P73 Announces Playwright Max Posner As The 2012 P73 Playwright Fellow

Off-Broadway's Page 73 Productions has announced playwright Max Posner as the recipient of the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. First awarded in 2004, the P73 Playwriting Fellowship is a nationally-renowned fellowship awarded annually, providing a residency year to an early-career playwright who has not received wide public recognition or professional production opportunities in New York City. In addition to a $5,000 cash grant, the recipient of the P73 Playwriting Fellowship receives a year of development support for one or more projects. Among the list of past recipients of the Fellowship are Pulitzer Prize finalist Quiara Alegria Hudes, Jason Grote and Heidi Schreck to name a few.

Selected from hundreds of nationally submitted applicants, Mr. Posner will spend his fellowship year working on several new plays including SNORE AND OTHER SORTS OF BREATHING, about a group of twenty-somethings working at socially conscious non-profits whose actions eventually tarnish their do-gooder intentions, and a music theatre collaboration Posner describes as "a rock concert with scenes."

Regarding Mr. Posner's selection, Page 73 Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli stated: "We had a tremendous applicant pool this year and Max distinguished himself through an excellent application which included two of his plays: THE FAMISHED and THE THING ABOUT AIR TRAVEL. Max is a remarkable young playwright, and we look forward to watching his progress during his fellowship year, and we will undoubtedly be following his career for years to come."

MAX POSNER's plays include THE THING ABOUT AIR TRAVEL, THE FAMISHED, THE WAR ON SAFETY (published by Playscripts), YOU ME + THE SPIDERS and SNORE AND OTHER SORTS OF BREATHING. His plays have been staged and developed at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Colt Coeur, The Hangar Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, The Blank Theatre, Young Playwrights Inc, and Production Workshop. Max is a 2011 graduate oF Brown University where he studied with Erik Ehn, Lisa D'Amour, Bonnie Metzgar, and Paula Vogel. He is the recipient of the Weston Award in Playwriting and the 2011 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville. Max was a finalist for Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission, is a member of Interstate 73, Page 73's writing group, and is a founding member of FRANK. He occasionally finds himself onstage (in the original production of Gregory Moss' PUNKPLAY and in FRANK's upcoming production of Wallace Shawn's A THOUGHT IN THREE PARTS). Max has led playwriting workshops with high schoolers in Nebraska, inmates in Rhode Island, and youth in Kenya's Kibera slum. He was born and raised in Denver and lives in Brooklyn.

The finalists for the 2012 fellowship were Deron Bos, Dorothy Fortenberry, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Kara Manning, and Sarah Sander.

The list of past recipients of the P73 Playwriting Fellowship are – in chronological order starting in 2004 with Kirsten Greenidge, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Jason Grote, Krista Knight, Tommy Smith, Heidi Schreck, Eliza Clark and Janine Nabers.

Quiara Alegría Hudes's ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE, which was developed as part of the P73 Playwriting Fellowship in 2005 and premiered by Page 73 in 2006, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama in 2007. Hudes' play WATER BY THE SPOONFUL, which received its world premiere at Hartford Stage this past fall is the second play in a trilogy inspired by ELLIOT. Jason Grote's 1001, which was developed in part with the support of the P73 Playwriting Fellowship and received its New York premiere in 2007 by Page 73 under the direction of Ethan McSweeny, appeared on Time Out New York's "Top Ten Theater List for 2007" and has been subsequently produced around the country. Tommy Smith's THE WIFE, which was developed as part of his 2008 P73 Playwriting Fellowship, received a critically-acclaimed production at New York's Access Theater in 2010, and Heidi Schreck's THERE ARE NO MORE BIG SECRETS, which was developed as part of Heidi's 2009 P73 Playwriting Fellowship, was produced in an extended run at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre also in 2010.

PAGE 73 Productions – under the leadership of Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli – develops and produces the work of early-career playwrights who have yet to have their work professionally produced in New York. Page 73 produces at least one New York or world premiere by an early-career playwright each year. Page 73 also offers production-oriented development opportunities that help usher the works of early-career playwrights from first draft to final script. In addition to the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, the company also hosts a year-long writing group called "Interstate 73" (current members - Amy Evans, Meghan Kennedy, Krista Knight, Scott Organ, Jason Gray Platt, Max Posner, Harrison Rivers, and Sarah Sander) and a week-long summer residency at Yale for 4 early-career playwrights. Page 73 produced the world premieres of ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Davis McCallum (2007 Pulitzer finalist), SIXTY MILES TO SILVER LAKE by Dan LeFranc directed by Anne Kauffman and co-produced with Soho Rep (2010 New York Times Playwriting Award); CREATURE by Heidi Schreck, directed by Leigh Silverman and co-produced with New Georges; JACK'S PRECIOUS MOMENT by Samuel D. Hunter directed by Kip Fagan and EDGEWISE by Eliza Clark directed by Trip Cullman and co-produced with The Play Company, as well as the New York premieres of 1001 by Jason Grote, directed by Ethan McSweeney (Time Out New York - Top 10 of 2007) and LIDLESS by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, directed by Tea Alagic. The company received from the League of Professional Theatre Women their 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for "innovative and creative work dedicated to the emerging dramatist".

For more information about the P73 Playwriting Fellowship or Page 73 Productions, please visit www.p73.org.