THE NEW HARMONY PROJECT ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 2024 SPRING RETREAT
Including partnerships with Mosaic Theater, Congo Square Theatre, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, and more.
(Indianapolis, IN) - The New Harmony Project (Jenni Werner, Executive Artistic Director), a national non-profit arts organization dedicated to supporting writers interrogating the complexity of hope, has announced the lineup for its 37th annual spring conference in idyllic New Harmony, Indiana. A group of over 50 participants will gather for residencies from May 23 to June 2, 2024.
“Stories and the people who tell them help us find our way in the world,” said Jenni Werner, Executive Artistic Director. “I’m thrilled that my first year leading this organization will bring together such a dynamic and innovative group of artists in New Harmony, a town that values art and storytelling as a critical part of daily life. I know that these artists will be inspired and rejuvenated by this wellspring of creativity.”
Following an intensive selection process with close to 500 applications, a diverse,
26-person, paid selection panel made recommendations for the 2024 company. The incredible group of selected artists includes Psalmayene 24 (Free Jujube Brown!), India Nicole Burton (Panther Women), Eli Oisin Campbell (Pleasure Play), Kristiana Rae Colón (The Chi), Shara Feit (Bad Things), Rudi Goblen (A Bag of Halos and Horns), Lavina Jadhwani (The Sitayana or "How to Make an Exit"), Alex Lin (Bad Chinese Daughter), Gloria Majule (Afropick), Daria Miyeko Marinelli (Beautiful Blessed Child), Tara Moses (Seminole Nation, The Oklahoma Cycle), Sam Mueller (PIN), Jay B Muskett (Diné/Navajo - 1n2ian: A Story of the MMIW, Life Within the Cracks), Julie Marie Myatt (Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter), Phanésia Pharel (Black Girl Joy), Eliana Pipes (DREAM HOU$E), Jordan Ramirez Puckett (Inevitable), T. Carlis Roberts (Vida), Michael Shayan (AVAAZ), DeLanna Studi (Cherokee, And So We Walked), Elle Thoni (From the Ground Up), Kirya Traber (Ready or Not), and Ray Yamanouchi (The Chink-Mart).
In the Productions in Residence Program, NHP continues its collaboration with Indianapolis Shakespeare Company (Executive Artistic Director, Ryan Artzberger) to support the commission of Lavina Jadhwani’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing following the story of Hero, called Ado. Ado will be directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh (Associate Artistic Director, Playwrights’ Center). NHP is thrilled to create a two-year partnership with Congo Square Theatre (Artistic Director, Ericka Ratcliff) to support a new, untitled work from Kristina Rae Colón. NHP is also building on last year’s partnership with Mosaic Theater Company (Artistic Director, Reg Douglas) with a two-year partnership to develop a commission from Psalmayene 24. Each of these projects will be featured, along with all of the writers at the conference, during NHP’s A Celebration of Playwrights from May 31-June 1.
The New Harmony Project continues a valued partnership with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival to support residencies for six award winners in the Kennedy Center’s Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program and a dramaturgy fellow.
In addition to the numerous writers and partner organizations, NHP will provide on-site dramaturgical support from NHP Resident Dramaturg Phaedra Michelle Scott, as well as Ryan Adelsheim (MFA, Yale School of Drama), Madeline Easley (Wyandotte Playwright and Dramaturg), Sonia Fernandez (Director of New Work, Woolly Mammoth), Amrita Ramanan (Director of New Work Development, The Public Theater), and a Dramaturgy Fellow. Collaborating with T. Carlis Roberts is writer and theatre maker Addie Ulrey. Also, returning to the conference in 2024 is NHP alum christina michelle watkins, LCSW, as the Wellness Consultant.
The final weekend A Celebration of Playwrights will run May 31 and June 1 in New Harmony, IN, and will feature readings and events celebrating the 2024 writers and conference participants. Tickets and hotel accommodations can be purchased at newharmonyproject.org/2024-conference-announcement.
The 2024 New Harmony Project writers were selected by a panel of paid readers, including: Ryan Adelsheim, Amanda Dawson, Gabriel Jason Dean, Blake Elliott, Ambree Feaster, Sonia Fernandez, Merit Glover, Mario Gomez, Diana Grisanti, Prince Gomolvilas, Blossom Johnson, Jihye Kim, Sloth Levine, Khalid Long, Kelly Miller, DonNguyen, David Quang Pham, Pauli Pontrelli, Christopher Rivas, Megan Monaghan Rivas, Jenna Rodgers, Tammy Ryan, Serayah Silver, christina michelle watkins, Luke Daniel White, and Gavin Witt.
ABOUT THE NEW HARMONY PROJECT
The New Harmony Project is a national arts organization whose mission is to nurture writers in the development of scripts and new stories that interrogate the complexity of hope. Through artist-centered programming, we care for artists so they can change the world. The organization was founded in 1986 when a group of theatre, film, and television professionals gathered to explore the trend in the entertainment arts toward exploitative and sensational material. They concluded there was a need to engage and support writers whose work sought a goal beyond mere entertainment, work that sought to empower and uplift. It was out of this meeting that The New Harmony Project was created.
The New Harmony Project boasts an impressive roster of past participants including Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson (Mexodus), Erika Dickerson-Despenza (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner cullud wattah, 2019 Princess Grace Award), Rajiv Joseph (King James, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Robert Schenkkan (All the Way, The Great Society, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner), Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, NBC’s Smash, Seminar), Lee Blessing (Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee, A Walk in the Woods), Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour), Steven Dietz (Lonely Planet), Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Where We Stand, Last Night and the Night Before), Vichet Chum (Kween, Bald Sisters, 2018 Princess Grace Award), James Still (four time Pulitzer Prize nominee, The Velocity of Gary), Meredith Stiehm (Emmy winner, Homeland, Cold Case), Danny Strong (two time Emmy winner, Empire, Lee Daniels’ The Butler), George Brant (Grounded, Marie and Rosetta), Idris Goodwin (Break Beat Play, How We Got On), Regina Taylor (Drowning Crow, Crowns), Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51, Actually), Dael Orlandersmith (After the Flood), Jim Leonard (Major Crimes, Dexter), Ngozi Anyanwu (The Homecoming Queen, Good Grief), Mark St. Germain (Freud’s Last Session, The Cosby Show), Matt Williams (Home Improvement, Roseanne), David McFadzean (Home Improvement, Roseanne) and Angelo Pizzo (Rudy, Hoosiers).
The New Harmony Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For information on how to support this unique and worthwhile organization, please visit newharmonyproject.org, or follow us on social media.