KETCHUM, ID – Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency (SVPR), the non-profit organization that fosters new relationships between theatremakers and Idaho’s Wood River Valley community and fuels the American theatre with invigorating new plays, is thrilled to announce its Fall 2023 programming, in partnership with The Argyros Performing Arts Center and The Community Library.
Now in its third year, Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency pioneers a radically new approach to supporting playwrights and the development of their new work, annually focusing with laser precision on an individual playwright who receives creative support to foster a new project over the course of a year.
“Each October, we welcome a new playwright to Ketchum for a month-long stay at the Hemingway House to begin writing a new play in this breathtaking setting and to become enmeshed in our local community,” says SVPR Producer Jonathan Kane. “The following year, the playwright comes back to the Valley to share their new play. Combining resources with our wonderful partners at The Community Library and The Argyros—two cultural pillars in the Valley—allows us to offer visionary writers exceptional resources and to deepen the programming we offer the community.”
“We’re working with playwrights at the very beginning of their creative process—when their next play is just an idea,” adds SVPR Artistic Director John Baker. “And we’re inviting audiences to be a part of that creative process by showing up and spending time with the writer and their work-in-process.”
In September 2023, Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award nominee Martyna Majok (Cost of Living) returns to Ketchum with off-Broadway director Caitlin Sullivan (Queens) to workshop a brand new play by Majok that she has been writing as the 2022-2023 Resident Playwright.
On September 27, 2023 from 5:30-6:30pm MT at The Argyros Performing Arts Center, Majok and Sullivan will participate in a Q&A with SVPR Artistic Director John Baker about their work and collaboration. On September 28, 2023 at 7pm MT, a reading of Majok’s new play-in-process will be presented at The Argyros Performing Arts Center. The Q&A and reading are free of charge, but reservations are required at www.theargyros.org.
Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Rajiv Joseph (Guards at The Taj) has been announced as the 2023-2024 Resident Playwright. In October 2023, SVPR welcomes Joseph to the Wood River Valley where he will be the writer-in-residence at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House, which is managed by The Community Library as a private residence for visiting writers, and is the site of ongoing preservation efforts.
“We’re so thrilled to welcome Rajiv to the Wood River Valley this fall. His writing has such tremendous depth and range,” says Baker. “His plays are funny and dark and dig into thorny aspects of humanity. He’s an extraordinary talent.”
On October 9, 2023 at 5pm MT, The Community Library hosts a conversation with Joseph, moderated by The Community Library’s Programs and Education Director. The event is free and open to the public, and more information is available at www.comlib.org. On October 14, 2023 at 7pm MT, SVPR presents a reading of Joseph’s 2009 play Gruesome Playground Injuries. The reading is presented free of charge at The Argyros Performing Arts Center, but reservations are required at www.theargyros.org.
FALL 2023 PROGRAMMING
A CONVERSATION WITH MARTYNA MAJOK & CAITLIN SULLIVAN
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 5:30pm MT
at The Argyros Performing Arts Center, 120 Main Street S, Ketchum, Idaho
Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award-nominee Martyna Majok and Off Broadway Director Caitlin Sullivan will be in conversation with Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency Artistic Director John Baker about their work and collaboration before taking questions from the audience.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Tickets: Free of charge; reservations required; more information at www.theargyros.org.
UNTITLED NEW PLAY
A work-in-process reading by Martyna Majok, directed by Caitlin Sullivan
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7pm MT
at The Argyros Performing Arts Center, 120 Main Street S, Ketchum, Idaho
Join us for the first public reading of a brand new work-in-process play by Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award nominee Martyna Majok.
Tickets: Free of charge; reservations required; more information at www.theargyros.org.
A CONVERSATION WITH RAJIV JOSEPH
Monday, October 9, 2023 at 5pm MT
at The Community Library, 415 Spruce Ave, Ketchum, Idaho
Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Rajiv Joseph will be in conversation with Martha Williams, The Community Library’s Programs and Education Director, to discuss his writing process before taking questions from the audience.
Tickets: Free of charge; reservations recommended but not required; more information at www.comlib.org.
GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
A reading written and directed by Rajiv Joseph
Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 7pm MT
at The Argyros Performing Arts Center, 120 Main Street S, Ketchum, Idaho
Spanning 30 years, Gruesome Playground Injuries charts the intersection of childhood friends Kayleen and Doug, using scars, wounds, and calamities as the mile markers to explore why people hurt themselves.
Tickets: Free of charge; reservations required; more information at www.theargyros.org.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living, which debuted this fall on Broadway and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Other awards include the Obie Award for Playwriting, The Hull-Warriner Award, The Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Hermitage Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award’s Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and the 2022-2023 Resident Playwright of Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency. Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, and writing films for Plan B/Pastel/MGM, MRC/T-Street, and Participant.
Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj (also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play) and then in 2018 with Describe the Night. Other plays include King James, Letters of Suresh, Archduke, The North Pool, Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Animals Out of Paper. He wrote the book and co-wrote lyrics for the musical Fly, based on Peter Pan, and he wrote the libretto for the opera Shalimar the Clown, based on the novel by Salman Rushdie. He has written for TV and film and has been awarded artistic grants from the Whiting Foundation, United States Artists and the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.
ABOUT THE PARTNERS
Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency pioneers a radically new approach to supporting playwrights and the development of their new work. In partnership with The Argyros Performing Arts Center and The Community Library, Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency gives playwrights time and resources to write in an inspired Idaho setting and provides the local community events that offer insight into writers’ creative processes. Resident Playwrights include David Cale (2021-2022), Martyna Majok (2022-2023), and Rajiv Joseph (2023-2024). For more information, visit www.sunvalleyplaywrights.org.
The Community Library brings information, ideas, and individuals together to enhance the cultural life of central Idaho. It provides free access to a wide range of books and educational programs and resources. Founded in 1955 by seventeen women, the Library is a nonprofit organization funded by revenue from grants, donations, and the Gold Mine Thrift Store. Its work encompasses a public library, Center for Regional History, the Wood River Museum of History and Culture, and the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House and Preserve, where it launched a writer-in-residence program in 2019. For more information visit www.comlib.org.
The Argyros is a high-tech performance and event facility designed to inspire and enrich artists, residents, and visitors from around the world. The Argyros operates year-round as both a state-of-the-art performing arts center and a private events venue. For more information, visit www.theargyros.org.