Mentor Project

“What the Cherry Lane Alternative is doing is so exciting. Most important, I think, is the mentoring program of young playwrights. It is the mentoring program which will allow us to have an important theatrical future.”

— Edward Albee, Founding Mentor

Cherry Lane’s marquee program, the Obie Award–winning Mentor Project, is dedicated to launching the next generation of American playwrights. The program pairs early-career writers with leading playwrights in one-on-one mentorships, guiding them through the full process of developing a new play from early readings and rewrites through casting, rehearsal, and performance. Each season culminates in fully staged workshop productions, grounded in a core belief: there is no better teacher for a playwright than seeing their work come to life on stage, alive, in motion, and in front of an audience.

HISTORY

Established in 1998 and inspired by Edward Albee’s work with Albarwild Theatre Arts — the legendary playwrights unit he co-founded in the 1960s with producers Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder — the program builds on a tradition of giving emerging playwrights rare and vital production opportunities, having started with early works by Sam Shepard, Amiri Baraka, A.R. Gurney, Adrienne Kennedy, and Jean-Claude van Itallie

Since its founding, the Mentor Project has supported close to 70 playwrights, including Anne Washburn, Katori Hall, Rajiv Joseph, and Sheila Callaghan, many of whom have returned as mentors. More recent artists have been Shawn Randall, Kareem M. Lucas, Matthew Paul Olmos, and C.A. Johnson, mentored by Diana Oh, Craig “muMs” Grant, Taylor Mac, and Martyna Majok.

LAUNCHING THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DRAMA

Mentor Project alumni continue to shape the field, on and off Broadway, across regional theatres, and throughout film and television.

In one recent season alone, multiple Mentor Project plays were slated for Off-Broadway premieres: Ren Dara Santiago’s The Siblings Play (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Jocelyn Bioh’s Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater), and Jiehae Park’s Peerless (Primary Stages).

MENTOR PROJECT HISTORY

Click on the show images in the timeline to learn more. Use the arrows to see other years in the timeline.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

2008

THE YOUNG LEFT

by Greg Keller
mentored by Gretchen Cryer
directed by Kip Fagan
with Mark Alhadeff, Diane Davis, Joe Tippett, Michael Crane, Keira Keeley, and Elisabeth Waterston
assistant stage manager: Nicholas Herbert
April 15 – 26

2000

GUN CLUB

by Hunt Holman
mentored by Michael Weller
directed by Amy Feinberg
with Dannah Chaifetz, Jeff Kronson, Linda Larkin, Irene McDonnell, David Newer, Andy Powers, Tibor Reldman
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by Jason Lyons
sound design by Tim Cramer
stage manager: Joseph Dempsey
April 5 – 14

2000

THE REFRESHMENT OF THE SPIRIT

by Anne Washburn
mentored by Craig Lucas
directed by Anne Kauffman
with Cynthia Adler, Marilyn Bernard, T.R. Knight, Salty Loeb, Susan Pourfar, Margaret Ritchie, Mara Stephens, Maria Thayer, Trevor A. Williams
set design by Beowulf Boritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design by Tim Cramer
production stage manager: Sandra Overstreet
April 26 – May 5

2000

AUNT PIECES

by Rosemary Moore
mentored by A.R. Gurney
directed by Michael Sexton
with Barbara Andres, Reed Birney, Caitlin Clarke, Jon DeVries, Autumn Dornfeld, Sean McNall
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design by Tim Cramer
production stage manager: Elizabeth Tung
May 10 – 19

2000

GOLEM

by Gary Winter
mentored by Alfred Uhry
directed by Hayley Finn
with Yusef Bulos, Jessica Whitney Could, Hank Jacobs, Christopher Messina, Yvonne Woods
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Deb Millison
lighting design by John-Paul Szczepanski
sound design and original music by Robert Kaplowitz
puppets by Jan Leslie Harding
production stage manager: Scott Robinson
May 24 – June 2

2000

LOWELL LIMPETT

by Ward Just
mentored by Wendy Wasserstein
directed by Bob E. Gasper
with Gerry Bamman
set design by Beowulf Borritt
costume design by Andrea Russell
lighting design by Shawn Gallagher
sound design by Aural Fixation
production stage manager: David P. Smith
June 7 – 16

“The Mentor Project is artfully designed to avoid the pitfalls of most play development workshops—directionless rewrites, lack of exposure to actors and audiences—and instead plunges the playwright directly into an intensely practical, tightly focused, experience…The Cherry Lane is doing essential work in building the next generation of American theatre artists.”

— MP 2005 Mentor, David Auburn

MENTOR PROJECT SUCCESS STORIES

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David Adjmi Strange Attractors(Craig Lucas, mentor, 2001)

Christopher Shinn Four(Charles Fuller, mentor, 1999)

Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over (Katori Hall, mentor, 2016) moved to Broadway at Lincoln Center in August of 2021, one of the first shows to be mounted following the pandemic.

