THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DRAMA NAMES JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

New School Drama student playwrights also win 31st Annual
Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Original Short-Play Festival

New York City, July 24, 2006—The New School for Drama has announced that award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley will be the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at the school starting this fall. Shanley comes to the school on the heels of winning the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play for Doubt. A director and screenwriter as well as a playwright, Shanley has extensive experience in both theater and film. He received both the Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award for his original screenplay for Moonstruck. His plays include Doubt, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, Beggars in the House of Plenty, and Four Dogs and a Bone.

“John Patrick Shanley is an inspiration to up-and-coming playwrights—especially here at The New School,” said Robert LuPone, director of The New School for Drama. “His success proves that there is still a market in this business and in this city for imaginative, risky, and, most important, original plays. For our students, this is an outstanding opportunity to learn from a true artist whose vision goes well beyond the page. We are eager to have him join us this fall.”

In his new position, Shanley will teach two master classes (one each semester) to the third-year playwrights. He will also join two performance labs—classes that involve playwrights, actors, and directors working with faculty from all three departments to develop new pieces—and give his feedback on the work as it’s being created.

Following in the footsteps of artists like Shanley, two student playwrights from The New School for Drama have been named winners of the 31st Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival. Ted Nusbaum’s (’06) play Pischer, and Rebecca Brunstetter’s (’07) play Sick will be published in Samuel French’s annual collection of short plays. More than 300 plays from across the United States were submitted to the competition this year, and The New School for Drama was extremely well represented. Playwrights Djola Branner (’06), Megan Lohne (’07), Paul DeSena (’07), Deen (’06), Laura Rohrman (’05), and Christian Gaul (’00) were either semi-finalists or finalists. Overall, 37 Drama students and alumni participated either as playwrights, directors, or actors in the festival.

The MFA playwriting program at The New School for Drama provides a unique experience for students who aspire to be working professionals in theater, film, and television. Over the course of three years, students are immersed in a rigorous curriculum that offers training in fundamental and advanced writing techniques, as well as extensive production opportunities. Playwrights complete at least one full-length play and one screenplay upon graduation.

Playwriting candidates are guided by a faculty of dynamic and respected writers including program chair Pippin Parker, author of Anesthesia and Assisted Living and founding member and former artistic director of Naked Angels theater company; Christopher Shinn, author of Four, Where Do We Live, What Didn't Happen, The Coming World, and Other People; Frank Pugliese, author of Aven'U Boys and co-founder of both The Writer's Group and The Screenwriter's Collective; and Michael Weller, author of Moonchildren, Loose Ends, Buying Time and Spoils of War. The New School has long been dedicated to the art of playwriting and former faculty members include Romulus Linney, Peter Parnell, and Nicole Burdette.

At The New School for Drama, the instinct to create is revered. Through its interrelated, three-year MFA program in acting, directing, or playwriting, the school is forging the next generation of dramatic artists. A faculty of working professionals brings to the fore each student’s unique and original voice, and helps them establish a rooted sense of who they are as individuals and as artists. The New School’s history in the dramatic arts began in the 1940s, when the Dramatic Workshop, led by founder Erwin Piscator and a faculty including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered artistic voices as distinctive as Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. For more information, visit www.drama.newschool.edu.