The Playwrights' Lab

Calendar permitting, there is no limit to the number of one to two-day exploratory sessions that writers can host during any given season. Residents use this resource in rich, varied ways: as a stand-alone opportunity for a single project, or as part of a longer term development plan using other Lab resources; as a way to search the soul of a play in the company of a trusted circle of collaborators, or as a launching pad to invite industry colleagues to hear a work that is ready for production.

Writers program new play readings with professional actors and directors for work at any stage of development. Writers always have the option, but are under no obligation, to open their work rooms to the degree that it serves their development process. They can invite colleagues, fellow writers, or the public to attend readings free of charge. New Dramatists hosted 47 readings for resident playwrights and our fellows this year. And, to support our alumni writers while bringing them into the orbits of our current residents, New Dramatists offers each alumni writer one reading each, per year. We proudly hosted 21 alumni readings this season.

Intensive, one-day creative work sessions provide space and time for playwrights to meet with key members of their creative teams or to develop relationships with new collaborators. Writers have used creative sessions for brainstorming sessions, for interviews, and for generating work with composers or other artistic partners. Resident playwrights programmed 19 creative work sessions this year.

For more information about individual projects, please review our Playwrights Lab Activity Report.(link at right)

New Dramatists' Creativity Fund was established in 2009, with a seed grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in response to years of feedback from writers requesting more time, space, and opportunities to develop new work with artistic collaborators. Following a sustaining legacy gift in 2016, the re-named Jerry A.Tishman Playwrights Creativity Fund provides the fundamental, flexible, financial structure to accommodate the abundant, eclectic, writer-driven programming that characterizes our Lab. With this agency, writers also refine their individual creative processes and develop a deeper understanding of the support they need to create their best work.

The Fund enables current resident playwrights to schedule 3-5 day, 29-hour, working sessions on an ad-hoc basis, and to conduct in-depth investigations of new works in the company of their chosen collaborators. During this season, the Jerry A. Tishman Playwrights Creativity Fund supported 11 writer-driven projects with average teams of 8 collaborators:

Love by Kate Cortesi
Untitled Storytelling Project by Jiehae Park
Danger & Opportunity by Ken Urban
How to Build a Monument/Four Sisters by Sam Chanse
Double Atlas by MJ Kaufman
I Hate You Miss Julie by Basil Kreimendahl
Betterment Society by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
Inked Baby by Christina Anderson
Ufot Family Cycle (runboyrun & In Old Age) by Mfoniso Udofia
Chapters of a Floating Life by Clarence Coo
Notes on My Mother's Decline by Andy Bragen

For more information about individual projects, please review our Playwrights Lab Activity Report (link at right).

New Dramatists also opens our Lab programming so that writers can host—and lead—their own development process, while incorporating an organizational partner interested in producing the work.

For the second year, with the support of the Venturous Theater Fund, was The Bucket List, which provided underwriting for the development of ambitious, large-scale, non-musical projects and which facilitated partnerships with theaters interested in producing them. We programmed two trilogies this season, each given a two-week, 29-hour work session: Cori Thomas' Liberian Legacy Trilogy and Matthew Paul Olmos' so go the ghosts of mexico.

For more information about individual projects, please review our Playwrights Lab Activity Report (link at right).

The company of Dee by Kenneth Prestininzi and Alphonso Horne

This year brought to fruition a transition in our partnership with the Frederick Loewe Foundation. Beginning this year, the Foundation supported multiple musical-theatre development opportunities annually, via the Composer-Librettist Studio and individual workshops. With the knowledge that they can keep working on these ambitious undertakings that require more time, space, and resources, the Frederick Loewe Musical Theatre Workshops, which last 3-5 days, allow writers to invest more time in research and development, and challenge themselves to break out of their creative comfort zones. This year, New Dramatists programmed 3 Loewe Workshops:

The Lydian Gale Parr written by Karinne Keithley Syers and composed by Alaina Ferris;
The Tattooed Lady written by Erin Courtney and composed by Max Vernon; and
Dee written by Kenneth Prestininzi with music by Alphonso Horne

November 1-16, 2018, New Dramatists writers continued to explore projects and expand notions of creative process through the PlayTime Developmental Studio, a two-week, in-house laboratory retreat for five New Dramatists resident playwrights undertaking ambitious new works with collaborators and in company of one another. This huge, interdependent project with an intricate schedule offers intensive and flexible time for rehearsal, rewrites, feedback, and company engagement.

2018 Participants, Projects, & Core Collaborators
Annie Baker (alum): Untitled Bodies in Pain Project, with director, Machel Ross.
Matthew Freeman: The Conversation with director, Jessi Hill.
Chisa Hutchinson: Whitelisted, a revenge horror play commissioned by South Coast Rep with director, Jade King Carroll.
Kristen Kosmas: The Love Show commissioned by Daniel Alexander Jones (alum), a generative writing/dynamic working process with Elizabeth Kenny, Jimmy Maize, and Diane Exavier.
Lynn Rosen: Chasing Totality, an E.S.T. Sloan commission about the race to space with director, Kip Fagan.

Sarah Gancher and Sam Chanse served as PlayTime resource playwrights, offering peer support for the processes of the other five with projects in development. Deb Margolin led the company workshop and Dina Vovsi returned for the third year as PlayTime project coordinator, with Candis Jones, Playwrights Lab Manager, in the PlayTime co-coordinator position. Yoga was taught by Rachel Bennet and Samantha Debicki.

The PlayTime Developmental Studio is made possible by major project funding from the Ted Snowdon Foundation, Isobel Konecky, and Jody Falco & Jeffrey Steinman

For two and a half weeks, January 23-February 7, 2019, New Dramatists turned over the entire building to the Composer-Librettist Studio intensive, with 25 new musical pieces generated over the course of the studio.

Facilitated by Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Music-Theater and Music Director Roger Ames, this nearly round-the-clock intensive sparks early-stage collaborations. Participating New Dramatists playwrights work in rotation with composers from a variety of musical and stylistic backgrounds and an ensemble of performers to develop overnight responses to a range of songwriting assignments.

2019 PARTICIPANTS

Playwrights:
Naveen Bahar Choudhury
Hammaad Chaudry
Barry Jay Kaplan
Mona Mansour
Andrea Stolowitz

Composers:
Trevor Bachman
Nils Olaf Dolven
Erato A. Kremmyda
Teresa Lotz
Luna Pearl Wool

Performers:
Paul An
Sevan K. Greene
Camille Harris
Tracy Michailidis
Tais Szilagi

Studio Coordinator: Emily Bubeck
Studio Assistant: Chloe Hayat

The Composer-Librettist Studio is made possible with lead sponsorship from The Jerome Foundation and additional support from The Frederick Loewe Foundation.

The New Playwright Welcome kicked off our 2018-2019 season by celebrating the newest members of our resident playwright company. The evening includes reading of excerpts from each playwright's work and introductions by members of New Dramatists community.

J. Julian Christopher
Bruise & Thorn, introduced by Aurin Squire (Class of 2023)

Sarah Gancher
I'll Get You Back Again, introduced by Chisa Hutchinson (Class of 2020)

Mike Lew
Tiger Style!, introduced by Lloyd Suh (Class of 2023)

Vickie Ramirez
Cornsoup, introduced by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (Class of 2022)

Tammy Ryan
Tar Beach, introduced by Daniel Reitz (Class of 2012)

Susan Soon He Stanton
Solstice Party, introduced by Matthew Paul Olmos (Class of 2021)

Lauren Yee
Cambodian Rock Band introduced by Sung Rno (Class of 2009)