What’s the history and mission of New Dramatists?
TODD LONDON: New Dramatists is a 58-year-old center for the support and development of playwrights. The mission is both simple and idealistic: to provide space and time for writers to develop their craft in the company of other gifted writers, so that they can make lasting contributions to the theater. Programmatically “space and time” translates into seven-year, free residencies for 5-8 writers a year. In other words, our writers (we currently have 49 “in residence,” plus a few short-term fellowship or exchange writers) have, for the course of their residencies, a laboratory that includes two theater spaces, a community center full of some of the country’s most inspired writers, an office if they need it — we have a well tricked-out writing studio and a library full of the unpublished manuscripts of the current writers and generations of alumni, and a creative, professional home base. Because playwrights are usually invited guests in producing theaters, you can probably imagine their
