Supported by a grant from The Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation, The Ruth Easton Lab gives the nation's most exciting writers the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. The Center's Core Writers travel to Minneapolis from across the country to move their plays closer to production with the support of the finest dramaturgical minds in the nation, under the leadership of Resident Director Hayley Finn.
The Core Writer Program
The Playwrights' Center invites committed professional playwrights to apply for the Core Writer Program. Created in recognition of the particular needs of emerging and established writers, the Core Writer Program is intended to significantly further a playwright's career. The Core Writer Program is available to writers both locally and nationally.
Learn more about the Core Writer Program and how to apply >
Home Below Zero
by Dan Dietz
12/05/2011Khaled has traveled from Iraq to Minnesota to find his best friend, Jeff. Problem is, an IED attack has left Jeff in a coma—and Jeff's father blames Khaled and everyone who looks like him. The two men wait it out together, and in the long silence an unexpected common language emerges, unleashing centuries of rage and resentment … and music. A heavy metal clash between Midwest and Middle East.
Directed by HAYLEY FINN
Dramaturgy by JOHN OLIVE
Featuring BOBAK BAKHTIARI, DUSTIN BRONSON, PETER CHRISTIAN HANSEN, TERRY HEMPLEMAN, and ANNA SUNDBERG
Stage Directions read by EJ SUBKOVIAK
Live Drumming by JOSEPH SCRIMSHAW
This new play reading is presented as part of the 2011-12 RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES.
Read the Dialogue interview with Dan Dietz:
Dance of the Holy Ghosts
by Marcus Gardley
01/09/2012Oscar Clifton prefers to live his memories rather than his life. But when his estranged grandson comes calling after eighteen years, Oscar must face a very different version of his past. dance of the holy ghosts is a poetic family drama that waltzes from the hilarious innocence of a childhood crush to the heartbreak of a ruined marriage, a memory-scape that arouses all the senses.
Directed by DOMINIC TAYLOR
Featuring ANSA AKYEA, TRACI ALLEN, DARRIEN ELLIS BURKS, MARVETTE KNIGHT, SONJA PARKS and BRUCE A. YOUNG
Read the Dialogue interview with Marcus Gardley:
The Few
by Samuel D. Hunter
02/06/2012Four years ago Bryan abandoned his labor of love, a newspaper for truckers. Now he’s returned—with no word of where he’s been—and things have changed. His former lover is filled with rage, his new coworker is filled with incessant adoration, and his paper is filled with personal ads. As he considers giving up for good, Bryan searches for what he couldn’t find on the road: a way to keep faith in humanity.
Directed by KIP FAGAN
Featuring SAM BARDWELL, CORY HINKLE and ADITI BRENNAN KAPIL
Read the Dialogue interview with Samuel D. Hunter:
The Tiny Soldier
by Christina Ham
03/05/2012Olivia and her deadbeat husband come to squat in her family’s boarded-up antebellum estate in New Orleans. But the vicious crime that shuttered the house has also shaken its spiritual peace, plunging Olivia into a horror story that will unravel family secrets and challenge her very identity. A Southern Gothic melange of magic, murder, and the dark legacy of servitude that continues to haunt the region.
BRAHMANI: A ONE-HIJRA STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW
by Aditi Brennan Kapil
04/02/2012Fourth grade was hard enough before Brahman discovered he was intersex—or in the words of his traditional Indian aunt, a hijra. In this literal stand-up comedy show, Brahman shares the hilarious and moving story of how he/she found an identity in the collision of ancient and contemporary, east and west, and male and female.
