R.I.T. School Of Performing Arts Joins The Farm Theater's 2025-26 College Collaboration Project
R.I.T. joins the previously announced Austin Peay University.
By: Nicole Rosky Aug. 25, 2025
The Rochester School of Technology's School of Performing Arts (Rochester, NY) will join The Farm Theater's 2025-26 College Collaboration Project with playwright Gina Femia (Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves with Boomerang Theater; The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows with Spicy Witch Productions; For The Love Of (or, the roller derby play) with Theatre of NOTE). R.I.T. joins the previously announced Austin Peay University (Clarksville, TN).
As part of the 2025-26 College Collaboration Project playwright Gina Femia (they/them) will collaborate with students at Rochester School of Technology and Austin Pealy University to develop and produce their new play We're Okay, We're Okay, We're All Gonna Be Okay. The play follows a group of non-theater students as they attempt to produce a two-person version of Hamlet. In the process they wind up addressing their own feelings around grief, mental illness, and ghosts.
"We are absolutely thrilled for our Performing Arts Scholars to join The Farm Theater College Collaboration Project this year in the creation of a new work by Gina Femia," said Erica Haskell, Inaugural Director of the School of Performing Arts in the College of Liberal Arts at RIT. "This opportunity offers our students a deeply meaningful experience-not only to engage directly with a celebrated playwright, but to contribute to the creative development of a new play from the ground up. It's an inspiring and invaluable part of their artistic and academic journey."
The Farm Theater originally commissioned and developed Kimberly Belflower's John Proctor is the Villain (2027-18 College Collaboration Project) which premiered on Broadway last season and was nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Play. It is now being developed into a major motion picture with Tina Fey and Sadie Sink.
The College Collaboration Project has multiple schools commission an early career playwright to write a play that each school will independently produce throughout the academic year. The faculty, students, and playwright collaborate throughout the year in the development of the text. The script will be a full-length play with a minimum of five characters. The majority of the characters will be under thirty years of age so that undergraduate actors can successfully play the roles. The play will reflect the students' thoughts on the theme suggested by the playwright.
This will be The Farm Theater's thirteenth installment of the College Collaboration Project. Past seasons have featured playwrights Lindsay Joy, Micheline Auger, Morgan McGuire, Jan Rosenberg, Kimberly Belflower, Erin Mallon, Judith Leora, Lia Romeo, Jake Brasch, and Dipti Bramhandkar. Lindsay Joy's In The Event of My Death, which was developed in the first year of the program, was produced Off-Broadway by Stable Cable and had a sold out run. The 2017/18 collaboration commission, In the Cotton by Morgan McGuire was awarded the Mark David Cohen National Playwriting Award by the Kennedy Center. Kimberly Belflower's play John Proctor is the Villain received its World Premiere in March 2022 at the Studio Theatre in D.C., was featured on The Kilroy's List, and premiered on Broadway last season where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Play. It is now being developed into a major motion picture with Tina Fey and Sadie Sink.
The Farm Theater The name is inspired by the "farm" system of baseball whose role is to provide experience and training for developing players. The Farm Theater develops early career artists that may not have the support system afforded others, through workshops, productions, and mentoring. The centerpiece of our programming is The College Collaboration Project. This program is in its eleventh year and has so far commissioned twelve playwrights, worked in collaboration with twenty colleges, and been featured in American Theatre Magazine and Southern Theatre Magazine. The Farm Theater has produced numerous solo shows including Artistic Director Padraic Lillis' show on suicide awareness Hope You Get To Eleven or What are we going to do about Sally? which was awarded Best Solo Show and Planet Advocate Award at the Planet Connections Theatre Festival. In 2017 The Farm Theater partnered with Planet Connections Theatre Festival to produce Alex Riad's The Floor Is Lava. The play was awarded Best New Play and Best Production of a New Play and The Farm Theater was awarded The Planet Advocate Award for raising money and awareness for Girls Who Code. The Farm Theater also hosts a popular podcast, The Bullpen Sessions, which features working artists talking about how they built their careers.
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