Core Playwrights Weekend - Come hear free public readings of brand new plays by me and my cohort! Times & details coming soon!

• Philadelphia: DANIEL & PALOMA [working title] @ InterAct Theatre Core Playwrights Weekend workshop & reading (DEC 9-14)

• NYC: THE MERCURY 13 [working title] @ EST/Sloan commission workshop (JAN 11-13)

• Charlotte: DANIEL & PALOMA [working title] @ Children's Theatre of Charlotte commission workshop & reading (JAN 25-30)

• Denver: ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE @ Colorado New Play Summit workshop & readings (FEB 10-23)

• Boston: AMANUENSIS, OR THE MILTONS @ Emerson Stage academic production (MAR 26-29)

• JAN - A Miami reading of A PEOPLE by GableStage, directed by Avi Hoffman.

  • And being part of a panel by the Yiddishkayt Initiative, held at the literary & historic Betsy Hotel, on what it means to be a Jewish writer in 2019…

• JAN - A commission from the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s Kindness Project to adapt TROPICAL SECRETS: HOLOCAUST REFUGEES IN CUBA by Margarita Engle into a new play for young audiences about anti-Semitism & immigration & family separation & child refugees & social activism & found family & the challenges of adapting to a new country, language, culture, and self…

• FEB - Worked as an adjudicator in playwriting for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Abilene, TX.

• APR - A blissful MacDowell Colony fellowship / residency to first-draft this TROPICAL SECRETS commission play.

• JUNE - A 2-week residency & performance tour through the Marsh Studio of our queer, feminist, ensemble-based, circus-theater show THE SUBJECT TONIGHT IS LOVE.

• JUNE - The first developmental workshop at the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte of the newbornTROPICAL SECRETS commission play.

• JUNE - A 2-week developmental residency at the New England Center for Circus Arts, where I worked as the dramaturg/artistic consultant for WEBS, a circus-theater show about sexualized violence in this country.

• JULY - The first Chicago production of GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING by Brown Paper Box Co., directed by Erin Shea Brady.

• AUG - An artist residency at Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB retreat — where I found community, space, & delight. (I wrote about it here for the New York Times.)

… and a couple things are gonna happen.
Here’s what was & is up in the winter/spring/fall of 2018:

THEATER:

GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING @ Art House Productions: March 15-April 1 (jersey city)

AMANUENSIS @ Georgetown University: April 12-21 (washington d.c.)

A PEOPLE @ Orbiter 3: May 16-June 2 (philly)

THE EGG-LAYERS @ American Academy of Dramatic Arts: July 19-22 (nyc)

THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL @ Page 73 workshop: July 16-22 (new haven)

THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL @ InterAct Core Playwrights Weekend: Dec 14-16 (philly)

CIRCUS:

Trapeze performance for Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music @ Kimmel Center: June 2 (philly)

Dramaturg/Artistic consultant for Hysterical @ NECCA development residency: August 2018 (brattleboro)

Duo trapeze for a Wedding! @ PSCA: Sept 2 (philly)

Duo trapeze performances @ 2018 Daidogei Festival: Nov 1-4 (japan)

On Thursdays throughout the fall of 2016, I'll be teaching Playwriting II at Bryn Mawr.
(So excited to embark with those students on some magnificent playwriting adventures...!)

There's a brand-new workshop intensive being offered at NECCA, co-taught by me and the remarkable Elsie Smith. Participants will receive craft tools for honing and enriching the artistry of their circus work, practical tools for everything from resumes to websites to video reels, technical coaching on their apparatus, and one-on-one feedback on their acts.

Immersion: Developing Your Circus Career

To register or for more info, go here.

I Am Not My Motherland

Written by Emily Acker
Directed by Rebecca Wright

As told by Hollywood—
As told by the fear mongering journalists— 
As told by her refugee mother—
As told by her war hero grandfather—
An Israeli solider and a Palestinian woman encounter each other in an abandoned bunker. Decades later, a hot-shot surgeon and her fledgling resident botch a fairly standard surgery, ending in catastrophic results. Emily Acker’s I Am Not My Motherland reconsiders how stories are told and re-told, whether any account can come close to objective truth, and why a personal narrative is the hardest to challenge.

For tickets and more info, visit here.

Another Kind of Silence will, blessedly, continue its evolution through the support of the PlayPenn Conference this summer, with the insights of director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, dramaturg Jeremy Stoller, and producer Heidi Rose. Director of Artistic Sign Language TBA.

Stay tuned for the cast and reading dates!

