Letter from Jeremy and Robert

In 1971, the Playwrights’ Center founders came together to build an artistic home—a safe haven for playwrights to experiment and create community. Forty-five years later, in the 2016-17 season, the Center developed nearly 70 new plays, sustained playwrights with hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct support, and provided resources and educational opportunities to thousands of members throughout Minnesota and around the world, including hundreds of students through our New Plays on Campus program. These milestones are our founders’ legacy—and they were among the accomplishments of our 2016–17 season.

The season saw a transition in our managing director position, with the departure of Keri Kellerman for Marin Theatre Company and the arrival of Robert Chelimsky. It is a testament to the commitment, passion, and skill of our staff, and the robust guidance and prudent oversight of our board, that this year of transition was one of profound achievement—supporting more writers, collaborating with more theaters, and connecting our writers and their stories with more audiences and communities around the world than ever before.

It is a testament to you and the generosity of all of our supporters that we were able to provide our vital storytellers this depth of support and close our fiscal year with a six-figure cash surplus, used to build reserves and artistic opportunity funds.

The founders probably didn’t expect a 45th year marked by nearly 50 productions of Playwrights’ Center-developed plays on stages throughout the country, including on Broadway, with the revival of August Wilson’s Jitney—yet that was our 45th season. With your continued support, we’re envisioning our next 45 years as an artistic home for new generations of playwrights and new plays, and milestones we can’t yet imagine. We’re grateful to have you on the journey.

Jeremy B. Cohen
Producing Artistic Director

Robert Chelimsky
Managing Director

Sustain

Sustain

Through artist compensation, open membership, and long-term bonds with writers we’ve served, we invest in playwrights as artist leaders in all stages of their careers.

1,941

playwrights supported in 2016-17 through membership, fellowship, and education programs

$272,137

in direct financial support to writers

Fellowships

These 14 fellows received $235,000 in direct financial support through the Center’s 5 fellowship programs, funded in part by the Jerome and McKnight foundations.

Katie Bender

Benjamin Benne

Sonya Berlovitz

ShaVunda Brown

Marisa Carr

Oya Mae Duchess-Davis

Emily Feldman

Jessica Huang

Kristin Idaszak

Thomasina Petrus

Kimberly Richardson

Andrew Rosendorf

Francine Volpe

Rhiana Yazzie

Beyond the financial stipend, the value of fellowships is more than doubled with the year-long support the Playwrights’ Center adds through workshops with professional collaborators and through the connections the Center makes between playwrights and producers of new work.

Core Writers

These 29 playwrights received fully funded play development workshops as part of their 3-year terms as Core Writers.

Lee Blessing

Carlyle Brown

Philip Dawkins

Larissa FastHorse

Barbara Field

Sarah Gubbins

Christina Ham

Jeffrey Hatcher

Rachel Jendrzejewski

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Sherry Kramer

Martyna Majok

Marion McClinton

Meg Miroshnik

Qui Nguyen

Kira Obolensky

John Olive

Jason Gray Platt

Gabrielle Reisman

Harrison David Rivers

Jen Silverman

Mat Smart

Susan Soon He Stanton

Kate Tarker

Alice Tuan

Ken Urban

Joe Waechter

Kathryn Walat

Ken Weitzman

Core Writers have the opportunity to workshop their plays at any stage of development. All workshops are customized to help writers achieve their goals. In addition to the development of the writers’ plays, the Center facilitates new connections between its Core Writers and producing theaters, and works with theaters to co-develop plays in preparation for production.

Fellows and Core Writers are selected by diverse national panels of artists and theater leaders.

Affiliated Writers

The Affiliated Writers group is open to all writers who have been part of fellowship or Core Writer programs at the Center. We don’t call these writers “alumni,” because we welcome playwrights to reapply for programs and encourage them to take advantage of the resources the Center can provide, including potential co-development partnerships with our Regulars partners. In essence, the Affiliated Writers group represents the extended family of writers that make up the Playwrights’ Center.

227

Affiliated Writers at the end of 2016-17

Membership

Playwrights’ Center membership is open to playwrights of all styles and experience levels worldwide.

