Our 2017-18 Generations competition winner is . . .

BETC’s New Play Development Program

BETC makes an ongoing commitment to new theatrical work, from world premieres to playwright residencies. Our new play development program, Generations, features the work of parent playwrights with children under 18. The name comes from BETC’s goals for the program: to welcome all generations into the theater to see new plays, and to empower playwrights to generate new work.

Each season, BETC selects one playwright through a national competition to join us in Boulder for a one-week residency.  During the residency week, the playwright works with a professional director, dramaturg, and actors to develop the selected script.  The week concludes with a public reading and post-reading conversation.

In our most recent year, competition submissions were accepted through September 1, 2017. Our 2018-19 competition will open for submissions in June 2018. Please see here for a copy of last year’s competition guidelines, subject to change in future years.

Past Playwrights in Residence

• Season 11: Anna Moench. Her play Birds of North America will receive its world premiere right here at BETC in Fall 2017 as part of our 2017-2018 season. Anna’s plays have been produced at WalkerSpace, the Old Vic, 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Flea, Cohesion Theatre Company, NYU Tisch, Indiana University of PA, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, The Kraine, The Looking Glass Theatre, and FringeNYC. Anna is an alumna of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Jam at New Georges. Her upcoming projects include a commission for the Japanese American National Museum and East West Players in Los Angeles and a residency with Cohesion Theatre Company in Baltimore. She was recently named one of Hollywood’s top 100 new writers on the 2016 Young and Hungry List.
• Season 10: Stephanie Alison Walker. Her play The Madres was also selected for the Ashland New Plays Festival, as a finalist for the 2016 Saroyan/Paul Human Rights Playwriting Prize, and as one of six plays selected for the National Showcase of New Plays in December 2016 by the National New Play Network. It will receive its world premiere productions in Fall 2018, as an NNPN Rolling World Premiere.
• Season 9: Simon Fill. His play Burning Cities was recently published in Proscenium Theatre Journal. It received a staged reading at the Pandora’s Box 10^th Annual New Works Festival in Long Beach, CA. His short play Night Visits won the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville, where the play premiered in the Wintermezzo Festival. He was an A.S.K. American exchange playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, and his full-length play Post Punk Life received a month-long developmental production by Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab.
• Season 8: David Valdes Greenwood. His play Full Code received its world premiere production at BETC in Fall 2016. He was a finalist for the ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting and was nominated for the Laurents/Hatcher Prize by the Huntington Theater Company. His play The Mermaid Hour was one of six plays selected for the National Showcase of New Plays in December 2016 by the National New Play Network.

BETC takes pleasure in supporting our parent playwright residents’ writing careers post-residency, and advocating for production of their plays through connections within the National New Play Network.