The Dramatists Guild Fund Announces Expansion of its Dramatists Guild Fellows Program

The Dramatists Guild Fund (DGF) announces that it will begin expanding its Dramatists Guild Fellows Program through collaboration with developmental theater organizations. Each resident theater program will select one playwright or writing team to join their workshop season.

"The Fellows Program has been developing the next generation of American dramatists for over a decade," says DGF Executive Director Rachel Routh. "We're so happy to be expanding the program and cultivating further development opportunities for the Fellows and their work."

Founded by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Seussical), and Janet Neipris (A Small Delegation), the Dramatists Guild Fellows program is in its 12th year. Its current directors are Andrea Lepcio, Diana Son (Stop Kiss) and Michael Korie (Grey Gardens), with guest advisors including Edward Albee, Carol Hall, David Henry Hwang, Marsha Norman, Sarah Ruhl, Stephen Schwartz, John Weidman, and many more of the Guild's illustrious writers.

Past DG Fellows include Jeff Blumenkrantz (Urban Cowboy), Beth Falcone (Wanda's World), Kirsten Guenther and Ryan Scott Oliver (Mrs. Sharp), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (A Christmas Story, Dogfight), Michael Kooman & Chris Dimond (Dani Girl), Peter Lerman (Modern Family), and Brian Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan (The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown).

In its initial expansion, the Fellows Program will be partnering with New York Stage and Film (NYSAF) and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (RWR). NYSAF and Rhinebeck will work with the program's advisors to select 2012-2013 DG Fellows to participate in their respective residency programs.

New York Stage & Film will select a playwriting Fellow to participate in their 2013 Powerhouse Season, an eight-week residency on the Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie, NY. "New York Stage and Film is thrilled to partner with the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program to support an early-career artist," said Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer. "One of my favorite parts of Powerhouse is that we foster the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next, and the support of the Dramatists Guild Fund will help us extend that impact even further."

Each summer, more than two hundred professional playwrights, directors, actors, and designers; nearly fifty apprentices; and various individual artists and companies in residence live and work together to develop and produce new work. Now in its 29th year, the program is designed to meet and respond to projects at various stages of development. From workshops and readings to fully produced mainstage works, all are open to the public. For more information about NYSAF, visit http://www.newyorkstageandfilm.org.

Rhinebeck Writers Retreat will similarly host a team of musical theatre Fellows for a weeklong retreat in Rhinebeck, New York this summer as one of nine retreats being offered to musical theatre writers. The writing teams participating in the remaining eight retreats will be selected through an open submissions process. RWR was founded in 2011 by Executive Director Kathy Evans. With almost a decade of development experience leading the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), Ms. Evans created Rhinebeck Writers Retreat to provide a sanctuary for musical theatre writers to develop their musicals in the Hudson Valley and to promote awareness for the creation of this uniquely American art form. For more information about RWR, visit www.rhinebeckwriters.org.