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Thank You for a Wonderful Year!
As
the year ends, we wanted to take the time for reflection and
celebration of all that was accomplished in the past months at The New
Jersey Play Lab. We are very proud of our work, and very grateful to
everyone who has supported and collaborated with us in that work -
including you!
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We are now a registered non-profit.
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Thanks to much diligent effort by NJPL Co-Founder Kaitlin
Stilwell, we received our 501(c)(3) status!
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Our 2020 Residency Plays wrapped up.
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After some delays due to COVID-19, we completed work on
two plays from our 2020 Residencies: Allies by Michael John
McGoldrick, and The Incels by Ruth Zamoyta.
Each of these writers received over 50 hours of dramaturgical support
and developmental readings as part of their residency. These plays are
now ready for production and are listed in The NJPL Catalogue of Plays.
Click here to read more.
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We launched a new initiative.
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NJPL Associate Dramaturg Emily Dzioba created our newest
program for emerging playwrights and dramaturgs. The Storyteller Studio had its beta
test run this year with a cohort of thirteen fantastic young artists.
You can read all about their work here on their portfolio page. We will be
spending the next 6 months assessing and revising, with the intent to
offer the program to a new cohort of young artists in the fall of 2022.
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We welcomed a new staff member.
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We brought Sanjida Chowdhury onto our staff as Digital
Engagement Coordinator. Under Sanjida's guidance, we have increased our
social media following exponentially, and started a private Facebook
Group for our PlayGym writers and our
Acting Company Members. Sanjida is also a playwright and an actress,
with a shrewd dramaturgical eye.
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Our PlayGym forums expanded.
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PlayGym,
our unique playwriting forum, thrived this year thanks to our wonderful
dramaturgs and actors, and the power of Zoom. We offered these forums
consistently throughout the year, serving playwrights from all over the
state (and some from out of state too!). We trained two new PlayGym
dramaturgs, James Kenna and Sandrine Dupiton, and offered emerging
dramaturgs we had met from local universities, from the Storyteller
Studio Cohort, and from cold outreach on the internet the opportunity
to intern and participate as responders to the work.
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We collaborated with writers on script consultations.
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Throughout the year, we offered one-on-one script consultations to
playwrights looking for feedback on an early draft or looking to hone
a play before submitting it for publication or consideration for
production. We also added a new option to our menu of consults, a Facilitated
Play Reading Script Consultation. We had our first taker in
Kate Schwartz. In June, she had her play Clarissa Buys the
Flowers Herself read outdoors in a beautiful setting at
Nomahegan Park in Cranford.
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We supported the NJSCA Playwriting Fellows.
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The NJ State Council on the Arts offers three-year
fellowships in playwriting. The NJPL was honored to have been asked,
along with the wonderful folks at Premiere Stages, to partner with the
NJ Theatre Alliance to offer the most recent group of fellows
dramaturgical support on their plays.
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Our Board of Directors grew.
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We were thrilled to add Danny Viola to our Board of
Directors. Kaitlin and Cheryl worked with Danny for years during their
time as Artistic Director and Director of Community Engagement at Luna
Stage. Danny has since moved on to work at The Ethical Culture
Fieldston School in the Bronx but is still active in many artistic
pursuits. He directed our in-person reading of The
Incels by Ruth Zamoyta at HUUB in Orange as a final step in
that Residency process.
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As we look toward the coming year, we are excited for what lies
ahead.
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We received over 60 submissions for our 2022 Play
Development Residencies and will announce the selected plays in
February.
We look forward to returning to live workshops and readings!
We are actively pursuing partnerships with other NJ theaters and
universities that will enable us to offer better resources and exposure
to playwrights.
In all of this work, we remain committed to an ongoing plan of action
to ensure that we are anti-racist and proactive in prioritizing
artistic diversity and safe, equitable spaces that ensure inclusivity,
access, and awareness.
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Your support means everything.
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If you are interested in getting involved in our work in
some way, please reach out to info@njplaylab.org
If you would like to support us with a tax-deductible donation, click
the button below.
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We wish everyone a healthy and joyous new year full of
art, connection, and peace.
With gratitude and love,
The staff of The New Jersey Play
Lab
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Copyright (C) 2021 New
Jersey Play Lab. All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
New Jersey
Play Lab, 27
Longview Ave., Randolph, NJ 07869-3002 |
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