Liff Lab

Primary Stages is proud to announce the launch of The Liff Lab, an innovative new play development program named by The Sulzberger Rolfe Foundation in memory of Samuel “Biff” Liff, a legendary theater agent who helped hundreds of artists in their careers, including Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Herman, and Chita Rivera, to name a few. This annual program will provide an exceptional early to mid-career playwright with a 29-hour developmental workshop of an unproduced new work. 

The Liff Lab combines Primary Stages’ Artistic and Educational Initiatives by inviting two of our Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) students to participate in the workshop by observing rehearsals and assisting creative personnel. The students will gain meaningful professional experience and build industry relationships that can’t be found in a typical classroom setting. The workshop will conclude with a private reading of the play for invited guests and the larger ESPA community.

This new program is a testament to the power of friendship and mentorship. Primary Stages’ founding board members Marvin and Anne Einhorn first met Biff Liff when they were all theater majors at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1930s, and their deep friendship lasted the rest of their lives. An experienced stage manager, producer, and theater agent, Biff was a vital member of Primary Stages’ Artistic Advisory Board when the company was first getting off the ground and was someone the staff turned to time and time again for sound advice throughout the years. Biff was an incredible mentor for people coming up in the theater industry, including theater agent Mickey Rolfe.  

“Biff was, and remains, my hero,” says Rolfe. “This multi-year gift from The Sulzberger Rolfe Foundation is my way of giving thanks and honoring the man who literally changed my life. For me, The Liff Lab captures Biff’s love of nurturing emerging talent and celebrates years of intertwined creative relationships. Biff was far more than a personal representative, mentor, voice of reason, and man of great taste; he was a devotee of the developmental process of the theater.”

Primary Stages was thrilled to welcome playwright Alex Lin as the inaugural Liff Lab recipient. Alex is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard and has had work developed at Roundabout, Second Stage, NYTW, Ma-Yi, Two River, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Manhattan Theatre Club, among others. Thanks to The Liff Lab, our artistic team and director Joshua Kahan Brody helped develop Alex’s play Laowang, a caustic and imaginative spin on King Lear in which an aging matriarch defends her Chinatown restaurant against developers as she battles her own fading and erratic memory.