SUN VALLEY PLAYWRIGHT’S RESIDENCY
SMALL TOWN.
BIG PLAYS.
2025 HIGHLIGHTS
25/26 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT STEPHEN KARAM
Through our partnership with The Community Library, Tony Award Winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist Stephen Karam, spent nearly a month in October 2025 at the historic Ernest & Mary Hemingway House working on SVPR’s new play commission.
During Stephen’s stay, audiences in the Wood River Valley and Boise enjoyed a staged reading of Stephen’s early play Speech & Debate, directed by Benjamin Budrick and presented in partnership with Boise State University’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing and Boise Contemporary Theater. The reading featured current and former BSU students alongside faculty, giving the community a rare opportunity to see emerging artists collaborate with a leading national playwright.
Kirsten Shultz
24/25 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT MAX POSNER
In July, we workshopped former Sundance and MacDowell Fellow Max Posner’s family-comedy-meets-showbiz play Hanukkah Spectacular at Lincoln Center Theatre in New York with David Cromer, Fred Hechinger, Susan Pourfar, and Aria Shahghasemi.
In October, Max returned to Idaho to continue developing the play with Sam Alper, Mara Nelson Greenberg, Andrew Hardigg, and David Janeski. Building on the New York workshop, Max refined his work and shared it with local audiences at The Argyros in Ketchum, giving the community a unique opportunity to experience a play in progress. We were also pleased to continue our connection with the Wood River Jewish Community through this project, exploring contemporary Jewish identity with humor and heart.
Kirsten Shultz
PLAYWRITING CLASSES
National Latino Playwriting Award Winner Marisela Treviño Orta led a monologue-writing workshop for high school students from Wood River High School, Silver Creek High School, and The Community School, and developed a bilingual play commission by our friends at The Liberty Theatre Company. Her residency offered local students a hands-on opportunity to explore their voices as storytellers, deepening our ongoing commitment to nurturing young playwrights and connecting the Wood River Valley community with nationally recognized artists.
Kirsten Shultz
FILM SCREENINGS
We teamed up with The Magic Lantern to offered local audiences a one-night only double-feature of movies from indie film powerhouse A24 that redefine horror for the 21st century: The Humans by Tony Award Winner Stephen Karam and Bodies Bodies Bodies by Pulitzer Finalist Sarah DeLappe, followed by a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and how these stories moved from page to screen with Sarah and Stephen.
NEW YORK STAGES
Four plays developed or commissioned by SVPR reached New York City audiences in 2025. Rajiv Joseph’s Horoscope premiered at Fordham University and was directed by May Adrales, David Cale’s Blue Cowboy ran Off Off Broadway at The Bushwick Starr directed by Les Waters, Martyna Majok’s Queens ran Off Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club directed by Trip Cullman, and Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road ran on Broadway at The Booth Theatre, starring two-time Tony Award Winner Laurie Metcalf and directed by three time Tony Award Winner Joe Mantello. Three of these productions were named New York Times Critic’s Picks, highlighting the national reach and impact of SVPR’s new play development.
Michael Brosilow
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
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