Playwright Support Services

New Dramatists’ array of practical resources for playwrights illustrate our founding principal, that playwrights are one another’s greatest resource. Staff work to support connection and foster community through a range of physical and virtual resources: in-person meetings, a public manuscript library, shared web-based platforms, computing & office resources, as well as three residence rooms and a stocked pantry. Playwrights find at New Dramatists everything an itinerant, professional artist needs in a home base – here they can host a conference call, print brand new pages, query other resident writers about a sensitive issue through a secure listserv, find a quiet place to write away from their children, or even do laundry.

Founded by playwrights for playwrights, our writers’ experiences, expertise, and feedback help ensure that our programming and services answer their needs. This season, writers participated in four writers’ executive committee meetings (a self-selecting committee of residents that guide ND on policy and governance); held four spots on our Board of Directors and on our board committees; and alongside staff, led and participated in program review. This collection of initiatives deepens our writers’ connections to each other and to the field at large.

2018-2019

Professional Development Activity Report

Services

Meetings and Gatherings

Potluck lunch before the September 2018 All Writers Meeting

Please see the Professional Development Activity Report for details about this year’s activity, including:

Semi-Annual All-Writers Meetings: Full-company meetings that are led by resident writers, with an agenda set by writers to build community, develop leadership, and share resources. These meetings often spark ongoing conversations and collaborations and galvanize programming.

“Check-In” Meetings: Periodic, individual meetings with staff for incoming, 2nd year, and 5th year playwrights to strategize about how to use New Dramatists resources to meet their artistic, career, and life goals.

Bagel & Breakouts/Pen & Swills: Morning (bagel) or evening (swill) gatherings with fellow playwrights and, at times, outside experts to stimulate conversation around topical artistic and career subjects. This season, playwrights hosted 5 gatherings.

New Dramatists Sundays in Los Angeles: Monthly meetings at the Samuel French Bookstore for west-coast-residing alumni and residents, most of whom work in film and television, who expressed a need for time and place to gather and “be playwrights”.

Gatherings with Field Colleagues: Staff or playwright-hosted events to problem-solve, build knowledge, or create agency for playwrights in the field. With our partners at the Venturous Theater Fund and playwright Andy Bragen, in January 2019, New Dramatists hosted a Summit on Creative Producing to encourage playwright-producers to share resources.

Playwright-Led Classes or Writing Sessions: These include Bake-Offs, group writing sessions in response to lists of prompts or “ingredients”; Emergency Fund Workshops offered to fellow writers and the general public for a modest fee in order to build a playwright-administered fund to support life emergencies for members of the resident company; Intern Workshops to mentor and give back to the interns who support our programming; and private classes. Playwrights offered 7 classes and 5 intern workshops this season.

Advocacy

Community/field advocacy is a critical part of New Dramatists’ services.

Free Public Readings: We welcomed nearly 1,500 people to our open readings and workshops this year, and New Dramatists regularly opens our doors to host community and field-wide events.

Michaela O'Harra Public Manuscript Library: Writers determine which plays are on the shelves of our library, open to the public from 10-6, Monday-Friday, welcoming approximately 2,000 visitors each year. This singular collection of resident writer and alumni plays (mostly unpublished), corresponds with an online script catalog.

The “Coming to a Theatre Near You” annual season preview webpage and e-blasts, informs the public about upcoming productions of our writers’ works. Click here to see a listing of productions that took place during 2018-2019.

New Dramatists also offers consultation, both formally and informally, to producing organizations, to connect them to the new works of our writers.

Office and Computing

New Dramatists offers each resident writer a range of office, computing, and web-based resources, including:

Co-work space: wifi-equipped spaces, unlimited free photocopying, meeting rooms, quiet writing rooms, 2 theater spaces, residence rooms, a pantry, public library, front office with intern support, and laundry machines.

Personalized profiles on our website that include bios, photos, agent information, production information, and samples of plays that correspond with the shelves in our library.

Subscription to In the Works, an internal monthly bulletin for residents listing upcoming readings, play submission opportunities, upcoming productions by writers and alums, and ND News.

Membership in an Office 365 modern group, which includes a closed listserv and the ability to share documents within the resident company.

Free access to a VDI desktop (accessible from any internet-enabled device, anywhere in the world with a Wi-Fi signal) that includes fully licensed and updated creative software—including the latest versions of Final Draft and the ability to print throughout the building.

Life Expenses

The recently established Opportunity Fund (supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation) and Lilly-Ruhl Fund (established by alumna Sarah Ruhl and The Lilly Awards) provided support to playwrights, in the form of reimbursement, for life expenses that often serve as a barrier to Lab opportunities. Supporting the costs of child care, hiring a substitute teacher to cover missed classes, or travel, these rather modest, individual reimbursements measure an impact far beyond the dollar value. With the support of the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Opportunity Fund has grown each season and is now extended to our writers’ collaborators to cover the costs of child-care expenses when taking part in all our activities, including extended workshops, retreats, and readings.

Awards

Melisa Tien, Lippmann Family New Frontier Award winner

In partnership with Foundation supporters, New Dramatists administers several awards that distribute financial resources and support writer activity at New Dramatists.

The Princess Grace Fellowship (one-year $7,500 award) provides a one-season New Dramatists residency with access to Lab programming and mentorship by staff and resident writers, for one early-career playwright. The 2018-2019 Princess Grace Fellow is Vichet Chum. Please visit the Playwright Company section of this website to learn more about this fellowship.

The Lippmann Family "New Frontier" Award, given each year to a New Dramatists resident, exposes playwrights to new frontiers of the imagination through travel and adventure. The 2018 Award was given to Melisa Tien, who completed her travel in 2018-2019 to research a new play project, Long Haul. She traveled on Route 80, visiting truck stops and interviewing truckers about anticipated changes in their industry and livelihood with the advent of driverless trucks. At the 2019 Luncheon, the Award was given to Clarence Coo.

The Joe A. Callaway Award is given annually to an “outgoing” writer for service to the New Dramatists community during his or her seven-year residency. This year, it was awarded in a tie to playwrights Erin Courtney and Kenneth Prestininzi.

The Charles Bowden Actor Awards recognize four actors each season who have contributed substantially to the creation of new works by New Dramatists writers. The 2018 recipients are Angel Desai, Crystal Dickinson, José Joaquín Pérez, and Danielle Slavick.

The Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, is administered by New Dramatists on behalf of the Kleban Foundation, which is open to the field-at-large. This year there were three winners of the prestigious Kleban Prize, each of whom receive $100,000, payable over two years: Sarah Hammond and Shaina Taub were given the lyricist prize, while Charlie Sohne is the recipient of this year’s librettist award.

"I wrote my very first lyrics in the Composer-Librettist Studio, which gave me the itch to pursue it further. That was maybe eight or so years ago. After lots of practice and study, now I’ve written the lyrics for three musicals - one of which is on its fourth national tour. I’m deeply grateful for the Kleban Award, so honored to be included on a list of writers I love, glad to get to write shows, in whatever form - musicals, plays - they all get my whole heart." -Sarah Hammond, New Dramatist Alum and 2019 Kleban Prize Winner