Paving the Way for Playwrights

Off-Broadway may not have the clout of its older cousin, the Great White Way, but it's not exactly no man's land, especially to emerging playwrights. "Off-Broadway has changed in a similar way to the Sundance Film Festival," the playwright Anton Dudley remarked. "There are commercial considerations everywhere. There's less interest in the scrappy, unknown productions and more interest in the future of things."

To pave the way for that future is a new theater company called the Playwrights Realm. Founded by director Katherine Kovner and the former associate artistic director of the Public Theater, John Dias, it is featuring Mr. Dudley's "Substitution" as its first production at the SoHo Playhouse. The story of a mother, played by Tony-nominated actress Jan Maxwell, struggling to come to terms with the death of her teenage son in an accident, it is a depiction of loss and affliction.

Ms. Kovner, who directs "Substitution," said the seeds for the Playwrights Realm were sown when she and Mr. Dias worked on Lisa Kron's "Well," which ran at Broadway's Longacre Theater in 2006. "John and I were often talking about how difficult it can be for emerging playwrights to have their work actually produced as opposed to having it performed in readings and workshops," she said. "We've started the company to really focus on language-based plays."

Ms. Kovner cited the group's opening production as testimony to the practical hurdles that up-and-coming playwrights need to overcome. "'Substitution' is a beautiful play," she said. "The language blows you away. But I can't believe that until the Playwrights Realm was formed, no one had staged it."

Mr. Dudley, 33, who has had 15 plays performed over the course of his career, wrote "Substitution" for Ms. Maxwell, which he said was like a "musician writing a song for Madonna." He said there was an "exciting energy" about the Playwrights Realm.

Play production, however, is just one element of the new group's endeavors. To aid in the development of emerging writing talent, the Playwrights Realm created the Young Artists Development Program in collaboration with the Classic Stage Company. "The CSC and ourselves share an enthusiasm for bringing the text of classics alive to new audiences and promoting voices we think should be heard," Ms. Kovner said.

Over time, the Playwrights Realm aims to stage a mixture of plays and musicals, new dramas and established classics. The company chose to launch with "Substitution" on the grounds that "we wanted to launch with one powerful play rather than a series of works that ran the risk of spreading ourselves thin," Ms. Kovner said. The company has yet to decide on its next production, but plans to stage readings of a new musical, "In This House," and Caitlin Parrish's play, "The View From Tall." To encourage the public to sample its work, the company is introducing "Pay What You Can" nights on May 6 and 13. "Whether you bring a dollar or a dime, everybody is welcome," Ms. Kovner said. "Obviously we couldn't do it all the time but it's important for us to cultivate an audience."

While such initiatives are designed to build up an audience that wouldn't ordinarily patronize the theater, donors to the Playwrights Realm aren't exactly foreign faces. New York theater luminaries such as director Leigh Silverman, producer Jordan Roth and Tony-winning choreographer Kathleen Marshall are among the list.