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Cygnet Theatre Announces 2018 Commissioned Playwrights

Playwrights christopher oscar peña, Danielle Mohlman, and Mike Sears will present new works at a public reading.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF.: Cygnet Theatre has announced the recipients of the 2018 Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission. The commission program finds new voices and supports the development of a new work. Playwrights christopher oscar peña, Danielle Mohlman, and Mike Sears, will receive a financial reward and a weeklong workshop that will culminate in a public reading at the theatre Feb. 16-18.

“At Cygnet, we believe the best way to really have an impact on the American theatre is to focus on new plays,” said associate artistic director Rob Lufty in a statement. “I read many plays to make sure we selected playwrights that represent a wide range of diverse voices that fit Cygnet’s mission. Voices that don’t fit into boxes that are easily checked off, but instead, create their own box.”

Danielle Mohlman.

First will be Mohlman’s Dust (Feb. 16), about a man wrestling with the reality that he has killed every woman he has ever spoken to, and spends his last minutes spinning a tale similar to Peter Pan, complete with the Lost Girls fighting for his attention.

Next will be When It Comes (Feb. 17), by Sears, a folk tale about a young couple building a home who discover they need the moon to make the project complete. The piece was developed in collaboration with a team of local artists, including Animal Cracker Conspiracy, musician Clinton Davis, and director Lisa Berger.

The reading series will conclude with peña’s alone above a raging sea (Feb. 18), about a man who misses his flight home for Christmas and is left to pursue a connection with a total stranger over the holidays. The play was developed with support from Lark Play Development Center and the Route 66 Theatre Company.

The three plays, which have never been produced, will be considered to have a world premiere production at Cygnet Theatre.

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