Jiehae Park’s Peerless (Kwame Kwei-Armah, mentor, 2015) moved to 59E59 in September of 2022.

Jakob Holder’s Housebreaking (Charles Mee, mentor, 2009) was produced by Poison Apple Initiative in Austin, Texas, winter 2011.

Samuel Brett Williams’ The Woodpecker (Charles Fuller, mentor, 2008) was produced by the Mutineer Theatre Company in 2011 at Studio/Stage Theatre in Los Angeles. He is a co-founder of The Camisade Theatre Company, whose recent inaugural production was his own Derby Day at Theatre Row, Fall 2011.

Deirdre O’Connor’s Jailbait (Michael Weller, mentor, 2008) was produced by Profiles Theatre in Chicago in 2010 and for a return engagement in 2011. Her new play, Assisted Living, will be presented as part of the 2011 season at Chicago’s Profile Theatre.

Jocelyn Bioh’s Nollywood Dreams (Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, mentor, 2007) has gone on to become one of our most celebrated playwrights. She has been most recently recognized for her work, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, which opened on Broadway in 2023 and received 5 Tony® nominations.

Molly Smith Metzler’s Training Wisteria (Charles Fuller, mentor, 2007). Training Wisteria was last seen in Arielle Tepper’s 2006 Summer Play Festival (SPF) and is the winner of The Kennedy Center National Student Playwriting Award, The Mark Twain National Comedy Award, and The David Mark Cohen Award. In 2011, Manhattan Theatre Club produced her play Close Up Space, which was named a Finalist for the 2011–12 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Molly’s work has been produced by The Kennedy Center, The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The New York Int’l Fringe Festival, City Theatre’s “Summer Shorts” (co-produced by Humana), and the hotINK Int’l Play Festival. Molly holds a MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch (NYU), where she was awarded the Goldberg Playwriting Fellowship. In 2008 she was inducted into the Playwriting Fellowship program at Juilliard. Molly has taught at Boston University, and her work is anthologized in two Smith & Kraus Best Ten Minute Play volumes as well as Gary Garrison’s The Kennedy Center Presents: Award Winning Plays from the Kennedy Center. She is one of six writers participating in Futurefest in Dayton, Ohio, July 24–26, 2009.

Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love (Lynn Nottage, mentor, 2006) moved to Cherry Lane’s Mainstage for its World Premiere production in 2007. It was nominated for three 2006 AUDELCO awards, winning for Best Supporting Actress, and earned Ms. Hall the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and 2nd place for the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award at the 2005 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. After an Olivier-winning run on the West End, her play The Mountaintop played on Broadway in the 2011–12 season starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. She is the winner of the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Hurt Village, which can currently be seen at Signature Theatre company, holds the 2007 Fellowship of southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, and was awarded the 09-10 Playwrights of New York Fellowship through the Lark Play Development Center. Other plays include: Freedom Train, Awake, and Diaspora, a one-woman show fused with music and poetry that was performed in South Africa.

Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something (Michael Weller, mentor, 2006) received its World Premiere at Women’s Project in a coproduction with Cherry Lane Theatre in the spring of 2010. Dead City, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, was produced at New Georges and Dog and Pony Theatre in 2006, Red Eye Theatre in 2007, and Available Light [theatre] in 2008. Kate Crackernuts was produced at Stray Cat Theatre, 2008; Crumble (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake) in Montreal at Le Theatre de I’Opsis, 2008; Crawl, Fade to White opened at 13P, 2008. In 2007 she received the Whiting Writers’ Award for extraordinary talent and promise as a writer. That Pretty Pretty; or The Rape Play premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in March 2009. Other recent productions include Fever /Dream (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 2009; Cleveland Public Theatre, 2011) and Roadkill Confidential (produced by Clubbed Thumb at 3LD, 2010).

Rajiv Joseph’s Huck and Holden (Theresa Rebeck, mentor, 2005) was produced at The Black Dahlia Theatre in Los Angeles in the fall of 2006. His play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and winner of an NEA Outstanding New American Play Award, debuted on Broadway in 2011 (Drama League Award nomination: Distinguished Production of a Play), directed by Moisés Kaufman and starring Robin Williams. Bengal Tiger was earlier produced by The Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in May 2009, receiving four Los Angeles Ovation Nominations including Playwriting for an Original Play, and again in 2010 by the Mark Taper Forum. Rajiv is a 2004 winner of the John Golden Award for Playwriting, a 2005 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and a 2008 recipient of the Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Award given to emerging playwrights. The National Arts Club, in partnership with The Exchange & Orchard Project, awarded Mr. Joseph with the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship (formerly the Kesselring Award). He was also the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Emerging Writers Playwright award. Also in 2009, Gruesome Playground Injuries received its World Premiere at the Alley Theatre, starring Selma Blair and Brad Fleischer, and was subsequently produced by the Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company in 2010 and by Second Stage Theatre in 2011. Other recent productions include Animals Out of Paper (Second Stage Theatre, 2008), The North Pool (Theatreworks, 2011), and The Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre, 2011).

