Premiering this summer, the Southampton
Playwriting Conference provides the rare opportunity
to develop your work in an intensive laboratory setting with professional actors and
directors standing by! Additional workshops, lectures, readings, and panel discussions in a resort area of natural beauty make this a truly unique opportunity for a vibrant and
creative community experience.
Workshop leaders, guest speakers and panelists scheduled to participate include*:
Jon Robin Baitz
Joe Pintauro
Jeffrey Sweet
Leslie Ayvazian
Robert Brustein
Laura-Maria Censabella
Mike Daisey
Geoffrey Gordon
Craig Lucas
Emily Mann
Tim McDonald
Marsha Norman
Jacquelyn Reingold
Richard Vetere
Tony Walton
Lanford Wilson
… and members of Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York’s esteemed developmental
theater, who will be in residence developing works in progress and providing resources
and constructive feedback for playwrights.
Featured topics include:
- Collaboration (with Directors, Actors and Designers)
- Creating and Performing the One-Person Show
- Writing the One-Act
- Libretto/Musical Book
- Adaptations (Page to Stage/Stage to Screen)
- TV Writing
- Putting the Play Back in Playwriting
- Short and Funny
- Finding Your Voice
Additional formal and informal gatherings, as well as opportunities to enjoy the beautiful
beaches and scenery of the Hamptons abound. Open to emerging and established
playwrights, teachers of writing, and those who wish to audit the conference. We are
pleased to offer three graduate credits per session to eligible students.
Last Year's Conference Lab
Craig Lucas (Session I: July 8-12)
Playwright, Screenwriter, Director, Actor.
Prelude to a Kiss (Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award nominations); Reckless; Three Postcards; Blue Window, The Dying Gaul (Pulitzer Prize nomination), The Light in the
Piazza (Tony Award nomination). Associate Artistic Director - Intiman Theatre, Seattle,
WA.
Marsha Norman - Musical Book (Session II: July 15-26)
Playwright, Screenwriter,Novelist, Librettist. The Secret Garden (Tony Award winner); The Red Shoes; The Color
Purple; ‘night, Mother (Pulitzer Prize winner). Faculty - Juilliard School. Vice-President,
Dramatists Guild.
Emily Mann (Session II: July 15-26)
Director, Playwright. Artistic Director - McCarter
Theatre. Execution of Justice (Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Award nominations)
Having Our Say (Tony & Drama Desk Award nominations); Still Life (6 Obie Awards)
Laura Maria Censabella (Session III: July 29 - August 2)
Playwright, Screenwriter.
Abandoned in Queens, Three Italian Women, As The World Turns (Emmy Award
winner). Director – Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Playwrights Unit. Faculty - The New
School for Drama, The Actors Studio Drama School, Columbia University School of the
Arts, Columbia College's Undergraduate Writing Program, City University's MFA Writing
Program, The Sewanee Writers' Conference.