When it comes to new plays, the UT Department of Theatre & Dance means business. Not only does it maintain one of the most respected playwriting programs in the country, with exceedingly fine playwrights, both established and emerging, on the faculty, it also makes a point of mounting new works by its students, through workshop productions in the biannual David Mark Cohen New Works Festival and full productions in the department’s season. So it only makes sense that when the Playwrights’ Center, that Minneapolis-based hotbed of support for new dramas and the artists who write them, unveiled an initiative offering college theatre departments access to its substantial pool of working playwrights and new plays, UT was one of the first universities outside Minnesota to sign on.
The initiative, called New Plays on Campus, was launched in May with a pilot program involving eight college theatre departments in the Twin Cities area. Institutions that take part pay an annual fee that entitles them to assorted benefits, including one-on-one mentoring for student playwrights, online networking and play development services, a weekly bulletin and opportunities listing, and possibilities for roundtable script readings. Plus, the center acts as a sort of “institutional literary manager,” suggesting writers and their scripts that initiative members might consider for playwriting residencies or productions from the more than 500 scripts that its staff reads a year. That’s covering more new drama than almost any theatrical institutions could do alone, even one with the resources of UT’s theatre and dance department or the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – which may explain why those organizations are among the national participants. For more information, visit www.pwcenter.org.
This article appears in July 2 • 2004.