Not-for-profit Washington D.C. theater Arena Stage will relocate a major portion of its American Voices New Play Institute, including a program focused on Black playwrights, to Emerson College in Boston, the organization recently announced.
The move radically alters the theater’s play development programs, particularly with the departure of Associate Artistic Director David Dower and the institute’s director, Polly Carl.
The institute was part of an overall plan by Arena Stage, which will continue to put on regional theater productions, to develop and produce its own plays and become a national center for theater study.
A residency program will remain at the theater, but one of the features that will be moved to Boston will be a symposia about Black playwrights, diversity, and the development of new works.
“What we’re experiencing now is the result of the gathering momentum around the drive to create a ‘commons’ approach to the national infrastructure for new works of theater and the people who create them,” Dower said in a post on Arena Stage’s website. [Click here to read Dower’s post]
“Boston’s a theater town, perhaps more so than D.C. although I’m not certain,” Jabari Asim, a professor of creative writing at Emerson, former deputy editor of the Book World section at The Washington Post, and editor of the NAACP magazine Crisis, told The AFRO.
“Emerson’s in the heart of a thriving theater district and actually owns a number of the theaters. Boston’s also a place where two of the hottest young Black playwrights live and is one of only two places to stage Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister plays simultaneously—so it’s not a bad place to be a Black playwright,” said Asim, who will teach the institute’s graduate playwriting workshop next fall.
“Emerson’s New Play Institute grab is one of the first moves launched under the leadership of Lee Pelton, a dynamic brother who recently became president of the college. He has hit the ground running, and this initiative seems consistent with the vision he has outlined,” Asim added. “I’m looking forward to helping develop some interdisciplinary projects involving the New Play Institute and my department, Writing, Literature and Publishing.”