Theater News

Stew, Robert Askins, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and More Going to SPACE

Award-winning artists will head to bucolic Brewster, New York, to develop new works in Ryder Farm Residency Program.

Tony-nominated Hand to God playwright joins The Working Farm writer group at Ryder Farm.
Tony-nominated Hand to God playwright joins the Working Farm writer group at Ryder Farm.
(© David Gordon)

SPACE on Ryder Farm, a nonprofit artist residency program located in Brewster, New York, has announced the lineup of participants set for its fifth season. This year's program will host over 150 artists as they develop 75 projects.

SPACE’s 2015 flagship residency program will feature works in development from an illustrious group of artists including Tony winner Stew (Passing Strange), Sarah Burgess (Dry Powder), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon), Sibyl Kempson (Fondly, Collette Richland), Fiasco Theater (The Two Gentlemen of Verona), Monica Bill Barnes Dance Company, New Neighborhood, the Lilly Awards Foundation, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dan LeFranc (The Big Meal), Daisy Foote (Him), Madeleine George (The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence), among others.

The program's writers group, the Working Farm, will also include Heidi Armbruster (Alice in Dairyland), Tony nominee Robert Askins (Hand to God), Jeff Augustin (Little Children Dream of God), Clare Barron (You Got Older), David Cale (Lillian), Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale), and Boo Killebrew (The Play About My Dad). Following the Working Farm residency, SPACE will team with Playwrights Horizons and Ars Nova to present readings of the plays in New York City.

Led by founding executive director Emily Simoness, SPACE on Ryder Farm provides artists with two-day to five-week residencies on the property of the oldest operating farm in Putnam County. Participating artists over its past four seasons have included Sam Hunter, Young Jean Lee, Adam Rapp, Lucy Thurber, Dan LeFranc, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Madeleine George, Robert Askins, Bekah Brunstetter, Nick Jones, James Graham, Joshua Harmon, and Erika Sheffer, as well as theater companies Ars Nova, Woolly Mammoth, The Public, Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater, Transport Group, and Woodshed Collective.