Rep, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Class Company, Primary Stages, the Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), People’s Light and Theatre Company (where she received a Barrymore nomination for Best Direction), Bay Street, and Playwrights Horizons, among others. meliabensussen.com  

 

Playwright, poet, and Rehearse Freedom host Lenelle Moïse was part of the seventh cohort of Huntington Playwriting Fellows. She wrote, composed, and co-starred in the Off Broadway show Expatriate (Culture Project). Her full-length plays include K-I-S-S-I-N-G (winner of 8 Elliot Norton Awards), Merit, and The Many Faces of Nia. She is the author of Haiti Glass (City Lights Books), an award-winning collection of poems. Moïse is an alum of Smith College (MFA ‘04), Ithaca College, and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. lenellemoise.com  

 

Power Trio playwright: Melinda Lopez is a proud Huntington Playwriting Fellow, and is thrilled to be in residence at HPF Summer Workshop. Power Trio is also in development with the UCSB LaunchPad Project. Melinda was the Playwright-in-Residence at the Huntington Theatre for six years, under the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program, and Artist-in-Residence for an additional three years, where she helped develop and produce Dream Boston, including writing By The Rude Bridge, and directing Joy and Wonderland, as well as serving as a core member of the Artistic staff. Melinda is a multiple award winning playwright, including Elliot Norton Awards for Best New Play for Black Beans Project (co-created with Joel Perez) and Sonia Flew which had their world premieres at the Huntington, and Mala which premiered at ArtsEmerson (available on Audible in Spanish and English) Other plays include Yerma (adaptation), Young Nerds of Color, Mr. Parent (co-written with Maurice Emmanuel Parent,) Becoming Cuba, Back the Night, Orchids to Octopi, and many others. Melinda also performs on stage, radio and in film, and directs plays (Upcoming: A Case for the Existence of God at SpeakEasy Stage.) She has enjoyed residencies with the Mellon Foundation National Playwrights Residency, Sundance, the Lark, and the New York Theatre Workshop. Mayor Marty Walsh declared October 29, 2016 “Melinda Lopez Day in the City of Boston.” Melinda is the recipient of the 2019 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognizing her 20-year career. She is a Professor of the Practice at Northeastern University, as well as a faculty at Boston University. Melinda is also currently developing a commission with Play On! for The Huntington (a contemporary translation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night) and working on a live version of Black Beans Project for the Old Globe Theatre. 

 

Power Trio director Elena Araoz is a stage director of theater, opera, and virtual performance, working internationally, Off-Broadway, and across the country. Upcoming, Elena will direct the interactive website experience Manic Monologues (McCarter Theatre Center), Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics (Barrington Stage), Marisela Treviño Orta’s new audio drama Nightfall (Audible), the virtual production of Melisa Tien’s Swell created with ten immigrant composers, the world premiere of Lindsey Joelle’s Garbologists (City Theatre Company), and the opera I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams (which will next perform with Resonance Works Pittsburgh after its acclaimed premiere with White Snake Projects). elenaaraoz.com 

 

 

Oxbow playwright Catherine Epstein is a writer and teacher. Her plays include Arbor (The Huntington’s 2022 Breaking Ground Festival), Orchard (2022 Dream Boston Commission), and Allemansrätten (Forward Theater’s 2023 Monologue Festival). She was a 2022 resident at the Catwalk Art Residency and has workshopped her plays at Bard’s Institute for Writing & Thinking, the Phillips Exeter Writers’ Workshop, and GrubStreet. Catherine was a 2019-2022 Huntington Playwriting Fellow, and she will be a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2023 Sewanee Writers’ Conference.  

 

Oxbow director Megan Sandberg-Zakian is a theater artist, author, and facilitator. Across all facets of her work, she focuses on holding space for difficult conversations, creating engagements that can accommodate multiple complex truths, and allowing buried narratives to emerge. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, a home for new works for the stage located on the campus of Boston University. Her book, There Must be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty, is available from The 3rd Thing Press. megansz.com  

 

 

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON  

 

Celebrating 41 years of outstanding theatre, The Huntington is Boston’s theatrical commons and leading professional theatre company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the wide range of voices in our community. Committed to welcoming broad and diverse audiences, The Huntington provides life-changing opportunities for students through its robust education and community programs, is a national leader in the development of playwrights and new plays, acts as the host organization for a multi-year residency of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company based in Boston, and serves the local arts community through our operation of The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. Under the leadership of Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Managing Director Michael Maso, The Huntington reopened the historic Huntington Theatre in Fall 2022 after its transformational renovation. A storied venue with a bold vision for the future, the renovation and building project will allow us to innovatively expand our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org. 

 

 

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