I'm coming back home to NECCA this weekend,
and I'll be bringing these two workshops with me:

• Making Circus That Dazzles
• Ten Different Tools for Building an Act

And on Monday, I'll be teaching the Intensive Program students about dramaturgical craft and Making Circus That Matters. (!!!!)

All the info is here...

Megan Gendell and I are co-teaching Duo Trapeze (intro, intermediate, performance) at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.
More info here.

Currently the class runs Wednesday nights @ 7:15-9:15.
And it's fantastic.

I'll be teaching 2 workshops at Versatile Arts in Seattle for their Workshop Week 2016:

• Making Circus That Matters
• Ten Starting Points for Building an Act

I'd be honored to share this work with you.

Hi circus and theater artists! This weekend I'll be teaching 3 workshops at the (incredibly special) New England Center for Circus Arts in (one of my fave places on the planet) Brattleboro, Vermont, and all 3 focus on the intersection between theater and circus, the ways that dramaturgy (e.g. the craft of telling a story, exploring a theme, building a character, or structuring an act) can enrich and enliven circus acts, and some tools and tips for making ensemble shows. If you're around and interested, bring your questions and artistic hungers and come play, discuss, and expand your goals and toolset.

• FRI 11/6 - Everything We Wish We Knew Before Creating An Ensemble Show (co-taught with Megan Gendell)
• SAT 11/7 - How Do I Start: Ten Different Starting Points for Making an Act
• SUN 11/8 - Making Circus That Matters: Tools Beyond Technique

And I'm available for (and love to offer) private or semiprivate lessons in:

• Act creation
• Act development
• Theatricality and audience connection
• Written or spoken text for performance

I get to teach two of my all-time favorite things (duo trapeze and dramaturgy) at the Southern Fried Circus Fest in Dallas! Come play, discuss, and expand your goals and tools as a circus artist! Bring your questions and artistic hungers!

• Making Circus That Matters: Tools Beyond Technique
• Beginning Adventures in Duo Trapeze (taught with Megan Gendell!)

And I'm available for (and love to offer) private or semiprivate lessons in:

• Act creation
• Act development
• Theatricality and audience connection
• Written or spoken text for performance

There are 4 of us fellows this year (Sam Chanse, David Zax, Jonathan Payne, and me), and over the next 9 months we will be writing and rewriting our 4 courageous plays into magnificence (Delivery, The Room Where I Was Held, The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, and Another Kind of Silence).
Ambitious art is underway, y'all. 
Exciting conversations are transpiring.
And a new community is being forged.
Hot diggity, I am proud and grateful to be working with these folks, and with Katherine & Kate and the Playwrights Realm.

I’ll be returning to Bryn Mawr College to teach playwriting to their (and Haverford’s) remarkable undergraduates.

Some wonderful circus artists have created an ensemble circus show: The Bizarre and Curious Quest of Killian Cog.
In search of a dramaturg to work with, they reached out to me.
In search of a circus project to dramaturg, I said Yes I'd love to!
In three months we've collaboratively developed, strengthened, deepened, and enriched the story, structure, characters, themes, and theatricality of the show.
And we are delighted. 
The show is bookable and touring. Check it out.
(And man do I love theatrical collaborations.)

I’ll be teaching a playwriting workshop for the PlayPenn interns (and attending as many luminous new play readings as possible)...

I’ll be joining City Theatre (Miami) in a CityWrights Festival as an award finalist, and I'll be leading a new workshop on "Writing Plays That Move."

Megan Gendell and I will be performing duo trapeze in the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’s Third Coast Cabaret (wahoo!!), and I will be teaching a Circus Now workshop on “Making Circus That Matters (or, Dramaturgical Tools for Circus Artists),” both for the amazing Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival.

Tinder & Ash will be in development at the Orchard Project (Saratoga Springs, NY), working with circus coach Jamie Hodgson. We are SO grateful for this time to re-gather for some serious work and play.

Megan Gendell and I will be performing duo trapeze at Sir Cupcake's Queer Circus Cabaret (Portland, OR). We can’t wait!

I’ll be teaching a 4-week “Spotlight on Playwriting” workshop at the McCarter Theatre for high school students. Excited to ignite some young minds and expand their theatrical toolboxes.

We will perform Tinder & Ash at the New England Center for Circus Arts (Vermont), and I’ll be teaching a workshop on Making Circus That Matters.

Megan Gendell and I will be performing duo trapeze with Tangle Movement Arts (Philadelphia).

Rebecca Wright, Maria Shaplin, and I are co-teaching a Playwright/Designer Collaboration class at PlayPenn! (Spots still available.)

Grace, or The Art of Climbing will be performed as a staged reading at the Montclair New Play Festival.