Anton Dudley’s slag heap (Ed Bullins, mentor, 2003) moved to Cherry Lane’s Mainstage for its World Premiere production in 2005 and premiered at Minnesota’s Theatre Pro Rata in 2006. It was published by Playscripts in 2010. The Lake’s End was produced at the Adirondack Theatre Festival in 2003, and in 2004 Triptych Entertainment produced his musical based on Twelfth Night. In 2006, Second Stage Theatre presented the world premiere of Getting Home, and in 2008 The Intentional Theatre Group commissioned him for a new work, UP HERE/IN HERE, produced at Altered Stages. His short film, DAVY & STU was released by Strand Releasing on the popular series BOYS LIFE 6. Playwrights Realm presented Substitution in May 2008. The world premiere of A Dram of Drummhicit, co-written with Arthur Kopit opened at La Jolla Playhouse in 2011.

Bathsheba Doran’s The Parents’ Evening (Michael Weller, mentor, 2003) was produced in 2010 at The Flea Theater in New York under the direction of Jim Simpson. Other recent productions include Living Room in Africa (produced by Edge Theater in New York), Nest (commissioned and produced by Signature Theater in DC), Until Morning (BBC Radio 4), and adaptations of Great Expectations, starring Kathleen Chalfant for TheatreworksUSA, which played at the Lucille Lortel Theater, as well as Maeterlinck’s The Blind (Classic Stage Company). Ben and the Magic Paintbrush premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2010 and Kin premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2011 Drama League Award nomination: Distinguished Production of a Play), directed by Sam Gold. Ms. Doran is a recipient of a 2009 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award. She is currently a writer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Allison Moore’s Urgent Fury (Marsha Norman, mentor 2003) was one of 36 finalists for the 2002 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Allison Moore is a displaced Texan living in Minneapolis where she is a 2007 Bush Artist Fellow and 2008 Playwrights’ Center McKnight Advancement Grant recipient. Alison recent work Slasher was part of the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Allison’s play, HAZARD COUNTY, was also produced at the 2005 Humana Festival at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas and Actors Express in Atlanta in association with the National New Play Network. Other productions include Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Birmingham Festival Theatre and The Ark Theatre (Los Angeles). In 2006-07, Allison developed a new full-length play, END TIMES, with Kitchen Dog Theater, where she is an Associate Company Member. The 2007 premiere received seven Dallas Critics Forum Awards, including Best New Play, and five Leon Rabin Awards, including Best New Play and Best Production. Other work includes: AMERICAN KLEPTO (TheatreWorks New Play Festival, Fresh Ink at Illusion Theater); SPLIT (Guthrie Theater commission), EIGHTEEN (2001 O’Neill Playwrights Conference, 2003 LA Weekly Theater Award nomination for Best New Play) and COWTOWN (Guthrie Theater Commission). Her work is published by PlayScripts, Inc., Smith & Kraus, Vintage Books and New York Theater Experience. Allison has also written a stage adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel My Antonia for Illusion Theater.Her play Slasher premiered at the 2009 Humana Festival and has been produced at theaters around the country. Her newest play, Collapse, will receive a rolling world premiere in 2011 at Aurora Theater (Berkeley), Curious Theater (Denver) and Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas). My Antonia, her adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel, received its world premiere in 2012, presented by Illusion Theater (Minneapolis). Her work has been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Ms. Moore is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, Iowa Arts Fellowship in Playwriting, the Kemp and Felton Fellowships, and the Rosenfield Playwriting Award. She holds a BFA from Southern Methodist University and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Eliam Kraiem’s Sixteen Wounded (Michael Weller, mentor, 2002) moved to a full production at the Long Wharf Theatre starring Martin Landau in February 2003. In 2004, Sixteen Wounded later opened on Broadway starring Judd Hirsch and Martha Plimpton.

Julia Cho 99 Histories (David Henry Hwang, mentor, 2002). Ms. Cho’s recent play, The Language Archive, had its World Premiere production at South Coast Repertory in 2009 and its New York premiere at the Laura Pels Theatre in 2010, produced by Roundabout Theater Company. The Language Archive garnered the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for playwriting. The Piano Teacher had its World Premiere at the Vineyard Theater in 2007; following a production at Long Wharf Theatre, Durango was produced at The Public Theater in 2006; The Architecture of Loss at New York Theater Workshop, 2004; second Off-Broadway production of BFE at Playwrights Horizons in 2004/2005 (2004 L. Arnold Weissberger Award). Ms. Cho has been a playwriting fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a recipient of a New York Foundation for The Arts grant, and a playwright-in-residence at The Juilliard School.

