The Scranton Fringe Festival wants to help playwrights tackle timely issues at the festival in October.
Four aspiring or emerging playwrights will have their work presented in staged readings at the festival. Applications for the Northeast PA Playwrights Incubator open Monday and close March 31.
In This Together NEPA, a progressive advocacy group, is the founding sponsor.
“Artists are essential when our freedoms are threatened, and artists lead the way by uniting us and taking center stage to challenge injustice,” Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, the group’s executive director, said in a press release. “Live theater provides the heartbeat of our local communities and connects neighbors.” She is also executive director of a related group, Action Together NEPA.
The festival is Oct. 1-10. Each year dozens of local and visiting performers and artists of all kinds put on shows around downtown.
Each playwright will be paired with a mentor and be paid a stipend. The incubator is looking for aspiring playwrights or playwrights early in their careers, who live in Northeast Pennsylvania at least most of the year and are ready to propose a new script in development.
Most of the work will be done virtually, with the program covering all the costs of gathering in Scranton for one weekend in July.
“At its core, this incubator is about giving Northeast Pennsylvania writers a stronger voice, and real professional development opportunities, to take a new play from early pages to a living, breathing staged reading,” Conor Kelly O’Brien, executive director of Scranton Fringe, said in the press release.
“The mentorship and cohort support create a clear pathway forward, and the stipends are a fantastic resource to help playwrights carve out a bit more time to write, revise and deepen their practice.”
To apply, go to scrantonfringe.org. The website for In This Together NEPA is Inthistogethernepa.org.