After 40 years in theatre, Susan Stroman’s trophy case is running low on available real estate. There are the 36 Broadway credits, the five Tony Awards and her induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Then there’s the work itself, hit after hit: The Producers, Contact, Oklahoma!, The Scottsboro Boys. With this resume, a little arrogance would be forgivable. If one were hoping to meet “Stro” (as she’s known in the business), they’d probably stop by a black-tie Manhattan gala before checking a coffee shop on Main Street in Newark, Delaware.

But before the hits, or the accolades, or the collaborations with Lin-Manuel Miranda, or the guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Susan Stroman was a kid from Wilmington and an English major at UD. And as we sat down for coffee on Main Street, no one could accuse her of forgetting her roots. “My father was an incredible piano player,” she explained, “and I was that little girl who would dance around the living room.” Before long, she was choreographing shows at local schools and community theatres. Her father also had a penchant for tall tales—“he would tell ‘big fish’ stories,” Stroman laughed, “and I still don’t know how many were true”—which became the foundation of her love of storytelling. Her time at UD was spent honing these skills, and after graduation, she set out for New York in search of a big break. It wouldn’t take long.

Over the years, Stroman has remained connected to her alma mater, where she earned an honorary doctorate in 2005. Today, however, her return to campus was more than a trip down memory lane. On the agenda that afternoon was lunch with four students, and not just any students. Selected from dozens of applicants, these remarkable Blue Hen undergraduates were gathering for the first time as the inaugural cohort of Susan Stroman Playwright Fellows.

A partnership among Stroman, UD English and UD Theatre, the Stroman Fellows program has been several years in the making. Using funds generously donated by Stroman herself, the project is ready for showtime, and this fall, the first four Fellows will begin a yearlong journey of intense creative work. They’ll take specialized classes with leading faculty in English and Theatre; they’ll be mentored by four professional playwrights; they’ll engage in collaborative writing workshops; they’ll visit New York for behind-the-scenes theatre experiences; and, by the end of the year, they’ll each write a full-length play to be read publicly by working actors. The goal, ultimately, is to establish the University of Delaware as a creative hub for the next generation of award-winning playwrights.

As Stroman told the students over lunch, the theatre scene is hungry for new voices. Because talented writers have increasingly gravitated toward film and television, something essential has been lost. “There’s something magical about live theatre,” she explained. “You forget the movie you saw last week or the episode you watched yesterday, but a live performance stays with you.” Proving her point, one-by-one the students recounted their own formative experiences in the theatre, describing how moved they’d been and how enduring these impressions became. By offering UD students the chance to develop as playwrights, the Stroman Fellows program aims to sow the seeds of these magical experiences for a new generation of theatregoers.

This vision is, admittedly, a lofty one, and bringing it to fruition will require a special group of students. But as the Stroman Fellows met for the first time to discuss their shared ambitions, there was a feeling that this is the group to make it happen:

“What I love to write about most is the experience of minorities—particularly those from Black and/ or queer backgrounds. As a Black and queer writer, I remember not having a single television show, book or movie that I could look to for guidance. Even with works that included queerness, their tendency to be centered around whiteness made these representations feel inaccessible to me. In my work, I strive to complicate the media's stance on what queerness can and cannot look like.”

– Percy Allen III, AS25

“I came to UD with a background in theatre and playwriting. As a teenager, I won a playwriting prize that included a workshop with a professional playwright and a reading of my work performed by actors. It was an experience that completely changed my perspective on writing, and I developed a great love for the form of playwriting. As for the kinds of stories I like to write, I mainly focus on character and relationship-driven stories.”

– Natalie Milligan, AS25

“I’m an active member of E-52 Student Theatre, and I’ve performed as Denise in The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (fall 2023) and as Jack in Into the Woods (spring 2024). I enjoy writing about crime, mythical beings and I live for a good romantic subplot. In my recent works, I’ve leaned into elements of horror, and I really enjoy tackling real-world issues—like domestic violence and mental health—in subtle and respectful ways. I am ecstatic and grateful for this opportunity to be a Susan Stroman Fellow.”

– Erin Muñoz, AS25

“What I love most about theatre is how much potential it has to create close interactions with the audience, whether it’s intimacy, shock or even discomfort. I think that there’s a certain closeness in the theatre that is very difficult to replicate in other artforms. I love it when playwrights use this closeness to their advantage, almost making the audience a character within the play. I would love to challenge myself to explore this, and I’m very honored to be involved in the Susan Stroman Playwright Fellowship.”

– Zack Cable, AS25

Despite the diversity of their backgrounds and interests, the Stroman Fellows are united in their shared commitment to the theatre as a site of possibility and connectedness.

For someone who’s found immense success at the highest levels of theatre, supporting students at the earliest stages of their creative journeys might seem like an afterthought. But when I put the question to her, she offered a very different perspective. “When I was a student at UD,” she explained, “this kind of opportunity would have meant everything to me.” The arts, and theatre in particular, are notoriously difficult to break into, and by supporting the aspirations of her fellow Blue Hens, Stroman sees a way of giving back to a field that has given her so much.

As the lunch dishes were being cleared and the students prepared to go, Chair of UD English John Ernest, Ph.D., offered a final thought: “I expect that at least three Pulitzer Prizes will be awarded to this group. Fewer than two would be a disappointment.” He was joking, of course, and the students shared a smile. And yet, no one in the room would bet against it. As Stroman would tell you herself, investments in UD students tend to pay off.

In conversation, Susan Stroman and Jack Truschel AS20M, AS23PhD

To learn more about the Stroman Fellows program, contact John Shipman at jshipman@udel.edu.