Carter Lewis at PlayPenn Conference

This Summer Senior Lecturer and Playwright-in-Residence, Carter Lewis spent six weeks living in an art Gallery and writing in Philadelphia, PA as part of the 2017 PlayPenn Conference.  

 

Six playwrights were invited to work with a director, dramaturg, and designers to develop a specific play, which was chosen through a rigorous selection process. A three-day pre-conference retreat for playwrights, dramaturgs, directors, and designers began the conference. Following the retreat, the playwrights developed their plays through in-depth workshops with directors, dramaturgs, designers, and professional actors from the local theatre community, rehearsing a maximum of 29 hours. Rehearsal time was interspersed with significant amounts of time for writing and for meetings - both formal and informal - between the writers and their creative teams. Each of the six plays was given two free public readings, one at the conference midpoint and the other at the end of the development period.

Lewis' play With  was directed by Skip Greer with Gina Pisasale serving as Dramaturg.  The reading featured actors Laural Merlington and David Howey.

PlayPenn is an artist-driven organization dedicated to improving the way in which new plays are developed. Employing an ever-evolving process, PlayPenn creates a relaxed tension within which playwrights can engage in risk-taking, boundary-pushing work free from the pressures of commercial consideration.