Theater News

Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee to Perform at 13P Implosion Party at Joe’s Pub

Young Jean Lee and Future Wife
in We're Gonna Die
(© Blaine Davis)
Young Jean Lee and Future Wife
in We’re Gonna Die
(© Blaine Davis)

The playwriting collective 13P will hold an Implosion Party at Joe’s Pub on Monday, September 10 at 7pm.

In 2003, concerned that the trend of endless readings and development programs was limiting the texture and ambition of new American plays, 13 midcareer playwrights banded together to try a different model. Each playwright would serve as Artistic Director of the company–deciding the goals of the project, designing its process, and choosing collaborators–as it realized a full production of his/her play.


The 13 playwrights of 13P are Sheila Callaghan, Erin Courtney, Madeleine George, Rob Handel, Ann Marie Healy, Julia Jarcho, Young Jean Lee, Winter Miller, Sarah Ruhl, Kate E. Ryan, Lucy Thurber, Anne Washburn, and Gary Winter.

The party will celebrate the completion of the company’s mission (with final playwright Ruhl’s Melancholy Play, which ran in July) and the always planned disbanding of 13P.

This free-to-all event includes a performance by Lisa Kron along with selections from Anne Washburn’s The Internationalist, Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play, and Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die (which stars the playwright herself).

There is also an open bar from 7–10pm, and for the first time, 13P: The Complete Plays, a limited edition book, will be available for purchase.

Although 13P as a collective will cease to exist as of this final event, the company’s website 13P.org will relaunch on September 10 as A People’s History of 13P. This digital archive will document the experiences and challenges the playwrights have faced in their time together. It will include filmed interviews with the playwrights, collaborators and supporters.

Reservations for the 13P Implosion Party are required and can be made at 13P.org.