Playwright Jake Brasch Awarded 2021-22 College Collaboration Project Commission With The Farm Theater

Now in its ninth season of supporting emerging writers The Farm Theater has awarded their 2021/22 College Collaboration Project Commission to playwright Jake Brasch (Greenland at Dixon Place; Salutations, I'm Creative Dave at Alchemical Theatre Laboratory). Jake will collaborate with Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN and Pellissippi State College in Knoxville, TN. Austin Peay is participating in The Farm Theater's College Collaboration Project for the first time. This will be Pellissippi State's second year, following their partnership in 2018-19.

The project will kick-off at the beginning of the spring semester when the playwright will have an opportunity to converse with groups of students from each of the partner schools, to discuss the theme and shape the direction of the play. Each of the schools will produce the play during the academic year and the playwright will rewrite throughout the process.

Austin Peay will produce the play this Fall, and Pellissippi State will produce the play in the Spring of 2022. The College Collaboration Project has multiple schools commission an early career playwright to write a play that each school will independently produce throughout the academic year. The faculty, students, and playwright collaborate throughout the year in the development of the text.

The script will be a full-length play with a minimum of five characters. The majority of the characters will be under thirty years of age so that undergraduate actors can successfully play the roles. The play will reflect the students' thoughts on the theme suggested by the playwright. This will be The Farm Theater's ninth installment of the College Collaboration Project. Past seasons have featured playwrights Lindsay Joy, Micheline Auger, Morgan McGuire, Jan Rosenberg, Kimberly Belflower, Erin Mallon, Judith Leora, and Lia Romeo.

Jake Brasch is a playwright + lyricist + composer + pianist + performer + clown + baker and a Brooklyn-based fancy-free queer sober Jew from Colorado. Proud member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood, The Farm Theater's Development Workshop, and the LAByrinth 2020 Intensive Ensemble. Jake has worked at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Denver Center Theatre Company, The Farm Theater, The New Ohio, Eden Theatre Company, LAByrinth Theatre Company, The Tank, Dixon Place, Curious Theatre Company, DSA at the Edinburgh Fringe, The 14th Street Y, Planet Connections, and NYU-Tisch. Currently under commission from the EST/Sloan Science and Technology Project. Jake has written music for several films, plays, and podcasts. BFA: NYU-Tisch, Experimental Theatre Wing/New Studio on Broadway. jakebrasch.com

The Farm Theater The name is inspired by the "farm" system of baseball whose role is to provide experience and training for developing players. The Farm Theater develops early career artists that may not have the support system afforded others, through workshops, productions, and mentoring. The centerpiece of our programming is The College Collaboration Project. This program is in its ninth year and has so far commissioned nine playwrights and worked in collaboration with seventeen colleges. Lindsay Joy's In The Event of My Death, which was developed in the first year of the program was produced Off-Broadway by Stable Cable and had a sold out run. The 2017/18 collaboration commission, In the Cotton by Morgan McGuire was awarded the Mark David Cohen National Playwriting Award by the Kennedy Center. Kimberly Belflower's play John Proctor is the Villain was featured on The Kilroy's List. The College Collaboration Project has been featured in American Theater Magazine and on HowlRound. The Farm Theater has produced numerous solo shows, including Artistic Director Padraic Lillis' show on suicide awareness Hope You Get To Eleven or What are we going to do about Sally? which was awarded Best Solo Show and Planet Advocate Award at the Planet Connections Theatre Festival. In 2017 The Farm Theater partnered with Planet Connections Theatre Festival to produce Alex Riad's The Floor Is Lava. The play was awarded Best New Play and Best Production of a New Play and The Farm Theater was awarded The Planet Advocate Award for raising money and awareness for Girls Who Code. The Farm Theater hosts The Bullpen Sessions podcast, which features working artists talking about how they built their careers. www.thefarmtheater.org

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