David Dower
Director of Communications for Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater Chad Bauman announced today that David Dower, who has been Arena Stage’s Associate Artistic Director for five-and-a- half years, will be joining Emerson College’s Office of the Arts in April 2012.
‘The documentation and dissemination activities of the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) will be relocated to Emerson College’s Office of the Arts beginning July 1, 2012 in order to provide the research and academic setting these programs now need for their continued growth. Arena Stage Associate Artistic Director David Dower will also transition to Emerson in April 2012, and Institute Director Polly Carl will join him in July.”
M. Lee Pelton
According to to M. Lee Pelton, President of Emerson College, “Arena Stage has provided an important service to the field by creating the American Voices New Play Institute. Emerson is dedicated to bringing innovation to communications and the arts, and we are excited to apply the intellectual resources of the College to carry the Institute’s research and communications programs forward.
Polly Carl
According to Bauman, ‘AVNPI’ will still be operating at Arena Stage, and will continue its ‘Playwrights Residencies‘ program,’ which features playwrights Lisa Kron, Karen Zacarias, Katori Hall, Charles Randolph-Wright, Amy Freednd, and project residents Lynn Nottage and David Henry Hwang, as well as Theater 101, the Downstairs New Play Series, commissioning programs, and audience engagement activities.
“Over time, it became clear that in order to best serve the field, the research programs of the Institute would be best served in an academic setting independent from a producing entity so that findings and recommendations are not subject to any perceived, or real, conflicts of interest. During the past few months, Arena Stage identified an evolutionary path for these programs to ensure they fulfill their full potential. Now that these programs are maturing, those involving the documentation and dissemination of research are capable of transferring to a research-based institution with an environment more conducive to their future success. These programs include the New Play Map, #NewPlay TV, HowlRound and future convenings.”
Molly Smith
Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage stated, “Arena Stage is proud to have been an incubator for these wonderful young programs for the field of new play development. I have believed in them and championed them because I believe in the importance of living writers, and I’m proud of David’s work and Arena’s work in creating these programs. Given Emerson College’s commitment to the arts, these programs have found a new home where they will continue to grow and flourish.”
LINKS
Watch a video of David Dower introducing the American Voices New Play Institute.
Watch episodes of the American Voices New Play Institute.
Read Elliot Lanes’ ‘A Quick 5‘ with David Dower.
