Professional Development Awards - Theater

Allen Lee Hughes Fellows develop apprentice/mentor relationships with Arena's outstanding staff of administrators, technicians, and resident artists, and work alongside world-renowned guest directors and designers. In addition to area-specific training, Fellowships include informational seminars, exposure to the overall workings of the theater and other opportunities for professional development. Named for Arena's Associate Artist and highly Acclaimed African-American lighting designer, Arena Stage's Allen Lee Hughes Fellows Program offers an exciting opportunity for people of color who are in the early stages of their theater careers.

For serious students of theater production, arts administration, or dramatic literature, Center Stage's highly competitive Professional Internship Program helps bridge the gap between experience in the academic theater and careers in the professional theater.

Resident Playwrights are granted a 3-year renewable term, during which they receive full access to Chicago Dramatist's developmental programs and professional services, including readings, productions, festivals, exchanges and referrals, career counseling, and one-to-one dramaturgy.

Cortland Repertory hires 6 Performing Interns for their season, usually 3 men and 3 women. The season runs from late May to early September. Interns receive a stipend and housing. Because the theater operates on a Guest Artist Contract with Actors Equity Association, interns cannot receive Equity membership points.

Dallas Theater Center is seeking bright, dedicated, talented individuals who are interested in making the move into the challenging arena of professional theater. DTC interns are involved in every area of the Theater, from supporting nationally recognized artists on main stage productions to working closely with the artistic, administrative and production staffs on the Theater's daily operations. It is DTC's goal that by the end of each season each intern will be fully equipped with the skills and knowledge to make informed choices about furthering his or her work in the theater. These are paid internships.

In regard to new musicals, there are precious few venues for an enthusiastic young musical theatre artists to learn from the masters, learn in collaboration with his or her colleagues, and just plain learn by doing in a professional environment. The musical theatre form cannot be revived unless such opportunities are available to emerging artists. It was in response to this void that The Harold Prince Musical Theatre Program was created in 1992 by The Directors Company and Harold Prince, the world’s premier director of musical theatre. The program’s goals are: to seek out and bring together the next generation of composers, lyricists, book writers and directors in order to ensure the future vitality of American musical theatre; to encourage early and close collaboration between musical theatre artists in the creation of original musicals; and to create challenging and adventurous new musical theatre works.

The Drama League is responsible for screening and placing Drama League directors as assistants at the Roundabout Theatre Company and Manhattan Theatre Club, two leaders in New York City’s not-for-profit theatre community and winners of numerous Tony Awards.

The Summer Directing Program begins in late May with a four-day orientation in New York City. Drama League Summer Directors meet with members of the professional theatre community, attend theatre and participate in workshops and readings relevant to their future careers. The balance of the program takes place in Ithaca, New York at the Hangar Theatre, a nonprofit theatre that produces a diverse summer season on two stages.

The Fall Directing Program begins with an intensive two-week orientation in New York City in late August. The first week includes seminars and workshops with prominent theatre professionals and provides invaluable, concrete knowledge and information, as well as establishing a network of contacts the directors will use both during the program and later in their careers. The second week includes a retreat with an extended workshop with a master director and professional actors.

The New Directors/New Works Program is designed to support the development of new theatre works infused with the distinctive artistic vision of committed theatre directors and their collaborating artists. The program provides each selected team with an opportunity to workshop new material without the outside pressure of producers and critics. The director's collaborator(s) may be a playwright, composer, visual artist, acting company, etc. The application, while a joint effort of the collaborators, can only be submitted by the director.

The Guild recognizes the need for an advanced support system for emerging dramatists. The Dramatists Guild Fellowship program is designed for those theater writers who have completed a graduate program and are not more than ten years past that program. The nine-month program includes one-on-one mentoring, groups sessions with theatre professionals, and, where possible, internship opportunities with dramatists involved in professional productions.

The Richard and Betty Burdick New Play Festival (NPF), named after two longtime supporters of FST's New Play Development program, is held each year in May. The NPF features workshop readings of 3 new full-length plays or musicals by contemporary American writers.

BY NOMINATION ONLY--PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT. New Visions/New Voices is a biennial national working forum for plays-in-progress for young audiences. In a typical year, over one hundred theater artists (playwrights, composers, directors, music directors, and actors) rewrite, revise, and rehearse six to eight new plays and musicals over a five-day period in May. The plays are presented as staged readings during a three-day national conference for an audience of theater professionals, educators, publishers, and others interested in this field.