Kennedy Center Sets NEW VISION/NEW VOICES 2014 for May 16-18

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces its 13th New Visions/New Voices workshop from May 16 to May 18, 2014. A biennial showcase dedicated to developing new plays and musicals written for young people and their families, New Visions/New Voices 2014 will present eight new works including six selected from theater companies based in Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Bethesda, MD; Atlanta, GA; Cork, Ireland; and Belfast, Northern Ireland; one musical commissioned by the Kennedy Center; and one play from Vincennes, France as part of the showcase's Translation Project. Additionally, New Visions/New Voices 2014 will again host international playwright observers. While each play has a specific intended age range, over the course of the showcase, attendees will experience work geared towards young people from infancy through high school-the broadest range in New Visions/New Voices history.

"As the field of theater for young audiences has grown over time, so has the New Visions/New Voices showcase," explains co-founding director of New Visions/New Voices and director of Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences Kim Peter Kovac. "With a diverse array of artistic and cultural offerings, this year's workshop will continue to push the industry to new heights."

While at the Kennedy Center, selected playwrights, directors, music directors, composers, and actors work collaboratively in a weeklong intensive workshop setting to develop their projects. After revisions, rewrites, and rehearsals of the new plays and musicals, the works are presented as rehearsed readings during a three-day national conference for theater professionals, educators, and others interested in the field, which will include discussions facilitated by Daniel Renner, Director of Education for New York's Theatre Development Fund. The Center provides housing, transportation, stage managers, dramaturgs, and casting selected from a pool of local Equity actors for each show. New Visions/New Voices 2014 features dramaturgical support by Faedra Chatard Carpenter from University of Maryland in College Park, MD; Ken Cerniglia from Disney Theatricals in New York City, NY; and Tim Roseman from PlayWriting Australia in Sydney, Australia.

The Translation Project selects one script which has been successful in a non-English language to be translated to an English-language version and performed by professional actors. This year's Translation Project selection is Louise/the Bearsby Karin Serres from Vincennes, France. Karin Serres is an award-winning French playwright whose works have been translated into more than 10 languages and are now integrated into the French school curriculum.

This year's six international playwright observers are Cleiton Echeveste from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Geert Genbrugge from Antwerp, Belgium; Afeif Ismail from Caversham, Australia; Anna Nygren from Kimstad, Sweden; Simone Spiteri from Bir?ebbu?a, Malta; and Ingeborg Von Zadow from Heidelberg, Germany. Selected from a pool of seventeen applicants from sixteen countries, the six international playwright observers will participate in a playwright slam, observe the process of an artistic team, meet with a dramaturg, and share their work with each other. Through their participation, the selected playwright observers will take back important insights, skills, and methodologies to their home countries.

Since its inception in 1991, New Visions/New Voices has assisted in the development of 88 new plays, musicals, and operas from 78 playwrights and 35 composers working with 57 American and 8 international theater companies. The biennial showcase has been honored twice for distinguished service to the field of theater for young audiences. The American Association for Theater and Education first honored it in 1998; a second honor by the Children's Theater Foundation of America was presented in 2000.

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