Roundabout Names Playwright for 2015 Student Production Workshop

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that 17-year-year senior at Repertory Company High School Darleny Suriel will pen a world premiere play for the ninth annual Student Production Workshop, under the mentorship of Elizabeth Dunn-Ruiz

The world premiere Student Production Workshop production is performed Sunday, August 9 at 2:00pm & 7:00pm and Monday, August 10 at 2:00pm & 7:00pm at the 62-seat Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). Tickets are FREE. The public reading of the first draft is on Monday, May 11.

The 2015 Student Production Workshop company includes: playwright Darleny Suriel (Repertory Company High School), director Maury Mayen (Repertory Company High School), assistant director Khadim Diop (Repertory Company High School), managing director Fernando Mota (Curtis High School), stage manager Kimberly Aragon (Repertory Company High School) and production manager Brittany Bencivenga (Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School).

Student Production Workshop participants are under the mentorship of a team of Roundabout Professional Teaching Artists and staff: Kim Oria (producer), Jason Jacobs (directing), Jennifer Varbalow (sets), Deanna Frieman (costumes), Joe Doran (lighting), Nick Moore (sound) and Leah Reddy (marketing).

Education at Roundabout's Student Production Workshop (SPW) is a student-led theatre company modeled after Roundabout's professional theatre production process. Students register at the beginning of the school year, and participate in workshops and attend Roundabout productions throughout the fall and winter. In October, students apply for leadership positions (Artistic Director, Assistant Director, Managing Director, Production Manager, and Stage Manager), and once they are selected, they lead the ensemble through a series of workshops and show visits. To enhance their leadership skills, the student leaders meet with their counterparts at Roundabout throughout the process. They also meet artists from all Roundabout mainstage productions. The participants, who hail from all five boroughs, are offered a safe environment to create art that interests and excites them.

Playwright participants work with SPW throughout the year. In the fall participants meet once a week for two months and participate in a series of workshops to build their playwriting skills, followed by a five-session playwright intensive, during which they write a scene or one-act play. The playwrights then submit their finished pieces to the SPW leaders, who direct and produce a reading, giving the playwright's a chance to hear their work out loud and get feedback from the audience.

After the winter reading participants are invited to interview and present an original idea for a play to the SPW producer and playwright mentor to be considered as the final Student Production Workshop production. Once a playwright is selected, they work with the playwright mentor to create their original play.

In May the SPW leaders produce a reading of the first draft of the play, allowing the playwright to hear the play out loud with actors and an audience. After the reading, the playwright takes the feedback and works with the mentor to edit and finish their play. The leaders than lead the full company of actors and designers-chosen through an audition and interview process -through several months of rehearsal, leading up to a final performance. The full SPW company of actors, designers, and technicians are chosen in June to rehearse and produce the play. While mentored by education staff, the students are solely responsible for all artistic and managerial decisions through the production process.

Support for Roundabout's Student Production Workshop is generously provided by the Pinkerton Foundation and the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Education programs at Roundabout are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Education at Roundabout uses theatre to enhance teacher practice and deepen student learning in New York City classrooms. Using the professional theatre resources of Roundabout Theatre Company, Education at Roundabout is dedicated to: transform the classrooms of New York City public schools; engage students in theatre experiences that explore the universal themes of the human condition; build a community of confident, expressive young people; foster a new generation of artists and arts administrators; and expand the impact of Roundabout's productions by providing historical, literary and social contexts in the classroom. roundabouttheatre.org/education

Education at Roundabout connects with students and teachers through customized school partnerships, residency programs, mentorships and workshops in the practice of professional theatrical skills, professional development workshops, internships, apprenticeships, backstage tours, talkbacks and pre-show workshops. For each Roundabout production, Education also creates Upstage guides, which include interviews, contextual information, teacher resources and activities, and presents a schedule of Theatre Plus events, including pre-show talks every Tuesday and post-show Lecture Series and Celebrity Series events featuring a distinguished artist, scholar, historian or critic.