Applications Are Now Being Accepted for the 2020 Speakers' Corner Writers Group Led By Melissa Crespo

Gingold Theatrical Group now in its 15th Season, today announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2020 Speakers' Corner Writers Group.

Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's Speakers' Corner brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing new work in response to that text. For the 2020-21 season, writers will develop works in response to Shaw's revolutionary play, Mrs. Warren's Profession.

"All of us at Gingold Theatrical Group are incredibly proud to bring Melissa Crespo into our family to oversee the continuation of this vital program. Encouraging new artists into our theatrical community has never seemed a more urgent need, joining all of you as we plan for the future."

The group will be coordinated by Melissa Crespo, a NYC based director of theater, opera and film. She is also a producer, dramaturge, and playwright. As a director, Melissa has developed work at LAByrinth Theater Company, New Dramatists, The Lark and more. Most recent credits include Promenade (NYU Tisch Artist-in-Residence) and the world premiere of form of a girl unknown by Charly Evon Simpson (Salt Lake Acting Company). As a playwright, Melissa co-wrote Egress with Sarah Saltwick. It received the Roe Green Award Workshop Production at Cleveland Playhouse last Spring and will have a world premiere production this fall at Amphibian Stage. She is currently the editor for 3Views on Theater, a new online theater journal. Melissa has served as a Time Warner Fellow at WP Theater, Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theatre, and is an alum of the Drama League Director's Project. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama where she is now a faculty member. For more, visit melissacrespo.com

"I am thrilled to lead GTG's Speakers' Corner and help inspire new works as well as provide a safe space for writers to engage with Shaw in new ways," says Crespo. GTG aims to shepherd select Speakers' Corner projects towards future full productions.

Speakers' Corner members will meet monthly starting in September, and GTG will host showings of the work that Speakers' Corner develops in the spring or summer of the following year. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of GTG Artistic Director David Staller and GTG's Speakers Corner Advisory Committee: Sharon Washington, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Alison Fraser, and Ralph B. Peña.

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