Year-Long Residencies for Young Playwrights at Bunbury Banter

One of the questions raised toward the end of my dissertation was if the experience in a young playwrights festival is so beneficial to a young person. how can we find a way to extend that experience beyond the traditional one-off? There have been some long-term programs that address this. The Coterie Theatre's Young Playwrights Roundtable provides a rep company feel to their program. The Youth Company at MCC Theatre in New York City provides a similar experience, but the devised, collaborative style of their performances is more akin to "youth theatre" than a true playwriting program. For a while, Philadelphia Young Playwrights produced the Paula Vogel Mentors project that paired a young playwright with a mentor and local theatre company to develop an original work. That program was a temporary project supported by grant money and no longer runs.

This evening, I came across the Bunbury Banter Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Programme. This is a year-long program for local young writers to work with mentors on the development of an original play. What is remarkable here is the length of time spent with each young writer. How wonderful would it be to be in residence at a professional theatre company for an entire year? I'm curious to find out more via the playwrights' blog posts found here.

Keep writing!

Follow @TheYPGuide