ShenanArts: A Playwright's Retreat

With luck, novelists and poets may sometimes win fellowships at refreshing residential retreat centers where they may pursue their art in peace. Far fewer opportunities, however, exist for playwrights.

The Shenandoah Valley Playwright's Retreat offers an annual chance for six playwrights to spend an intensive three weeks writing and then seeing their plays produced.

Held in the rolling green Virginia hills, the retreat has been sponsored for nine years by ShenanArts, a Staunton-based performing arts cooperative, and co­sponsored by the American College Theater Festival. It gives six playwrights an opportunity to pursue intensive work on their plays in progress, expand their contacts, and recharge their creative batteries. Pennyroyal Farm, headquarters for ShenanArts, is the retreat work site. The farmhouse, built in 1808, is a low-ceilinged clapboard structure, surrounded by a white rail fence and 21 acres of farmland and forest. For three weeks in that pastoral setting, authors write and rewrite, directors advise and cajole, and actors immerse themselves in each of the projects.

Selection of the retreat playwrights is competitive: the writers are chosen by a panel of playwrights, arts funders, and ShenanArts staff out of nearly 100 applicants. Each writer receives full fellowship support covering his or her expenses for the program. Participants include national award-winning student playwrights from the American College Theatre Festival along with accomplished writers from around the country. One fellowship is designated for a Virginia playwright with a $2,000 prize.

The retreat culminates in what is called, appropriately, "Six Plays in Five Days" — the public performances of each of the playwrights' completed works. Local performers share the stage with out-of-town professional actors. After each production the audience has the opportunity to discuss and critique the work with the playwright and actors. All performances are free and open to the public.

Besides the annual retreat, ShenanArts offers a variety of programs and workshops for local residents, including a cinema club, traditional music concerts, and a summer theater camp for teens.

For information write ShenanArts, Pennyroyal Farm, Box 167F, Route 5, Staunton, Virginia 24401, or phone 703-248-1868.