Deadline: March 5, 2021 6pm EST
This Spring, National Queer Theater and the Dramatists Guild are launching the New Visions Fellowship, an innovative new program for Black trans and gender nonconforming playwrights. The New Visions Fellowship will select two playwrights for a rigorous year-long professional development initiative aimed at celebrating the brilliance of and uplifting Black TGNC writers in the face of the systemic exclusion that Black TGNC writers have endured within American theater.
We believe the New Visions Fellowship is essential because of its opportunity to create space for the Black and queer imagination, a perspective long and consistently forced to take a backseat to “safer” LGBT stories in American culture, and even American queer culture.
The curriculum of traditional artistic conservatory programs is heavily influenced by a white, cisgender male patriarchal perspective, particularly centering on male-identifying writers from both the classical and modern eras. Our program seeks to help remedy the exclusionary bias that riddles traditional channels of training and mentorship.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
The fellows will be paired with a primary mentor and supplemental mentor figures who will guide writers through the development of a play, musical, or performance experience of their design and choosing. Roger Q. Mason, pictured above, will serve as one of the primary mentors. In addition, writers will have the opportunity to participate in professional development sessions covering a wide range of artistic topics. The fellows will also receive access to Dramatists Guild contracts, business advice and career services for the purpose of aiding fellows in protecting both the artistic and economic integrity of their work. These workshops will help writers broker relationships with Off-Broadway or regional theaters. A theater will host a professionally cast and directed reading of their play at the end of the program. Selected fellows will receive $5,000 and a three-year complimentary Guild membership.
APPLY TO THIS PROGRAM
Applications are due on March 5th at 6pm EST.