SUN VALLEY PLAYWRIGHT’S RESIDENCY
FALL 2025
Q&A & Readings of Short Monologues
THE STORIES WE TELL
Sunday, October 5 at 6:30 PM
The Liberty Theater, Hailey, Idaho
SVPR’s October programming kicks off with the arrival of National Latino Playwriting Award Winner Marisela Treviño Orta to the Wood River Valley. She’ll lead a monologue writing workshop for local high school students and work on a bilingual play commission from The Liberty Theatre Company that’ll premiere as a staged reading in Hailey this December. Join us for a Q&A with Marisela, moderated by SVPR Artistic Director John Baker and The Liberty Theatre Company’s Executive/Artistic Director Emily Meister, and readings of local students’ short monologues.
Kirsten Shultz
Q&A
A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN KARAM
Tuesday, October 14 at 5:30 PM
The Community Library, Ketchum, Idaho
The Community Library hosts a conversation with SVPR’s 25/26 Resident Playwright, Tony Award Winner, and two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist Stephen Karam, moderated by Wood River Valley-based actor and The Community Library’s Collection Manager Aly Wepplo.
Tickets: FREE! And open to the public. Reservations suggested.
Q&A & Movie Screenings
POPCORN & PLAYWRIGHTS!
Thursday, October 16
The Magic Lantern, Ketchum, Idaho
Showing at 4:30 PM
THE HUMANS
Written & Directed by Stephen Kara
&
Showing at 6:30 PM
BODIES BODIES BODIES
Written by Sarah DeLappe
Two Films, Two Playwrights, One Night Only. Join Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency for a double-feature of movies from indie film powerhouse A24 that redefine horror for the 21st century–plus a Q&A with the screenwriters. The evening kicks off with a screening of The Humans, adapted and directed by Tony Award Winner and 25/26 Resident Playwright Stephen Karam. The film that looks at the way we cope with our biggest fears, the way we process the big existential horrors of life. The evening continues with a screening of the Gen Z whodunit slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies, written by Pulitzer Finalist Sarah DeLappe. This new cult classic is a hilarious and crackling look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong. After the screenings, Stephen and Sarah will chat with Aly Wepplo, The Community Library’s Collection Manager, about their process of writing for the screen before taking questions from the audience.
This event is a fundraiser for Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency. A portion of each ticket sale is tax-deductible.
Reading of a Play-in-Process
HANUKKAH SPECTACULAR
By Max Posner
Monday, October 20 at 7:30 PM
The Argyros, Ketchum, Idaho
24/25 Resident Playwright Max Posner (The Treasurer) returns to Idaho to workshop and share the new family reckoning-showbiz comedy mash up about contemporary Jewish identity.
Set over a 3-day workshop of a new play in a conference room at a talent agency in midtown Manhattan, a handful of Jewish artists are grasping at straws. On the threshold, at an inflection point, they weather unprecedented storms of ambivalence. Against their better judgement they go head-to-head with buried family traumas, NYC, God of the Old Testament, nuclear tribalism, and the power of theatre. Will they make it out in one piece? And should they?
Tickets: FREE! And open to the public. Reservations recommended.
Play Reading
SPEECH & DEBATE
By Stephen Karam
Directed by Benjamin Budrick
Saturday, October 25 at 7:00 PM
The Liberty Theater, Hailey, Idaho
&
Sunday, October 26 at 7:30 PM
Boise Contemporary Theater, Boise, Idaho
Sun Valley Playwright’s Residency is partnering again with Boise Contemporary Theater and Boise State University to bring you a reading of one of our 25/26 Resident Playwright’s early plays that put him on the map as a major voice in the American theatre. The evening begins with a conversation between Tony Award Winner Stephen Karam and Artistic Director John Baker, followed by a reading of Speech and Debate, which tells the story of three teenagers in Salem, Oregon. When one of them discovers the truth about a sex scandal in their town… secrets become currency, blogs are belted, and the trio’s connection grows deeper in this dark comedy with music.
Tickets: FREE! And open to the public. Reservations recommended.
COMMMUNITY PARTNERS
SEASON SPONSORS
LOCAL & NATIONAL IMPACT
We connect visionary playwrights & the Wood River Valley
We bring Pulitzer Prize Winners and Finalists, Tony Award nominees, Obie Award and Drama Desk Winners, and MacArthur “Geniuses” to Idaho to create new plays and be in conversation with the community.
We produce FREE arts events for the Wood River Valley
From the beginning, we’ve been committed to making our programming accessible to all. We believe that art and culture belong to everyone and should be accessible to everyone—now more than ever.
We enrich the arts curriculum at local Idaho schools
We collaborate with local schools like Boise State University, The Community School, Wood River High School, and Silver Creek High School to offer students free writing classes led by nationally-recognized playwrights.
We expand Idaho’s school libraries’ collections
We give local high schools published plays by notable playwrights to introduce the next generation to fresh, new writing for the theatre.
