Schreck has received a one-year playwright residency from a grant bestowed by Tow Foundation, which will provide her with a salary and benefits and the ability to focus on developing a new play. An award-winning playwright and actress, Schreck is an alumna of Playwrights Horizons, having performed as an original cast member of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation in 2009. A grant to commission Gurira was bestowed by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Gurira is an Obie Award winner for co-writing In the Continuum and a recipient of the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for The Convert. She has also acted onstage and screen (Joe Turner's Come and Gone, "The Walking Dead").

"Residencies and commissions are two important ways to assist individual playwrights struggling to make a living in the harsh economic landscape that makes the lives of so many playwrights so challenging," artistic director Tim Sanford said in a statement. "We are thrilled to participate in these two new initiatives, both because they are so generous and because we are so keenly excited by the work and the potential of these two thrilling writers, Heidi Schreck and Danai Gurira. We express our deepest thanks to both the Tow Foundation and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for initiating these visionary, much needed programs."

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