Berkeley Repertory 2019 Summer Residency Lab

I was selected to participate in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work for its 2019 Summer Residency Lab. The artists, selected from a pool of more than 620 submissions, developed new works at the company’s Harrison Street campus throughout the month of June. In collaboration with Ashley Hanson, I wrote a new musical, The Kim Loo Sisters Musical, about sisters who shared top billing with Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, and Ann Miller.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival 2019

In May, I participated in the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. For over twenty years, the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival has proudly supported the creation and development of hundreds of new theatrical works by some of the most exciting playwrights of our time—who have gone on to become Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Obie, Emmy and Golden Globe award winners, as well as McArthur Genius Fellows. During the festival, I worked on my new play Mother of Exiles.

Learn more here

Jessica Huang
New York Stage and Film’s 35th Annual Powerhouse Season

I’ll be participating in New York Stage and Film’s 35th Annual Powerhouse Season, presented annually at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The 35th annual season, running June 20 through July 28, will include fully staged productions, workshop presentations, readings and other works in progress for theater, film and television. This summer’s readings will include a free public presentation of my work in progress, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Ars Nova Play Group

I was recently selected to be part of the Ars Nova Play Group, based in New York City. Play Group is a two-year residency in which members become a part of the Ars Nova Resident Artist community. In addition to biweekly meetings where members share new work and receive feedback from their Play Group peers, members also receive dramaturgical support and artistic match-making advice from the Ars Nova artistic staff; invitations to Ars Nova shows, Resident Artists mixers, and to see the work of Play Group alums around the city; two Play Group writing retreats; and the opportunity to further develop and showcase one of their plays in a week-long workshop that can culminate in a public reading.

Read more here.

Sara Bischoff
2019 Resident Playwright at Chance Theater

I was recently selected as the 2019 Resident Playwright at Chance Theater in Anaheim, California. For the 9th year in a row, Chance Theater’s resident playwright will be featured throughout the year in the On The Radar Series.

In 2019, I will have two shows featured in the OTR Series — a LAB Workshop of a brand new play that I’m still writing, and a staged reading of Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, which merges mixed-race identity politics, science, and economics to tell a story that spans 300 million years.

Read more here.

Sara Bischoff
2018 Barry and Bernice Stavis Award

I was honored to receive the Barry and Bernice Stavis Award at the 2018 National Theater Conference on December 7-9 in New York City. A lively excerpt from my play The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin was followed by a discussion, led and moderated by Liz Engelman. During the discussion, I spoke about the real life inspiration for the play, including the Chinese Exclusion Act which led many Chinese nationals seeking to enter the US to buy forged identities, creating a web of secrets, regrets, lies and complications for generations to come. 

Conference photos and information here.

Jessica Huang
2019 Interstate 73 Writers Group

I was recently announced as one of eight members for this year’s Interstate 73 Writers Group. Interstate 73 members meet at the Page 73 offices twice a month to share their newest pages and discuss their work with their peers and Page 73’s Producing Artistic Director and Artistic Associate. At a playwright’s request, the writer receives a public or closed reading of a play.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Reading of TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING at New York Theatre Workshop

A reading of TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING will take place at the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) on Monday, November 19. The reading will be directed by Jenny Koons.

From September to May each season, NYTW hosts a work-in-progress reading every Monday. Each reading is part of a positive forum that nurtures work at its earliest stages, garners attention from NYTW artistic staff and receives a constructive feedback session with staff, actors and other artists through the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
2018-19 Civilians' R&D Group

I’m thrilled to be a part of the 2018-19 Civilians’ R&D Group, with composer Ashley Hanson. The Civilians’ R&D Group meets biweekly for nine months, during which time each artist or team of artists develops a new piece of theater through a creative investigation of a topic chosen by each artist. The creative process may include interviewing, community engagement, research, or other experimental methods of inquiry. Led by R&D Coordinator Megan McClain, the artists share and discuss their methodologies and the resulting work. The process will culminate in a FINDINGS series in May 2019, when the groups present their works-in-progress to the public.

Jessica Huang