Emerging playwrights are invited to apply and spend their summer in Central Virginia and develop new works as part of Endstation’s annual residency program.

Visiting writers have the opportunity to become immersed in the natural beauty and stories of our community while creating original pieces. 

2019 Playwrights Initiative applications will be available January 2018.

Every summer, playwrights come to stay and work with Endstation Theatre Company’s artists. The Residency Program offers the opportunity to immerse yourself with the Company, to write freely without interruption, and to avail yourself of the ideas and advice of our collaborating artists. The Residency Program has taken several different forms over the years of the Playwrights Initiative.

• We have, for example, scheduled regular readings of playwrights’ newest pieces, so that they can hear the play out loud and performed by actors.

• We have also organized improvisational workshops, in which a playwright might ask performers to work together to generate text, images, or story.

• Occasionally a playwright might simply want to discuss or adapt a piece together with a dramaturge and our literary manager.

The Residency Program is intended to be flexible and dynamic. It is not a set period of time with a strict curriculum; rather, it is an opportunity for Endstation to work together with visiting playwrights on the new work they wish to develop. Every summer at Endstation includes housing, at least one public evening of Playwrights Initiative readings, and playwrights in the Residency Program almost always have their plays read by actors from the company.

Original Theatre about Central Virginia
Since the first years of Endstation Theatre Company, we have worked to tell stories related to Central Virginia, its history, and its people, beginning with The Bluest Water: a Hurricane Camille Story in 2008 and most recently with Br’er Cotton in 2018.

Endstation Theatre Company invites playwrights who are working on stories about the Commonwealth to share their work with us. Are you a playwright? Performer? Poet? Audience member? Is there a story you would like to tell about Central Virginia? Let us know, and we can connect you with collaborators such as playwrights, designers, actors or others and work together to unearth stories that are important to our community.

Central Virginia Story Database
Even if you don’t consider yourself a theatre maker but have a story that you think Endstation Theatre Company should tell, contribute to our Central Virginia Story Database. There are many, many stories and legends surrounding this land and its history. Do you know a great story about Lynchburg, Central Virginia, or the Blue Ridge Mountains? Add yours to our Central Virginia Story Database. The database is public and intended for use by writers, filmmakers, and other artists who want to tell these stories. You can browse it, share it, and contribute as much as you like!

Previous Initiative Participants