New Play Development

Michael Rau and Will Davis share different approaches to make collaboration work in theatre-making.

We've all been there. The curtain call is over, the house lights come up, and a representative from the theater comes out on stage to inform the audience that, in a few minutes, there will be a post-show discussion with the playwright. Thankfully, a partnership at Playwrights Horizons in New York City is rethinking that model. Playwright Dan LeFranc and director of New Play Development Adam Greenfield are turning the concept on its head by making the playwright the interviewer, instead of the interviewee.

This week's conversation topic is "The Playwright and The Panel: Improving Theatrical Discourse" and will be moderated by Doug Howe @NITEcorp—who like all of our moderators, authors, and content producers—self-selected to peer-produce on this commons-based platform! This hour-long Howl will take place on Thursday, March 13 on hashtag #newplay at 11am PDT (Vancouver) / 1pm CDT (Austin) / 2pm EDT (New York) / 18:00 GMT (London) / 7pm CET (Berlin). On Thursday, get heard in the conversation by searching for #newplay in Twitter (sort by “all”) and by putting “#newplay” somewhere in your messages. Spread the word!

Dani Snyder-Young looks at the world premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s Rasheeda Speaking, and reflects on seeing a play about race, with a mostly white audience. 

In this installation, sound designer and playwright Tom Horan interviews Artistic Director Bryan Fonseca about the history and current status of the Phoenix Theatre.

Starting a theater company is much like getting ready to write a book report in the sixth grade. Before you get to the nitty-gritty, you first have to figure out the “Five Ws and One H.” Who? What? Where? Why? When? And, How?

Chris Garza reviews Muy Very Authentico, from the Minneapolis based collective Theatre Forever. Garza shares his skepticism the production as it balances between absurdity/satire and offesnive misrepresentation.

In this interview, Director Marianne Weems talk aesthetics, pedagogy, The Builders Association, and her two current plays on tour.

Artistic director and playwright Wendy MacLeod and I wondered aloud: what would happen if, right then, that playwright was placed in a remote community of writers for two weeks, at Ohio’s quiet and serenely beautiful Kenyon College? And what if that playwright could work with the commissioning theater’s literary manager as an advising voice and with all the tools at hand—actors to read, writers to hear, and, at the end, a fully staged reading? And no ticket sales. No critics.

Alice Stanley reflects on Binary Theatre Company's production of Jester's Cap, by Daniel Pennyway and making theatre that contains feminism and same-sex love for a possibly-conservative audience.

The following is a conversation with playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury for the Boston production of "We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915" which is a current co-production between Company One and ArtsEmerson.

Lily Janiak reviews the Repurposed Theatre production of Rachel Luann Strayer’s Drowning Ophelia.

Tired of waiting for a production and the loneliness writing entails, The Welders formed to take action. The warm reception made them realize how much can be done when having a community.

Parhelion, a play about false starts and disappointment, marks a very promising beginning for Little Lifeboats in Minneapolis as their inaugural production.

New Carpa Theater Company’s The Mighty Vandals puts a spotlight on Latino and Arizona lore, two cultures underrepresented in theater, by delving deep into the grain of Arizona culture and history.

A Good Death examines how those who might be termed “professionals” of death matters (hospice care workers) strive to make the unthinkable into something good.

Ira Gamerman offers his insight and a strategy to becoming a successful playwright.  

Paul Meshejian challenges the idea that compensation in theater is something to be taken for granted. Instead, shouldn't we expect to not make much for our art?

W.M. Akers reviews Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep. What is to be gained by following the notorious queen past her glamour and into the hour of her death?

Dani Snyder-Young reviews Steven Simoncic’s Broken Fences at 16th Street Theater, and highlights the play's message... and how audiences have failed to recieve it.

Outside of Phoenix, the reading of Harvey Girls at Arizaon’s Performing Arts Center tackles the question of what, who and where is Arizona’s culture other than a "wasteland."