Escaped Alone

Escaped Alone

March 8 – March 30, 2024

The Far Country

The Far Country

April 26 – May 18, 2024

Yale Repertory Theatre, 2018.

Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel Street. Photo by T. Charles Erickson, 2018.

Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre is an artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals. The Binger Center has supported the work of more than 70 commissioned artists and underwritten the premieres and subsequent productions of more than 30 new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country.

Established in 2008, the Binger Center was permanently endowed in 2012 by a gift from the Robina Foundation with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., the Lucille Lortel Foundation and individual donors. The Binger Center is named in honor of James H. Binger (1916-2004), the noted businessman, theatre impresario, and philanthropist who created the Robina Foundation. Additional funding is from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., the Lucille Lortel Foundation, the Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation, The Roy Cockrum Foundation, and individual donors.

Selected Binger Center Programs

Commissions

Supported by funding from the Binger Center, Yale Rep commissions artists—including playwrights, directors, composers, choreographers, designers, performers, and ensembles—to create to work for the stage. These artists can be at any point in their creative lives: from early and mid-career to established. In the 2022–23 season, Yale Rep’s commission fees started at $30,000 per project.

READINGS AND WORKSHOPS

Each development process is tailor-made to the artist’s need and can include small, private readings or large-scale, multi-day workshops. The Binger Center compensates artists for all developmental activities with fees for rehearsals, housing, and travel. This compensation is paid to commissioned artists in addition to commission fees and/or royalties.

ResidencIes

The Binger Center brings artists to New Haven for residencies. Like all development activities, each residency is created in response to the artist’s unique process and can include independent, unstructured work time; dramaturgical support from Yale Rep’s staff; and access to Yale University’s vast resources. The Binger Center provides travel, housing, and per diem to artists for residencies.

Production Fund

The Binger Center’s production fund provides financial support for productions of new work commissioned by and/or first produced by Yale Rep, offering opportunities for the work to be seen by audiences across the country. The production fund has underwritten productions of new work at theaters in New York City (including Atlantic Theater Company, LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, Soho Rep), Pittsburgh, PA (City Theatre), Cambridge, MA (American Repertory Theater), Richmond, VA (Firehouse Theatre), Washington, DC (Woolly Mammoth), Greenville, SC (Warehouse Theatre), La Jolla, CA (La Jolla Playhouse), and Los Angeles (Geffen Playhouse).

Current Commissioned Artists

David Adjmi

Kate Atwell

Sheila Callaghan

Guadalís Del Carmen

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Lucinda Coxon

Jackie Sibblies Drury

Larissa FastHorse

Marcus Gardley

Miranda Rose Hall

Dave Harris

Ann Marie Healy

Naomi Iizuka

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Rolin Jones

Hana Kim

Howard Korder

Basil Kreimendahl

Rachel Lynett

Elizabeth Meriwether

Meg Miroshnik

Jiehae Park

Harrison David Rivers

Diane Rodriguez

Tori Sampson

Janine Salinas Schoenberg

Susan Soon He Stanton

Sanaz Toossi

Anne Washburn

Josh Wilder

Marisa Wegrzyn

Martin Zimmerman

Commissions

The following projects were commissioned by Yale Rep and developed with the support of the Binger Center for New Theatre:

Marie Antoinette
by David Adjmi

Knuckle Down
by Christina Anderson

Perfect Stranger
by Hilary Bell

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Book and Lyrics by Adam Bock
Music by Todd Almond

The Prisoner
by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne

Elevada
by Sheila Callaghan

Notes from Underground
adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff

In a Year with 13 Moons
adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff

Brother of Jackals
by Bill Camp, Robert Woodruff, Evan Ziporyn and Brook Ziporyn

The Realistic Joneses
by Will Eno

The Lotus Paradox
by Dorothy Fortenberry

On the Levee
by Marcus Gardley
Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond
Directed by Lear deBessonet

