Playwright Residencies

Downstage Left residencies are designed to help playwrights take a project from the conceptual stage all the way to a production-ready script.   Playwrights work closely with one of our ensemble directors and members of the literary team to design a process tailored for the particular needs of their project.  We are now accepting applications for Season 31 residencies.  Please download the application form below, which also provides detailed instructions.  The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2012. Email questions and submissions to scripts@stagelefttheatre.com

Stage-Left-12-13-Residency-Application

Downstage Left Residencies for Season 30:

Warped

by Barbara Lhota
directed by ensemble member Jason Fleece

Late night, two Chicago on-duty police officers give a ride home to a distraught intoxicated young woman who later in the evening comes screaming “rape” out of her apartment. Through interviews, questions and reenactments of the evening’s events from each for the character’s perspective, two female investigators desperately weed through the contradictory stories to uncover the truth. Reminiscent of Rashomon, Warped asks the question: Is truth constant, or is it as malleable as our own perceptions?

Witches Vanish

by Claudia Barnett
directed by ensemble member Scott Bishop

In Witches Vanish, the weird sisters from Macbeth explore the stories of women who disappear, whether by choice or force. Inspired by history, astronomy, and Shakespeare, this play examines the nature of change and the value of human life. In a series of stylized, highly visual vignettes employing puppetry, poetry, and surrealism, women ranging from Soviet dissidents to the victims of the Juarez femicide appear and vanish. Who are they, how did they disappear, and why?

Past Residencies:

2011: Blessed Assurance: The Story of Boston Corbett, Slayer of Booth by Randall Colburn
2010: The Face of  Ruined Woman (later Impenetrable) by Mia McCullough
2008: Here Where It’s Safe by M.E.H. Lewis