Led by Kyle Haden, Senior Associate Head and Assistant Professor of Acting at CMU School of Drama, ColLABo invites theater makers from multiple disciplines to come together and wrestle with production questions and challenges before going into rehearsal. Working out of the School of Drama’s Purnell Center for the Arts, ColLABo will bring together diverse cohorts of American theater artists for two weeks, with a particular focus on developing new stories centering minority populations and marginalized voices, and reinterpreting established plays to explore diverse perspectives.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Kyle Haden is an artistic leader, director, educator, and Equity actor. He is an artistic associate and the former artistic director of the Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon. During his six-year tenure as artistic director, over a dozen new plays from ANPF went on to have premieres nationwide. Kyle also spearheaded their 2016 Women’s Invitational; one of the winning plays, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. Kyle is also a Senior Coordinating Producer with Black Lives, Black Words International Project, as well as a member of the 2021 cohort of artEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Circle.
As a director, Kyle has helmed various productions across the country, including the October 2021 production of The Chief (Pittsburgh Public Theater), the award-winning world premiere of Hazardous Materials (Creede Repertory Theatre), The Realness and A Brief History of America (Hangar Theatre Company), Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale (Island Shakespeare Festival) and The Tens (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). He was named a 2018 Drama League Directing Fellow, and is a member of the Drama League Directors Council.
Details and how to apply
Participants will be selected through an application review process. Teams of four to six artists, which must include at least one designer, will complete a written application that will be reviewed by a panel of five to seven professional theater artists from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. While all are encouraged to apply, the hope is that teams will also reflect a diversity of experiences and ideas.
Artist teams selected to participate in ColLABo will be paired with two local Pittsburgh artists. Team members will be compensated equally for their time and efforts. Out of town artists will be provided with free housing, per diem, and a travel stipend. The teams will have access to conference rooms, rehearsal rooms, and a Black Box theater, as well as a variety of rehearsal furniture and basic costumes, prop pieces, and lighting instruments.
ColLABo is designed to be a director-centered and design-led process, giving creative teams valuable time and space to explore their projects before their rehearsals officially begin.
Deadline to apply: February 15, 2023
Applicants must be U.S. residents and 18 years of age or older. Applicants will be notified of their status by April 15, 2023.
To apply, download and fill out the application by clicking the APPLY NOW button below. Save and email your completed application as a PDF.
To: collabo@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject line: Application – [Project Name] – [Lead Applicant Artist Name].
Feel free to reach out with any questions to collabo@andrew.cmu.edu or to Kyle directly at khaden@andrew.cmu.edu.
Categories: Feature Stories
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