WP Theater Seeks Female-Identified/Trans Artists for 2018-2020 WP Lab

WP Theater has announced that it is now taking applications for its 2018-2020 Lab. WP Theater is looking for female-identified or trans playwrights, directors, and producers who crave an artistic home, professional support, and the resources to launch them into the next phase of their careers to join the 2018-2020 WP Lab. The two-year residency, which culminates with the biennial WP Pipeline Festival, is currently taking applications through March 1, 2018.

The artistic heart of WP Theater, the two-year Lab residency provides rising stars in the industry with a vital professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, rehearsal space, and most significantly, tangible opportunities for the development and production of bold new work for the stage. As the culmination of the Lab, the Pipeline Festival provides a unique opportunity for audiences and industry to access five new plays at various stages of development, ranging from staged readings to full-length workshop productions. True to its name, WP Pipeline Festival serves as a pipeline to funnel talented female-identified and trans artists and their work to the forefront of American theater. The WP Lab is led by WP's Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty, Director Shelley Butler (The Most Deserving - WP), and Producer Stephanie Ybarra (Director of Special Artistic Projects - The Public).

Four of the five plays in the inaugural 2016 WP Pipeline Festival were included in the 2016 Kilroys List, an annual industry survey of extraordinary new plays by female and trans playwrights: Cygnus by Susan Soon He Stanton; Kings by Sarah Burgess; The Rug Dealer by Riti Sachdeva; and Queens by Martyna Majok.

For a complete list of requirements for eligibility and to apply to the lab, visit wptheater.org/lab/call-for-applications.

The 2018 Pipeline Festival take place from March 29-April 29 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway). The lab will feature work from writers Donnetta Lavinia Grays, MJ Kaufman, Sylvia Khoury, Zoe Sarnak, Leah Nanako Winkler, directors Melissa Crespo, Morgan Gould, Ellie Heyman, Tyne Rafaeli, Mo Zhou, and producers Roxanna Barrios, SallyCade Holmes, Nidia Medina, Laura Ramadei, Yuvika Tolani.

About WP Theater (formerly known as Women's Project Theater) is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female-identified and trans theater artists at every stage in their careers. For nearly four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into to a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond.

WP empowers female-identified artists to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential female theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage, Leigh Silverman and Anna Deveare Smith. These powerful women found an early artistic home at WP, and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force.

WP was founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, to address the significant under-representation of women in theater. Today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a two-year mentorship and new play development program for women playwrights, directors, and producers; the Domestic Partner residency program; the Developmental series; and the Main Stage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artists.

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