Welcome to the NYTW Blog—a resource for behind-the-scenes insights on our productions, share-outs from the classroom penned by teaching artists, community partner spotlights, and a peek behind the curtain to see how work gets made at NYTW.

Try This: Black Owned Businesses

Our question to the NYTW staff this month was in honor of February as Black History Month. We asked the staff: What are your favorite Black-owned businesses? 

February 1, 2024 by NYTW


In Conversation: Will Butler & Mona Pirnot

We are back! After a little winter hiatus, we sat down with playwright and performer Mona Pirnot of I Love You So Much I Could Die for a conversation with her good friend and Grammy-winning musician Will Butler (who will make his Broadway debut as the Music Director for Stereophonic this season)

January 18, 2024 by NYTW


“Another Hit” For A Visionary Director

Leigh Silverman is a busy director these days, but we are so glad she calls NYTW her home! In her chat with FORBES, Leigh talks everything from the creation of Merry Me and representation on stage, to walking into the workshop in 1996 as an intern during the original production of RENT.

November 3, 2023 by Jeryl Brunner for FORBES


Taking Orgasms Seriously

Director Leigh Silverman and Playwright Hansol Jung sit down with Merryn Johns from INTO to talk lesbians, orgasms, and why Leigh’s North Star for Merry Me was The Muppet Show.

“Trailblazing director Leigh Silverman ably guides Hansol Jung’s play, which forgoes victimization, trauma, and tropes we have perhaps come to expect from female-centered theater. There is, however, lots of arch wordplay, simulated sex, and — as with the mannered conventions of Restoration comedy — reality flies out the window.”

November 2, 2023 by Merryn Johns for INTO


THE REFUGE PLAYS Hits Close to Home

The Refuge Plays can only be described as an epic, but for it’s two matriarchs, it means so much more. Listen to Nicole Ari Parker (Early) and Jessica Frances Duke (Gail) discuss killing turkeys, playing elderly women, and channeling their ancestors in this world premiere production.

October 26, 2023 by Diep Tran for PLAYBILL


Get to Know Our 2023/24 Season Administrative Fellows!

Time is flying! From the date of publish, our newest cohort of 2050 Administrative Fellows has been working alongside us for a few weeks now. We’ve loved getting to know each of them in the office every day and we’re sure you’d love getting to know them too.

October 25, 2023 by NYTW


SAPPHO NIGHT

Our For the Culture series for MERRY ME is in full SWING! 

Check out photos from our recent SAPPHO NIGHT at The Gray Mare. We’re keeping the party going with many more events throughout October and November, including our SAPPHIC & SMUTTY Lesbian Story Hour at Henrietta Hudson. Through our For The Culture Series (FTC), NYTW seeks to bridge the gap between the world we know and the world we are actively striving to build – where we harness the power of theatre to deepen human connections by learning and growing from the lived experiences of each other

October 15, 2023 by NYTW


The Refuge Plays Theatre Talk

The Refuge Plays—our first production in the 2023/24 Season—is now in previews at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre! Dive deeper on the production with this episode of “Theatre Talk” with NYTW Teaching Artist Kimberlee Walker and Roundabout Teaching Artist Jeanna Phillips.

September 22, 2023 by NYTW


Worlds Apart on a Shared Stage

You may be familiar with playwright Hansol Jung from Wild Goose Dreams about a lonely man in Seoul. Or maybe from her runaway hit Wolf Play about a puppet child who feels he has more in common with a wolf than his adopted family. Now, Jung is doing something totally different: a lesbian sex farce.

September 8, 2023 by Kally Patz for THE BROOKLYN RAIL


The Refuge Plays In Rehearsal

Rehearsals are underway for The Refuge Plays, an epic tale that follows one black family over 70 years. This also marks the first show in the 2023/24 season, which is the first season programmed by new NYTW Artistic Director, Patricia McGregor. The show also marks the return to the Workshop for NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Artistic Fellow Nathan Alan Davis.

August 23, 2023 by BROADWAYWORLD