Make art: write a play

Or watch one come to life before your very eyes at New Dramatists in the heart of Broadway.

Many years ago, when I wanted to be a playwright when I grew up, New Dramatists opened up its doors and its family to me. For one glorious and economically challenging year, I was a playwright intern.

New Dramatist intern Nathan Smith

This was a time of great uncertainty in my life. It also turned out to be a time when I committed myself to taking a chance, to going for my dream and to actually writing a number of plays. Although I called myself a playwright, before that year I hadn’t really written very much.

Inside New Dramatists

 

During that year, I also discovered that making art—for me it was writing plays—is a great way to try to make sense of the world. In times of uncertainty—and according to a recent national poll, 2/3s of Americans across the political spectrum agree that we are in uncertain times—making art may just be the very best way to communicate your frustration, your new ideas, or even to simply make sense of your world.

Yeah, so I’m not a famous playwright. And that’s ok. During the year of the internship, I got to see famous actors like Denzel Washington and Kevin Bacon come in to New Dramatists to do readings of plays in development.

Judd Hirsch at a recent event

New Dramatists provides an artistic home for new playwrights in the form of residencies. You can see free readings of their works in progress throughout the year, simply by checking their schedule and registering online.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and change your world through art and support others doing the same thing.

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