Playwright Residencies
Downstage Left residencies are designed to help playwrights take a project from the conceptual stage all the way to a production-ready script. Playwrights work closely with one of our ensemble directors and members of the literary team to design a process tailored for the particular needs of their project. We are now accepting applications for Season 32 residencies. Please download the application form below, which also provides detailed instructions. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2013. Email questions and submissions to scripts@stagelefttheatre.com
Stage-Left-13-14-Residency-Application
Season 31 Residencies
The Liar Paradox
by Kristin Idaszak
On New Year’s Eve, a catastrophic car accident leaves Marissa’s twin sister in a coma and her best friend dead. In the wake of this personal tragedy, all three of the young women’s secrets start to come to light, calling into question their identities in a multitude of ways. Ensemble member Jason Fleece directs.
The Abacus
by Bilal Dardai
Middle-school teacher Qassem Ayoub is cleaning out his classroom after being fired due to an incendiary essay he wrote years ago. When a colleague presses him on why he wrote the essay–and why he didn’t fight his dismissal–Qassem is forced to explore the ghosts of his past, the decisions that led him down his current path, and where he can go from here. Ensemble member Scott Bishop directs.
The Playwrights
Kristin Idaszak has had her work produced or developed around Chicago at the DCA Incubator Series at the Studio Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage, Chicago Dramatists, American Theatre Company, Theatre Seven, Vintage Theatre Collective, LiveWire Theatre, Collaboraction and Rasaka. At Perishable Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island her play The Golden Lasso was staged as part of the 15th International Women’s Playwriting Festival. She was a finalist for the 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference in 2012. She formerly served as Associate Artistic Director of Collaboraction and Associate Artistic Director/Literary Manager of Caffeine Theatre. She will enter the MFA Playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego in the fall.
Bilal Dardai is a native of the Chicago suburbs, and has been working in the city as a playwright, performer, and director since 2000. He has been an ensemble member of The Neo-Futurists since 2004, and in addition to creating work for their long-running late-night show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, he has written or contributed to the shows Contraption, A Very Neo-Futurist Christmas Carol, and CRISIS: A Musical Game Show. Other works include The Man Who Was Thursday (Joseph Jefferson nomination, New Work – Adaptation), Redeemers, and Vox Pandora, produced by New Leaf Theatre. Bilal is a past recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BA in Rhetoric. He currently lives in Rogers Park with his wife, newborn son, and two dogs.
Previous Residencies:
2011/12: Warped by Barbara Lhota
Witches Vanish by Claudia Barnett
2010/11: Blessed Assurance: The Story of Boston Corbett, Slayer of Booth by Randall Colburn
2009/10: The Face of a Ruined Woman (later Impenetrable) by Mia McCullough
2008: Here Where It’s Safe by M.E.H. Lewis
