is proud to be part of the free community night series
HATCH
for the 2023-2024 season
​(see our HATCH page for more details)

Playmakers: April 2023

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The April 24th PLAYMAKERS will take place
at 7:30
at OFF CENTER for the DRAMATIC ARTS
1127 North Ave, Burlington, VT
This month's fabulous line up includes new work from:

Leila Teitelman
Marty Gil

Stephen Goldberg
Marge Sharpe
2023 Playmakers dates, 7:30pm start time:

Jan 30
Feb 27
Mar 27
Apr 24

Playmakers is a non-juried, original play reading series open to everyone in the hope of generating excitement, support, and community for new work.

March 25,  2019 
​
Playmakers!
Off Center's Monthly Celebration of local New Works

It's a blockbuster month at Playmakers!  Join us for an evening of readings by:

Lesley Becker
meredith Gordon
Marianne Dimascio
(with possible extra work by Chris Caswell)

AND BONUS FUN: 
A LIVE DEVISED CREATION EXPERIMENT
LED BY LAURA ROALD. ​

Actors and performance folk who are interested in participating are all welcome to come and participate . Experience in devised work not important, just a sense of adventure and an open mind. Come play, let's build something new!

:Playmakers Lineup - October 22, 7:30 p.m.

Hear ye, o'er here ye! Playmakers is kickin' off its SIXTH season this coming Monday, Oct 22 at 7:30 at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts! As always, Playmakers is a FREE event open to the public. Come experience brand new theater-in-progress by the fabulous:

Marianne DiMascio
Mary Beth McNulty
Jordan Gullikson
Geeda Searfoorce

And a BIG thanks to Burlington City Arts for awarding us a Community Fund Grant to help support this season of new work!

Calling all Playmakers! 

2018 – 2019 Guidelines for Participants

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Welcome to the 5th season
of Playmakers at Off Center!

Playmakers is an open forum for Vermont playwrights and creators interested in developing new scripts and works in front of an audience.  We are so pleased to be once again opening up our test kitchen for locally developed plays!
 
This year, we’re adjusting the event structure a bit to offer playwrights and creators different options to address individual creative needs. In previous seasons, Playmakers featured unrehearsed (cold) readings of 3 new scripts followed by the presentation of a previously-read script produced by a local producer team.  This year, each night will consist of four original pieces no longer than 15 minutes each. As has been our practice, we expect that many of the presentations will continue to be cold readings. But rather than having two producers choose a work for a directed reading the following month, we will include more writers, and shift the forum so each playwright and creator can use their time as they wish.

Each playwright/creator will decide what they want to see on stage. It could be a cold reading that actors, writer and audience all hear and experience for the first time together. Perhaps a work-in-progress is beyond the cold reading stage, and the playwright would prefer to see how the script works with some preparatory rehearsal and rudimentary staging. Playwrights might like to connect with directors or new collaborators to see how their work could be re-interpreted by fresh eyes.  A playbuilding group of creator/performers may want to present a devised work-in-progress to sound out their ideas with an audience. A creator may be developing a movement-based narrative that does not fit into a traditional cold-reading model.

Playwrights and creators will have complete discretion over how they would like to use their 15 minute time slot.   It could be a fully memorized and directed piece, a cold reading, or anything in between. The goal is to support our playwrights and creators at every stage of their playmaking process.

Please note that there is no set-up or take-down time and there is no technical support. Playwrights and creative teams are welcome to use the Off Center lighting and sound equipment, but there is no scheduled rehearsal or technical preparation time.

As in previous years, all Playmakers readings and events are open to the public free-of-charge (donations always appreciated).  Audiences welcome!

PLAYMAKERS DATES 2018-2019

October 22
November 19
December 17
January 14
February 25
March 25
April 29

(check current Off Center listings on the main page, dates may be adjusted to accommodate renting companies) 

For playwrights/creators:

·     Plays/excerpts/narrative experiments should be no more than 15 minutes (In traditional scripts this usually works out to 12-15 pages, but please keep in mind that dense text and the inclusion of monologues/speeches will take longer to read). 

·     This time limit is important to observe as it ensures the evening’s event will run smoothly. If you have questions about how long your written play or excerpt runs, we recommend using a dialogue formatting program or template.

·     Playwrights planning a cold read should bring printed copies for each of the readers.  (Please include copies for each character as well as someone to read stage directions/narration if necessary). 

·     Playwrights planning cold reads should cast their plays in advance. (There is a roster of available readers at your request, but if you are having difficulty with casting, please contact us.)

·     Playwrights/creators will introduce their readings. These should be very brief (and should include the names of the characters and the actors performing them). In the case of excerpts, a very limited synopsis of the larger piece may be helpful. If you have chosen to do something besides a cold reading, please give a quick explanation of what we are about to see and why.

If you would like to participate in Playmakers, as a writer/creator or to join our roster of volunteer readers, email us at [email protected]

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Playmakers and Off Center for the Dramatic Arts
would like to thank the BCA Community Grant for supporting this work.