Roundabout Theatre Company (RTC), one of Broadway’s four nonprofits, has announced the artists’ names for the return of its Refocus Project and Roundabout Underground programs.
The Refocus Project restores formerly marginalized plays and writers to the forefront, while the Underground offers emerging playwrights opportunities to develop their work. The first year of the Refocus Project included a reading of “Home,” which received a Broadway revival from Roundabout earlier this season.
Migdalia Cruz and William S. Yellow Robe Jr. were named the artists for Refocus, and Vichet Chum and Nikki Massoud were revealed for the Underground cohort.
Cruz’s plays include “Miriam’s Flowers,” “Fur” and “Another Part of the House.” A former National Endowment for the Arts fellow, the Bronx-born Cruz was a mentee of the late playwright María Irene Fornés.
Yellow Robe was a member of the Assiniboine/Sioux nations. Yellow Robe, who passed away in 2021, taught playwriting and theater, as well as Native American studies, literature, history, politics and culture at tribal colleges and universities across the U.S.
Chum is a commissioned playwright with Audible Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre. A member of New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspect group, Chum received a 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for the 2022 Steppenwolf mounting of his play “Bald Sisters.”
Massoud is a 2050 Artistic Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), and a commissioned playwright with Atlantic Theater Company, Noor Theater and the Acting Company. As a performer, Massoud has appeared in “Wish You Were Here” at Playwrights Horizons and “Othello” at NYTW.
“Since we launched the Refocus Project in 2021 and the Underground in 2007, we have been heartened by the impact of these initiatives, both artistically and in the lives and legacies of the playwrights,” said RTC interim artistic director Scott Ellis in a statement. “We’ve brought a formerly underproduced Refocus play to Broadway and several of our Underground artists have become finalists — or have won! — the Pulitzer Prize. Building on our experience to fine-tune each program, we are hopeful to foster greater success and visibility for the work of these four artists.”
RTC will offer readings of Cruz’s and Yellow Robe’s works, in addition to providing discussion panels. RTC will also develop in-depth resource guides to the duo’s canon, which will be shared with theaters and schools nationwide, to encourage more productions.
As artists with the Underground program, Chum and Massoud will be given the time, space and resources to write and develop new work. Both will receive a multi-day workshop for a play.
RTC is led by Ellis; as previously announced, Christopher Ashley will join as artistic director beginning in the 2025-2026 season. The nonprofit’s 2024-2025 Broadway season comprises the recently closed “Yellow Face” as well as the upcoming “English” and “Pirates! The Penzance Musical.”
