The program gives three playwrights a week-long development opportunity at ATC, concluding with a weekend of private readings. One of the three plays will then be selected to receive a year of development attention.

This year's participating playwrights are Jenny Connell Davis, whose plays have been developed and produced at The Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference; New Dramatists resident and current Jerome Fellow Max Posner; and Basil Kreimendahl, writer-in-residence at Williamstown.

Here's how the three new works are billed:

Goddess of Mercy by Davis
New York. Today. When Mike’s sister returns from a Peace Corps mission where his energy company has been implicated in human rights abuses, Mike and his girlfriend Kate must reevaluate their allegiances to the lives they have chosen and the freedoms they have take for granted. In Goddess of Mercy, Davis explores the global landscape of modern terrorism through the lens of America's highly privileged.

Snore by Posner
America. Today. Set over the course of a year at six birthday parties, six millennials look for stability and fulfillment in their relationships and their work. As the year moves along, and what was once considered tolerable in their friendship begins to seem insufferable, the six pals must choose whether to sever familiar ties or strengthen existing bonds. In this witty and brutally honest play, Posner examines the rate of maturation amongst America's most notorious generation—the millennial. 

We’re Gonna Be Okay by Kreimendahl
America. 1962. In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, two neighboring families cope with the looming threat of nuclear war. While the patriarchs get to building a backyard bomb shelter, their wives and children stand on the verge of self-discoveries which may prove just as turbulent to the families’ post-war status quo as nuclear fallout. Comparisons between 1962 and today brim to the surface in Kreimendahl's cultural investigation into the American psyche of fear.

Now in its eighth season, AracaWorks is a series that provides a platform to explore and showcase new stage material. The series opened in 2010 with Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, which went on to have an acclaimed Broadway run.