Stella Adler Studio's Harold Clurman Playwrights Division Seeks Playwright-in-Residence for 2015

The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division, a program of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, has opened its search for the Playwright-in-Residence for 2015 and announced three additional categories for playwrights. The residency program seeks an emerging writer who will collaborate with the studio for one year, develop a new play and receive a $1,000 stipend. The current resident is Dennis Staroselsky and previous residents include Halley Feiffer, Mia Chung, Anton Dudley, Christina Gorman, Zayd Dohrn, and Peter Nickowitz.

The Playwrights Division was created to provide support to up-and-coming playwrights. Each residency is unique and writers work with Artistic Director Tom Oppenheim to build a residency that will be most beneficial to them and their process. For one year the resident writer has the opportunity to make use of the studio's resources to advance their craft, spend time on works-in-progress or develop new work. The "playwright's choice" model has resulted in a number of projects including new works receiving a showcase production from the studio's Harold Clurman Lab Theater or being paired with a creative team to collectively conceive and design a new play. Resident playwrights receive a modest stipend and have access to studio space, members of the Clurman Lab Theatre Company and student actors for readings and workshops.

Said Artistic Director Tom Oppenheim, "Stella Adler and Harold Clurman revered writers. In accordance with our tradition's legendary regard for the playwright, the Studio is intent on finding and nurturing the gifted writers of our time."

In addition to working with one resident, The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division will present the third annual First Breath New Play Reading Series in the spring of 2015 which will feature the strongest plays on a merit-basis that were submitted for consideration in the residency search. In addition, the studio is searching for new plays in three categories: 1) ensemble-based plays, 2) ten-minute plays that address the environmental crisis and 3) ten-minute plays that address global violence against women and girls. One ensemble play will be chosen for a student production in 2015-2016. Ten-minute plays will be presented in an evening of new play readings in the annual Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts, a week-long event that highlights the relationship between art and social activism.

THE HAROLD CLURMAN LABORATORY THEATER COMPANY is the Stella Adler Studio of Acting's professional theater company. The Lab aims to produce socially relevant theater committed to the standards and ideals set out by Stella Adler, Harold Clurman and the Group Theater. Select production history: Mercy Killers by Michael Milligan (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013, Fringe First Award), Lebensraum by Israel Horovitz (off-Broadway), Long Way Go Down by Zayd Dohrn (East Coast premiere, Ovation Award Nominee), Our Town by Thornton Wilder, What Shall I Give My Children? by Don K. Williams (world premiere), Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The Lab recently made its Los Angeles debut with Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty at the Art of Acting Studio.