Theater Masters

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    • Diversity, Equity, and inclusion
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  • Alumni
    • Take Ten
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    • Visionary Playwrights
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  • Auditions
  • Support
  • Contact
  • Visionary Playwrights
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Diversity, Equity, and inclusion
  • Programs
    • Take Ten
    • Aspiring Playwrights
    • Visionary Playwrights
    • Theater for Social Change
  • Alumni
    • Take Ten
    • Aspiring Playwrights
    • Visionary Playwrights
    • Other Programs
  • Auditions
  • Support
  • Contact
  • Visionary Playwrights

​TAKE TEN

ANNOUNCING THE 2022 MFA Playwrights

Take Ten 21
The TAKE TEN 2022 presentation will occur via Zoom webinar.
Reserve your virtual ticket using the link above

Join us May 19th 

4:00 pm & 7:00 pm EST

Reserve Tickets Here
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Alica Daine Benning

Alica Daine Benning (pronounced AL-i-kuh like “Metallica) is a playwright and performer hailing from Queen Creek, Arizona, a tiny town in the rural Southwest. After escaping to Los Angeles to pursue her BFA in Acting at the University of Southern California, Alica moved to New York City where she discovered that her love of writing eclipsed her love for performing. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage at Northwestern University. Alica is passionate about telling stories that center around mental health and mental illness, dysmorphia, internalized misogyny, and the female experience. Her plays explore the intersections of wellness and identity through complex and relationship-driven narratives.

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Zachariah Ezer

Zachariah Ezer (he/him/his) is an M.F.A. Playwriting candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. His plays include An Unclear World (Hi-ARTS, The Prelude Festival, The Lark), The Freedom Industry (New York Stage & Film), and Address the Body! (The Echo Theater Company), among others. He is currently a James A. Michener Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, the Dramaturg-in-Residence at The Workshop Theater, and a performer in alternative rock band Harper’s Landing. BA: Wesleyan University.​

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Malique Guinn

Malique Guinn is a playwright, poet, and screenwriter who hails from Lancaster, CA. His work often bridges the gap between STEM, faith, and Hip Hop to examine the human condition. He has received recognition from the Sloan Foundation, KCACTF, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the FMM Works in Heightened Language. Outside of crafting, you’ll find him hooping at a basketball court or fiddling with a Rubik’s cube while listening to Rick Ross or Sault (great band). He is currently a second year MFA student in the Dramatic Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon University.

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DJ Hills

DJ Hills is a writer and theatre artist from the Appalachian Mountains working in the intersections of poetry, prose, and performance. Their plays have been produced or developed at Single Carrot Theatre (we broke up.), The Kennedy Center (Juniper Jones and the Rocket She Built), and Cohesion Theatre (where our dead are buried). Their poetry chapbook, Leaving Earth, will be published by Split Rock Press in 2022. DJ is currently pursuing their MFA in playwriting at the University of California Los Angeles. Find them online at www.dj-hills.com.

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Forest Malley

Forest Malley is a playwright, poet and actor based in Brooklyn, NY. He recently graduated from Harvard University, with a B.A. in History & Literature and Gender Studies, focused on Arab and Jewish queer subjectivities. His work explores the interplay between queer memory, migration, and grief. Forest is new to the playwriting scene, but his writing has been showcased by Rising Light Poetry, A Poetic View, Transformations, and in collaboration with other independent artists. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

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J.C. Pankratz

J.C. Pankratz (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, transgender playwright and educator writing genre-defying work about gender, class, trauma, and magic.Their plays include Egg Tooth (Distinguished Achievement, Jean Kennedy Smith Award), Redeemer Mine (Finalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference), and Joyless Eye (Semi-Finalist, O’Neill Playwrights Conference; Runner-up, Jean Kennedy Smith Award). Previous collaborators include the Kitchen Dog Theater, Lily + Joan Theatre Company, Seattle Theatre Works, and the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. They are the recipient of the 2021 FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language from Synecdoche Works for their play Seahorse.​

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Emma Zetterberg

Emma Zetterberg (she/her) is pursuing her MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University. She received her BA in Theatre and Art History from Middlebury College where she was awarded the Kellogg Fellowship, a grant that allowed her to conduct in-situ research in Sweden on August Strindberg’s early paintings and plays. Before going back to school, Emma was an elementary teacher at Princeton Montessori School. She has been collaborating with Some Nerve Productions on her screenplay After Winter. Her favorite genres are sci-fi and drama, and she enjoys synthesizing the two in her work.​

Bridging the Gap between Playwrights' Education and Career

Theater Masters hosts a national 10-minute playwriting competition among the students at the top MFA programs in the country. Out of 60+ submissions, 6-7 winning plays are selected by a reading panel made up of industry professionals.
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Once selected, the MFA playwrights are given feedback to further develop their plays. They are then flown to New York City where they are able to observe the process of putting their plays into production, with a team of professional actors, directors and designers, culminating in a three night run of their work at a reputable New York City theater.

During this New York production week, Theater Masters also provide the playwrights with "Wonder Week," during which we arrange meetings with the top agents, literary managers, and artistic directors in the industry, offer them professional development panels with working playwrights, and introduce them to the writers' guilds as well as major theaters in NYC. This is a unique and career-starting program for these young playwrights that has launched the careers of our many successful alumni. 

We are the only organization to bridge the gap between the training playwrights receive in their MFA programs and the professional careers that lay ahead of them.  


Anthology by Samuel French


​We are excited to announce that A Concord Theatrical Company: Samuel French is publishing an annual anthology of the winning plays from our National MFA Playwrights Festival.

Order your acting edition - a perfect-bound script for use in production or as a reading edition.
Learn More and Order Your Copy
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Past National Adjudicators

 Martyna Majok 2022
​James Anthony Tyler 2021
​Craig Lucas and Dave Auburn 2020

Craig Lucas 2019
​David Auburn 2018

Abe Koogler 2017
Alexander Maggio 2016
Kathleen Chalfant 2015
Robert LuPone 2014
Theresa Rebeck 2013
A.R. Gurney 2012
Eric Bogosian 2011
Lanford Wilson 2010
Gordon Davidson 2009 
John Lithgow 2008
John Guare 2007
Alfred Uhry 2006 
Christopher Durang 2005 
Terrence McNally 2004
William Luce 2003

Read More About Our Other Programs

Aspiring Playwrights

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Visionary Playwrights

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Meeting on the Page

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