2025 Finalist
The Janeaid
Synopsis: In The Odyssey, Penelope’s long wait is eventually rewarded when Odysseus returns twenty years after leaving to fight the Trojan War. Will the same be true for Jane in Brooklyn, twenty years after her husband left for work one fateful September morning? A play about longing and hope as well as the myths we tell ourselves in order to get through the day, The Janeiad is a wry contemplation of the power, and slipperiness, of storytelling.
Cast Breakdown: 1M / 2W
Set/Costume Requirements: These can be very minimal. Since it’s largely a memory play it could probably be done on a bare set. But if you want to get fancy with it, you could make a green chair that grows into the floor. Penelope’s various characters don’t require full costume changes—just a gesture here and there to differentiate them. Jane needs a blanket.
Agent: Diana Glazer and Alice Whitley, CAA
Bio: Anna Ziegler’s plays include the widely produced Photograph 51 (West End, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman; named the number one play by the Chicago Tribune; winner of London’s WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play; available on Audible and in Methuen Drama’s Modern Classics series), The Last Match (Roundabout; Old Globe; Writers Theatre), The Wanderers (Old Globe; Roundabout; City Theatre; Gesher Theater (Israel); Ernst Deutsch Theater (Germany); Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play), A Delicate Ship (NY Times Critic’s Pick), Actually (Geffen Playhouse; Williamstown; Manhattan Theatre Club; Trafalgar Studios in London and many more; L.A. Ovation Award winner for Playwriting for an Original Play; TimeOut NY Critic’s Pick). Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama has published two collections of her work entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One and Anna Ziegler: Plays Two. She is developing television and movie projects with CBS/Paramount, Marielle Heller’s Defiant by Nature and Leviathan Productions. In the 2024-2025 season her new play The Janeiad will be premiered by the Alley Theatre and The Old Globe.
The Janeiad directed by Rob Melrose at the Alley Theatre. Photos by Lynn Lane