2023-24 Season
New Work, NY 2024
Peacedale Global Arts’ annual program which includes a meet-the-artists event and a 5-day generative writing workshop with a dynamic group of writers.
Participants: Playwrights Brittany K. Allen, Madeline Easley, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Donja R. Love, CQ Quintana, and Randy Reinholz. With actors Ava Eisenson and Eric Lockley and facilitators John Clinton Eisner and Megan McClain.
Transylvania Playwriting Residency: 2023
This 2-year program gathers artists across three cultures (Hungarian, Romanian, and American) to experience theater-making models in different cultural contexts in collaboration with the Arts University of Târgu Mureș and local theater organizations. Year One centers on writing workshops utilizing three languages in which emerging and established playwrights write and share new pages daily. American participants also presented a panel discussion on contemporary playwriting at the American Corner and were featured in the opening of the Arts University’s international Studio Festival.
Participants: U.S. playwrights Rajiv Joseph and Mona Mansour with Peacedale facilitators Megan McClain and John Clinton Eisner. Arts University faculty members Maria Albert, Oana Leahu, Alina Nelega, and Elise Wilk with graduate students and alumni from the Hungarian and Romanian sections of the Arts University’s two-year master’s degree program in Playwriting.
Future Plans: Year Two will focus on translation workshops with public readings of the work.
CID Residency, Portugal: Workshops with Catherine Coray
Peacedale Global Arts strives to connect and support members across its varied artistic networks. Catherine Coray (NYU) brought workshops to Portugal in collaboration with Marcos Barbosa and CID (Centro Internacional de Dramaturgia) for artists and students in acting and writing at the University of Minho and Cascais School of Arts and Design.
During the residency, CID and Peacedale staff cohosted a meeting of Portuguese playwrights in Lisbon to discuss artistic and support needs in the theater field.
Participants: Jorge Andrade, Bruna Aly, Marcos Barbosa, Diana, John Eisner, University of Minho Professor Cátia Faísco, Miguel Ferreira, Pedro Fontes, José Gardezabal, Megan McClain, Workshop Assistant Nicholas Milan, Vasco Serôdio, Amélia Sousa, João Zagalo
2022-23 Season
New Work, NY 2023
Peacedale Global Arts’ annual program which includes a meet-the-artists event and a 5-day generative writing workshop with an international group of writers.
Participants: Portuguese artists Rui Coelho, Cátia Faísco, and Marcos Barbosa (director, Centro Internacional de Dramaturgia) and U.S. playwrights Anita Abdinezhad, Alyssa Haddad-Chin, Clarence Coo, and Mona Mansour. With actors Sarah Ellens Stephens and Alfredo Narciso and facilitators John Clinton Eisner and Megan McClain.
Produced in collaboration with Catherine Coray, with artistic assistance from the NOOR Theatre staff, supported by Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation, and sponsored in part by the Lebanese American University New York Headquarters and Academic Center.
Script Development: Road Less Traveled
Commissioned by Silk Road Rising in Chicago and conceived by Jamil Khoury, The Road Less Traveled is an evolving new work engaging with multilayered stories of immigration and Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” This theatrical piece questions what it means to belong to a place and who gets the privilege to choose their own path.
The Process: Artists attended three research meetings over three months to share inspirational material and a two-day devising workshop in New York City with actors to play with generated work on its feet.
Participants: Ali-Reza Mirsajadi, Nandita Shenoy, Adam A. Elsayigh, and Lyra Nalan, Jamil Khoury, Malik Gillani, John Clinton Eisner, Megan McClain, Lanxing Fu, and Matthew Park
Future Plans: Road Less Traveled is continuing its development process with Silk Road Rising and Peacedale Global Arts
Script Development: Old Cock
Written by Robert Schenkkan and commissioned by Portuguese theater company Mala Voadora, Old Cock explores the story of the Rooster of Barcelos, a classic Portuguese tale of faith, justice, and good luck that has been immortalized in both myth and tourist souvenirs. But when the Rooster discovers that his life story has been co-opted, he demands answers…and gets them from an unlikely source. This play interrogates the space where art, propaganda, and national identity collide.
The Process: Mala Voadora team members Jorge Andrade, José Capela, and João Fonte traveled to New York City in May of 2023 for a 5-day script development workshop with Robert Schenkkan and Peacedale Global Arts staff which culminated in an invited presentation.
Participants: Robert Schenkkan, Jorge Andrade, José Capela, João Fonte, John Clinton Eisner, Megan McClain
Future Plans: Old Cock will be translated into Portuguese and produced by Mala Voadora in Portugal in 2024.
CID Residency, Portugal: Novos Bardos 2022
Peacedale Global Arts co-created the 2022 Novos Bardos Festival in Lisbon, Portugal with the Centro Internacional de Dramaturgia (CID: director, Marcos Barbosa) hosted at Escola do Largo. Peacedale facilitators John Clinton Eisner and Megan McClain were joined by U.S. playwrights Zora Howard, Heather Raffo, and Robert Schenkkan to work with artists and writers in the Portuguese theater community.
The Residency included the following activities:
A Generative Writing Workshop with U.S. writers Zora Howard and Heather Raffo, Portuguese playwrights Lígia Soares, Joana Bértholo, and Jacinto Lucas Pires, with actors Marcos Barbosa and Pedro Fontes.
A Script Development Workshop of Robert Schenkkan’s Hanussen which culminated in a public reading in English. Actors included Jorge Andrade, Marcos Barbosa, Pedro Fontes, Rachel Lyon, Pedro Moldão, Manel Moreira, and Bruno Nogueira.
Storytelling Workshops led by Heather Raffo for entry-level writers in the community of Pragal.
A private roundtable reading of Heather Raffo’s Noura translated into Portuguese by Marcos Barbosa.
A public panel discussion with U.S. and Portuguese playwrights discussing their work and creative processes.
Press: Generative Workshop Coverage at PÚBLICO; Robert Schenkkan Article at Diário de Notícias
New Work, NY 2022
This program combined a meet-the-artists kick-off event and a 5-day generative writing workshop with an international group of writers.
Participants: U.S. playwrights Zora Howard, Eric Lockley Heather Raffo, Andrea Thome and Portuguese artists Jorge Andrade (director, Mala Voadora), Jacinto Lucas Pires, and Marcos Barbosa (director, Centro Internacional de Dramaturgia). With actors Andy Lucien and Sarah Ellen Stephens and facilitators Megan McClain and John Clinton Eisner.
The event was created in collaboration with Catherine Coray and sponsored in part by the Lebanese American University New York Headquarters and Academic Center.