Lynn Nottage, Moisés Kaufman & More to Support the Drama Book Shop at Signing Event

A group of acclaimed playwrights will come together on October 29 for an event intended to draw attention to the theater-mainstay retailer The Drama Book Shop, which recently announced the vacating of its longtime home due to an increase in rent. The 3:00pm event, which will feature playwrights signing their works and posing for photos, is being organized by Oscar winner Alex Dinelaris (On Your Feet!, Birdman) and Eric Ulloa (On Your Feet!, 26 Pebbles).

"When I heard the news of what was happening with the Drama Book Shop, I looked up at my bookshelves and immediately felt the impact of what a possible closure would feel like," Ulloa told Broadway.com. "The plays, musicals and books that shaped me all came from there. This hundred-year-old institution must live on to inspire a new generation of artists to propel our precious craft forward."

"Like so many others, I spent hour after hour at a table or on the floor in a corner, reading, learning, growing and dreaming," said Dinelaris. "The Drama Book Shop is the storehouse of theater history, and that history is what ensures our future. It is and always will be essential to the New York theater community."

Playwrights currently scheduled to appear at Monday's event include two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine), Tony nominee Moisés Kaufman (33 Variations, director of Torch Song), Tony winner J.T. Rogers (Oslo), Pulitzer finalist Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio) and Pulitzer finalist Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet).

As previously reported, the 100-year-old seller of scripts and theater-related tomes is planning to exit its home in 2019 upon the expiration of its 20-year lease, with its $20,000 monthly rent slated to increase by 50% at the start of next year. Also gone with the closing will be the shop's performance space, home to off-Broadway companies such as Theatre 68.

A GoFundMe fundraiser has been started in support of The Drama Book Shop.