The Berkshire Fringe

A new mentorship program for emerging local writers

DOWNLOAD THE 2010 EARLYSTAGES APPLICATION HERE

Applications deadline has been extended to April 15, 2010 (postmark deadline).

Experience the next generation of theater artists at the Berkshire Fringe. The only program of its nature in the region, EarlyStages is an intensive play development residency in which three emerging writers are chosen to develop new work under the mentorship of a skilled professional playwright.

Each writer is selected from an open application process and given a full scholarship, room and board. The two week residency and rehearsal period allows each writer to immerse themselves fully in the creative process while drawing inspiration from the vibrant artist community of the Berkshire Fringe.

Be the first to hear these new American voices presented as three fresh, insightful and exciting world premiere staged readings. Each reading will be followed by an open discussion with the writer, mentor and director.

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW

During the first two weeks of August, the beautiful Berkshire hills will be home again to EarlyStages, a young playwright mentorship program, created by Bazaar Productions, the presenters of The Berkshire Fringe. In the forth year of this unique program, three young writers, who either reside or attend college in the Berkshires or surrounding counties, will be chosen from an open application process.

DOWNLOAD THE 2010 EARLYSTAGES APPLICATION HERE

Applications must be postmarked by April 1, 2010.

Each participant will be given the opportunity to focus intensively on developing a play under the mentorship of Emmy Award winning professional playwright Laura Maria Censabella, who has extensive experience as a teaching artist.

The young playwrights’ work will be developed with the guidance of the mentor during an intensive two-week seminar and rehearsal period on the lovely Simon’s Rock College campus.

The program will be tailored to address the objectives of each participant. Every other day the playwrights will attend a workshop lead by the mentor. Alternating days will be reserved for writing/developing the scripts. Actors will be available to read the plays during at least one seminar session. In addition, each participating writer will have three rehearsals with the actors and a professional director to prepare for the concert reading which will take place as a free event at The Berkshire Fringe.

Participants will be supplied room and partial board, complimentary tickets to each Berkshire Fringe performance, and the opportunity to attend the community workshops.

It is the hope of the Artistic Directors of Bazaar Productions, that this program will create an opportunity for successful participants to be invited to apply to be featured artists at the Berkshire Fringe in later years.

Applications Guidelines:

• Applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 26.
• Applicants must reside in or attend school in the following counties:
  • Berkshire, Franklin, Hamden, Hampshire Counties in MA
  • Columbia, Dutchess, Rensselaer Counties in NY
  • Bennington County in VT
  • Litchfield County in CT

For more information about the EarlyStages Program contact Ryan Olson at ryan(at)berkshirefringe.org or 413-320-4175

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2010 Playwright Mentor

Laura Maria Censabella

Laura Maria Censabella’s plays have been produced or workshopped by The Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, The Women’s Project & Productions, The Working Theatre, Interact Theatre in L.A., the American Living Room Series at The Ohio, the AthenaWorks Marathon, the Belmont Italian American Playhouse (which commissioned her play Some Girls), the Pacific Resident Theatre, The Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, where she is a member and runs the Playwrights Unit.

She has been awarded three grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts: two in playwriting for Abandoned in Queens and Three Italian Women, and The Geri Ashur Award in Screenwriting for her original screenplay Truly Mary.  Truly Mary was developed at The New Harmony Project with Angelo Pizzo and Michael London.  She has also been a two-time participant in the O’Neill Playwrights Conference for Abandoned in Queens and Jazz Wives Jazz Lives and has received writing fellowships from Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The New Harmony Project and the O’Neill.  Her short play Posing was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and The Actual Footage won the Tennessee Chapbook Prize for Drama.  Both plays are published in Poems & Plays (Numbers Five and Seven).

Ms. Censabella’s teaching experience includes the New School for Drama (current), the Actors Studio Drama School, Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Columbia College’s Undergraduate Writing Program, City University’s MFA Writing Program, The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia.

She has written the short film adaptation Physics for HBO’s Women: Breaking the Rules series, and for two years she wrote for daytime television, winning two Emmy Awards.  Her half-hour independent film Last Call (directed by Robert Bailey and starring Jude Ciccolella) is currently screening in festivals throughout the world, including the Avignon Film Festival, the Other Venice Film Festival, the Hermosa Shorts Film Festival, the Sedona International Film Festival, the Queens International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives’ New Works Series, Long Island International Film Expo, and the Breckenridge Film Festival where it won the Best Short Drama Award.  It was just released by Cinequest on a compilation DVD entitled Second Sight: Cinequest Favorite Short Films, Volume II.

She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America, East, and received a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University.

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2009 Participants

NO TRAVELLER RETURNS by Kendra Arimoto

To betray, or not to betray? That is the question. The General’s Son combats boredom, unsatisfied ambition and unrequited love by manipulating the lives of his childhood friends in this play inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

MIDDLEWOMAN by William Shiflett

James and Charlotte come into money, but find they are better at living affluent lifestyles than maintaining their finances. When a talented but quiet associate offers to help, they become increasingly indebted to and mystified by her prowess.

BRAVE DUCKS by Andrew Belcher

Four colorful characters collide in the aftermath of natural disaster and levitate against the gravity of suffering. With bolts of spine-bending laughter in a world gone mad with wind and flood, these four strangers find the humanity in each other.