Alliance for Jewish Theatre
Playwright / Teaching Artist / Dramaturg
New York, NY
DeborahYarchun@gmail.com
www.DeborahYarchun.com
Deborah Yarchun is a NYC-based playwright from Austin, Texas. Her plays include THE MAN IN THE SUKKAH (Jewish Play’s Project’s OPEN Festival, Jewish Ensemble Theater’s JETFest, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Richard Maibaum Award, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Theatre Ariel), PRESERVATION (Women in the Arts & Media’s 2019 Collaboration Award, Atlantic Acting School at Atlantic Stage 2, the William Inge Center for the Arts, Bloomington Playwrights Project’s Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist, Jewish Ensemble Theatre’s JETFest, Kitchen Dog Theatre’s New Works Festival Finalist), HANS & SOPHIE (co-written with Illana Stein and Sean Hudock, Amphibian Stages’ Mainstage Season, Dallas-Forth Worth’s Critics Forum’s Outstanding New Play), A PICKLE (Minnesota Fringe sold-out-run and encore slot, Minneapolis BroadwayWorld.com Award for Best Original/New Work, Minnesota Jewish Humor Festival), and NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM (Rogue Theatre, Philadelphia Fringe).
She is currently developing AND YOU SHALL BE A BLESSING, a play with music about singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman.
Deborah’s other plays include DRIVE (2020 Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse Monday Night Series, VoxFest, upcoming Northern Stage’s New Works Festival, upcoming Centenary Stage’s Women Playwright Series), THE CALM BEFORE (Capital Rep’s Next Act! New Play Festival, The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series, National Playwrights’ Conference semi-finalist), GREAT WHITE (Relentless Award Honorable Mention, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Playwrights’ Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist, Strange Sun Theatre, Henley Rose Playwright Competition 2nd Place Winner, Capital Stage Company’s Playwright Revolution Series), THE ALEPH COMPLEX (New Harmony Project, Kilroys List Honorable Mention, University of Iowa’s New Play Festival), TECTONIC MÉLANGE (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s First Light Festival, TheatreSquared’s Arkansas New Play Festival, The Playwrights’ Center, EST/Sloan Commission, the Kernodle New Play Award, Premiere Stage’s Semi-Finalist, Circle City New Play Festival), BOMBER’S MOON (Williams Street Rep, The Playwrights’ Center), FREEZEFRAME (Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theatre by Young Playwrights Inc., Cutting Ball Theater Risk is This Finalist), PORTMANTEAUX (WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, The Great Plains Theater Conference, The Overtime Theatre). Her short plays include PAINTED DESERT (The Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, Heideman Award Finalist, Theatre Masters National MFA Playwrights Festival), and THE STARFIRE DANCE (Fusion Theatre).
Deborah’s honors include two Jerome Fellowships at The Playwrights’ Center and a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship. She was recently a member of the Civilians’ R&D Group and has been a Dorit & Gerald Paul Artist in Residence at Indiana University, a playwright-in-residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts, and a resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. She was a 2020 Finalist for SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm Group.
Deborah’s TV pilot THE WRONG APPROACH is a 2020 Quarterfinalist for the Austin Film Festival.
She has written articles for The Playwrights’ Center, HowlRound, and Caridad Svich’s Audience Revolution, Dispatches from the Field.
Deborah is a dramaturg-for-hire through the Playwrights’ Center, a New Voices teaching Fellow through the Dramatist Guild Foundation, and has taught playwriting at the University of Iowa, Independence Community College, and at Indiana University where she received the Carl Ziegler Teaching Award.
Deborah earned her MFA from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.
You can find her work on the New Play Exchange:
