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Are you an emerging playwright seeking development for your play? Want to work with some pretty cool dramaturgs shaking up the development process in the American theatre? Apply to join me in The Match, a subsidized dramaturg-playwright consultation program run by the Digital Development Project! As a founding dramaturg and member of the Collaborator Circle, I am literary managing this endeavor and will be in the pool of matchable dramaturgs. I'd love to read your plays and connect them to other people who will love them, too! Details below.
We're also expanding our resources and including places for emerging dramaturgs of every age and educational status to learn and grow alongside DDP with our new Apprentice Circle. Applications are open now and will close 9/25/24.
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 Come support new works in progress with me in Atlanta this weekend! As part of my New Work Development Apprenticeship at Working Title Playwrights, I'm getting to serve as Assistant Dramaturg to the brilliant Amber Bradshaw on these new works as part of Working Title's Ethel Woolson Lab. These are 29-hour developmental periods for the playwrights with the dramaturgical insights of actors, directors, dramaturgs, and other creatives to offer space for these plays to discover more parts of themselves. I'm thrilled that this is my introduction to the new works scene in Atlanta and am grateful for the excellent expertise I'm getting to witness firsthand as part of these rehearsals.
Here's the lineup:
September 14 at 3pm - shadowplay by Quinn Xavier Hernandez September 14 at 8pm - Public Wickedness by Lee Osorio September 15 at 5pm - They Love Violence by Jacob York Each of these are free to attend, just register at the link below:
As a collaborator in the Digital Dramaturgy Project, I spent August on the final digital table read of our digital play lab known as Playshare Evolution! I was so glad to serve as the Developmental Dramaturg on Chuan & Eve by Lyra Nalan. In near-future Manhattan, Chuan, a Chinese immigrant, turns to a seemingly perfect therapist, Eve, to help his schizophrenic mother. As their bond deepens, Chuan uncovers a devastating truth that shatters his understanding of trust and the essence of human connection. I adore new works and loved getting to work with these generous collaborators below! Next up for DDP? A second iteration of our subsidzied dramaturgy program for playwrights known as The Match!
 This week, I'm headed back to Texas for the 2024 Musical Writers Festival!
I'll be leading a session called "You've Got a Friend: Dramaturgs and Musical Writers" with the lovely musical writer Kenady Sean. In this session, you can join us conversation to learn more about how dramaturgs are a musical writer’s best friend. You may be thinking... what in the world is a dramaturg? How do they help Musical Writers? What does that even look like? Join us to find out all about dramaturgs and consultations for musical writers with the chance to ask your own questions, too! If you're not headed to the whole festival but are local to DFW, you can join us for the New Works Cabaret on Friday Night or the New Works Spotlight Dinner & Presentation on Saturday night. Ticket links are below. I'm so excited to support new musicals & their writers this weekend! TICKETS:
Dramaturgy is like pie.Pies have a multiplicity of flavors and a multiplicity of methods to create one flavor just as there are many types of dramaturgy and we each approach the practice of it differently. One baker may love to bake every kind of fruit pie, and another baker may have perfected a chocolate pie recipe, love to share it with others, or even found a way to make the recipe anew. One dramaturg may love all kinds of new play development, and another dramaturg may especially love to reimagine how to make Shakespeare accessible (looking at you, Play On Shakespeare).
I’m quite content that I got to share in the pie in Kansas City at this year’s LMDA conference, hosted by Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Thank you LMDA & Kansas City. I can’t wait for next year’s binational conference! (And a bit of #ispydramaturgy at the KC public library for their anniversary made my heart swoon!) I also want to uplift Mary Kathryn Nagle’s goal: to have every American theatre to produce a play by a native playwright. If you’re reading this, have you and yours produced a play by an indigenous playwright? Have you prioritized reading works by indigenous writers and witnessing work by indigenous devisers, actors, performance artists? MKN noted that theatres play a critical role in changing narratives just like this, by investing in people & connections. I’m starting by reading Nagle’s Sovereignty and then plan to go through the plays uploaded onto New Play Exchange alongside finally diving into Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Join me? I'd love some recommendations as well!  📸: @evanmichaelwoods
______________________ I spent my June in the presence of dozens of artists & community members & champions for the arts as part of Amphibian Stage's SparkFest again this year, and yet again have a just a singular photo to represent such a multi-faceted, vibrant experience. Within this photo are dozens of new play writers, directors, & actors whose care brought 3 plays to life at the developmental stage. There’s a mural on the far wall crafted beautifully, thoughtfully, and in community by Thu Anh Nguyen & Philippa Hughes. Performances by Arkai Music, Shafi Hossain, Umami Playground, local community storytellers, & our wonderful acting competition finalists filled this very space for 2 1/2 fantastic weeks. Hundreds of patrons came, invested, and engaged with artistic programming in a state that ranks #42 in state artistic funding. And yet, these weeks were filled with love and vibrant artistry. This photo also holds an arts admin team of Amphibian's staff & my superhero fellow apprentice Alex Voeller, from whom I learned so much and am excited to see go out and create more spaces for art in the world. All my love to each of you! 💚
These three plays and playwrights were selected from a pool of over 100 submissions. My team of readers (shoutout to Amanda Tafeen, Suzi Elnaggar, Caili Crow, Liana Irvine, Carman Lacivita, Illana Stein, Jihye Kim, Libby Nicolay, Lindsay L. Barr, Ryan Henry, Sloan Garner, Will Forrest, Yejia Sun & Amphibian's thoughtful staff) and I sifted through each story, falling in love with so many along the way. There are many more lovely stories than just these that I am slowly recommending on my NPX page, if you'd like to read some for yourself. I'd love to do a little spotlight on the plays selected for development and performance at this year's festival and encourage you to come join us at SparkFest!
You can explore all of these plays, SparkFest's approach to New Works, and purchase tickets at the SparkFest New Plays webpage.
I'm happy to announce that our Digital Development Project is teaming up with She NYC Arts to offer dramaturgy for their LA festival productions - digitally, of course! WHAT I'M WORKING ON:
 Time with dramaturgs is some of my favorite! At this year's LMDA Digital Conference, I will be a presenter on two sessions.
I've compiled anecdotal research and laid down a path to some further research needed about the experience of being an early career dramaturg in my very first!! solo conference session called Where We're At: The ECD Crossroads. Helping rebuild the education to employment path for dramaturgy is something I am eager to lend a hand in, so I curated this session's contents from the Early Career Dramaturgy Affinity Space as a way to create a common vocabulary and brainstorm next steps for dramaturgs at an early career crossroads. You can catch this session asynchronously on Day 1, Thursday, February 1, at the LMDA Digital Conference website.
The Digital Development Project is also making a conference appearance next weekend!Alongside my fellow DDP dramaturgs, we will be sharing our new initiative as an inspiration for creating spaces for early career dramaturgs and emerging playwrights to collaborate as well as overcoming physical location barriers to dramaturgy. You can catch our session, Digital Dramaturgy Project: A Process-oriented Crossroad for Emerging/Establishing Playwrights and Dramaturgs, on Digital Conference Day 3 from 1:45pm to 2:30pm EST in a synchronous Zoom session. |
