The Foundry at PlayPenn Announces Class of 2028, Continuing a Legacy of Philadelphia Playwrights Impacting Stages Nationwide
- PlayPenn
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 9 hours ago
Playwrights L M Feldman and R. Eric Thomas Provide Philadelphia Playwrights with Early-Career Support and Mentorship
The Foundry at PlayPenn, Philadelphia's preeminent playwrights collective for emerging professional writers, welcomes Rayne, Siddarth Anand, and Monica Flory as new Foundry members and its Class of 2028. Playwrights L M Feldman (hand foot hand) and R. Eric Thomas (Xtravaganza) will continue to lead the workshop in their fifth year as the Foundry’s Lead Artists.
Rayne, Siddarth, and Monica join current members of The Foundry who include Natyna Bean, Lulu Duffy-Tumasz, Aly Gonzalez, August Hakvaag, Nick Jonczak, and Pravin Wilkins.
The Foundry at PlayPenn provides three years of free mentorship and early-career support, cultivating a remarkable community of playwrights and artistic leaders who began their careers in Philadelphia. Its alumni include Chris Davis, Emma Goidel, Sarah Mantell, MJ Kaufman, R. Eric Thomas, Erlina Ortiz, MK Tuomanen, Iraisa Ann Reilly, Chaz T. Martin, Lex Thammavong, and Zahra Patterson along with the more than 60 playwrights who have participated in the program since 2012. By nurturing talent, fostering collaboration, and championing bold new voices from Philadelphia, The Foundry at PlayPenn has become an essential launching pad for many of our nation’s theatrical innovators.
Formed in the summer of 2012 by Philadelphia-based playwrights and educators Michael Hollinger, Jacqueline Goldfinger, and Quinn D. Eli, PlayPenn welcomed The Foundry in 2016 as one of its core artistic programs.
2025 Kilroys List playwright and Foundry Lead Artist, L M Feldman reflects, “In a moment like this — locally, nationally, globally — places like The Foundry at PlayPenn are RARE and VITAL and SACRED. I can't overstate the value of and need for committed spaces for early-career support, mentorship, expansion, and enrichment for playwrights. And I mean that both within the Philly theater ecosystem, and more broadly as well. The world is quick to consume (and dispose of) the CONTENT of the arts, without offering any real societal or systemic support for the health, vitality, or longevity of those who CREATE the content (i.e. the artists). The Foundry can't do it alone, of course, but it can offer connection, feedback, and shared resources to help us all hang in there and flourish as much as we can along the way.”
PlayPenn Artistic Director Che’Rae Adams shares, “The Foundry is one of the few emerging playwrights workshops run by working professional writers, and we are proud to provide L M and R. Eric the space to identify, support, and help build the next generation of theatrical innovators. Under their leadership, they have identified playwrights who stir the heart, challenge form, and meet the moment with theatrical daring in a way that only playwrights can. We know our new Foundry playwrights will continue the tradition of using this opportunity to build new stories that will inspire audiences in Philadelphia and nationwide for many years to come.”
ABOOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:
Also known as Angela Bey, Rayne is a theatremaker from Southwest Philadelphia. They tell stories of transformation that center Black folx. Named “one of 18 young Philadelphians shaping the future of the city’s creative class” by PhillyVoice, Rayne has been featured in Grid Magazine, Philadelphia Gay News, Token Theatre Friends, NPR, WHYY, and more.
Rayne’s plays have been developed with Azuka Theatre, Primary Stages, Directors Gathering, Shakespeare in Clark Park, The Gumbo Lab, The Strides Collective, PlayPenn, Theatre Exile, The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, Painted Bride, and others, with support from the Leeway Foundation, Independence Foundation, Lambda Literary, the NEA, and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Rayne is also a member of The Foundry at PlayPenn and New Pages at Azuka Theatre.
Produced works include On Buried Ground, COMET (Barrymore Award Winner), The White Feather Project, WHISPER, Staying Power, Pedestals, and Germantown Plays. Upcoming projects include new heaven, new earth, Ever: a play with music, MASC., and an immersive commission with The Ministry of Awe. Rayne is the founder of Upstream Performance Collaborative.
Siddarth Anand is a South Asian-American playwright and performer originally from the DC area. His plays are about family, growing up, and identity. He writes because the act of writing about and paying attention to something is a tremendous act of love, and also because it’s pretty fun. He is an alumnus of the PlayPenn Playwright's Cohort and a member of Philly Asian Performing Artists Playwriting Cohort. His plays have been workshopped at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, and Fresh Lime Soda Productions in New York City. Outside of the arts, he is also enthusiastic about community-building, organizing, and lentils.
Monica Flory is a playwright, director, and educator. She is passionate about writing coming-of-age stories, mother-daughter tales and femme-forward versions of classic works. Her adaptation of The Jungle Book has had over 300 productions worldwide. The New York Times called it “scrupulously faithful to Rudyard Kipling and completely original in its approach.” Recent original works include The Wanting Forest (Silk Moth Stage), Rosemallow House (Poly Prep), Bank of Violets (Wardlaw + Hartridge), One Last Ride (Ghostlight) and the films Made of Paper and Because of Dragons. She is an education consultant for Studio Theatre in DC, a camp director of Ghostlight Theater Camp in Warwick, NY, and a founding member of Humble Materials in Philadelphia. Her works are published by Concord/Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, and Brooklyn Publishers.
Monica was a consultant for the transition team of Director's Gathering. She is an education consultant for Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. and camp director of Ghostlight Theater Camp in Warwick, NY.
ABOUT PLAYPENN:
PlayPenn is a national center for new plays and playwrights devoted to nurturing bold new voices in contemporary theatre located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We empower writers to question, explore, and dream, so they can push the boundaries of storytelling in the American theatre.
PlayPenn supports playwrights and new play development through a range of free programs including our New Play Development Conference, The Foundry Playwrights Workshop, The Playwrights Cohort and Independent Workshop Readings as well as paid in-person and online Continuing Education classes with available financial aid and scholarships.
PlayPenn has helped launch or support the careers of many of today's nationally recognized theatre writers including Iraisa Ann Reilly, Stephen Belber, Kara Lee Corthron, Ty Defoe, Steven Dietz, Gabriel Jason Dean, L M Feldman, Dominic Finocchiaro, Jacqueline Goldfinger, Kate Hamill, Jeffrey Hatcher, Jordan Harrison, Michael Hollinger, Willy Holtzman, Samuel D. Hunter, James Ijames, MJ Kaufman, Sarah Mantell, Deb Margolin, Roger Q. Mason, Antoinette Nwandu, Erlina Ortiz, Aaron Posner, J.T. Rogers, Jonathan Spector, Jen Silverman, R. Eric Thomas, Bess Wohl, Stefanie Zadravec, and Lauren Yee.
