The Ingram New Works Lab
Tennessee Rep will serve and support selected regional playwrights as they work in residence to create new work for the theatre. Tennessee Rep will provide the playwrights-in-residence:
- A season-long playwright-run script lab that meets once a month.
- Access to professional actors, providing a choice of collaborators amongst theatre artists in Nashville.
- Workshop sessions involving professional directors, designers, and dramaturgs.
- Access to professional marketing and audience development resources.
- A symposium with the Ingram New Works Fellow, a playwright with a national reputation.
- Participation in the New Works Festival, giving the playwrights the opportunity to work with a professional director and actors in rehearsal and hear their script read in front of a live audience.
- A supportive environment to foster and support the playwright’s process.
- A small stipend to defray expenses.
Monthly script lab
The New Works Lab will meet once a month to provide playwrights-in-residence with a supportive but disciplined environment to workshop their scripts. By definition a laboratory is a testing ground inasmuch as it offers opportunities for observation, practice and experimentation. Every playwright will have the opportunity to hear multiple drafts of their script read aloud by actors and receive feedback from their fellow playwrights. The lab will provide the opportunity for playwrights to shape, mold, and develop as many drafts as they feel necessary before festival rehearsals begin.
Lab Meeting Dates (a full day commitment on the following Fridays):
- September 16, 2011
- October 14, 2011
- November 11, 2011
- February 17, 2012
- March 23, 2012
- April 27, 2012
Collaboration opportunities
Tennessee Rep will facilitate for playwrights-in-residence opportunities to work with their choice of collaborators from amongst top theatre artists in Nashville. Playwrights-in-residence will have access to Tennessee Rep’s professional staff throughout the season, and will have ongoing opportunities to meet with a director, costume designer, set designer and dramaturg to explore what it would take to get their script from page to stage. Each playwright will also have the opportunity to consult with marketing and audience development staff to gather ideas about resources available to best promote their new work.
Lab symposium with New Works Fellow
Playwrights-in-residence will participate in a week-long New Works Lab symposium with the recipient of the Ingram New Works Fellowship, a nationally recognized playwright. The symposium will take advantage of the New Works Fellow’s experience and skill, focusing on a wide variety of issues related to working as a playwright: everything from how an emerging playwright gets a script produced to how to manage the pitfalls of the development process to specific guidance on the art of playwriting. The New Works Fellow will serve as a mentor to the playwrights-in-residence throughout the season via electronic communication. Lab participants should be prepared to clear their schedule for the entirety of the week-long symposium.
Participation in New Works Festival
Work in the Lab will be focused on goals established by the playwrights-in-residence. However, each playwright will be expected to work toward the creation of a new play that will be presented in a staged reading at the New Works Festival, whether completed or as a work in progress. Please note the following criteria for New Works festival plays being developed in the lab:
- Full-length plays (prefer 80-120 mins. running time)
- Plays that utilize no more than 8 actors.
- Plays that have not previously been produced by any professional company.
The Ingram New Works Lab is intended to be an artistic home for playwrights to share work, hone craft, receive direction, and springboard themselves into the next phase of their writing career, providing a fertile environment for the emergence of great new plays.
