Immediate writing. Writing as a process of contemplation-in-action, the balance of reflection and construction. Come with nothing and follow through on a thorough gesture. Participants are asked to arrive with a clean slate, and over the course of the workshop, writers will move to a draft of a script, or cycle of poems, or set of drawings, dances…”
“Contemplation is the end of all loneliness because it erases the separateness between the seer and the seen.”
~Richard Rohr
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT RETREAT
Playwrights are welcome to spend their summer with La MaMa Umbria International in beautiful Spoleto, Italy. The selected group of playwrights will participate in writing workshops led by an award-winning playwright while enjoying the peaceful surroundings of the Italian countryside. Past workshop leaders include Branden Jacob-Jenkins and Mac Wellman.
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.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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.
FEE: The fee is $2,400. 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.
APPLICATION PROCESS: Playwrights who wish to participate in the retreat will fill out the Application Form and send in their $500 deposit. You will be notified about your acceptance into the program shortly. 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.
Erik Ehn‘s work includes The Saint Plays, No Time Like the Present, Wolf at the Door, Tailings, Beginner, and Ideas of Good and Evil. The Soulographie project is 17 plays written over 20 years, on the history of the US in the 20th Century from the point of view of its genocides (produced at La MaMa, NY, November 2012). Soulographie scripts include Maria Kizito, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, Yermedea, and Drunk Still Drinking. Co-Artistic Director, Tenderloin Opera Company (Providence RI – generating new works of music-theater by, for and about people who are homeless/homeless advocates). Graduate of New Dramatists. Director of Writing for Performance, Brown University.
La MaMa Umbria International
La MaMa Umbria International provides artists from around the world with residency programs and intensive workshops. For over 25, La MaMa Umbria has fostered cross-cultural and international exchanges and creative collaborations. Hundreds of artists have found Umbria to be a space that is beautiful, spiritually enriching, welcoming, and open to bold artistic experiments.