SUN VALLEY PLAYWRIGHT’S RESIDENCY
SMALL TOWN.
BIG PLAYS.
MEET OUR RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHTS
26/27 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT TALENE MONAHON
Pulitzer Prize finalist Talene Monahon (Meet the Cartozians) is SVPR's 26/27 Resident Playwright, writing a new play commissioned by SVPR with music by two-time Tony Award nominee Will Butler (Stereophonic and Arcade Fire).
Through SVPR's partnership with The Community Library, Talene will spend October in the Wood River Valley, including dedicated writing time at the historic Ernest & Mary Hemingway House. During her residency, audiences in Sun Valley and Boise will have opportunities to meet Talene and experience her work through free public programs.
Tamar Wolfson
25/26 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT STEPHEN KARAM
Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephen Karam is completing his yearlong SVPR residency this fall. Through SVPR's partnership with The Community Library, Stephen spent nearly a month in October 2025 writing at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House, where he began work on a new play.
During his October 2025 residency, Stephen also connected with audiences in the Wood River Valley and Boise through a staged reading of his 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.
In October 2026, Stephen will return to the Wood River Valley to complete his residency as Talene Monahon begins hers, creating an intentional overlap between SVPR's outgoing and incoming Resident Playwrights.
Kirsten Shultz
TALENE BEGINS HER RESIDENCY
Q&A
A CONVERSATION WITH TALENE MONAHON
Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. MT
The Community Library
Ketchum, ID
FREE
Join playwright, performer, and docu-theater maker Talene Monahon, SVPR’s 26/27 Resident Playwright, for a public conversation at The Community Library moderated by Aly Wepplo, the Library’s Collection Manager. Talene will discuss her acclaimed play Meet the Cartozians, from its development and journey to Second Stage to its recognition as a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play. The conversation will also offer a glimpse into the new play Talene will develop during her SVPR residency—a work exploring four generations of professional Mormon family musicians, with music by Will Butler of Stereophonic and indie rock band Arcade Fire.
Kirsten Shultz
Play Reading
THE GOOD JOHN PROCTOR
Written by Talene Monahon
Directed by Jessica Ires Morris
Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 2 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. MT
The Argyros Performing Arts Center's Bailey Studio
Ketchum, ID
FREE
AND
Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 4 p.m. MT
Boise Contemporary Theater
Boise, ID
FREE
Join us for free readings of Talene Monahon's The Good John Proctor, directed by Jessica Ires Morris and featuring Theatre Arts students from Boise State University. Named one of The New Yorker's Top 10 Best Plays of 2023, the play takes inspiration from Arthur Miller's The Crucible and brings Talene's distinctive combination of historical reimagining, dark humor, and theatrical invention to one of the most famous stories in the American dramatic canon.
The readings include light refreshments and a brief Q&A with Talene moderated by SVPR Advisory Board Member and former Company of Fools Co-Artistic Director Denise Simone and SVPR Artistic Director John Baker.
Presented in partnership with Boise Contemporary Theater, Boise State University’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing, and The Community Library.
TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE HERE MID-SEPTEMBER.
STEPHEN WRAPS HIS RESIDENCY
Play Reading
PLAY-IN-PROCESS
This October, Tony Award winner, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and 25/26 Resident Playwright Stephen Karam returns to Sun Valley to wrap his yearlong residency , continuing work on his new play commission and reconnecting with the community that has been part of his creative process over the past year. His return coincides with the arrival of 26/27 Resident Playwright Talene Monahon, creating an intentional overlap between SVPR's outgoing and incoming Resident Playwrights. The two playwrights and their collaborators have together in Idaho as one residency year comes to a close and another begins.
Stephen will share a reading of his new play-in-process on Sunday, October 25, 2026. ADDITIONAL DETAILS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.
Kirsten Shultz
FIVE YEARS OF NEW PLAYS
FROM SUN VALLEY TO THE NATIONAL STAGE
This October, Sun Valley Playwrights Residency celebrates five years of supporting playwrights and developing new work in Idaho. Since our founding, SVPR has built a model centered on sustained investment in a single playwright—providing dedicated writing time in the Wood River Valley, creative support throughout the year, and opportunities to return to Idaho to share the work with our community.
The work continues long after a playwright leaves the Wood River Valley. Plays commissioned or developed through SVPR have gone on to Off-Off-Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters, universities, and regional theaters across the country. David Cale’s Blue Cowboy, Martyna Majok’s Queens, and Rajiv Joseph’s Horoscope are among the plays whose journeys intersected with SVPR. This November, Max Posner’s Hanukkah Spectacular, commissioned during his 24/25 residency, will have its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer.
Kirsten Shultz
THE WORK CONTINUES IN NYC
SVPR’s commitment to playwrights extends beyond our annual Idaho residency. The NYC playwrights group grew out of Martyna Majok’s desire to create a community of writers during her yearlong SVPR residency—a time when many of the places where playwrights had traditionally gathered were shuttering. SVPR responded by helping create a space where playwrights could continue to gather, share new work, exchange ideas, and support one another’s creative process.
Playwrights who have worked with the group include Eboni Booth, Samuel D. Hunter, C.A. Johnson, Kimber Lee, Shayan Lotfi, Kimber Lee, Martyna Majok, Danny Tejera, and Anna Ziegler. Writers have brought work to the group at various stages—from early drafts to more fully developed plays—and that work has gone on to regional, Off-Broadway, and Broadway productions. C.A. Johnson’s Lagniappe, Martyna Majok’s Queens, and Shayan Lotfi’s What Became of Us are among the plays that have been part of that process. Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road, developed through the group, received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play and won the 2026 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.
Krista Williams
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.
Kirsten Shultz
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
HELP US WRITE THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
Sun Valley Playwright's Residency (EIN 88-3500998) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that gives one playwright a year the time, space, and resources to write boldly—and invites our community into that process along the way.
Your support is what lets us commission new plays, fly writers to Idaho and house them at the historic Hemingway House, offer every reading and conversation free of charge, and put working playwrights in front of local high schoolers and college students. We're five years in, and gifts like yours are why we get to keep doing this.
Kirsten Shultz
STAY UP TO DATE
Samuel D. Hunter