The historic Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St, New York, NY 10014) will open applications Feb. 2 for the Cherry Lane Playwrights Collective, a new nine-month developmental program led by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and director Annie Baker.
Applications for the inaugural program opened Feb. 2 and will be accepted through 5 p.m. ET on March 2. The program is free and open to writers who have not had a Broadway or Off-Broadway production in New York City and who will not be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program during the 2026-27 academic year.
Six playwrights will be selected for the cohort. Participants will meet over 10 Sunday evenings at Cherry Lane Theatre from September 2026 through June 2027 to share new work, read pages aloud, and develop original plays in a collaborative setting.
Finalists will be notified June 1, with final selections announced July 1 ahead of the program’s start date of Sept. 13. Additional information is available at playwrights.cherrylanetheatre.org.
The collective will operate under the newly formed Cherry Lane Development Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering innovative voices in theater and supporting artists as they develop new work.
The initiative continues Cherry Lane’s long-standing tradition of championing emerging playwrights. As New York City’s oldest Off-Broadway theater, Cherry Lane has presented early works by artists including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Pablo Picasso, T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard.
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