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Theatre Development Fund’s Education Department is expanding their playwriting program, the Residency Arts Project (RAP), to include a new summer program, THE RAP SUMMER INTENSIVE SCHOLARSHIP (RSIS), for select graduates of the year-long program that teaches playwriting and theatre appreciation.

Select students who have excelled in at least one semester of TDF’s Residency Arts Project (RAP) were invited by their classroom teacher and their TDF RAP teaching artist to apply.  Thirty-five applicants vied for the 13 spots available for the program.

“Each year our RAP program introduces hundreds of students to the theatre by engaging them, first hand, in the creative process of playwriting, as well as providing opportunities to see live performances of great plays,” said TDF’s education director, Marianna Houston. “We’re thrilled to be able to launch RSIS to help nurture those select RAP students for whom the program has unleashed a desire to learn more about writing for the theatre.”

During the 3-week intensive program, students will:

(1) attend playwriting workshops three days a week, working in groups, as well as doing independent writing at home;

(2) attend small group seminars with playwrights about the creative process and craft;

(3) attend two Broadway or Off Broadway productions for “study and inspiration”;

(4) write a ten-minute original play;

(5) work with professional actors who will do readings of their ten-minute plays as they progress; and,

(6) have their final works performed at a staged reading with professional actors in an Off Broadway theatre.

TDF’s RSIS program is provided at no cost to the students or schools.

TDF’s RAP program is currently in seven New York City public high schools and serves approximately 350 students each year. TDF's Residency Arts Project introduces the craft of playwriting to young people who have little or no prior exposure to theatre. The project consists of a series of workshops led by a teaching artist, using professional productions as models for student work. The teaching artist and classroom teacher collaborate to develop a sequence of workshops that best serve their students.

ABOUT TDF:
Theatre Development Fund, not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, has played a unique role in strengthening live theatre and dance in New York City for the past 42 years. TDF’s diverse programs have filled over 78 million seats at discount prices (with theatre lovers who would normally not be able to attend live performance) and returned nearly two billion dollars in revenue to thousands of theatre, dance and music productions. Best known for its TKTS Discount Booths, TDF’s membership, voucher, access and education programs, as well as its costume collection, help to make the unique experience of theatre available to everyone. This past year, TDF published its first book, Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play.

For more information about TDF and TDF’s Education programs (RAP, Stage Doors, Open Doors, Youth Theatre Initiative and Play by Play), go to: www.tdf.org.

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