DISCOVERING NEW PLAYS
In the new Staging Session, we invite you to pitch us an early modern title that the ASC has yet to perform. You’ll work with actors from the ASC resident troupe to put on the most compelling or stage-worthy scenes from your play and drive home your point about why the ASC needs to perform it and why now. We encourage you to argue for your play in terms of its own dramatic worth, rather than in terms of its similarities to or influences on Shakespeare. Any and all early modern titles are welcome, from the biggest blockbusters of the London stages to closet dramas that went unperformed and unpublished in their time.
The ASC performs non-Shakespearean early modern plays as a regular part of our repertory seasons, particularly in our Actors’ Renaissance Season, which has always benefited from titles pitched to us by academics – the Staging Session itself grew out of a suggestion from Garry Walton, an ASC consortium member at Meredith College. Just a few of the early modern plays that have been staged during the Actors’ Renaissance Season include Eastward Ho!, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Mother Bombie, The Roaring Girl, The Tamer Tamed, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and Women Beware Women. You can view the complete list under “Other Early Modern” on our production history timeline.