www.theatermasters.org
Theater Masters has many programs dedicated to cultivating theater across the nation!
National MFA Playwrights Festival
Each year, Theater Masters hosts a national 10-minute playwriting competition among the MFA students at the top MFA Playwriting programs in the country. Participating schools include: Brown University, Brooklyn College, Cal Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of California-San Diego, University of Iowa, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Yale School of Drama. 10 top plays are selected, by an esteemed guest adjudicator along with Artistic Director Julia Hansen, Artistic Associate Naomi McDougall Jones, and a reading panel made up of industry professionals, from submissions by these schools and the playwrights are flown, first to Aspen and then New York, for workshops and performances of their pieces. This is a unique and career-starting program for these young playwrights. The festival culminates in a public performance of these pieces, along with the winners of the Aspiring Playwrights Competition, first in Aspen, CO and then an Equity showcase in New York City. For more information and submission guidelines, please click on the "Play Submissions” page.
Aspiring Playwrights Competition
Theater Masters holds a yearly 10-minute play competition amongst the high schools of the Roaring Fork Valley. Students, many of whom have never before written a play, submit scripts to be read by a professional panel. The winning playwright(s) receive(s) a full production of their 10-minute play with a professional director and cast, alongside the winners of the National MFA Playwrights Festival. Theater Masters has begun offering in-classroom support to the Valley's teachers to help students prepare for the competition. This fulfills Benchmark 3 for Creative Writing in the state of Colorado.
Palm Beach New Play Festival
Aspen Theater Masters and A.R. Dreyfoos School of the Arts partner to develop and present new plays by emerging playwrights. The Palm Beach New Play Festival connects new voices to new places & people, and to new opportunities.
Palm Beach New Play Festival joins the resources of two not-for-profit organizations and build bridges for emerging playwrights, linking select dramatists from across the country with other veteran artists, producers and professionals, who can influence and foster their promising careers. The program will provide venues for these writers to develop their work and to introduce theater audiences to the process of new play development.
Visionary Playwrights
In 2008, Theater Masters initiated the Visionary Playwrights Award, in partnership with the Aspen Institute and three of America's top regional theaters: Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, La Jolla Playhouse in California, and Playwrights Horizons in NYC. One playwright from each theater, chosen jointly by Theater Masters and the participating theater, receives a pass to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival and a commission for a new full-length play. The plays are to draw inspiration from the Festival and reflect the Institute's philosophy of timeless values and powerful issues. Additionally the playwrights write a 10 minute play which Theater Masters may present.
Theater Masters Presents
Theater Masters presents distinguished professional productions for Aspen/Roaring Fork audiences. These popular events have included Gareth Armstrong's Shylock, Frank Barrie's Playing Shakespeare, and the provocative plays Dearborn Heights and Open Admissions.
Our School Outreach program uses a Theater Masters production as a springboard to bring arts education to the high schools in the Roaring Fork Valley. A study guide is produced for students and teachers. The Theatre professionals visit classrooms to discuss the play Theater Masters is presenting, with a focus on how the themes relate to the students' studies and their own lives. This is followed by a trip to the theater where the students see the play for themselves and deepen their discussion.
New Play Development
Our New Play Development series invites a director, playwright, and cast to Aspen, New York, or Palm Beach, where workshops of a new play-in-progress culminate in a reading for the community. Plays and musicals developed have received a 1st Place in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the honor of being the critics choice as one of the 10 best plays of the year, Off-Broadway productions and a production at the Berkshire Theater Festival.
School Outreach Program
Our School Outreach program uses a Theater Masters production as a springboard to bring arts education to the high schools in the Roaring Fork Valley. A study guide is produced for students and teachers. The Theatre professionals visit classrooms to discuss the play Theater Masters is presenting, with a focus on how the themes relate to the students' studies and their own lives. This is followed by a trip to the theater where the students see the play for themselves and deepen their discussion.
Additionally play writing workshops are provided for teachers for their students.
Talkabouts
As part of Theater Masters' education for audiences, our Talkabout programs feature world-renowned artists in a series of lectures and theatrical readings on a variety of topics. Past Talkabouts have included director Richard Digby Day and actress Dana Ivey discussing what theatre's great characters reveal about political ambition; Denver Center Theater's Kent Thompson on what it takes to be an artistic director; and Cheers' star Shelley Long on mastering stage, film, and television.
Theater Masters is a producing and presenting organization dedicated to bringing distinguished theater professionals to the Roaring Fork Valley and to enriching the quality of theater education in our Valley. On a national scale, Theater Masters is dedicated to nurturing, developing, and producing or causing to be produced the work of the next generation of American playwrights. In all our work, our goal is always to enhance audience understanding of, and support for, theater.
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