Little Row Boat
by Kirsten Greenidge

Familiar
by Danai Gurira

A Perfect Circle
by Noah Haidle

Good Faith
by Karen Hartman

Belleville
by Amy Herzog

Mary Jane
by Amy Herzog

War
by
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

These Paper Bullets!
by Rolin Jones

Imogen Says Nothing
by Aditi Brennan Kapil

Lempicka
Book and Lyrics by Carson Kreitzer
Music by Matt Gould

In the Labyrinth
by Dan LeFranc

Esther Frog Queen
By Julie Marie Myatt

Opium Den
by Julie Marie Myatt

1983
by Caroline McGraw

A Pipe for February
By Mary Kathryn Nagle

Her Lightness
by David Nugent

Love Play
by Lina Patel

How to Make an American Son
by chrisopher oscar peña

What Remains
Text by Claudia Rankine
Direction and Choreography by Will Rawls

Meanwhile on the Other Side of Mt. Vesuvius
by Jay Reiss and Scott Murphy

Two Serious Ladies
by Amelia Roper

Field Guide
created by Rude Mechs

Dear Elizabeth
by Sarah Ruhl

Scenes from Court Life
by Sarah Ruhl

Jonny Que-Onda
by Octavio Solis

Slaughterboy
by Octavio Solis

Perry Street
by Lucy Thurber

Transfers
by Lucy Thurber

Private Rivals
by Alice Tuan

A Humbling in St. Paul
by Alice Tuan

Indecent
by Paula Vogel

Creation
by Kathryn Walat

The Brightest Thing in the World
By Leah Nanako Winkler

Partnerships

Indecent by Paula Vogel was commissioned by Yale Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of OSF’s American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle.

Lempicka by Carson Kreitzer (book and lyrics) and Matt Gould (music) was commissioned by Yale Rep in partnership with Full Stage USA at New Dramatists, a program made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Productions

The Binger Center has underwritten the production of more than 30 new plays and musicals at Yale Rep:

Notes from Underground
Adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
World Premiere, 2009

Pop!
Book and Lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman
Music by Anna K. Jacobs
World Premiere, 2009

Compulsion
by Rinne Groff
World Premiere, 2010

Indecent
by Paula Vogel
World Premiere, 2015

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Book and Lyrics by Adam Bock
Music by Todd Almond
World Premiere, 2010

Bossa Nova
by Kirsten Greenidge
World Premiere, 2010

Belleville
by Amy Herzog
World Premiere, 2011

Good Goods
by Christina Anderson
World Premiere, 2012

The Realistic Joneses
by Will Eno
World Premiere, 2012

Marie Antoinette
by David Adjmi
World Premiere, 2012

Dear Elizabeth
by Sarah Ruhl
World Premiere, 2012

In a Year with 13 Moons
adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
World Premiere, 2013

The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls
by Meg Miroshnik, 2014

These Paper Bullets!
by Rolin Jones
World Premiere, 2014

The House That Will Not Stand
by Marcus Gardley
World Premiere, 2014

War
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
World Premiere, 2014

Familiar
by Danai Gurira
World Premiere, 2015

Elevada
by Sheila Callaghan
World Premiere, 2015

peerless
by Jiehae Park, 2015

The Moors
by Jen Silverman
World Premiere, 2016

Scenes from Court Life
by Sarah Ruhl
World Premiere, 2016

Imogen Says Nothing
by Aditi Brennan Kapil
World Premiere, 2017

Mary Jane
by Amy Herzog
World Premiere, 2017

Native Son
by Nambi E. Kelly, 2017

Field Guide
created by Rude Mechs
World Premiere, 2018

Kiss
by Guillermo Calderon, 2018

El Huracán
by Charise Castro Smith
World Premiere, 2018

Good Faith
by Karen Hartman
World Premiere, 2019

Cadillac Crew
by Tori Sampson
World Premiere, 2019

Girls
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
World Premiere, 2019

The Plot
by Will Eno
World Premiere, 2019

Manahatta
by Mary Kathryn Nagle, 2020

Today is My Birthday
by Susan Soon He Stanton, 2022

The Brightest Thing in the World
by Leah Nanako Winkler
World Premiere, 2022

the ripple, the wave that carried me home
by Christina Anderson, 2023

Wish You Were Here
by Sanaz Toossi, 2023

The Salvagers
by Harrison David Rivers
World Premiere, 2023

The Far Country
by Lloyd Suh, 2024

Photo Credits

Tonya Pinkins in the world premiere of War by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, scenic design by Mariana Sanchez Hernandez, costumes by Montana Levi Blanco, lighting by Yi Zhao, sound design by Bray Poor, projections by Kristen Ferguson, technical direction by Kate Newman, and stage management by Will Rucker. Photo © Joan Marcus, 2014.

View Program

Yale Repertory Theatre photo © T. Charles Erickson.