I just spent this past weekend in Philadelphia at the National New Play Network’s annual Showcase. Each year the 25 member organizations, which New Rep is a part of, along with affiliate members, agents, and playwrights meet for a weekend to watch readings of plays that could potentially wind up in our upcoming seasons. During these weekends I get to talk to a lot of different people from all over the country who are passionate about new work and dedicated to producing and developing it. New play development is something that New Repertory Theatre has long believed in. Over the years we’ve produced many World and Regional Premieres – several thru our relationship with the NNPN.
This year I was really excited to attend the conference because I had some important news to share with my colleagues. In September, New Rep embarked on a new program. We invited four area playwrights to join us for the year to work on developing a full length play on a subject matter of their choosing to be read in June. They are our New Voices @ New Rep Playwrighting Fellows. During my 3 ½ years with New Rep I have been very struck by our audiences’ interest in new work. The attendance at the readings has been very impressive and the talk backs with the playwright following the readings are always lively and engaging. So, when we started to brainstorm different ways that we could increase the impact and awareness of new plays for our audiences we decided to explore the idea of a creating a celebration surrounding the work. This year, for the first time, we will embark on a Festival of New Voices, the weekend of June 9th and 10th at the Arsenal Center for the Arts. We will read four plays over the course of the weekend and surround each play with opportunities for the audience to engage with the playwrights about their process.
One of the things that was very clear to me this weekend was regional theaters across the country are beginning to increase their commitment to developing plays and playwrights within their community. Most companies rely heavily on individual and foundation support to help fund these kinds of programs. The ability to commission a new work is usually out of our means. So, we do our best to identify plays that can be furthered developed in a rehearsal process. But often this isn’t enough time for playwrights. Over the years we’ve done our best to find creative solutions and ways that we can better serve the playwrights whose work we rely so heavily on.
I’m really excited about this season’s endeavor. The playwrights we’ve invited I found through our open submission policy for local playwrights and readings I’ve attended in the Boston area. New Rep would like to increase our already strong commitment to producing new work by helping playwrights develop their work here. Throughout the rest of the season, the New Voices @ New Rep Playwrighting Fellows will be blogging about their plays, what their working on, and how they are collaborating. You will be able to follow our process thru Backstage @ New Rep, our blog, and on Facebook and Twitter . We look forward to continuing to talk to you about what were up to and we hope to see you at the Festival of New Voices in June.
By Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, Associate Artistic Director, New Rep
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