We are building a creative home for playwrights in Idaho
In the wake of COVID, leading nonprofits that nurtured new plays shuttered, leaving playwrights with far fewer resources to create work. We’re making a creative home in Idaho’s Wood River Valley for these playwrights, actors, directors, and the local community to create new plays that are a catalyst for conversation.
We incubate new work in NYC
We collaborate with major producing theatres in NYC to offer playwrights opportunities to gather with other playwrights to share raw new work and give each other feedback.
We expand the American theatrical cannon
Annually, we commission our Resident Playwright to write a new play, using their time in our community and at The Community Library’s historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House to inspire them. In conversation with the Wood River Valley community, these visionary playwrights are creating culturally defining work in Idaho for tomorrow.
Kirsten Shultz
Kirsten Shultz
2024 HIGHLIGHTS
24/25 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT MAX POSNER
Through our partnership with The Community Library, we welcomed 24/25 Resident Playwright Max Posner to Ketchum for a month-long writing retreat at the historic Ernest & Mary Hemingway House to work on his new play, Hanukkah Spectacular, about the complexities of modern Jewish identity.
During Max’s monthlong stay, Wood River Valley audiences gathered for a reading of his Off Broadway hit The Treasurer and a Q&A between Max and Samuel D. Hunter. The reading brought together a treasure chest of local and national talent, including David Janeski, Shonda Royall, Colorado Theater Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Billie McBride (Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway), and Tony Nominee Jeremy Shamos (Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are and Only Murders in the Building).
Kirsten Shultz
23/24 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT RAJIV JOSEPH
Pulitzer Finalist, two-time Obie Winner, and our 23/24 Resident Playwright Rajiv Joseph returned to Idaho in September for a weeklong writing retreat to continue work on Horoscope, the 12-character play he began writing at The Community Library’s historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Fall 2023.
Rajiv returned to Idaho, again, in October for a week to workshop this new play-in-process with 12 current and former Boise State University students from the Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing. We then read the play for audiences in Boise and Ketchum through our partnerships with Boise Contemporary Theater and The Argyros Performing Arts Center.
Horoscope received its world premiere at Fordham University in April 2025, directed by May Adrales.
Brooke Burton
CONVERSATIONS WITH PLAYWRIGHTS
New plays are a catalyst for conversations. We offered lots of chances for nationally-recognized playwrights and Idaho’s Wood River Valley and the Treasure Valley to be in dialogue about theatre and the world.
The Community Library’s Collection Manager Aly Wepplo moderated a Q&A with Heideman Award recipient, Lortel Award nominee, and 24/25 Resident Playwright Max Posner about his process of writing for stage and screen. MacArthur “Genius” Samuel D. Hunter moderated a conversation with Max ahead of our reading of Max’s hit Off Broadway play The Treasurer. And Rabbi Klein led a conversation with Max at the Wood River Jewish Community’s Lewis Family Center.
Artistic Director John Baker moderated conversations with 23/24 Resident Playwright and Pulitzer Finalist Rajiv Joseph at Boise Contemporary Theatre and The Argyros Performing Arts Center. And Boise State University’s Chair of the Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing Raquel Davis moderated a conversation with Rajiv and John for BSU for students, staff, and faculty.
Kirsten Shultz
PLAYWRITING CLASSES
We collaborated with The Community School, Wood River High School, and Silver Creek High School as well as Boise State University and The Community Library to offer local high school and college students as well as the Wood River Valley community at large free playwriting and workshops led by Heideman Award recipient, Lortel Award nominee, and 24/25 Resident Playwright Max Posner, 23/24 Resident Playwright and Pulitzer Finalist Rajiv Joseph, Pulitzer Finalist Sarah DeLappe, and MacArthur “Genius” Samuel D. Hunter.
Kirsten Shultz
NEW YORK CITY PLAYWRIGHTS’ GROUP
We gathered six extraordinary playwrights for a multi-week writers group in NYC: 22/23 Resident Playwright and Pulitzer Winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living), Pulitzer Winner Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), MacArthur “Genius” Samuel D. Hunter (Little Bear Ridge Road), CA Johnson (All the Natalie Portmans), Kimber Lee (brownsville song), and Danny Tejera (Toros). These writers gathered at Manhattan Theatre Club to share and discuss new pages of their plays-in-process.
Krista Williams
SUPPORT US TODAY
Kirsten Shultz
Your support—now more than ever—provides the bedrock that makes everything we do for the local community and theatre artists possible. Your support commissions new plays by major playwrights; produces free play readings, new play developmental workshops, artist meet & greets, and Q&As; connects nationally-recognized artists with local high school students; puts published plays by major contemporary playwrights in our local schools; and so, so much more!
Kirsten Shultz
IN THE NEWS
Read about our recent work in the Wood River Valley, Treasure Valley, New York City, and beyond.
Samuel D. Hunter