After three rounds of NJPL Developmental Residencies, we have determined that more time is required to bring the plays we select to a stage of production-readiness.
Therefore, we are shifting our Residency program to a biannual schedule.
Our next submission process will be in November of 2023. Please check back here for updated program and submission details in early fall of 2023.
If you have any questions, please email info@njplaylab.org.
The New Jersey Play Lab Residencies are intensive, multi-step development processes, designed to bring the selected plays to a state of production readiness. Each Residency includes a reading, usually close to the culmination of the process.
The New Jersey Play Lab holds one submission process per calendar year, open to any playwright based in New Jersey, or has established New Jersey as an artistic home. From this submission process, a number of plays will be selected for Residencies over the course of the ensuing year.
As one of its core values, The New Jersey Play Lab is structured to allow us to encounter and engage with a play at all stages of development and to be truly responsive to the needs of each selected play in achieving a state of production readiness.
While some plays may benefit from an eight to twelve month process, others may make that leap in as little as a few weeks. Therefore, as a measure of our dedication to meet each play where it is, the number of plays selected and the length of each Residency will be dependent on the needs of each play and will vary from year to year.
Who should apply?
We are currently accepting applications from playwrights based in New Jersey, or from playwrights who have clearly established New Jersey as an artistic home.
Playwrights should have a flexible schedule that allows for intense work over a time period ranging anywhere from one to two weeks, or over the course of eight to twelve months.
What do we look for in a Residency playwright?
Or more accurately, what are the attributes of a playwright most suited for our Residency process? Because the way we work is grounded in craft, in questioning and conversation, and in ongoing revision, we have found that having certain experiences, skills, or innate abilities help create useful partnerships in the Residency process.
Qualities & Abilities we look for in a playwright:
- The playwright is able to use language (technical or not) to describe what exists in their play and what they still hope to capture (language of craft). They may not use the same language we use, but they have a language/understanding of craft that we can learn/share in.
- The playwright has an understanding of how they work, and a process by which they generate and revise, and is excited and energized by the prospect of rewriting/reimagining.
- The playwright has an understanding of the intended audience for the play, and whether that audience is targeted or more expansive.
- The playwright has experience participating in or auditing professional developmental processes OR demonstrates an innate understanding of a professional developmental process, OR has other applicable life or work experience.
- The playwright has a genuine desire to work in a process that thrives on collaboration and rigor, and is open to engaging in discussion around their work.
- The playwright expresses and demonstrates a commitment to the art and profession of playwriting.
Please note, we do not believe that experience should be a gatekeeping mechanism. We have worked with playwrights at many stages of their careers who have embodied these skills and attributes.
What type of play should I submit?
Full-length plays in all stages of active development will be considered. We welcome early drafts. In fact, a play does not even need to be completed to be considered, as long as there is enough material to assess the potential of the work. In the case of an incomplete play as a submission, a playwright may be asked to supply a completed work as support material.
What do we look for in a Residency play?
Art is deeply personal and thus highly subjective; taste is not static, and what we feel for one play we may not feel for another seemingly similar play. The recognition of this reality is the primary reason why we have reconsidered the organizational structure of our company to embrace a more diverse curatorial approach.
But all that being said, we believe in the value of trying to be as explicit as we can about what currently guides us in selecting plays to work on. This is a living document that may shift/grow as we diversify our curatorial aesthetic.
This is not a checklist, nor is it a “how-to.” It does not connote empirical quality or intrinsic value judgments of any play. It is merely a collection of attributes that we have identified amongst the plays we have felt pulled towards in the past.
- We are committed to artistic excellence in craft above all else, recognizing the many traditions and styles that can inhabit and inform craft*. We are interested in plays of substance that instigate thought long after the curtain has fallen, but firmly believe that just because a play is about something important doesn’t automatically make it an important play.
- We believe that well-told stories come in all voices and styles.
- We are drawn to work with the potential to resonate beyond its immediate story and circumstances to illuminate or explore a larger, more expansive idea, and we believe that plays which reside in the gray areas of morality and impulse are the plays poised to have the greatest impact.
- We gravitate toward plays that are ambitious, either in an attempt at something new/challenging/complex or by excelling at an established form, as well as plays that challenge our preconceived notions and pose questions as opposed to providing answers.
- We are attracted to plays that have a textured language that lifts the text off of the page, a theatricality that embraces the medium of the stage (i.e. it couldn’t equally be a film), and a heart that seeks to move us by expressing something specifically or deeply human.
*A note: While we are most familiar with and experienced with plays that come from a Western/European tradition, we are also interested in working on plays that come from other playwriting traditions. We are actively building our knowledge of other cultural dramaturgies. If your play comes from or is inspired by a writing tradition we may not be familiar with, please feel free to be explicit in telling us.
For further explanation of how we define and describe “craft”, please visit our FAQ page.
How can I apply?
There is one submission process for all Residencies. Finalists for all Residencies will be selected from this same pool of submissions.
To apply, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/PQmL1P8fscmtP94KA
Please be prepared to submit the following as separate PDFs:
- a brief cover letter
- your resume
- the first 20 pages of your play
- a synopsis of the play outlining the plot (not a summary or marketing blurb); a character breakdown for the play (note doubling); and the development history of the play – all as one document
Please limit your submission to one play.
Please address any questions to info@njplaylab.org.
More questions?
Check out our FAQ!
The New Jersey Play Lab 