Chicago Dramatists Welcomes New Resident Playwrights

CHICAGO – November 5, 2014– Chicago Dramatists is proud to announce the addition of five new members to its esteemed list of Resident Playwrights. This group of talented writers includes Kristiana Colón, MT Cozzola, Steven Peterson, Robert Tenges, and Scott Woldman. Previous Resident Playwrights have included Tina Fey (30 Rock), Rick Cleveland (Mad Men), Rebecca Gilman (Spinning into Butter), Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly), Keith Huff (A Steady Rain), and Roger Rueff (The Big Kahuna).

Chicago Dramatists’ 34-year-old Resident Playwright program offers an artistic home to the city’s dramatists who potentially will make significant contributions to the American theatre repertory. At no charge, Resident Playwrights are granted a three-year renewable term, during which they receive full access to all Chicago Dramatists’ development programs and professional services. These include the weekly Saturday Series of public play readings, private table readings, productions, the 28-Hour Workshop, the weekly Round Table, special workshops, festivals, talent coordination, referrals to producing theatres, collaborative projects with other theatres, career counseling, and one-to-one dramaturgy. Admittance to the Resident Playwright program is by application, with selection determined by artistic and professional accomplishment or potential. Including the five new additions, the program now has 35 Resident Playwrights.

“Our Resident Playwrights include a diverse mix of established professionals and promising new writers living in the greater Chicago metropolitan area, with a wide range of artistic and stylistic interests,” said Chicago Dramatists’ Artistic Director Russ Tutterow. “I’m very excited about their excellence and their remarkable distinctiveness, and I’m confident they will be a great asset to our theatre. Residents of our program are beneficiaries of our fullest and longest-term support as we seek to nurture accomplished, Chicago-based dramatists who have the potential to make an important impact on the national theatre scene.”

Tutterow is very pleased to introduce the following to the ranks of Resident Playwrights:

KRISTIANA COLÓN is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, activist, and Cave Canem Fellow. She recently debuted her first hip-hop one-act Lack on Lack in Victory Gardens Theater’s 2014 Ignition Festival of New Works. Her play Octagon is the winner of Arizona Theater Company’s 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award and Polarity Ensemble Theater’s Dionysos Festival of New Work. In February and March 2013, she toured the UK with her collection of poems promised instruments published by Northwestern University Press. In autumn 2012, she opened her one-woman show Cry Wolf in Chicago while her play but i cd only whisper had its world premiere in London at the Arcola Theater. Kristiana appeared on Season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

MT COZZOLA is a writer and storyteller. Her full-length plays include Boy Small (premiered Fine Print Theatre, Chicago, IL, publication forthcoming by Original Works Publishing), Earth to Margaret (premiered Acorn Theatre, Three Oaks, MI), and Dance for Beginners (staged reading at AstonRep’s 5th Annual Writer’s Series), and her films include Eye of the Sandman (Split Pillow Films). MT’s short plays have appeared in the One-Minute Play Festival, Courier 12 Winter Shorts, La MaMa Theatre Club, and Chicago Theatre Off-Book, and her short story “Toothbrush” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a Ragdale fellow, a La MaMa Umbria alum, and recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Award. MT is an associate artist at The Fine Print Theatre and a member of The Dramatists Guild. She’s currently at work on a devised play, Try This On!, for The Fine Print Theatre’s 2015 season. More at www.mtcozzola.com .

STEVEN PETERSON is a Chicago playwright. Recent productions include Affluence (Theatre 40, Los Angeles), The Invasion of Skokie (Chicago Dramatists, revived by Shpiel Theatre), A Couple of Nobodies (The Artistic Home, upcoming revival at Step Up Productions), and the workshop production of Lydia Lindstrom (Raven Theatre). New play festivals: Paris Time at the New Ground Theatre Festival (Cleveland Play House) and this fall’s Salon Ariel (Theatre Ariel, Philadelphia), and Prodigal Brothers at the Rough Writers Play Festival (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Theatre). Awards: 2014 Julie Harris Playwright Award (2nd prize) for The Shabbos Goy, 2013 Julie Harris Playwright Award (1st prize) for Affluence, and 2012 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition winner for Paris Time. Steven is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists where most of his plays are developed, a member of The Dramatists Guild, and is represented by the Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency, NYC.

ROBERT TENGES is a playwright and musician. His play Strangers Knocking (dir. Adam Webster) was produced by the side project in 2005, and subsequently Off-Broadway with The New Group in 2007. Other productions at the side project include People We Know (Joseph Jefferson nomination for Best New Work), Elsewhere (developed through The New Group) and Three Hymns of Apathy (dir. Brandon Ray). His play Found was awarded the 2004 Illinois Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship, and was subsequently presented at Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Octoberfest New Plays Festival in 2005. His new play Kansas is now being developed by The New Group, and his next play Whatever will be produced at the side project in June 2015. In addition to being an Illinois Arts Council fellow and panelist, he is a member of New River Dramatists and an artist with The New Group. He lives in Chicago with his wife Laura and their twelve year-old son Tristan.

SCOTT WOLDMAN is the Resident Playwright at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre and Redtwist Theatre in Chicago. In Chicago, Scott’s work has been produced by Redtwist Theatre, The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, The Artistic Home, Under The Gun Theatre, Stangeloop Theatre, Stage Left Theatre, The Playground Theatre, Ouribos Theatre and The Second City. Scott has also optioned two screenplays and is a veteran comedian, improviser, story-teller and performance poet. Scott has represented Chicago at the National Poetry Slam and has performed at readings and slams across the nation, including the Chicago Poetry Centre’s No Love for Love Anti-Valentine Show which was hosted by Ira Glass. Scott directed the improv ensemble Almost Atlanta and helped create their show “Act Too,” a full-length improvised play which enjoyed runs at The Second City, The Annoyance Theatre, Chicago Dramatists and Steppenwolf Garage.

About Chicago Dramatists

Established in 1979, Chicago Dramatists is a non-profit theatre dedicated to nurturing playwrights, developing new plays, and enriching the national theatre repertory. Chicago Dramatists is home to 35 Resident Playwrights and a creative source to over 150 Network Playwrights. Through workshops , readings , classes , and special programs , Chicago Dramatists provides opportunities for beginning and established dramatists to develop their work, expand their professional affiliations, showcase their plays to the theatre marketplace, and collaborate with actors, directors, and audiences during the creative process. By the same token, the organization offers theatres and audiences a central resource to discover the plays and playwrights that will shape the theatre of the 21st century.

Contact Information

Jennifer Grasz

Public Relations

Chicago Dramatists

jgrasz40@gmail.com