NYCPlaywrights March 28, 2026
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NYCPlaywrights
Mar 28, 2026, 5:04:19 PM (6 days ago) Mar 28
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
The House Presents: A Queer Adaptation of The Sun Also Rises
This 90-minute reading of a queer adaptation of The Sun Also Rises will begin at 6:30pm, with a 45 minute workshop and feedback session to follow.
Calling all writers & smart theatre thinkers! The Greenhouse is The House Theatre Company’s reading series focused on constructive feedback & development for new plays and musicals. Each reading is followed by a circle focused on developing the work, so come to this adaptation of The Sun Also Rises prepped with your notepads & excited to develop art in community! We’d love to see you there
Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises cemented Ernest Hemingway as one of the most well-known writers of the twentieth century. This sapphic reinterpretation of the piece imagines Jake and Brett as queer exes tangled among histories of friendship, debauchery, love, and heartbreak. On a group trip to Spain, Jake must grapple with her relationships to sex, gender, and Brett’s new fiancé in the midst of social catastrophe. The Sun Also Rises dissects the innately queer longing for what could have been, and what might still be.
Friday, Apr 24 from 6:30 pm to 9 pm
Hive Mind Books
219 Irving Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-house-presents-a-queer-adaptation-of-the-sun-also-rises-tickets-1985871316566?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Sonoma Foundation for Behavioral Health (SFBH) is seeking writers to submit original scripts for consideration in this year’s Andrew Conti Workshop (ACW) — a performance art program dedicated to helping people process challenging emotional experiences through deeply human, character-centered storytelling.
The ACW Workshop supports new and emerging voices and embraces work that explores the full spectrum of human experience — from the challenging to the absurd, from the disturbing to the beautiful. We are particularly interested in scripts that engage with themes such as mental health, addiction, recovery, identity, connection, and resilience.
***
The 92nd Street Y is thrilled to invite submissions for this year’s Lyrics & Lyricists Jr., a special opportunity for ten emerging composers and songwriters to have their work presented on the 92NY stage.
Selected winners will have their song featured in this year’s concert on May 16 and 17, will be highlighted with a bio on the 92NY website, and will receive professional footage of their number performed on our stage. It is a meaningful opportunity for emerging writers to share their work as part of a long-standing 92NY tradition while also contributing to programming that serves young people and families.
***
In Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking play, Waiting for Godot (1953), Lucky, enslaved by Pozzo, remains silent throughout. But with one exception: when allowed by his master, Lucky utters a long, incoherent monologue that sheds light on his experience with unfreedom. Lucky is no exception in the history of playwriting and theater: Monologues have been used across history to give voice to the unheard and remain one of the most common genres for expressing challenges to free expression.
Three monologues will be selected for staging at UC Irvine in May 2026. Each author will receive a $500 stipend to participate in the in-person event (date to be determined).
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** BROADWAY COMPOSERS ***
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II were a significant influence on American musical theater, particularly with their groundbreaking production Show Boat (1927). In adapting Edna Ferber’s sprawling novel for the musical stage, they demonstrated that musical theater could more than entertain, that it could be thought-provoking and tackle social issues in frank and stirring ways. The song “Ol’ Man River” remains one of Broadway’s most powerfully charged songs, using the Mississippi River as a metaphor for the harsh relentlessness of life. The musical set the precedent for “serious” musical theater and endeavored to tie the score of a musical to its book, having the songs grow out of the plot and characters, opening the door for other musicals such as Porgy & Bess, Lady in the Dark, and Pal Joey to attempt such an integration.
More...
https://broadwaydirect.com/perfect-pairings-the-great-broadway-musical-composing-teams/
***
After Kay Swift, however, there’s a large gap. Throughout most of the 1930s and the entirety of the 1940s, I could not find any women who wrote music for Broadway. Perhaps this decline was due to the rise of the book musical, which led to fewer writers per show, or due to The Great Depression itself. According to the New York Preservation Archive Project, “The years 1927 and 1928 signaled the height of theater popularity in Times Square with 70 theaters and 250 shows, but the area faced hard times after the stock market crash of 1929 and the popularization of ‘talkies,’ and ticket sales plunged, causing theater owners like the Shuberts to file for bankruptcy. The Great Depression deeply affected the area causing many theaters to shut down. Some reopened as movie theaters while others showcased live burlesque shows.”
While musical theater was in its Golden Age, the 1940s and 1950s, women writers were almost completely absent. The English singer and writer Anna Russell took her musical comedy show to Broadway in 1954, but it really wasn’t until Mary Rodgers wrote the music for Once Upon a Mattress in 1959 that a woman was writing music for musical theater again.
