Writing is Live at Brown

Brown University’s annual Writing is Live festival will be held February 5 through the 11. The event allows playwrights to showcase their unfinished work for audiences.

“Each performance day has a different reading or workshop of a new play from one of the playwrights in our MFA playwriting program,” said Brianne Shaw, marketing and box office coordinator for Brown’s theater department. “What the audiences will be seeing is mainly actors sitting down with the scripts in front of them, just reading.”  

The event will benefit the playwrights in the development process.

“It’s an opportunity for them to hear their work out loud and get some feedback so they can go back and do some rewrites,” Shaw noted.

After each reading, there’s a talkback with the playwright and the audience. Shaw said there would likely not be critiques of the work from professors.

“They would save (critiques) for a class or a private discussion where it would be more intimate,” Shaw explained.

The playwrights were not obligated to explore any particular theme or motif.

“They can write about anything that their heart desires,” Shaw added.

Writing is Live: Leeds Theater, Lyman Hall, 83 Waterman St, PVD. browntaps.org