Having a playwright-in-residence at a theatre or other organization can have huge benefits for the writer, the organization, and the community. Much of the content in this section is about or generated by participants in the National Playwright Residency Program, which HowlRound administers in partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Don’t miss this series of conversations between playwrights in the program discussing what they’ve learned from being embedded within a theatre company.
The Latest
Video
A Haunting in the Chest
A Conversation About Southeast Asian Stories on the American Stage
Thursday 13 March 2025
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Video
Telling the Unheard
Lao, Hmong, and Ojibwe Playwrights on Centering Their Communities
Tuesday 18 February 2025
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Essay
Ancestor Stories and Community Care in Virginia Grise’s Rasgos Asiaticos
Playwright Rehana Lew Mirza argues that those who defend producing The Mikado using yellowface on the basis of its “historical significance” are supporting centuries of imperialism and oppression.
In this installment, David Dudley talks with Goddard’s Elena Georgiou about the benefits of earning an MFA in a low-residency model, and how that can help shape a writer’s voice.
Dramatists Guild of America presented Contracts 101: Fair Use & the Dramatist livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 5 May at 2:30 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 3:30 p.m. MDT (Albuquerque) / 4:30 p.m. CDT (Austin) / 5:30 p.m. EDT (New York). To participate on Twitter, use hashtag #howlround and direct your questions to @DramatistsGuild. Additionally, follow @HowlRoundTV for updates.
Commons producer Jonathan Norton chats with Anne Bothwell about Stagger Lee: Making a Musical, a digital storytelling project tracking the development of Will Power’s new musical.
Andrew Saito explores what being a resident playwright has afforded his rewriting process as he works on Mount Misery, a world where Donald Rumsfeld and Frederick Douglass coexist.
Aditi Kapil's playwriting residency is helping to formulate Mixed Blood's organizational narrative through social media, press materials, and show imagery.
Commons Producer Mackenzie Goodwin Tran talks to Nathan Louis Jackson and Kyle Hatley about what they’ve learned so far in his residency at Kansas City Repertory Theatre.
Will Power, Dallas Theater Center and the Playwright On Staff Model
10 December 2014
Commons Producer Jonathon Norton talks to playwright Will Power, the playwright in residence at Dallas Theater Center, about being on staff at a regional theatre and being a member of a community.
Jeff Augustin talks about the luxury of time, how he gets to learn and grow through his residency, how an artistic home shapes both artist and art, and his desire for an artist exchange with Haiti.
Playwright Heidi Shreck comments on the importance of people who have faith in your work and want to watch your plays evolve, and how wonderful it is to have the resources for those to be possible.
Emily Schwend talks about how her residency can support her art, the strange experience of knowing in what space her play will eventually come to life, and her view on artistic home as an antiquated notion.
A. Zell Williams talks about how a resident playwright and a theater can affect dialogue together, and how the trouble when residencies happen without enough commitment.
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig answers questions in about her residency at Manhattan Theatre Club through the Tow Foundation. She talks of her artistic home as collaborators, as well as her hopes for the future.
What are two essential elements to creating a transformational experience for an up-and-coming playwright? 1) A full time salary and health insurance. 2) The guarantee of having a work produced by a major off-Broadway non-profit theater.
