S. Epatha Merkerson — who starred last season in the Off-Broadway troupe's Birdie Blue — will be special guest host at the event, which will be held at Time Warner Center's Park Cafe starting at 6 PM.

The ten chosen scribes are Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Zakiyyah Alexander, J. Holtham, Rajiv Joseph, Sandra Tsing Loh, Lynn Nottage, Sung Rno, Betty Shamieh, Cheryl L. West and Tracey Scott Wilson.

The Time Warner Commissioning Program at Second Stage Theatre will allow for new works "from a diverse range of artists over the next 2 to 5 years," according to a previous announcement.

"Developing new plays by American writers is a cornerstone of the Second Stage Theatre mission and this program will allow us to work with both emerging and established playwrights in creating important new works for the American theatre," Second Stage artistic director Carole Rothman said in a release. "Time Warner understands that creating new plays is an ongoing process and through this partnership they are helping to support playwrights in each step of a play’s creation – not only in commissioning, but by developing the play through readings and workshops, and finally, in presenting a fully realized world premiere production."

Among Second Stage Theatre's history are works commissioned by the company, including Lynn Nottage's Crumbs From the Table of Joy, Lynda Barry's The Good Times Are Killing Me, Wendy Kesselman's The Notebook, Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish and Paul Weitz's Privilege. Second Stage is located 307 West 43rd Street (just off Eighth Ave.). For more information, visit www.SecondStageTheatre.com.