Hermitage Retreat partners with Broadway's Roundabout Theatre Company

Hermitage Artist Retreat will bring playwrights York Walker and Dave Harris to its Manasota Key campus this summer to develop their work through a newly announced partnership with New York's Roundabout Theatre Company.

The collaboration between Hermitage and Roundabout, the nation's largest nonprofit theater, was announced May 3.

"We are honored to be launching this exciting collaboration with Roundabout Theatre Company," said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg in a statement. "We are proud to be a leading national incubator for new and original works, and as Roundabout deepens its commitment to championing new voices, this partnership provides emerging and innovative playwrights with a 'full circle' journey." 

Walker is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Chicago. He received an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and is currently developing work with the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, and Roundabout.

Walker's play "Covenant" is scheduled to premiere as part of the Roundabout Underground Series this fall. He is the inaugural recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Colman Domingo Award.

Dave Harris is a poet and playwright based in Philadelphia whose work "Tambo & Bones" premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2022. His works for the stage include "Exception to the Rule" (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2022) and "Everybody Black" (Humana Festival 2019).

Harris' first feature film, "Summertime," was released in 2021 after premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. His first full-length collection of poetry, "Patricide," was published by Button Poetry in 2019. 

Walker and Harris will kick off the inaugural year of the new partnership between the Hermitage and the Tony Award-winning Roundabout, which has been producing groundbreaking works for nearly 60 years.

The collaboration will continue on an ongoing basis, carrying out the Hermitage's mission to inspire and foster influential art and artists. 

While in residence at the Hermitage's beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, artists are invited to interact with the local community, giving Gulf Coast residents and visitors the opportunity to experience unique programs.

Harris and Walker are not the only Roundabout artists with a connection to the Hermitage. Adam Gwon, whose musical "Ordinary Days" premiered at the Underground in 2009, developed his musical, "Scotland, PA" at the Hermitage before its 2019 premiere at the Laurel Pels Theatre. 

Other notable artists with Hermitage/Roundabout ties include "Tiger Be Still" playwright Kim Rosenstock, who was recently in residence at the Hermitage developing a new work for the Roundabout.