Thespian Festival

Eldridge playwright Jonathan Dorf leads two workshops this week at the largest high school theatre festival in the world with an annual conference held in Tampa, Florida. One workshop gives all the tools to start writing great plays, while the second highlights marketing.

Play Search

Valuable tips for finding the perfect play or musical for your theatre can be found in an article, “Product Focus: Finding Plays and Musicals: Sourcing the Works that Work on Your Stage.” The article, which includes information about Eldridge, was written by Erin Blakemore and Brandon Grant, and is featured in the March/April issue of DramaBiz magazine.

Bonderman Symposium

Playwright Claudia Haas, author of today’s release of “Casting Juliet,” recently participated in the Bonderman Symposium. She calls the experience “an extraordinary time in this middle-aged writer's life.” She was flown to Indianapolis and “graciously given a cast of wonderful actors, a dramaturg, a director and an intern (graduate student who did everything) and then the biggest gift of all - time - time to do nothing but develop my play, By Candlelight. A bonus: I was handed an astute class of high school students (my target audiences) and was able to listen to how the play worked for them. To have been a semi-finalist in the 2005 symposium was a dream. To be a finalist in 2007 was the dream come true. I left having experienced a lot of growing pains, with a script in my hand that is at least in early adolescence but contains hints of the adult-to-be. Professionally, I think life does not get any better than that.” The Bonderman Symposium is the brainchild of Dr. Dorothy Webb who years ago wondered why there were no development opportunities for plays for young audiences. And then she stopped wondering and created them. It is under the auspices of the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

New Intern

We’ve got a new body around the Eldridge office. Joshua Mikel, a senior Theatre and Creative Writing major at Florida State University has been coming in weekly to aid us with graphic design and play submission reading. A playwright himself, Joshua has won a number of collegiate honors, and is trying to gain experience from a short stay in our office. He has completed poster designs for one of our latest releases, “Rip Van Winkle.” Josh brings a fresh perspective on the ever-changing theatrical world.