Commissions: A Precarious Position

The following is an edited transcript of a roundtable held January 2, 2025.

Mar 01, 2024

L-R: Samuel D. Hunter, Kimber Lee, Karen Hartman

Samuel D. Hunter: Thank you both so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. So, I thought I could ask you both about your first commission and the story about that, how that came to be and what the process was like. And maybe that can kick us off into a larger discussion. Kimber, are you okay to start?

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Samuel D. Hunter

grew up in Moscow, Idaho and lives in New York City. He is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship for his work as a playwright. His full-length plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play), A Case for the Existence of God (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), Greater Clements (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Honoree), and Lewiston/Clarkston (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), among others.

Kimber Lee

’s plays include: untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play (Royal Exchange Theatre/Manchester UK, Young Vic/London UK), the water palace (Susan Smith Blackburn Special Commendation), to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse), tokyo fish story (South Coast Rep, TheatreWorks/SV, Old Globe), brownsville song (b-side for tray)(Humana Festival, LCT3, Long Wharf Theatre), and different words for the same thing directed by Neel Keller (CTG). Recipient of the Ruby Prize, PoNY Fellowship, inaugural Bruntwood Prize International Award, Hodder Fellowship, Helen Merrill Award, Edgerton New Play Award, and Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. MFA: UT Austin.

Karen Hartman

was the first playwright celebrated by the VOLT Festival in 2022 with three simultaneous off-Broadway premieres by a single author: New Golden Age (Primary Stages); The Lucky Star (Directors Company); and Goldie, Max & Milk (MBL Productions), all at 59e59. Other recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Henry Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (Finalist). Her many award-winning plays and musicals are published by Concord Theatricals, DPS, Playscripts, and TCG. She invented and runs The Hundred Day Reckoning: a Creative Response to Hard Change.

Related Dramatist(s)

Samuel D Hunter,

Kimber Lee,

Karen Hartman

Related Organization(s)

South Coast Repertory Theatre,

Steppenwolf Theatre Company,

Playwrights Horizons,

Chicago Shakespeare Theater,

Playwrights' Center [MN],

People's Light and Theatre Company,

Yale Repertory Theatre,