More...
https://maestramusic.org/blog/the-maestra-timeline-of-women-composers-on-broadway/
***
Andrew Lloyd Webber is beloved for his many works, from the very popular long-running musicals to the short-lived hits. In addition to his beloved full-length musicals, the composer, writer, and theater impresario has also contributed music to a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with many lyricists, notably Tim Rice, with whom he worked for 10 years at the beginning of his career. Lloyd Webber has received a number of awards, including eight Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, and an Academy Award.
And in 2026, he shows no signs of stopping. After a wildly successful Off-Broadway run, CATS: The Jellicle Ball will be coming to Broadway this spring. A fresh, campy reimagination of the worldwide phenomenon CATS will be returning to the stage as a kaleidoscope of glittering spectacle, iconic music and electrifying ballroom choreography that The New York Times calls “a lightning strike that sets joy free!”
More...
https://broadwaydirect.com/a-complete-roundup-of-every-andrew-lloyd-webber-musical/
***
Throughout the early portion of the 1920s, decades before the Lincoln Center complex became Manhattan’s premiere artistic hub, West 63th Street was home to Shuffle Along, one of the most groundbreaking and profitable theatrical productions to have hit New York to date. Eight times a week, the area just east of San Juan Hill was packed with both Black and white theatergoers, including celebrities and political figures, who were all eager to see the groundbreaking two-act musical comedy at the 63rd Street Music Hall, which was written and performed entirely by Black Americans. Its score was a clever amalgamation of jazz and ragtime, built upon a foundation of the traditional European operetta fare that was expected, and until Shuffle Along’s debut, was the most popular style of music on the Broadway stage.
More...
https://www.lincolncenter.org/feature/legacies-of-san-juan-hill/lessemgreatershuffle-alonglessemgreater-the-musical-that-sparked-a-black-renaissance
***
When people ask me how I started to write music for plays, they are often surprised by the sheer extent of happenstance and luck that led me down this particular road. I don’t think I’m unusual in that I didn’t set out to write music for plays. After teaching myself the piano as a child, I longed for a career in songwriting: pop music primarily and then later musical theatre. I went to a performing arts college (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) to study music and for the first couple of years only occasionally participated in any theatre activities. Even when I did decide to concentrate my efforts on musical theatre it never occurred to me that there might be a world of plays out there that required composers. In fact, it took me a long time to even call myself a composer – I was a songwriter; the word ‘composer’ seemed far too hifalutin. In my secondary-school music class, composition was called ‘inventing’ (presumably because we couldn’t possibly declare the music we were sweating out as ‘composition’). No, that required formal music education in a building with a royal crest on the front of it – surely?
More...
https://nickhernbooksblog.com/2016/07/13/michael-bruce-how-i-became-a-theatre-composer/
***
For every musical theatre kid who dreams of becoming the next Cole Porter, the next Sondheim, the next Jeanine Tesori, there’s another who happened upon the career by accident.
Nell Benjamin was an English major with a penchant for poetry, particularly rhyming sonnets, and she turned that proclivity into writing lyrics when she penned her first musical for Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were sophomores in college with bit parts in the school musical, so they used their spare rehearsal time to write a coming-of-age song cycle. Adam Gwon was a high schooler absorbed in piano lessons who went to a musical with his class, which is the first time he realized that people actually write musicals. Kevin Del Aguila was an unemployed actor writing plays on the side, and his show at the New York International Fringe Festival turned into an offer to write the book for an Off-Broadway show. Stew was a rock musician who told what he thought was a white lie about having an idea for a musical, not expecting to get taken up on it. And Kirsten Childs was a Fosse dancer who didn’t see people like her represented enough onstage, so she took up her pen.
More...
https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/01/04/where-do-you-learn-to-write-musicals/
***
Anaïs Mitchell: I was just at the beginning of a career as a singer-songwriter and I was driving from one tip gig to another when the melody of “Wait for Me” dropped out of the sky. It came with some long-lost lyrics that seemed to describe the Orpheus & Eurydice myth, which had been a favorite of mine as a kid. I started to follow the thread into the labyrinth and I think what inspired me most about retelling that story was the idea of pitting young, creative, optimistic Orpheus against an underworld where “the rules are the rules.” Over many years of development, I’ve identified with many different characters. But at first it was the idea of Orpheus, who believes if he could just write something beautiful enough, he could move the heart of stone, he could change the way the world is—that was inspiring to me.
