The Playwrights Realm Opens Submissions for Second Native American Artists Lab

The Playwrights Realm has opened submissions for its second Native American Artists Lab, with an application deadline Monday, March 11th, 2024. The program, which began in 2022 with artists Sean-Joseph Choo and Moki Bear Eagle, supports the development of specific works as well as  the careers of Native Artists. 

With NAAL, the organization seeks to uplift artists from Domestic Nations and projects rooted in Native practices. In an effort to meet Native American Artists where they are, dismantle biases, and create a welcoming space, NAAL submissions are open to teams with multiple authors and generative artists who don’t identify with the label “playwright.” This program is open to both aspiring and emerging artists in order to support both people who are considering theater as a career and those who have begun their careers already. The finalists for Native American Artists Lab will be chosen by a panel of Native American artists—Tuscarora playwright Vickie Ramirez, Mohegan stage director, playwright, and performer Madeline Sayet, and Navajo playwright, filmmaker, director, performer, and producer Rhiana Yazzie—and will then be interviewed by Realm Artistic Staff.

The program offers individualized attention to recipients and provides further support depending on the desires of participants, including but not limited to design consultations, individualized mentorship, and industry networking. A paid developmental process of up to one week culminates in a reading in New York City, with the Native Artistic Team choosing whether the reading is internal or public. 

2022/23 NAAL artist Sean-Joseph Choo says of the experience, “Working with the Realm felt like a dream: here I was in the heart of Manhattan with a group of Hawaiʻi/Oceania folx, with a Hawaiian director, telling a Hawaiian story. Going through this new work development process at the Realm was so helpful in shaping my ideas for imagining doing similar work back home in Hawaiʻi.”

2022/23 NAAL Artist Moki Bear Eagle says, “I am a Lakota from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota who wrote a story, and ended up traveling to New York City, where Playwrights Realm is based and where our staged readings took place. I have been reflecting on how somewhere far across this land, someone thought my voice & story were important; someone actively wanted Native voices to have an experience like this. I came away from this program with many new experiences to learn and grow from. I am grateful. Pilamayayapelo.”

For the readings, NAAL artists are connected with a professional team of collaborators, including actors, directors, and Realm artistic staff. The Realm works with a casting director to help the team find a cast and can facilitate introductions to directors or other types of collaborators. The program offers dramaturgical development (including consultation with a culturally specific dramaturg, if desired) and discussion with the Realm’s artistic staff prior to and following the reading. 

Online playwright group meetings and communal activities provide a chance for the two artists (or teams) to engage with each other and each other’s work and with the co-facilitators of the program: Yazzie, Ramirez, and The Playwrights Realm artistic director Katherine Kovner. In addition to stipends, all housing and transport costs for NAAL playwrights/teams' participation in readings will be paid by The Playwrights Realm.

The Playwrights Realm also opened submissions to its Writing Fellowship (which awards four early-career playwrights with nine months of resources, workshops, and feedback designed to help them reach their professional and artistic goals) and Scratchpad Series (which opens The Realm’s doors to early-career playwrights from across the country) on January 8. (The application deadline for both is Monday, February 5th, 2024 at 11:59pm ET.)