The Alcove
New Play Development Program
Alcove Virtual Artists in Residence
Fiscal support for the creation or finishing of new work, and a more wholistic engagement with the Alcove during the residency timeframe.
Fall 2026
Lana Is Cured
by Frances Poet
Synopsis: When Lana is cured after twenty years of debilitating epilepsy, her husband and family expect her to relish moving forward with her life and becoming a mother but Lana has other ideas…
She doesn’t want to pick up a “normal” life aged thirty three. She doesn’t want dependents when she has only just found her own independence. Lana wants all the things she missed during adolescence. Since she was thirteen and the seizures started, daily activities, even crossing a road, have carried a very real risk of death. Forget drinking, drugs, sex and rebellion, Lana’s hasn’t had a shower behind a locked door in decades. But now, all bets are off. Now is her time to LIVE. Even if that comes at the cost of her marriage.
A blackly funny coming of age tale in which being “cured” sends Lana, and her family, uproariously out of kilter.
Spring 2026
During the residency, William will translate a new play by the Chilean playwright Pablo Manzi, developed with director Sam Pritchard. The new project, loosely based on a classic novel, explores the unsuspected, hostile paths that can be built when a human being feels humiliated. Their collaboration on this new piece follows their previous work together on A Fight Against… Pablo’s earlier play, directed by Sam and translated by William, which had its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2021.
2025-2026
Under The Kitchen Sink
by Shahid Iqbal Khan
An intimate drama set in an unspecified future, a play that asks questions about love and belonging. I say unspecified future. But really it is now. All time is now. Who you are now is because of who you were. In an age of suffocating rules, oppressive norms and bureaucratic living, can a thing like love seep through? Can it flower among the dead soil? Or are we doomed to forever be puppets to the puppet regime?
2024-2025
FOREST
by Annabel Nightingale
Dramaturg: Lily Einhorn
In FOREST we are On a Welsh hilltop sometime in the future a family isolate themselves from the desperate situation in the valleys and low lands. Pandemic, flooding, drought & starvation caused by worldwide climate change wreak havoc on the UK. Intolerance and prejudice is inflamed towards the growing number of desperate migrants seeking survival on higher ground. Could one unwanted visitor change lives and attitudes?
Tower Play
by Alistair McDowall
Dramaturg: Jonathan L. Green
The Alcove at the Lortel is pleased to welcome Alistair McDowall as its second artist in virtual residence. In addition to continuing development of his new play Tower Play, McDowall will advise The Alcove throughout the year with artist recommendations and projects. Jonathan L. Green, Director of New Play Development for Steppenwolf, will serve as dramaturg.