David Adjmi’s Strange Attractors (Craig Lucas, mentor, 2001) received its World Premiere production at Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre in 2003. He is the recipient of a Juilliard playwriting fellowship, the 2002 Lecomte Du Nouy Award, a Writer-in-Residency at the Royal Court Theatre, and a 2003 Helen Merrill Award. In 2004, he was a part of Northern Lights: the 9/11 plays at Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis. The Evildoers had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theater in 2008. Stunning received its world premiere in 2008 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, was published by American Theatre magazine, and premiered in New York as the second production of the inaugural season of LCT3 at the Duke on 42nd Street. In 2009 he was awarded a Bush Foundation Fellowship and the Steinberg Emerging Playwright Award, and in 2011 he received the Whiting Writers’ Award. Recently Theatre Communications Group published a collection of his works, Stunning and Other Plays.

Bridgette Wimberly’s Saint Lucy’s Eyes (Wendy Wasserstein, mentor, 1999) received three 2001 Audelco Awards and a Kesselring Nomination. After a run at The Women’s Project & Productions, it opened on Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mainstage starring Ruby Dee. Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta presented Saint Lucy’s Eyes in the fall of 2002 again with Ms. Dee, and produced a return engagement in the following season. It was also produced by Rainbow Theater (California) in November, 2009 and was published by Samuel French, in Smith & Kraus’s Women Playwrights; The Best Plays of 2001, and in The Women’s Project & Productions’ 25th anniversary anthology. Her EST/Alfred P. Sloan Science Foundation-commissioned play, The Separation of Blood, had its World Premiere at Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre, 2007, directed by Woodie King Jr. She received a Susan G. Komen grant for From Breast Cancer to Broadway, a program she created to teach playwriting to breast cancer survivors. In 2009 the program staged an evening of readings of plays written by New York survivors at Cherry Lane Theatre, and in 2010 the evening was reprised at the Cleveland Playhouse featuring the works of Cleveland survivors, followed by yet another reprisal at Cherry Lane in the summer, 2011.

Christopher Shinn’s Four (Charles Fuller, mentor, 1999) opened at The Tribeca Playhouse in 2001 and moved to Manhattan Theatre Club, 2002. It is currently being adapted for a film version. Playwrights Horizons presented Shinn’s Other People in 2000 and What Didn’t Happen in 2002. In London, Shinn was a Laurence Olivier award nominee for Where Do We Live, which opened at London’s Royal Court in 2002, and at The Studio Theatre at Second Stage, 2004. Shinn was again produced at Playwrights Horizons in 2004 with On the Mountain, winning him an Obie Award. Dying City had its world premiere in 2006 at London’s Royal Court Theatre and was produced in New York in 2007 at Lincoln Center Theater (Lucille Lortel nomination for best new Off-Broadway play, 2008 Pulitzer Prize Finalist). In 2009 his adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway at American Airlines Theatre. In 2011, The Vineyard Theatre presented the World Premiere production of Picked. The New York Times has called Mr. Shinn “among the most promising playwrights to emerge in the last decade.”

MENTOR PROJECT

MENTOR PROJECT HISTORY

2020

(THE MAKING OF) HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD IN 90 MINUTES

2019

THE MATURATION OF AN INCONVENIENT NEGRO

2019

THREE GIRLS NEVER LEARNT THE WAY HOME

2019

THE CLIMB

2018

A PATRON OF THE ARTS

2018

THE OPPORTUNITIES OF EXTINCTION

2017

THE SIBLINGS PLAY

2017

ESAI’S TABLE

2017

NOLLYWOOD DREAMS

2016

THE SURGEON AND HER DAUGHTERS

2016

THE CONVENT OF PLEASURE

2016

PASS OVER

2015

PEERLESS

2015

SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR

2015

THE IDEA OF ME

2014

THE HUNTERS

2014

Sonnets on Tap

2014

The Ragged Claws

2013

PAS DE DEUX (LOST MY SHOE)

2013

JOE

2013

LAWNPEOPLE

2013

EXILE

2012

RELATIVE PITCH

2012

EVOLUTION

2012

MAMMA ROMA

2010

STRAY

2010

THE BELLE OF BELFAST

2010

PATERNITY

2009

HOUSEBREAKING

2008

THE WOODPECKER

2008

THE YOUNG LEFT

2008

JAILBAIT

2007

THE SECRET AGENDA OF TREES

2007

TOPSY-TURVY MOUSE

2007

TRAINING WISTERIA

2006

LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING

2006

HOODOO LOVE

2006

GIRL

2005

HUCK & HOLDEN