Broadway Welcomes Back 2012 PlayPenn Playwright Bess Wohl

Broadway Cast of Liberation Photo Credit: Little Fang

Congratulations to Bess Wohl and the entire cast and crew of Liberation on a stunning Broadway debut at the James Earl Jones Theatre following a sold-out Off-Broadway run at Roundabout Theatre.

In 2012, PlayPenn developed Bess’s searing two-hander Barcelona, which later received its world-premiere production at People’s Light in Malvern, PA in 2013. The play has subsequently been produced at theatres around the country, including the Geffen Playhouse, and was most recently seen on London’s West End in 2024.

About Barcelona:

Late night in Barcelona. A drunk American woman goes home with a tall, dark stranger—an older Spanish man. What begins as a carefree, one-night stand becomes an invitation to danger, as the personal and political intertwine. Over the course of a single night – by turns funny, sexy and surprising – Barcelona explores the gap between the fantasy of who we pretend to be and the truth of who we are.

About Bess Wohl:

Bess Wohl is a playwright and filmmaker. Her plays have been produced on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally and her feature film debut, BABY RUBY, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington, premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures. She also wrote for the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations,” created by Scott Z. Burns.

Recently, her play LIBERATION (Outer Critics Circle Winner, Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel noms.) had an extended run at Roundabout Theater Company and she made her West End debut with a sold out run of BARCELONA starring Lily Collins. Other plays include GRAND HORIZONS (Tony Nominations for Best Play & Best Featured Actress, Outer Critics Circle Honor, Drama League Award nom); MAKE BELIEVE (NYTimes Critic Pick, Best of 2019, Outer Critics Circle Honor); CAMP SIEGFRIED; CONTINUITY; SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (John Gassner Outer Critics Circle Award, top ten lists in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Guardian); AMERICAN HERO; TOUCHED; IN; CATS TALK BACK and the musical PRETTY FILTHY with composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and The Civilians (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Musical).

Wohl’s plays have been produced or developed at theaters including Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, Ars Nova, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Goodman Theater, The Geffen Playhouse, People’s Light and Theatre Company, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Vineyard Arts Project, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Northlight Theater, Ojai Playwright's Conference, the Cape Cod Theatre Project and PlayPenn. Awards and honors include the Sam Norkin special Drama Desk Award for “establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater,” multiple Outer Critics Circle honors, the Georgia Engell Comedy Playwriting Award from the Dramatists Guild, the Athena Award for her screenplay VIRGINIA, MacDowell Fellowships and inclusion on Hollywood’s Black List of Best Screenplays.

Wohl is an associate artist with The Civilians, an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center and Williamstown Theatre Festival. In her previous life as an actress, she appeared onstage in New York and regionally, and in numerous films and TV shows where she has given birth, solved crimes, committed crimes, been wrongly accused, and come back from the dead. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Yale School of Drama.