Playwright Laurie Brooks and Coterie Theatre Made possible though funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts New York playwright Laurie Brooks will be an artist in residence at the Coterie Theatre during its 2004-2005 season thanks to the National Theatre Artist Residency Program (NTARP). The Coterie Theatre, located on level one, Crown Center Shops, is the first theatre in Missouri to receive this prestigious grant. Brook’s residency is part of the tenth and final round of the NTARP which is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by Theatre Communications Group (publishers American Theatre magazine). The program provides the expanded time necessary to develop significant artistic partnerships. While at the Coterie, Brooks will be primarily completing her new book and play Between Land and Sea: A Selkie Myth, which will premiere at the Coterie in March 2005. She will also join Church in facilitating the Coterie’s Young Playwrights’ Roundtable, and work on a new text book about theatre for young adults that is based on her extensive work with Coterie Producing Artistic Director Jeff Church which began with the world premiere of The Wrestling Season in 2000. “Laurie has had a tremendous impact at the Coterie prior to this residency,” Church said. “She has done this through her work as a playwright and as a person. Her residency puts a major theatre for young audiences artist at the core of our theatre’s day to day operations.” “The Coterie is committed, as I am, to creating and presenting theatre that targets the vastly under-served, middle- and high-school audiences and their parents. We are artistic allies,” Brooks said. “Most recently, my work has focused on young adults ages 12-18 and their concerns. The Coterie has cultivated that audience and can provide the perfect atmosphere for developing that work.” |