8000 S Tamiami Trail
Venice
FL 34293
“Annette Dignam State College of Florida Residency in Literature at the Hermitage: Writing for the Stage”
with Hermitage Fellow Sarah Gancher
Presented in partnership with State College of Florida
Sarah Gancher’s Hermitage Artist Residency made possible by the Annette Dignam State College of Florida Residency in Literature at the Hermitage.
Wednesday, April 24 at 3:30pm
State College of Florida (entrance at 8000 S Tamiami Trail, Venice, FL 34293)
Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.
An Obie Award-winning playwright whose work has been produced at some of the country’s leading theaters, Hermitage Fellow Sarah Gancher is no stranger to writing for the stage. From works such as the recent Off-Broadway play Russian Troll Farm to collaborative musical projects like Hundred Days and The Lucky Ones with The Bengsons, Gancher has done it all. In this special program made possible by the support of the Dignam Family, Gancher will offer insight into how she approaches a range of projects, give updates on what is next for her, and share samples of her original works.
Hermitage Fellow Sarah Gancher is a Obie Award-winning playwright who loves epic stories, big ideas, and deep comedy. Her plays have been produced or developed at London’s National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, The Public, New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard, The Atlantic, Berkeley Rep, Steppenwolf, New York Stage and Film, Ars Nova, WP Theatre, The Flea, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Geva Theatre, Hartford Stage, and RoundHouse, among others. She has been a Time Warner Fellow at the WP Playwrights Lab, a member of P73’s writer’s group, a Playwrights’ Realm Writing Fellow, a member of the Orchard Project’s Greenhouse Lab, and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group. She is a resident at New Dramatists. Sarah is the winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre, New York Stage and Film Founder’s Award, and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Her play Russian Troll Farm won a special citation Obie Award, and was named one of the year’s ten best productions of 2020 by The New York Times. Sarah has written two musicals with rock band The Bengsons: The Lucky Ones, a commission for Ars Nova, and Hundred Days, which had its New York premiere at the 2017 Under the Radar festival at the Public and went on to rave reviews at New York Theatre Workshop and a national tour. Both The Lucky Ones and Hundred Days garnered a number of Lortel, Drama League, and Drama Desk nominations and wins. Sarah was the collaborating playwright on Mission Drift, a musical about capitalism and the myth of the frontier written with director Rachel Chavkin, composer Heather Christian, and The TEAM. It was included on The Guardian‘s Top 50 Shows of the 21st Century. Her latest musical in development, Eugene Onegin, was a 2024 finalist for the Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre. She currently teaches playwriting at NYU Tisch’s Department of Dramatic Writing and The New School’s MFA Playwriting program.