Liff Lab

Primary Stages is proud to announce the launch of the Liff Lab, an innovative new play development program named by The Sulzberger Rolfe Foundation in memory of Samuel “Biff” Liff, a legendary theater agent who helped hundreds of artists in their careers and, with Marvin and Anne Einhorn, played a vital part in the history and mission of Primary Stages. This annual program will provide an exceptional early to mid-career playwright with a 29-hour developmental workshop of an unproduced new work.

The Liff Lab combines Primary Stages’ Artistic and Educational Initiatives by inviting two of our Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) students to participate in the workshop by observing rehearsals and assisting creative personnel. The students will gain meaningful professional experience and build industry relationships that can’t be found in a typical classroom setting. The workshop will conclude with a private reading of the play for invited guests and the larger ESPA community.

Primary Stages is thrilled to welcome playwright Alex Lin as the inaugural Liff Lab recipient. Alex is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard and has had work developed at Roundabout, Second Stage, NYTW, Ma-Yi, Two River, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Manhattan Theatre Club, among others. Our team and director Joshua Kahan Brody will help develop Alex’s play Laowang, a caustic and imaginative spin on King Lear in which an aging matriarch defends her Chinatown restaurant against developers as she battles her own fading and erratic memory.