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2012

WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory: 2012

@ CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, Maryland

6 Playwrights. 16 Days. 62 Artists. 195 Rehearsal Hours. 120 Trees Planted.

2012 was our first year being in residence at Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE. The partnership with CENTERSTAGE provided us with facilities at an internationally known theatre and the ability to house over forty people onsite, living and working in downtown Baltimore’s Mt. Vernon Historical District.

Out of 138 applications, the following Plays and Playwrights participated in the 2012 Lab:

Truth be Dead(aka free) by Cynthia Hardeman

Herculine and Lola by Dipika Guha

The Sleepers Run by Kevin McFillen

Badfic Love by Adam Pasen

The Babel Project by Greg Romero and music by Mike Vernusky

I Changed My Mind, I’m Fine by Stephanie Swirsky

In addition to the playwrights above, 55 additional artists were in the WordBRIDGE company (*indicates member of student artist company):

Erin Boots* ● Bill Boots ● Alex Boris* ● Brandon Scott Boyd* ● George Brant ● Rena Brault*

Rich Buchanan ● Anna Chovanec ● Suzanne Coley ● Jenn Weinrich Culotta

Scott Dougan ● Rebecca Eastman ● KP Ezickson ● Danielle Fuller ● Deletta Gillespie ● Emily Hall ● Lauren

Halvorsen ● Bob Harris ● Eva Hiott* ● Ren Jackson ● James Alfred Rose Johnson ● Kat Kaplan*

Charles Kartali ● James Knight ● Alexei Kolesnikov ● Adam Kraar ● Lisa Latham* ● Sarah Lloyd

Doc Love ● Peyton Lynch ● Will Manning ● Dave McGinniss ● Tanner Medding* ● Jerry Meyer

Eve Muson ● Bob Mussett ● Stew Olsen ● Chris Pfingsten ● Eric Poch ● Caitlin Quinn ● J Ranelli

Janice Rattigan* ● D. Wambui Richardson ● David Ross ● Miri Rotkovitz ● Susan Rotkovitz

JD Sivert* ● Katie Solomon ● Susan Stroupe ● Adrienne Thompson ● Phoebe Troiani*

Michael Vandercook ● Michele Vazquez ● David M. White ● Jeff Wirth ● Peter Wray

The Resource Artist Room

WordBRIDGE 2012 also saw growth in an experiment begun in 2011: the establishment of a resource artist room in which all of WordBRIDGE’s unique resource artists could be centered. This room provided a center for artists from visual mediums to co-mingle with a mathematician and theatre designers. Word clusters created by the design teams hung around the room and were altered based on each revision. This room also provided an outlet for the playwrights to engage their own work through painting and collage. During the second week of the Lab, the resource artists hosted a reception and all artists had the opportunity to mingle with (and create their own) unique responses to each of the plays.

WordBRIDGE offered five Guest Artist Hours (free and open to the public):

Immersive Improvisation with Jeff Wirth • W 6/13

Reading of Leaves of Hope, a play for Joplin • Th 6/14

Collider Project: Bridging the Gap • Su 6/17

Reading of George Brant’s A Dark Room • M 6/18

White Flag Theatre: Really You Should Use Bullets (Baltimore Theatre Project) • T 6/19

Recent Press

“WordBRIDGE,” What Weekly, Baltimore, Maryland, July 3, 2012: http://whatweekly.com/2012/07/03/wordbridge/

“Taking it to the Bridge,” American Theatre, TCG, May/June 2012, page 12

Take part in WordBRIDGE 2012 – Join us for Guest Artist Hours!

(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

Lab Perspective: Playwrights

“Through WordBRIDGE the responsibility of the writer to the theatrical community is highlighted in such a way that the writer feels honored to be part of such a great group and inspired to create more honestly, more specifically, more beautifully for such people. And in doing so, the writer creates this for all, the audience, as well.”

S. Lucia Del Vecchio
Playwright '00, '02

"I had the most amazing time at WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory these past two weeks. I was led into a theater Xanadu between Baltimore and the river Alph where an extremely talented group of actors, directors, dragmaturgs, resource artists, company members, and student artists helped me create from a place as foreign to me as Mount Abora to Khan. I am happy and so grateful."

Krista Knight
Playwright '11

"WordBRIDGE was, by far, one of the most phenomenal experiences I've had in the theatre community. I completely changed the way I look at my writing and the way I look at theatre in general. It gave me a whole community of talented artists to turn to and my play underwent an amazing metamorphosis. I came out of the whole experience with a new concept of art, collaboration, dedication, and community."

Kendall Sherwood
Playwright '07, '09

“I am grateful for the hope and inspiration the lab has given me about my chosen profession… At WordBRIDGE they don’t see impossibilities and dead-ends: they see extraordinary challenges and opportunities. And what’s more, they put their own shoulders into it to keep the American stage well lit with new works.”

Erik Ramsey
Playwright '96, '97, '02
Dramaturg 07-11

"Those two weeks (all too brief) did something for me that I am certain no playwriting class in the country could have done: WordBRIDGE helped me uncover my own creative process, and as an added bonus, I learned more about playwriting than I could have thought possible in such a short period of time. I got to play, make big ol' messes, take some risks, and find gold in what I thought was trash. It feels like I have traded in my box of 16 Crayolas for the monster box of 64 with all the cool colors and the crayon sharpener built right in, and that box of crayons will serve me for years to come."

Marisa Wegrzyn
Playwright '01, '02