2nd Annual La MaMa INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT
July 31 – August 11, 2008
La MaMa Umbria International, Italy
Click Here for Application Form
Facilitator: Naomi Iizuka
Playwrights will enjoy ten days living and writing in the Umbrian countryside at La MaMa Umbria International, Ellen Stewart’s artist residence in Italy. During the week participants will have ample time to work on new or existing material. Each day, a master playwright will meet with the playwrights to facilitate discussions, workshops and exercises designed to help the writer with whatever challenges they are facing. Group readings are also possible and feedback if requested by the playwright. Much time is reserved for writing and quiet reflection in the tranquil surroundings.
Participants reside at La MaMa Umbria, a 700 year-old convent that has been transformed into a work center and residence for artists. It is located in the Umbrian hillside just outside the town of Spoleto, less than 2 hours from Rome.
La MaMa Umbria is a nonprofit cultural center founded by La MaMa ETC Artistic Director Ellen Stewart in 1990. The area includes rehearsal and performance spaces alongside the living quarters. Bedrooms are doubles and triples with shared bathrooms. Communal kitchen and dining rooms, a gallery and music room are also part of the structure. Attendees eat meals prepared on-site or at nearby restaurants.
Attendance at performances at local festivals, dinner at country fairs, tours to nearby Umbrian towns and other activities are also possible during the week. But it is anticipated that most of the time will be used for creative renewal and enrichment, for working on writing theatrical works and for enjoying a respite from one’s traditional lifestyle.
Naomi Iizuka
Naomi lizuka’s plays include STRIKE-SLIP, 36 VIEWS, ANON(YMOUS), CITIZEN 13559, HAMLET: BLOOD IN THE BRAIN (a collaboration with CalShakes and Campo Santo + Intersection for the Arts), AT THE VANISHING POINT, 17 REASONS WHY, POLAROID STORIES, LANGUAGE OF ANGELS, WAR OF THE WORLDS (a collaboration with Anne Bogart and SITI Company), ALOHA, SAY THE PRETTY GIRLS, TATTOO GIRL and SKIN.
Ms. lizuka’s plays have been produced by Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Children’s Theater Company, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the Huntington Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, GeVa Theater, Portland Center Stage, the Public Theatre, Campo Santo + Intersection for the Arts, the Dallas Theatre Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Next Wave Festival”, Soho Rep, and the Edinburgh Festival. Her plays have been workshopped at Sundance Theatre Lab, Midwest PlayLabs, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, San Jose Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theater’s New Works Now, PS 122, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep, and GeVa’s Hibernatus. Her plays have been published by TCG, Smith and Kraus, Heineman, Playscripts, Theatre Forum, and American Theater. Her play AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS will premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in Spring 2008 and her play GHOSTWRITTEN will premiere at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in Spring 2009.
Ms. lizuka is currently working on commissions from the Huntington Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, Cornerstone, Berkeley Rep, and the La Jolla Playhouse. She is a member of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, an Alpert Award, a Joyce Foundation Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference, a Rockefeller Foundation MAP grant, an NEA/TCG Artist‑in‑Residence grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a PEN Center USA West Award for Drama, Princeton University’s Hodder Fellowship, and a Jerome Fellowship. She is the head of the graduate MFA Playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego.
Check out Randy Gener's Article about La MaMa Playwright Reteat in American Theatre magazine here!
FEE
The admission fee for the Retreat is US$ 2,300. Fee includes workshop, housing and meals for 10 days, ground transportation from the Rome airport to and from La MaMa Umbria, and excursions by bus, van or car.
CREDIT
The Symposium and Retreat are fully accredited programs of Sarah
Lawrence College (2 credits for one session of the Symposium and 1 credit for the Retreat) For more information about Sarah Lawrence College, please
visit www.slc.edu.
ABOUT SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
Located in Bronxville, New York, Sarah Lawrence College is a long
recognized pioneer in creative education, as a liberal arts college
with a focus on collaborative undergraduate and graduate programs in
the arts. The learning process emphasized utilizes a diverse, global
vocabulary, as students explore individual artistic techniques and
experiment with connections among theater, writing, art, music, dance,
and emerging technologies. For more information about Sarah Lawrence
College, please visit www.slc.edu.
Application Process
Playwrights who wish to participate in the retreat fill out the attached Application Form and resume and return it with a $500 deposit by May 1st, 2008. You will notified about your acceptance into the program by May 15th, 2008. The balance of your payment is due by June 1st.
There is limited space available, so please convey your application so it is received by our office no later than the deadline date.
Participants will be selected based on their commitment to the process and the case they make on the application as to how this program will help them with their creative process. Subject matter of the plays developed will NOT be a criterion for acceptance, nor will theatrical style, number of characters, nationality, perceived ethnicity, race or gender.
If you are not accepted into the Retreat, your deposit will be returned in FULL. If you are accepted and choose not to attend, you will receive a refund of all but a $100 registration fee, provided you notify us by June 15th. After that date, we cannot provide a refund of your payment.
Click here for Application Form |