This year, TSR is focusing on developing new work through the Artists in Residency program, which began last year. This 1-2 year residency focuses on theater artists who want to better understand the crafting and structuring of plays to better write their stories. After all, it isn't enough to see ourselves on stage. We need to see ourselves in well-made plays.
We will be doing salons of the plays developed by the artists in residence as they become ready for an audience. Therefore, we will not be taking submissions for the Salon Series for 2024.
Cohort 2 is continuing their work and Cohort 1 is about to begin.
To learn more about the incoming crop of AiRs, read on!
We will be doing salons of the plays developed by the artists in residence as they become ready for an audience. Therefore, we will not be taking submissions for the Salon Series for 2024.
Cohort 2 is continuing their work and Cohort 1 is about to begin.
To learn more about the incoming crop of AiRs, read on!
Introducing Cohort 2 of TSR's Artists in Residency Program
Andrew, Raina, and Jarrett have accepted the mission of this residency - to write a new play exploring modern myth featuring a character written for them.
Just as Cohort 1 did, we will spend the first few months taking in Bernard Grebanier's "Playwriting," reading plays and doing exercises, including writing 1-Acts, before diving into the process of creating a brand new full length play.
Just as Cohort 1 did, we will spend the first few months taking in Bernard Grebanier's "Playwriting," reading plays and doing exercises, including writing 1-Acts, before diving into the process of creating a brand new full length play.
Meet the Artists
 | Andrew Coopman (they/he+) is a director-choreographer and playwright of Middle Eastern descent and currently works at The Drama League as their Artistic Associate. A Drama League FutureNow Directing Fellowship Recipient, Andrew’s work as a director and choreographer has been seen on stages in Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Ithaca, New York City, and more. Highlight Director-Choreigrapher Credits include: The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System (TWUSA), The Apollo of Bellac (Hangar Theatre), Head Over Heels (Lakewood Playhouse), Bryony Lavery’s Frozen: A Play (Cabaret Theater), Little Women (Seattle Musical Theater), Body Awareness (The Jones Playhouse), and their devised work RE:Social/Divide (Cooperative Performance). Their original immersive experimental piece, TAROT, is currently in development with Strawdog Theatre Company in Chicago. Playwright-Director Credits include "…and then the lightning struck," a play about Bayard Rustin and his partner partner Walter Naegle, and TREESON: A New Eco-Musical. MFA Directing, University of Washington and MA, Educational Theatre, New York University – Steinhardt. Proud SDC member. www.AndrewCoopman.com |
 | Raina Lawrence is a director/playwright who seeks to produce art and an inventive way of storytelling that moves her audience deeply enough to improve the love and gratefulness for one’s self. Credits Include: Internship at Rattlestick Theatre for Dael Orlandersmith’s Spiritus Virgil’s Dance (Off Broadway); Shadow Puppeteer in Taste The Cloud (with Hit The Lights Company); Director for New Works at The New School "Monica, Richie and Angel"; Actor/Dramaturg/Playwright for Devised piece "Playing The Other" curated with The New School and guest artists, Dael Orlandersmith and Jim Nicola; Scenic Designer/ Actor for Devised Work "No Place" directed by Irina Kruzhilina. |
 | Jarrett Key (b. 1990, Seale, AL) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Jarrett grew up in rural Alabama and pursued their fine art practice in NYC after graduating from Brown University (2013). They received their MFA in painting at the RISD (2020). Jarrett is represented by 1969 Gallery in New York, where they had their first solo exhibition, From the Ground, Up in March 2022. In 2023, Key completed a 40ft mural commission for HMTX Industries in Norwalk, CT. One of their hair performance paintings was also the NYC Pride Grandstand Backdrop at the 2023 Pride Parade. Jarrett has had the pleasure to work with actors, production teams, and institutions throughout NYC and New England, including The Public Theater, The Juilliard School, Brown University, and The Fruitlands Museum. Recent fine art exhibitions include Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender, curated by Mara Hassan, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX; Wade, Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Freedom Dreams, Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; New England Triennial, deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; out, co-curated by Jarrett Key and Jon Key, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Young, Gifted and Black, The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; and This is America, Kunstraum Potsdam, Berlin, Germany. Their work was also included in Untitled Miami Beach in 2021, 2022. They were one of Forbes 30 under 30 for Art and Style 2020. Key’s work is in the collections of the the Green Family Art Foundation, HMTX Industries, New York Historical Society, The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection, the Columbus Museum, Brown University, RISD Special Collection, the Schomburg Center, the Museum of Modern Art Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, among other institutions. www.jarrettkey.com |
Cohort 1 is Still Going Strong
 | Ben Freeman's first residency play had its salon in November, "The Shape of the Entire." Sam Given's first residency play was featured in Naked Angels 1st Mondays in December, "Flinch." Michelle Cage is well on her way to her second full draft of "Revelation Play" (working title), which we will salon later this year. Ben and Sam are currently embarking on brand new scripts. Ben, Sam, and Michelle pictured to the left on their Winter 2024 retreat to the Catskills in upstate New York. |
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