1,941

members at the end of 2016-17

16%

increase in membership over the previous year

35

New Plays on Campus member schools

263

New Plays on Campus student members

Develop

Develop

We listen to what playwrights need and want to achieve their vision—and we provide it. Each workshop is shaped in response to the requests of that individual playwright at that moment. We value process over product, creating a safe space for artistic risk-taking.

66

new play workshops and readings

360

actor contracts

49

directors

27

dramaturgs

11

designers

3

musicians

3

composers

PlayLabs

For more than 30 years, the Playwrights’ Center’s PlayLabs festival has been one of the nation’s most comprehensive play development programs. Core Writers receive 30 hours of vital workshop time with a team of collaborators and two public readings. Over 65% of the plays featured in PlayLabs over the past decade have gone on to production, and the festival has become a must-attend event for theater leaders and fans both locally and around the country.

PlayLabs 2016 featured The Remains by Ken Urban, West of Central by Christina Ham, and we, the invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton (all of which have since been slated for production). The festival also included a showcase of work by our playwriting fellows and panel discussion about the future of theater.

Ruth Easton New Play Series

This series provides selected Core Writers with 20 hours of workshop time to develop a new play with collaborators of their choice. Each play has two public readings, allowing the playwright to experiment and see the play on its feet in front of two different audiences. The Center brings in visiting artistic leaders to see the readings and connect with the playwrights, and more than half of the plays developed in the series over the past decade have gone on to production.

The 2016-17 Ruth Easton New Play Series featured Wink by Jen Silverman; queens by Martyna Majok; Eden Prairie, 1971 by Mat Smart; The Sea and The Stars by Harrison David Rivers; and Minneapolis/St. Paul by Lee Blessing.

Membership

Playwrights’ Center members have many options for script feedback and development, including informal read-throughs with other members, in-depth work with professional dramaturgs, and staged readings with the best actors in the Twin Cities.

8

member stage readings

32

one-on-one dramaturgy sessions

2

multi-week classes

1

masterclass

19

seminars

206

total class & seminar attendees

24

Open Play sessions

183

Open Play attendees

Connect

Connect

We cultivate relationships between playwrights and producers of new plays in recognition of how critical these bridges are in moving new plays towards production. We also serve as a hub for artists to connect to one another.

The Regulars

In 2016-17, the number of theaters enrolled in our Regulars program topped 100. Through this program, we bring artistic leaders from theaters around the country to the Center to spend time with playwrights and co-develop new plays, with a keen eye towards production.

The impact of these partnerships is clear: there are more than 30 productions upcoming or completed of plays we co-developed here just since July 2015. The industry average to get a play on stage is seven years. With the help of our Page to Stage donors, the Regulars program is making it possible for plays to move, in 2-3 years, from inception to production.

Throughout the season, the artistic staff traveled around the United States and Canada to create deeper connections for our writers, as well as birthing new relationships for the future. We are now seeing productions of our writers being announced in these cities, including: Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Austin, New York, and Boston.

Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap

In September 2016, we workshopped Affiliated Writer Lauren Yee’s Chinese/American basketball play The Great Leap in partnership with Denver Center Theatre. This play already has three productions lined up for the 2017-18 season, at Denver Center Theatre, Seattle Rep, and Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company.

Meg Miroshnik’s Fickle: A Fancy French Farce

Olney Theatre Center in Maryland was looking for a female playwright to adapt The Double Inconstancy, a 1723 comedy by Pierre de Marivaux, and we connected them with Core Writer Meg Miroshnik, knowing she would be a great fit for the project. They commissioned Meg in the spring of 2016, Meg wrote the script, and Meg and Olney came to the Playwrights’ Center in October 2016 for a co-development workshop. Their time together was very productive, and the world premiere production of Fickle: A Fancy French Farce opened March 1, 2017, at Olney Theatre Center, just a year after it was commissioned.

Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play

Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon, commissioned a play from Core Writer Larissa FastHorse. The playwright and theater came together at the Playwrights’ Center in December 2016 for a co-development workshop of The Thanksgiving Play. We were able to supersize the workshop to give everyone more time in the room together to hone the play. Because The Thanksgiving Play is a comedy, it was important to Larissa to try it out in front of an audience, so we scheduled an evening reading and opened the doors to our always-savvy attendees. This workshop got The Thanksgiving Play ready for its world premiere, coming up in April 2018 at Artists Rep, and moving off-broadway next season to Playwrights Horizons.

Partnership program

The Center partnered with theaters locally and nationally, including Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, The Wilma Theater, Artists Repertory Theatre, Raven Theatre, Theatre Novi Most, Red Eye Theater, South Florida Theatre League, and The Future is Female Festival, to provide development and financial support to new play workshops.

11

partnership projects

$26,504

in support of partnership workshops

42

productions of Playwrights’ Center-developed plays at theaters across the country

New Plays On Campus

New Plays on Campus is designed to support the next generation of playwrights by giving student writers access to playwriting resources and opportunities to work with professional playwrights. The Playwrights’ Center also provides script-matching services for theater departments looking for new work for their stages.

Core Apprentice program

New Plays on Campus schools may nominate students to become Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentices, a unique and high-profile opportunity. In partnership with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, the Core Apprentice program provides three student playwrights each year with a year-long mentorship with a professional playwright and culminates in a full play development workshop at the Playwrights’ Center. Recent mentors have included David Henry Hwang and Dominique Morriseau.

Core Apprentice playwrights for 2016-17:

• Sarah Galantementored by Jen Silverman
• Sam Lahnementored by Melanie Marnich
• Savannah Reichmentored by Philip Dawkins

Financial

Financial

Fiscal year 2017 was every bit as successful financially as it was programmatically for the Playwrights’ Center. Led by strong support from foundations, government and corporate grants, robust direct individual fundraising, and successful events such as the 45th Anniversary Celebration fundraiser, the Playwrights’ Center ended 2016-17 with a six-figure cash surplus. This marks the fourth consecutive year of cash surpluses.

These surpluses are not coincidental. Starting in 2012, the Center began planning for long-term health by meticulously budgeting to the balance sheet. That means the Center anticipates future opportunity costs and budgets non-cash expenses like depreciation. Those dollars then support the health and durability of the organization, and the vibrancy of its artistic programs. This forward thinking has enabled the Center to build up an operating reserve totaling more than 22% of the annual operating budget, and to start an artistic vibrancy fund to ensure creative opportunities can be met and resourced with actual dollars.

The 2017 fiscal year ended with a cash surplus of $122,577 and a minor unrestricted operating deficit of $2,482. While total net assets are subject to significant fluctuations due to the receipt and allocation of major multi-year grants, we benchmark our progress on improvement in unrestricted net assets and reserves.

Income

$1,871,999

support and revenue

The Playwrights’ Center is an arts service organization dedicated to supporting playwrights at all levels of experience. Because tickets to season events are free, the Center relies on contributions from individuals and institutions for 87% of its annual funding.

Expense

$1,347,504

total expense

$524,495

change in net assets

$1,467,457

net assets - beginning of year

$1,991,952

net assets - end of year

Download the Center’s 2016-17 audit

The Center currently has $322,513 in operating reserves and has no long-term debt.

Page to Stage

Moving new plays developed here toward full production at partnering professional theaters is central to the work of the Playwrights’ Center. In 2015-2016, aiming to rally supporters around this critical effort, the Center introduced Page to Stage, its first defined major gifts program. Page to Stage dollars support the Center’s individually tailored play development partnerships with new-play-producing theaters in the Twin Cities and beyond. Partners share the costs of developing new plays with the Center, which provides space and production support, including casting, workshop personnel, and travel/housing arrangements. These collaborations help bridge the gap for theaters interested in producing new work that lack the resources to develop it most effectively.

To kick off the Page to Stage effort, the Playwrights’ Center set a goal to raise $150,000 in the first two years of the program. Thanks to the generosity of a group of steadfast supporters, by June 30, 2017, the Center raised $118,850, well on the way to achieving the original goal on schedule. In FY18, the Center looks to expand the circle of supporters to carry this vital work forward.