Cleveland Public Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan is proud to announce the selection of two local playwrights for the second annual Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship. The 2014-2015 Fellows are Andrew Kramer and Arwen Mitchell.

Now in its second year, the Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows program is funded by a 3-year grant from the Nord Family Foundation. The fellowship program was initiated by CPT to support local early-career playwrights who have demonstrated ability and extraordinary potential. The inaugural Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow was Juliette Regnier, who completed her fellowship in June of 2014 with a staged reading of her trilogy of new work, “S” Plays.

For the 2014-2015 season, CPT will support emerging playwrights Andrew Kramer and Arwen Mitchell through mentorship, logistical support and opportunities to produce and workshop new plays.

Andrew Kramer was born and raised in Cleveland and is a 2010 graduate of Ball State University’s Department of Theatre & Dance. He was a 2013 member of the Emerging Writer’s Group at The Public Theatre in New York. He is a former member of the Groundbreakers Playwrights’ Group with the terraNOVA Theatre Collective where he developed his play Whales & Souls. Andrew was a Core Apprentice Writer at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, as well as a two-time semi-finalist in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival with his plays A Map of Our Country(2010) and We Happy Animals (2011). Andrew served as Playwright‐in‐Residence at the Cairns Arts Festival in Queensland, Australia and his play The Dog(run) Diarieswas shortlisted for the 2012 US/UK Old Vic New Voices. In 2012, Andrew was a member of the Ingram New Works Lab at Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville. Andrew has worked with Cleveland Public Theatre in developing his plays Bridge,Crying for Lions and ARMATURE.

Arwen Mitchell is a Cleveland-based writer whose creative and academic work focuses on American history, women’s studies, pop culture and humanism. Her produced plays include RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), Bitter Pills, The Maybe Pile, Snake Oil, Everybody Has One and I’ve Got Nothing to Do Today But Smile. Her short piece About Face recently premiered at CPT’s performance event, Station Hope. She is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild, holds an MS in Theatre History & Criticism from Illinois State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. She has taught an extensive roster of college courses in theatre, English, creative writing and the humanities, and continues to do so in the downtown and greater Cleveland area.

The Nord Family Foundation, a private family foundation located in Amherst, Ohio, endeavors to build community through support of projects that bring opportunity to the disadvantaged, strengthen the bond of families and improve the quality of people’s lives.

To learn more about the Cleveland Public Theatre, including fellowship programs and other opportunities for artists, visit cptonline.org or contact Cathleen O’Malley, Director of Audience Engagement & Media Relations at (216) 631-2727 x 212 or 

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