Public Theater Selects 12 Playwrights for Its Emerging Writers Group

The Public Theater has selected 12 playwrights for the inaugural run of its Emerging Writers Group, the theater announced yesterday. The program, a subset of the Public Writers Initiative, a long-term initiative to support playwrights, provides emerging playwrights with a $3,000 stipend, a reading of their work at the Public, and a biweekly writers' group led by associate artistic director Mandy Hackett. Selected playwrights include Christina Gorman, whose play, "Split Wide Open" was a runner-up for the 2005 Princess Grace Award, Leila Buck, the New York Theater Workshop's teaching artist at the Khalil Gibran International Academy, and Raul Castillo, a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company.

The playwrights were selected from an applicant pool of 700.