Continue reading »]]> On January 9th, CENTERSTAGE informed us that due to unforeseen changes in their production schedule, they were no longer able to provide the space in their facility or the housing units necessary to hold WordBRIDGE in June. Centerstage did offer several alternative scenarios, but none of the options were feasible for us and we did not want to compromise the quality of the WordBRIDGE experience.

After consulting with our Board of Directors and National Advisory Board, we have decided to cancel WordBRIDGE 2013 and put the program on hiatus. We’re saddened by this decision, but we think it is the most  artistically responsible option at this time.

The spatial requirements for the Lab—housing for 70 individuals, three rehearsal rooms, multiple administrative work spaces, and cooking facilities capable of preparing three meals a day for the entire company—are challenging. We’ve produced the Lab in three different institutions, from college performing arts centers to regional theatres, but it’s become increasingly clear that we need to enter into a partnership that extends beyond a rental agreement, generous as our partner institutions have been with fees and facilities, and integrates the culture of our partner institution with WordBRIDGE.

We considered looking for a new home for this June, but in the next five months, it is simply not possible to manage the production and preparation of the Lab and the search for a new home simultaneously with our current staff, which is comprised of individuals volunteering time outside of their full-time jobs. A hiatus will allow us to focus on establishing measures to ensure the long-term stability of the Lab, instead of its current year-to-year functionality.

Thank you for your generosity and support.  We believe the WordBRIDGE mission, and its 16 year history, is vital to the American theatrical landscape, and we plan to use this hiatus to secure its legacy.

Continue reading »]]> WordBRIDGE playwright, dramaturg, and mentor George Brant’s play GROUNDED (which was written at WordBRIDGE 2011 while George was also working as a dramaturg) won the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize.

GROUNDED was initially read at WordBRIDGE 2011 with Michele Minnick in the role and was read again in January 2012 as part of Generous Company’s GUMBO with Derek Goldman directing.

Read more [HERE].

David White talks with George Brant after January 2012′s reading of GROUNDED.

Continue reading »]]> Peter Davis’ joined us at WordBRIDGE 2012 to see how the lab worked and was different from his other experiences with new work development.  During his 2 weeks at the Lab, Peter was inspired to write and article for Baltimore’s What Weekly magazine.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Generous Company runs WordBRIDGE. WordBRIDGE is, at once, local, international, and universal because it’s a playwright development program, rather than a script development program. In the former a person is honored for creating art and in the latter a property is built for commerce. Developing people and harnessing belief power are what theater and great leaders do. WordBRIDGE does it as well or better than any other entity with a similar mission in the public or private sector.

In Hollywood the writer is mostly irrelevant. In television, writers work mostly in teams. In theater the story belongs to the playwright.

WordBRIDGE is about the playwright not the producing entity. What follows are short conversations with a handful of the 60+ folks involved in WordBRIDGE 2012. For 2 weeks WordBRIDGE took up residence at Center Stage. This is a great partnership. Baltimore has much to contribute to the American Theater conversation…” (continued on What Weekly’s website)

Read the rest of the article (including interviews with Dipika Guha, James Knight, Dave McGinnis, Adam Pasen, J Ranelli, and Michele Vazquez) and see Vincent Culotta’s gorgeous photos [HERE]

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Continue reading »]]> (free and open to the public)

Free Workshops and Readings – 5:30pm
Wed 6/13 • Immersive Improvisation with Jeff Wirth
Thu 6/14 • Reading, Leaves of Hope, a play for Joplin
Sun 6/17 • Collider Project: Bridging the Gap
Mon 6/18 • New Work Reading TBA
Tue 6/19 • White Flag Theatre, Really You Should Use Bullets

@ CENTERSTAGE
700 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

Continue reading »]]> The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center announces 8 plays to be developed at the 2012 National Playwrights Conference…and three of those playwrights are WordBRIDGE alums!

Congrats!
THE TALL GIRLS
by Meg Miroshnik (WB ’01)

ORANGE JULIUS

by Basil Kreimendahl (WB ‘03)

PROVENANCE
by Anne García-Romero
(WB professional playwright in residence ’09)

Continue reading »]]> WordBRIDGE Alum Kat Sherman’s (WB ’11) christopher marlowe’s chloroform dreams to be produced at The Red Room in NYC, April 18 – May 5, 2012.

