Arden Theatre Company Announces Wendy MacLeod for The Writers’ Room

Arden Theatre Company today announced Wendy MacLeod as the first playwright to take up residence in The Writers' Room, an innovative new play program funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative and the Independence Foundation through its New Theatre Works Initiative. McLeod's unique residency will begin in April 2012 and over a four month period, she will write and rehearse a new play which will run on the Arden's stage July 5-15, 2012.

Wendy MacLeod's play The House of Yes became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey, and was produced by many theaters including The Magic Theater, Soho Rep, The Washington Shakespeare Company, The Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, and The Gate Theater in London. Her other works for the stage include Sin and Schoolgirl Figure, both of which premiered at The Goodman, Juvenilia and The Water Children, both of which premiered at Playwrights Horizons, and Things Being What They Are, which premiered at Seattle Repertory Theatre and had an extended run at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Her new play Find and Sign premiered in January at the Pioneer Theater where it was called "both entertaining and thought-provoking" by the Salt Lake Tribune. Hers was one of the plays in STANDING ON CEREMONY: The Gay Marriage Plays at the Minetta Lane in NYC. Her prose has appeared in Salon, POETRY magazine, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, The Awl and on All Things Considered. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is the James E. Michael Playwright-in-Residence at Kenyon College.

The Writers' Room, led by Arden Associate Artistic Director Edward Sobel, is designed to allow the writer to stay in closer contact with her original creative impulse and have a more wholesome relationship with the larger institution than most new play development processes currently allow. MacLeod's orientation to the Arden and the Philadelphia theatre community at large is facilitated by The Writers' Room Artistic Circle, comprised of playwright Michael Hollinger, actors Grace Gonglewski and Melanye Finister, and designers Thom Weaver and Jorge Cousineau. These artists who live and work in the Philadelphia area will provide insight and support throughout MacLeod's residency, from sharing meals and theatre outings, to testing ideas and reading scripts in process.

With The Writers' Room, Arden audiences will have an unusual opportunity to participate in the new play development process. A limited number of the public will purchase "Inside the Writers' Room" passes, entitling them to access throughout the writing, rehearsal, and performance process of the new play. Pass holders will engage in conversation around the work, becoming personally invested in the play. No other play development program in the Philadelphia region provides such a holistic experience for both writers and audience members. Inside the Writers' Room passes will be on sale March 19, 2012. Tickets to the full production in July will be on sale in early May.

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