by David Dower
There's a sudden and dramatic spike in readership owing to the various threads of conversation on this blog and the confluence of interest in some of the projects we are tracking. I wanted to welcome new readers and give a quick recap of the organizing principle of this whole program.
Arena Stage is hosting the NEA's New Play Development Program, a relatively recent leadership initiative created by the Endowment to foster the development of new work and the advancement of the environment for new plays and playwrights across the nation. We were selected as the hosts, through an open RFP process, back at the end of 2007. We developed an application process, modeled on the NEA panel process, that ended in the selection of two OUTSTANDING NEW AMERICAN PLAYS (each headed into their world premiere productions this spring) and five DISTINGUISHED NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS (each in the early stages of their development at the time of the application deadlines). These categories were set out in the original RFP. The panels, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the number of interesting application in each category, chose to also name a group of Finalists in each. So, in total, we are tracking 18 projects from around the country. Dig around the blog and on the website and you'll find plenty of info on them. Keep coming back and you'll watch them roll out into the world.
As a complement to the selection process, as hosts of the NPDP we committed to fostering an "appreciative inquiry into the field of new play development" for the Endowment. This blog is one of the primary vehicles for meeting that responsibility. So you'll find, interspersed with rehearsal journals and video excerpts of the developing projects, pieces that are intended to inform or invite discussion about the field in general. I am drawing on an 8-month field survey I did, with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, focused on the "Gates of Opportunity" for emerging voices and new works nationwide. I will continue to pull sections of the report from that study onto the blog for general discussion. We are also both participating in and hosting a series of convenings around specific topics in the field which will be reported here from time to time. (A complementary blog that is more focused on the day to day behind the scenes at Arena also contains reflections on these gatherings when they are produced in-house: blog.arenastage.org)
Still to come is the public launch of another aspect of our "appreciative inquiry". We're working with an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker to document the rehearsal and development processes of the seven selected projects. He's bopping around the country with a film crew talking with the playwrights, producers, and collaborating artists. He's capturing aspects of development, production, and the private aspirations of the participants as they make their way through the process described in their proposals. All of this footage will become part of an accessible archive of this first round of the NPDP. It is also everyone's hope that he will be able to create an hour-long documentary film for airing on public television to broaden the accessibility and visibility of the program to communities and individuals nationally. We are also working to make it the cornerstone of an educational toolkit to be distributed to high schools and colleges around the country to show the next generation how plays are made in America today.
The round culminates in a reading Festival, here at Arena, of all seven projects. That will take place in our new home in the Fall of 2010.
So, welcome. Read on. Leave your own contributions. And bear in mind you are looking at the tip of the iceblog.
Yeah. I actually wrote that. Stick with it. You'll get used to it...
Recent Comments