WB '11 Playwright Katherine Sherman

christopher marlowe’s chloroform dreams

by Katharine Sherman
directed by Philip Gates
The Red Room 85 E 4th St, NYC

April 18 – May 5

Performances Wednesdays – Saturdays at 7:30pm and Saturdays at 2pm

Tickets $16 ($18 at the door)

christopher marlowe’s chloroform dreams is an Elizabethan noir fairytale that follows Christopher Marlowe, poet and private eye, and his dame Daphne as they fall into a dangerous world filled with drugs and gangsters. They’re Hero and Leander via Bogart and Bacall, with a nod to Kurt and Courtney. A meditation on love and addiction; a theatrical mixtape; a dreamlike collage of language, ritual, and myth.
[tickets here]

Continue reading »]]>

WordBRIDGE PLaywrights Laboratory Announces 2012 Playwrights

WordBRIDGE is thrilled to welcome 2012′s playwrights. These six talented writers will join a community of more than 60 artists from across the country at to develop their work in Baltimore Maryland.

(Click their names to learn more about the playwrights and their plays)

Cynthia Hardeman             Truth be Dead(aka free)

Dipika Guha                                  Herculine and Lola

Kevin McFillen                               The Sleepers Run

Adam Pasen                                              Badfic Love

Greg Romero                                  The Babel Project

                                                 Music by Mike Vernusky

Stephanie Swirsky     I Changed My Mind, I’m Fine

Continue reading »]]> Asolo Rep announces new play festival titles

A new play by Steve Drukman, author of “The Innocents,” is among the four entries in the Asolo Repertory Theatre’s third annual Unplugged series of new play readings that begin April 6.

“The Innocents” was read in the first festival in 2010 and was then produced in a full production last season.

Kate Hampton, left, and Jason Bradley appeared in Steven Drukman’s “The Innocents,” a play that emerged from the 2010 Unplugged series into a full production in 2011 at Asolo Repertory Theatre. FRANK ATURA PHOTO/ASOLO REP

One of this year’s four entries could get a full production next season because Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards has left open a slot for a new play.

Drukman will be represented by “Death of the Author,” about what happens when an adjunct professor at a privileged school suspects something unusual about a paper submitted by a top student from a well-connected family.  It will be read at 8 p.m. April 20.

The series opens at 8 p.m. April 6 with George Brandt’s “Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile,” about Dr. Walter J. Freeman, inventor of the American lobotomy, and his efforts to promote his procedure. Brandt has received several awards for his play “Elephant’s Graveyard” and he has had scripts produced and developed at Trinity Repertory Company, Cleveland Play House, the Playwrights Foundation, the Playwrights’ Center, WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Lab, the Drama League, and Premiere Stages,.

It will be followed at 8 p.m. April 12 by Jeffrey Hatcher’s “The Good Soldier” based on the novel by Ford Madox Ford about an American couple and a British couple who meet in a 19th century spa. Their conversations ultimately lead to changed views on the meaning of friendship, family and love. Hatcher has written more than two dozen plays, including  “Murder by Poe,” “Smash,” “Murderers” and the stage adaptation of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” all of which have been produced at Asolo Rep.

Playwright Carey Crim will be part of the Asolo Rep Unplugged series with “23.5 Hours.” COURTESY PHOTO/ASOLO REP

Carey Crim’s “23.5 Hours” will be presented at 8 p.m. April 13. It’s about a much-loved teacher who faces sexual accusations that suddenly turn him into an pariah. Crim has had several plays produced at the Purple Rose Theatre founded by Jeff Daniels, and has had work produced at Pasadena Playhouse, Primary Stages, Luna Stage and  Ensemble Studio Theater.

Greg Leaming, curator of the Unplugged series, said the program began as a way “to bring new playwrights into the artistic fold of Asolo Rep and to give playwrights the opportunity to take their work to the next level. There are so many stages that a script has to go through before it even arrives at production; and one of those really important stages is for the script to be heard by an audience so that the playwright can assess it.”

The Unplugged plays are presented with actors reading from the scripts and limited stage movements in the rehearsal hall of the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. directors includ Leaming, FSU/Asolo Conservatory faculty member Brendon Fox, Sean Phillips and Jess Ontiveros.