The Height of Summer: New Plays from Williamstown Theatre Festival 2015-2021: Paradise Blue; Cost of Living; Actually; Where Storms Are Born; Selling Kabul; Grand Horizons

by Martyna Majok, Anna Ziegler, Sylvia Khoury, Bess Wohl, Dominique Morisseau

Overview

Few institutions have as profound an impact on the American theatrical landscape as the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival, located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

New Plays from Williamstown Theatre Festival 2015-2021 provides a sample of the dozens of plays that have been created and/or premiered at the Festival during the Artistic Directorship of Mandy Greenfield. In addition to stories that shine a light into new or underexplored corners of the human condition, these plays frequently feature complex and boundary-pushing central roles for women actors.

These six plays are manifestations of living, American playwrights grappling with and breathing dramatic life into the conflicts and questions at the heart of who we were, who we are, and who we will become. These plays imagine and interrogate pieces of the human experience we are still in the midst of unpacking and understanding.

Complete with introductions by each of the authors reflecting on their work, these historic, award-winning, and groundbreaking plays now live in conversation with one another in this unique collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350289321
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	634 KB

About the Author

Anna Ziegler is the author of hit plays Actually and Photograph 51.

Bess Wohl is the author of Grand Horizons (Tony Nominee for Best Play) as well as Make Believe, which was a NY Times Critic's Pick.

Dominique Morisseau is a Tony Award-nominated writer whose plays include The Detroit Project, Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby and the book of the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations.

Harrison David Rivers is the winner of the 2018 Relentless Award for his play the bandaged place.

Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living.

Sylvia Khoury is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Seattle Repertory Theater.





Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. She emigrated to the United States at the age of five and grew up in New Jersey. Majok studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School
Anna Ziegler has written the plays Actually (produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse, Trafalgar Studios and others; L.A. Ovation Award winner for Playwriting for an Original Play), the widely produced Photograph 51 (directed on the West End by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; named the number one play of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune and in other years selected as a “Best of the Year” play by The Washington Post and The Telegraph), Boy (Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award nominee), The Wanderers (The Old Globe; upcoming at The Roundabout Theatre Company; Craig Noel Award winner for Outstanding New Play), The Last Match (Roundabout Theatre Company; The Old Globe; upcoming: Writers' Theatre, Chicago), and A Delicate Ship (New York Times Critic's Pick; The Playwrights Realm; Cincinnati Playhouse). Recent notable: Photograph 51 at Melbourne Theatre Company (Australia); The Great Moment at Seattle Rep (world premiere) and Antigones at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. She is developing television and movie projects at HBO Max and Scott Free Productions. More at annabziegler.net.
is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent.

She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center, Williamstown Theater Festival and Seattle Repertory Theater.

Awards include the 2021 Whiting Award for Drama, the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and Jay Harris Commission and a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Awards.

She is a member of EST/ Youngblood and a previous member of the 2020-2021 Noor Theatre/Pop Culture Collab Cohort, the 2018-2019 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop at The Lark and the 2016-2018 WP Lab.

Her plays have been developed at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival, Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, Roundabout Theater Underground, Lark Playwrights' Week, EST/Youngblood, and WP Theater.

She holds a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the New School for Drama and an MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Bess Wohl's plays include GRAND HORIZONS (Tony Nominations for Best Play and Best Featured Actress, Broadway, Outer Critics Circle Honor, Drama League Award nom), MAKE BELIEVE (NYTimes Critic Pick, Best of 2019, Outer Critics Circle Honor), CONTINUITY, SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (John Gassner Outer Critics Circle Award, top ten lists in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Guardian and others), AMERICAN HERO, BARCELONA, TOUCHED, IN, CATS TALK BACK and the musical PRETTY FILTHY with composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and The Civilians (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Musical).
HARRISON DAVID RIVERS is the winner of the 2018 Relentless Award for his play the bandaged place (New York Stage&Film). His produced plays include: When Last We Flew (GLAAD Media Award, NYFringe Excellence in Playwriting Award, NYFringe, Diversionary Theatre, TheatreLAB, Real Live Theatre), Sweet (AUDELCO nomination for Best Play, National Black Theatre), And She Would Stand Like This (20% Theatre Company, The Movement Theatre Company), Where Storms Are Born (Berkshire Theatre Award nomination for Best New Play, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, Williamstown Theatre Festival), A Crack in the Sky (History Theatre), Five Points (MN Theatre Award for Exceptional New Work, Lavender Magazine citation for Outstanding New Playwriting, BroadwayWorld Minneapolis Award for Best New Work, Inclusion in MinnPost's year-end “Best” List, Theatre Latte Da) This Bitter Earth (MN Theatre Award for Exceptional New Work, Lavender Magazine citation for Outstanding New Playwriting, Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best Production, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Penumbra, About Face), To Let Go and Fall (Theatre Latte Da) and Broadbend, Arkansas (Transport Group/Public Theater).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction by Mandy Greenfield

2. Brief History of Williamstown Theatre Festival

3. Note from Martyna Majok
COST OF LIVING by Martyna Majok

4. Note from Anna Ziegler
ACTUALLY by Anna Ziegler

5. Note from Sylvia Khoury
SELLING KABUL by Sylvia Khoury

6. Note from Bess Wohl
GRAND HORIZONS by Bess Wohl

7. Note from Dominique Morisseau
PARADISE BLUE by Dominique Morisseau

8. Note from Harrison David Rivers
WHERE STORMS ARE BORN by Harrison David Rivers

Editorial Reviews

"The quality shines through in this selection." - British Theatre Guide

From the Publisher