THE BODY OF WATER: Experimenting with Form in Playwriting
May 25 - June 9
Community Forge, Pittsburgh, PA
Tuition $600 *includes food and lodging | tuition and travel subsidies available
This residency will create a space for experimenting with the emergent development of a playwriting methodology based on bodies of water. By the end, each resident will work to produce two things: (1) a proposal for a dramaturgical form (story shape) or a writing practice inspired by water or water-related phenomena, and (2) a piece of dramatic writing that follows that form or practice. Residents may, but don’t have to, write plays about water—we are primarily interested in letting water inform the shape of plays, not their content.
We will study the anatomy of bodies of water (rivers, oceans, springs, lakes, perhaps icebergs—frozen bodies of water!), as well as their effects on social structures. We will look at water-related phenomena like flow, sedimentation, human and animal migration, flooding, and more; we’ll look at examples of performative work that engages waterways, biomimicry, and theorists/activists whose work draws on language around liquidity, emergence, and flow. Pittsburgh, at the confluence of three rivers, provides rich potential to engage embodied research as well. Through our Pittsburgh host site, Community Forge in Wilkinsburg, there will be the option for residents to interact with other artists, community organizations, and Wilkinsburg residents/youth.
Here are some of the kinds of questions that interest us: What changes about site-specific performance or place-based research when the site/place is a body of water? What happens to a story if the plot diagram isn’t shaped like a mountain, but like a river or a lake or an ocean? How could a writer collaborate with water? How can a playwright collaborate with a scientist /collaborate with a painter in a way that’s fluid, that flows? What can playwrights learn from the way that water acts on us all at a distance and links us to other people and beings who appear geographically far away?
The residency will focus on plays: we’ll work to translate our ideas to our playwriting process, from conception and research to writing and feedback. We welcome applications from anyone interested in working specifically with playwriting, whether you primarily identify as a playwright or you have a practice in another medium and you’d like to experiment with dramatic form. We also welcome applications from scientists, activists, scholars/researchers, and others who would like to collaborate with a playwright. We’ll be developing an experimental approach together, so it’s important that you’re interested in writing for the stage but also that you’re willing to challenge your own ideas about what makes a stage play work.
We will study the anatomy of bodies of water (rivers, oceans, springs, lakes, perhaps icebergs—frozen bodies of water!), as well as their effects on social structures. We will look at water-related phenomena like flow, sedimentation, human and animal migration, flooding, and more; we’ll look at examples of performative work that engages waterways, biomimicry, and theorists/activists whose work draws on language around liquidity, emergence, and flow. Pittsburgh, at the confluence of three rivers, provides rich potential to engage embodied research as well. Through our Pittsburgh host site, Community Forge in Wilkinsburg, there will be the option for residents to interact with other artists, community organizations, and Wilkinsburg residents/youth.
Here are some of the kinds of questions that interest us: What changes about site-specific performance or place-based research when the site/place is a body of water? What happens to a story if the plot diagram isn’t shaped like a mountain, but like a river or a lake or an ocean? How could a writer collaborate with water? How can a playwright collaborate with a scientist /collaborate with a painter in a way that’s fluid, that flows? What can playwrights learn from the way that water acts on us all at a distance and links us to other people and beings who appear geographically far away?
The residency will focus on plays: we’ll work to translate our ideas to our playwriting process, from conception and research to writing and feedback. We welcome applications from anyone interested in working specifically with playwriting, whether you primarily identify as a playwright or you have a practice in another medium and you’d like to experiment with dramatic form. We also welcome applications from scientists, activists, scholars/researchers, and others who would like to collaborate with a playwright. We’ll be developing an experimental approach together, so it’s important that you’re interested in writing for the stage but also that you’re willing to challenge your own ideas about what makes a stage play work.