More...
https://thehanovertheatre.org/blog/interview-with-anais-mitchell-writer-composer-of-hadestown-and-rachel-chavkin-director-of-hadestown/
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
The House Presents: A Queer Adaptation of The Sun Also Rises
This 90-minute reading of a queer adaptation of The Sun Also Rises will begin at 6:30pm, with a 45 minute workshop and feedback session to follow.
Calling all writers & smart theatre thinkers! The Greenhouse is The House Theatre Company’s reading series focused on constructive feedback & development for new plays and musicals. Each reading is followed by a circle focused on developing the work, so come to this adaptation of The Sun Also Rises prepped with your notepads & excited to develop art in community! We’d love to see you there
Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises cemented Ernest Hemingway as one of the most well-known writers of the twentieth century. This sapphic reinterpretation of the piece imagines Jake and Brett as queer exes tangled among histories of friendship, debauchery, love, and heartbreak. On a group trip to Spain, Jake must grapple with her relationships to sex, gender, and Brett’s new fiancé in the midst of social catastrophe. The Sun Also Rises dissects the innately queer longing for what could have been, and what might still be.
Friday, Apr 24 from 6:30 pm to 9 pm
Hive Mind Books
219 Irving Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-house-presents-a-queer-adaptation-of-the-sun-also-rises-tickets-1985871316566?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
Sonoma Foundation for Behavioral Health (SFBH) is seeking writers to submit original scripts for consideration in this year’s Andrew Conti Workshop (ACW) — a performance art program dedicated to helping people process challenging emotional experiences through deeply human, character-centered storytelling.
The ACW Workshop supports new and emerging voices and embraces work that explores the full spectrum of human experience — from the challenging to the absurd, from the disturbing to the beautiful. We are particularly interested in scripts that engage with themes such as mental health, addiction, recovery, identity, connection, and resilience.
***
The 92nd Street Y is thrilled to invite submissions for this year’s Lyrics & Lyricists Jr., a special opportunity for ten emerging composers and songwriters to have their work presented on the 92NY stage.
Selected winners will have their song featured in this year’s concert on May 16 and 17, will be highlighted with a bio on the 92NY website, and will receive professional footage of their number performed on our stage. It is a meaningful opportunity for emerging writers to share their work as part of a long-standing 92NY tradition while also contributing to programming that serves young people and families.
***
In Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking play, Waiting for Godot (1953), Lucky, enslaved by Pozzo, remains silent throughout. But with one exception: when allowed by his master, Lucky utters a long, incoherent monologue that sheds light on his experience with unfreedom. Lucky is no exception in the history of playwriting and theater: Monologues have been used across history to give voice to the unheard and remain one of the most common genres for expressing challenges to free expression.
Three monologues will be selected for staging at UC Irvine in May 2026. Each author will receive a $500 stipend to participate in the in-person event (date to be determined).
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** BROADWAY COMPOSERS ***
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II were a significant influence on American musical theater, particularly with their groundbreaking production Show Boat (1927). In adapting Edna Ferber’s sprawling novel for the musical stage, they demonstrated that musical theater could more than entertain, that it could be thought-provoking and tackle social issues in frank and stirring ways. The song “Ol’ Man River” remains one of Broadway’s most powerfully charged songs, using the Mississippi River as a metaphor for the harsh relentlessness of life. The musical set the precedent for “serious” musical theater and endeavored to tie the score of a musical to its book, having the songs grow out of the plot and characters, opening the door for other musicals such as Porgy & Bess, Lady in the Dark, and Pal Joey to attempt such an integration.
More...
https://broadwaydirect.com/perfect-pairings-the-great-broadway-musical-composing-teams/
***
After Kay Swift, however, there’s a large gap. Throughout most of the 1930s and the entirety of the 1940s, I could not find any women who wrote music for Broadway. Perhaps this decline was due to the rise of the book musical, which led to fewer writers per show, or due to The Great Depression itself. According to the New York Preservation Archive Project, “The years 1927 and 1928 signaled the height of theater popularity in Times Square with 70 theaters and 250 shows, but the area faced hard times after the stock market crash of 1929 and the popularization of ‘talkies,’ and ticket sales plunged, causing theater owners like the Shuberts to file for bankruptcy. The Great Depression deeply affected the area causing many theaters to shut down. Some reopened as movie theaters while others showcased live burlesque shows.”
While musical theater was in its Golden Age, the 1940s and 1950s, women writers were almost completely absent. The English singer and writer Anna Russell took her musical comedy show to Broadway in 1954, but it really wasn’t until Mary Rodgers wrote the music for Once Upon a Mattress in 1959 that a woman was writing music for musical theater again.
