SUN VALLEY PLAYWRIGHT’S RESIDENCY
FIVE YEARS
OF NEW PLAYS
Since 2021, we’ve brought America’s most exciting playwrights to Sun Valley to write new plays, and shared their work with our community in free readings, conversations, and classes.
2,500+
people at our free readings, Q&As, and classes
6x
audience growth since our first season
440+
Idaho high school and college students
17
partner organizations across Idaho and NYC
100%
of our public events have been free
2026 HIGHLIGHTS
Two resident playwrights, a spring guest artist, and Tony, Pulitzer, Grammy and Oscar honorees on our stages and in local classrooms. Every event was free.
TALENE MONAHON
BEGINS HER RESIDENCY
The Pulitzer Prize finalist spent October writing at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Ketchum. Her new play, commissioned by SVPR, features music by Will Butler.
Audiences met her work through three readings of The Good John Proctor, two of them sold out, and an invited sharing of her new pages and Will Butler’s new songs. She shares the finished play in a free reading next fall.
The Pulitzer Prize finalist spent October writing at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Ketchum. Her new play, commissioned by SVPR, features music by Will Butler.
Audiences met her work through three readings of The Good John Proctor, two of them sold out, and an invited sharing of her new pages and Will Butler’s new songs. She shares the finished play in a free reading next fall.
The Pulitzer Prize finalist spent October writing at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Ketchum. Her new play, commissioned by SVPR, features music by Will Butler.
Audiences met her work through three readings of The Good John Proctor, two of them sold out, and an invited sharing of her new pages and Will Butler’s new songs. She shares the finished play in a free reading next fall.
Kirsten Shultz
THE ARTISTS
The Pulitzer Prize finalist spent October writing at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Ketchum. Her new play, commissioned by SVPR, features music by Will Butler.
Audiences met her work through three readings of The Good John Proctor, two of them sold out, and an invited sharing of her new pages and Will Butler’s new songs. She shares the finished play in a free reading next fall.
2026-27 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT
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.
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 spaces—thanks to support from Signature Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and Manhattan Theatre Club—where playwrights can continue to gather, share new work, exchange ideas, and support one another’s creative process.
Playwrights who have worked with the group include Jaclyn Backhaus, Eboni Booth, Vichet Chum, Samuel D. Hunter, C.A. Johnson, Kimber Lee, Shayan Lotfi, Kimber Lee, Rogelio Martinez, Martyna Majok, Danny Tejera, Lucy Thurber, Sanaz Toosi, 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 WRITE THE NEXT 5 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