Milestones

 

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Our highly effective Playwrights' Lab initiatives are painstakingly refined over years of programming feedback in response to new resident writers' evolving needs. We realized creative partnerships with several supporters during the 2017-2018 season to enable us to expand and improve upon what we already do well. With the financial support and strategic thinking of the Venturous Theater Fund, The Frederick Loewe Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Lillys, and playwright alumna, Sarah Ruhl, we were able to complement our extended workshop offerings with targeted support for ambitious, impossible, "bucket list" plays, for new musicals, and for participation in programs by playwrights with children.

Comprehensive Seven-Year Program Evaluation

Following seven annual admissions cycles, during which classes of approximately seven playwrights rotate through their residencies, the playwright company of approximately 49 resident playwrights turns over completely. For this reason, New Dramatists pauses every seven years to survey resident writers to ensure that our programming meets the needs of a changing company and a changing theatre.

During the first week of December, 2017, New Dramatists staff members, along with playwrights Kara Lee Corthron, Mia Chung, and Melisa Tien, retreated to SPACE on Ryder Farm to review the thoughtful and insightful survey responses received by approximately 30 resident playwrights. The Lab programs and residency benefits have a profound and personal impact on writers, whose engagement and sense of governance over the organization has increased with the institution of regular individual "check-in" meetings. Many writers used the survey as a way to express gratitude. While no major programming changes were advised, we identified areas where staff can better communicate with writers: helping them "connect the dots" with regard to our various advocacy efforts, navigating the different technological resources we offer, and creating more transparency around scheduling lab work, for example.

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What's New in 2017-2018?

  • The Bucket List (Playwright/Theatre Partnerships)

    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.

    Piloting this season with the support of the Venturous Theater Fund, was the Bucket List, which provides underwriting for the development of ambitious, large-scale, non-musical projects and which facilitates partnerships with theaters interested in producing them. We launched this program with a two-week, 29-hour work session for Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Cycle, featuring the contributions of 21 collaborators who helped her to explore six of the nine plays in the cycle in partnership with the Magic Theatre of San Francisco.

  • Frederick Loewe Musical Theatre Initiative

    This year marked a transition in our partnership with the Frederick Loewe Foundation. Previously supporting an adjudicated award and week-long work session to a writer/composer duo, along with general support of musical projects, we concurrently hosted the final award work session (alumnus Qui Nguyen and Shane Rettig, awarded in 2015), while launching the Foundation’s re-imagined support for New Dramatists. 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 Loewe Workshops, which last 3-5 days, will allow writers to invest more time in research and development, and challenge themselves to break out of their creative comfort zones.

  • Childcare Reimbursement and other 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. And new this season, with the support of the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Opportunity Fund is now extended to our writers’ collaborators to cover the costs of child-care expenses when taking part in our extended workshops or retreats.

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An infant at production rehearsal in late 2017, with reimbursement for childcare from the Lilly-Ruhl Fund.

 
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