More...
https://maestramusic.org/blog/the-maestra-timeline-of-women-composers-on-broadway/
***
Andrew Lloyd Webber is beloved for his many works, from the very popular long-running musicals to the short-lived hits. In addition to his beloved full-length musicals, the composer, writer, and theater impresario has also contributed music to a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with many lyricists, notably Tim Rice, with whom he worked for 10 years at the beginning of his career. Lloyd Webber has received a number of awards, including eight Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, and an Academy Award.
And in 2026, he shows no signs of stopping. After a wildly successful Off-Broadway run, CATS: The Jellicle Ball will be coming to Broadway this spring. A fresh, campy reimagination of the worldwide phenomenon CATS will be returning to the stage as a kaleidoscope of glittering spectacle, iconic music and electrifying ballroom choreography that The New York Times calls “a lightning strike that sets joy free!”
More...
https://broadwaydirect.com/a-complete-roundup-of-every-andrew-lloyd-webber-musical/
***
Throughout the early portion of the 1920s, decades before the Lincoln Center complex became Manhattan’s premiere artistic hub, West 63th Street was home to Shuffle Along, one of the most groundbreaking and profitable theatrical productions to have hit New York to date. Eight times a week, the area just east of San Juan Hill was packed with both Black and white theatergoers, including celebrities and political figures, who were all eager to see the groundbreaking two-act musical comedy at the 63rd Street Music Hall, which was written and performed entirely by Black Americans. Its score was a clever amalgamation of jazz and ragtime, built upon a foundation of the traditional European operetta fare that was expected, and until Shuffle Along’s debut, was the most popular style of music on the Broadway stage.
More...
https://www.lincolncenter.org/feature/legacies-of-san-juan-hill/lessemgreatershuffle-alonglessemgreater-the-musical-that-sparked-a-black-renaissance
***
When people ask me how I started to write music for plays, they are often surprised by the sheer extent of happenstance and luck that led me down this particular road. I don’t think I’m unusual in that I didn’t set out to write music for plays. After teaching myself the piano as a child, I longed for a career in songwriting: pop music primarily and then later musical theatre. I went to a performing arts college (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) to study music and for the first couple of years only occasionally participated in any theatre activities. Even when I did decide to concentrate my efforts on musical theatre it never occurred to me that there might be a world of plays out there that required composers. In fact, it took me a long time to even call myself a composer – I was a songwriter; the word ‘composer’ seemed far too hifalutin. In my secondary-school music class, composition was called ‘inventing’ (presumably because we couldn’t possibly declare the music we were sweating out as ‘composition’). No, that required formal music education in a building with a royal crest on the front of it – surely?
More...
https://nickhernbooksblog.com/2016/07/13/michael-bruce-how-i-became-a-theatre-composer/
***
For every musical theatre kid who dreams of becoming the next Cole Porter, the next Sondheim, the next Jeanine Tesori, there’s another who happened upon the career by accident.
Nell Benjamin was an English major with a penchant for poetry, particularly rhyming sonnets, and she turned that proclivity into writing lyrics when she penned her first musical for Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were sophomores in college with bit parts in the school musical, so they used their spare rehearsal time to write a coming-of-age song cycle. Adam Gwon was a high schooler absorbed in piano lessons who went to a musical with his class, which is the first time he realized that people actually write musicals. Kevin Del Aguila was an unemployed actor writing plays on the side, and his show at the New York International Fringe Festival turned into an offer to write the book for an Off-Broadway show. Stew was a rock musician who told what he thought was a white lie about having an idea for a musical, not expecting to get taken up on it. And Kirsten Childs was a Fosse dancer who didn’t see people like her represented enough onstage, so she took up her pen.
More...
https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/01/04/where-do-you-learn-to-write-musicals/
***
Anaïs Mitchell: I was just at the beginning of a career as a singer-songwriter and I was driving from one tip gig to another when the melody of “Wait for Me” dropped out of the sky. It came with some long-lost lyrics that seemed to describe the Orpheus & Eurydice myth, which had been a favorite of mine as a kid. I started to follow the thread into the labyrinth and I think what inspired me most about retelling that story was the idea of pitting young, creative, optimistic Orpheus against an underworld where “the rules are the rules.” Over many years of development, I’ve identified with many different characters. But at first it was the idea of Orpheus, who believes if he could just write something beautiful enough, he could move the heart of stone, he could change the way the world is—that was inspiring to me.
More...
https://thehanovertheatre.org/blog/interview-with-anais-mitchell-writer-composer-of-hadestown-and-rachel-chavkin-director-of-hadestown/
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