Inspired by the format in which Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill honed their craft, EST held its first Marathon in 1977.
Praised by critics and beloved by audiences, it launched an industry-wide revival of the short play form and broke new ground by putting new and established writers together on one stage.
The Marathon has premiered new plays by David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein, Steve Martin, Leah Nanako Winkler, Christopher Durang, Anna Ziegler, Olivia Dufault, Qui Nguyen, and countless others, including Martyna Majok, whose 2015 Marathon play John, Who's Here From Cambridge was expanded into the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cost of Living.
