Presented by the Playhouse and AIR Serenbe (the artist-in-residence program), the first annual New Territories Playwriting Residency will bring three playwrights to Chattahoochee Hills, GA, Jan. 17 through Jan. 30. The company, which has staged outdoor productions of Evita, The Wizard of Oz and Oklahoma!, will further develop one or more of the plays created during the program in subsequent seasons.
The New Territories Playwriting Residency is developed by artistic director Brian Clowdus, AIR Serenbe’s director Brandon Hinman and playwright Tira Palmquist. "I realized that Serenbe would be the perfect place for a writer’s residency,” said Palmquist in a press statement, "and that the company’s mission to produce site-specific theatre could provide the perfect inspiration for new work."
The participating playwrights for the inaugural year will be Joe Calarco, Liz Duffy Adams and David Hilder. "The playwrights are coming with a blank page. They’ll explore Serenbe and choose a location that inspires them," said Clowdus. "That inspiration will spark their pen to paper creating a work that goes hand in hand with the environment they have chosen with the long term possibility of developing into a fully realized production as part of our mainstage season." The residency will culminate with a public reading of the newly developed works on Jan. 29.
This year, the company will also launch the Focus Fellowships initiative, awarding residencies to nine artists of different disciplines. The Playhouse was recently awarded one of the 2015 National Theatre Company grants from the American Theatre Wing, in addition to an award from the NEA which helped fund Evita. Check out Playbill.com's exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of the production by Evita's Randi Garza. For more information about Serenbe Playhouse visit SerenbePlayhouse.com or call (770) 463-1110.
